Post by IARA Archivist Josh Koepke
December 2024

The John Newman materials at the Indiana State Archives comprised over 33 cubic feet of records on a variety of topics but were dominated by county-level court cases. The records were gathered by the late archivist John Newman, who dedicated his career to understanding Indiana legal records and their document lifecycles. These records provide insight into civil, criminal, and probate law within Indiana dating as far back as the early 1800s. The collection provides glimpses into critical societal functions of previous generations, highlights the lifecycle of archivists and offers a personal look into John Newman’s work researching court records.

John Newman held a lifelong passion for archives and legal records. After graduating from Indiana University with a master’s degree in American history, Newman taught high school students in Brookville. Newman joined the Indiana State Library in 1970, collecting oral histories for the Indiana Division. In 1971, Newman became the Indiana State Archivist. Later that year he helped form the Society of Indiana Archivists (SIA), a professional organization allowing for development and advocacy in the archival profession without having to venture to regional or national organizations outside Indiana. After 15 years with the Indiana State Archives, John Newman moved on to the Indiana Supreme Court, taking the role of Director of Information Management. Having an interest in court records and preservation throughout his career, Newman investigated the retention process of Indiana court materials, and helped to create uniform retention schedules - guidelines for keeping or discarding documents. Newman retired in July of 2008, but he stayed active in the Indiana and Brookville historical communities until his death on October 2, 2023.¹

The collection of records presented a challenge due to the range of subjects, the lack of arrangement, and the minimal provenance - details on the origin of an item and its place within a collection. These materials were assembled sporadically while John Newman traveled between county clerk offices and courthouses throughout the state to gather research to synthesize into a common set of legal retention schedules. And the records reflected their piecemeal collection origins, with various non-archival items mixed in with court cases and other records worthy of further preservation. Records lacked modern description and few traces of provenance could be found. Situated on two wooden pallets in dusty, acidic boxes, the materials would need extensive work to be stabilized and accessible to researchers. While the collection stayed on these pallets for years, working through these materials would take months to complete.

The goal of this project was to evaluate, describe, and stabilize the records. Processing this collection entailed discarding non-permanent items, organizing records into their appropriate record series, and describing and documenting information to increase access. I discovered records from 43 different counties when working through the collection, a testament to John Newman’s travels and interest in county courts. While most materials connected to court documents, other records included non-permanent legal files and even poultry registrations. I would need to accession each county’s court records separately for them to have any hope of discovery within our archival system. Figure 1 highlights the extensive process of sorting legal documents by appropriate record series. It was a major task to catalog everything individually using the judicial retention schedule. Documenting the known provenance of materials was also an important step when formally accessioning each set of records. While most court records were standard affair, finds of particular interest included a fragmented court document on the hunting of a wolf within Franklin County in 1812, while Indiana was still a territory, and records related to the creation and development of early public seminaries in Perry, Posey, and Switzerland counties.

Lifecycle of Archivists

To process these materials, I utilized the judicial retention schedules made by John Newman himself, possibly through research he conducted with some of these very same items. Often archival research speaks to the lifecycle of documents; that is, the complete process a document goes through from creation to ingest and preservation in an archive.² But experiences like this show the lifecycle of an archivist, from the creation of a newly minted archivist to their advancements in the field and finally to the preservation of their important work and contributions. Moreover, not lost to me was the positional connection I share with John Newman, and the hope my contributions are worthy of being archived by the following generations of newly minted archivists.

Courthouse Jest

A joke found within the John Newman papers reveals a personal look at John Newman during his time as the Director of Information Management at the Indiana Supreme Court. I found a jest between John Newman and Clerk Kenneth Brooks of the Jasper Circuit Court nestled among official court documents. An official-looking 1989 court case between plaintiff John Newman and defendant Kenneth Brooks, the document is a response to a made-up claim for damages due to a workplace injury suffered by Newman. The claim details Newman’s supposed clumsiness in remodeling a window as the cause of a finger injury. Newman is professionally summarized in the piece to have been, “…in reality while doing what he enjoys most, and that is poking around in dusty basements at State expense….” Truly a flattering description for an archivist! The response goes on to claim a benefit after the injury, saying, “…in fact a marked improvement in the operation of the court has been noted since the Plaintiff’s finger was shortened, probably as a result of the Plaintiff’s reduced ability to flip through pages of documents, thus causing him to occasionally read one.” The second page ends with a postscript joking that the tort exploded out of shame. The document shows a rare personal look at archivists at work.

Figure 3. Indiana Court Times, August 31, 2008, times.courts.in.gov.

John Newman’s life and legacy reach far in Indiana. SIA continues, providing yearly conferences and various programming and professional development events throughout Indiana. Newman’s commitment to archival science and professional development lives on at SIA in the John Newman Memorial Professional Development Scholarship, awarded to individuals within the archival field with limited professional development opportunities. His work in creating a unified retention schedule for judicial records is maintained with updates. As an archivist for the Indiana State Archives, I owe much to John Newman, and I hope that I may make contributions as meaningful as his to the field.

Notes

[1] Tom Snape, “Historic Home to House Library’s History and Genealogy Department,” WRBI, May 6, 2024,  https://wrbiradio.com/historic-home-to-house-librarys-history-and-genealogy-dept/; Cook Rosenburg Funeral Home, John J. Newman Obituary, https://www.cookrosenberger.com/obituary/john-newman.

[2] Aliyu Abubaker Lawan and Pekka Henttonen, “Dissecting the Record Life Cycle: A New Frontier in Anti-Corruption Investigation Strategies,” Information Development (2024), https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/02666669231222552, 2-3.