Courier Democrat. (Langdon, N.D.) 1891-1920, 1911-12-28
INTERESTING
SHED LIGHT
Treasury Department Files
Afford Material For
Research.
NTUDENTS who go to Washing
- ton for research work in Amer

~TUDENTS who go to Washing
ton for research work in Amer
~ lean history usually make the
Congressional library the field
Of their endeavors. The library. how
ever. by no means e%xhausts the supply
OF original documents in Washington.
Both houses of congress and practical
~ every executive department a
somewhere in it's files most interesting
original documents. which afford either
direct or side light contributions to the
history OF the country. The library
field is. OF course, the most fruitful
and the easiest to work in. for the rea-
son that its papers and documents are
arranged and indeXed. Such is not the
case. however. in many OF the depart
mental file rooms. and even where an
endeavor has been made in the de-
partment to reduce the files to q syS-
tematic basis the work is too much for
the one or two clerks assigned to it.
and consequently the full value of the
contents will not be realized for many
years to ONE.
The file room of the treasury depart
ment, in charge Of Captain Thomas b.
Ridgate. is n of the interesting store
houses of historical side lights in Wash
fngton. AS is usual in the case Of rec
ord rooms. the filing department of the
treasury has had a rough history. At
least three times in the long service
of Mr.. Ridgate the filing room has
been moved. 1t now rests on the third
floor front of the building. where we'll
ordered shelves. with numerous cor
ners. drawers and p%igeonholes. be-
speak eloquently the, nature of the
place. Captain Ridgate himself is Il
typical custodian of such treasures.
He has lived with them for years al
most alone. and he knows the contents
Of his office as we'll as any man posi-
bly, could who has had such a vast
store of material intrusted to his care.
All about the large room he has spe-
cial envelopes or books containing in
teresting documents which he has u
across bearing on some important or
disputed point in American history.
Vast Store of War Records.
A vast amount OF wal records relat-
ing to both the army and the navy in
the Revolutionary war, the war Of 1912
and the civil wal in particular has
reached the file room of the treasury
department in connection with the Of
fetal documents of the department. A
request that the naval documents
should be sent over to that department
to complete it's records was made by
Truman Fl. Newberry when he was
secretary OF the navy. and already
more than 10000 documents have been
furnished to that department. and
nearly $4,000 out Of about III. 900 have
been briefed by Mr.. Ridgate for the
use of the navy.
Captain Ridgate has made an espe-
cial study Of the life of John Paul
Jones. A few years ago there appear
ed in n of the leading magazines a
description of the battle between the
Bonhomme Richard and the British
ship Scraps, written by John Kilby,
a gunner on Jones' ship. Like many
other important events in naval his
tory, there has been a long drawn out
controversy on the question. who led
the charge over the side of the Bon
homme Richard to the decks of the
Scraps. which brought final victory to
the American shfps?" In his nara
tive. which was annotated by A. c..
Buell.. who wrote one of the best biog,
raphies of Jones. Kilby states one ver-
sion Of the story. 1t was to the effect
that John Mayrant. or Morant. as his
name is listed on a certified copy Of