group began to work on the building. “The building

group began to work on the building. “The building was originally built from bits and pieces left over from other buildings so no two windows were the same,” Lindstrom said. This made the building unique, but it also made for major problems in the renovation.

“We had to be very careful about ordering anything for the building, and we still do,” Lindstrom said. Due to men like Omar Stoltzfus, who donated time and talent to the effort, the building was restored and is now being used by the Society.

“There are still stains on the main room’s floor from the acid that was used to operate the telephones, and the holes from the cables,” Lindstrom said. “We couldn’t get them out, but we wouldn’t want to because it adds to the building’s history.”

The building was furnished with the old furniture from the county clerk’s office, and with the original benches from the Methodist Church in Flint Hill.

After restoring the building to a more useable state, the Society could begin to-concentrate more on collecting historical data. “In the last six to seven years, many people have donated many Rappahannock artifacts to us,” said Society member Helen Holschuh.

The Society now has 500 family name files catalogued and many books. The oldest document that the Society is preserving is the Duncan Store ledger from 1802. Holschuh said that the Society has a theory that the store was in the Laurel Mills area, but that the location can not be proven.

“We are trying to get as many old documents or information from the older residents of the county as possible so that we can preserve as much of the history as possible,” Holschuh said. “Sometimes we only find out about documents or information through word of mouth.”

The Society’s valuable documents are copied so that people can see and handle the copies instead of the originals. The Society is also working on cemetery inventories, or gathering information of who is buried where.

Information gathered on each