BROWNSTOWN
While recently going through old records from the courthouse basement, the Jackson County surveyor found three maps with historical significance.
The oldest one is a drawing of the town of Brownstown in 1932. The other two are drainage and highway maps of the county from 1938. Both were drawn by Emil Zabel, who was the county surveyor from 1932 to 1938.
Dan Blann, the current county surveyor, is in the process of getting the county maps framed, and he presented the Brownstown map to town officials and hopes they will look into getting it framed.
“It would be a shame for this map to just continue to sit in the basement of the courthouse or filed away,” Blann said. “There’s a lot of history there. Brownstown has really changed a lot since ’32.”
Blann said when he took office three years ago, he found a lot of old records scattered around the basement of the Jackson County Courthouse in Brownstown.
He set aside a pile of records to sort through when time allowed, and that’s how he recently came across these three maps. All of them, though, are old and fragile.
The county has a records committee that determines action made on any county-owned records and maps. Blann received approval to get the two county maps framed and to donate the map of Brownstown to the town.
“It’s my hope that you’ll take this map, get it restored and it’s something we can hang in the town hall,” Blann said. “It’s a little piece of history that everybody can see.”
The auditor’s office is helping Blann secure funds to get the county maps professionally restored and framed and then hung in the courthouse.
Blann shared contact information of the company that’s restoring the county maps with Brownstown Clerk-Treasurer David Willey so the town could obtain a quote.
“To get these restored, they go through a cleaning process,” Blann said. “It goes through a restoration process, where they try to take out as much issues or flaws in the map as they can. Then they air seal it into an air-sealed frame.”
Blann said he initially was quoted about $7,000 for the two county maps, but they are twice the size of the Brownstown map. He said the town map is not a standard size, estimating it to be about 40 inches wide.
He said he thought it would cost a couple thousand dollars to get the town map restored.
The town council unanimously approved to accept the map, and President John Nolting said they could look into funding to get it restored and framed. Pursuing grant money or having university students help with the project were possibilities brought up during the meeting.