The Crawford County Historical Society (CCHS) museum receives a donation of a vintage desk from the Crawford County Courthouse in Steelville. But it’s no ordinary desk. This morsel of history serves as an interactive exhibit and a functional piece of furniture in its new home.
The handcrafted Tax Collectors desk measures approximately 5 ft. x 2.5 ft. and has plenty of unique characteristics. There is no information on who made the desk, but their craftsmanship has spanned decades.
The Crawford County Courthouse once housed the desk at the Collections Office. The sturdy oak desk was used to hold heavy tax ledgers. Each day, the deputy collector would post handwritten entries of tax payments for real estate and personal property tax into the ledgers.
With the move to the museum, the desk reunites with the original tax ledgers that once graced its surface. In the early 2000s, the original tax ledgers and the massive desk were separated when tax records were computerized and a remodel took place in the Collections Office.
The oversized desk found a new life at the Assessor’s Office. The draftsman-mapper used the desk to map out legal descriptions of local real estate until the remodel of the Assessors office took place. At that point, the desk needed another home.
Kellie Vestal, Crawford County Assessor, was on task to find the desk a respectable place for retirement. Vestal told the museum, “I really hated for it to be sold at the County auction. I asked all the elected officials if they had a use for it.” She went on to say, “I think its size was the reason mainly, no one had room for it.” Vestal obtained permission from the County Commission for the desk to be donated to the museum. The CCHS museum graciously accepted the donation and quickly put the desk to good use.
At last, the well-used desk is reunited with the original county tax ledgers it held as a new piece of furniture. The Crawford County Tax Ledgers are huge leather-bound books created for each tax year, which starts in 1874. Each handwritten entry was thoughtfully prepared for public record. These historic volumes of history were eventually put into storage and replaced with digital data collection.
The books, many over 100 years old, managed to survive sweltering heat, spiders, and the possibility of destruction. Through the tenacity of the Crawford County Historical Society Museum and the Crawford County Courthouse, the books were saved, restored, and now on exhibit at the museum in Cuba. Visitors to the museum can interact with a hands-on approach and open a century-old Crawford County Tax Ledgers on the table it recorded.
For genealogy fans looking for family ties in Crawford County MO, the Cuba museum offers many hard-copy resources for the region. Patrons of the museum are welcome to browse tax records, obituaries, newspaper clippings, and other collections in search of ancestors.
The Crawford County Historical Society Museum is located at 308 N. Smith St. in Cuba. For group tours, call 573-885-6099. Follow the museum on Facebook @cubamimuseum or visit cubamomuseum.com for more information.
