The Clerk of the Court & 19th Century Court Records

As a result of spending years navigating courthouse record rooms across the mid-Atlantic, I have developed a keen interest in the evolving recordkeeping practices of the Clerk of the Court. Some of this comes from observing the pre-computer age methods the recording officials used to create, index, and preserve legal documents while providing public access to the transactions of the judicial system. However, a recent visit to two professionally managed clerks’ offices on the Eastern Shore of Virginia (Accomack and Northampton counties) with their helpful staffs sparked a fresh look at how these practices took shape before the age of databases and digital platforms.¹

Long before the first modern filing cabinets became office fixtures in the 1890s, courts were generating enormous amounts of paperwork. Orders, writs, subpoenas, deeds, criminal proceedings, civil disputes, dockets, and court minutes all required an array of meticulous practices to manage the immense volume of 18^th and 19th-century documents.

The Foundation: Bound Volumes and Meticulous Transcriptions

In courthouses where records have not been centralized in state archives, such as those on the Shore, I find the foundation of this early system: large, sturdy bound volumes on sliding roller frames. These ledgers contain legal information that clerks meticulously copied by hand onto the leaves of the volume. This practice of transcribing information into books provided an efficient method for the Clerk of the Court to chronologically organize dockets, judgments, and minute books while also providing convenient access to the public and legal professionals.

However, the legal system also produced reams of loose paper that resisted easy integration into these leather volumes. Officials thus needed a simple, physical way to store and reference filings, motions, trial transcripts, summonses, witness statements, and evidence. Under these circumstances, sheets of paper were tri-folded and bound together with a piece of red silk ribbon, creating a makeshift bundle of documents related to a specific case or term of the court. These bundles came to be known as “shuck files” in some areas and “bucket files” in others.²

What the Shuck! Understanding Terminology

After hearing the term “shuck file” applied to these folded bundles, I dug deeper to gain an understanding of the application of this phrase. It referred to a method of organizing legal documents by physically bundling together papers related to a single case or matter, sometimes enclosed in an outer wrapper or envelope. The term “shuck” itself was derived from its broader meaning, which was to strip or remove an outer covering, much like shucking corn, oysters, or nuts. This metaphor extended to the legal world, where the “shuck” became the outer cover holding important legal papers in some regions.^3,4

Before the Civil War, these bundles of paperwork were stored in pigeonhole cabinets, stacked on shelves, or placed in boxes, often in out-of-the-way locations, leading to significant challenges with organization and retrieval since filing equipment was practically unknown. 

To organize their records, many officials purchased supplies and hired indexers from companies such as the Russell Index System of Pittsburgh, PA, or the Cott Index System of Columbus, Ohio.  These companies meticulously indexed the ledgers, while also providing leather-bound volumes and other essential office equipment for the clerk’s office.

The Woodruff File

However, the demands of post-Civil War legal proceedings created an urgent need for more efficient organizational methods. The breakthrough in storage methods came in 1868 when Edmund W. Woodruff and George C. Green received a patent for their innovative “Paper-files”—specialized wooden boxes designed specifically for legal document storage. These “Woodruff files” accommodated the standard practice of tri-folding documents, allowing them to be stored on their ends and essentially creating horizontal files.⁵

The success of wooden Woodruff files quickly led to metal versions that offered superior efficiency for the era and became ubiquitous fixtures lining the walls of county and municipal offices nationwide. This represented a transition in recordkeeping methods.⁶

The Modern Filing Cabinet Emerges

The next innovation of the paper-era came from The Library Bureau, established in 1876, which played a significant role in the development of the modern filing cabinets: the vertical file. This type of file cabinet gained widespread use in offices throughout the 20^th century. By 1900, they allowed original documents to be filed without folding, thus providing for easy rearrangement and retrieval of paperwork while enhancing preservation.  This revolutionized how papers were accessed and stored. 

The Enduring Value of the Clerk of the Court

As I stood in the clerks’ offices in Accomack and Northampton this June, I was reminded that the evolution from quill and ledger to ribbon-bound bundle and finally to the filing cabinet represents more than just technological progress. It reflects the growing complexity of our legal system and the enduring dedication of these public servants who safeguard public records.

These clerks and their deputies, past and present, perform a vital role. My sincere thanks go to the staff in Accomack and Northampton counties for preserving these invaluable records and for their generous assistance with my research.

Notes

1. The Northampton County Clerk of the Court office office holds the oldest continous court records in America. See this title by Clerk Johnson for a strong introduction to the office. Traci Johnson et al., Exploring the Oldest Continuous Court Records of America (Hickory House, 2007), https://cdnsm5-hosted.civiclive.com/UserFiles/Servers/Server_14877142/File/Government/Departments_Elected%20Offices/Courts/G5331_TEXT.pdf. ↩︎
2. H. G. Jones, Local Government Records: An Introduction to Their Management, Preservation, and Use (Nashville, TN: American Association for State and Local History, 1980), page 6-7. ↩︎
3. When A Guide to Court Reords Management was written in 1986, the author noted that a few courts still used the outdated folded files in small drawers for current cases . . . The use of shuck or bucket files is “a false economy and wasteful of personnel and facility resources when conversation to flat filing would improve efficiency. A major problem with folded files is unfolding them so they can be read,” the author wrote. For more on this see Thomas G. Dibble, A Guide to Court Records Management (Williamsburg, VA: National Center for State Courts, 1986), 31. ↩︎
4. National Center for State Courts, Records Management Recommendations for the Circuit Court Clerk and Recorder, Harrisburg, Arkansas (Williamsburg, VA: National Center for State Courts, 2018), 2, 13. As the National Center for State Courts studied records management practices for courts in the 1970s and 1980s, they often mention the antiquated “shuck files.” In addition to this reports from New Jersey, Baltimore, and Harrisburg also address the files. ↩︎
5. For a catalog offering Woodruff files see this title, the Library Bureau, Classified Illustrated Catalog of the Library Bureau: A Handbook of Fittings and Supplies (Boston, MA: Library Bureau, 1899), 25, Internet Archive, https://archive.org/details/library_bureau_catalog. ↩︎
6. Jones, Local Government Records, 10–12. ↩︎