White County History Comes to Life in Rare Find

Sometimes, by complete happenstance, folks can stumble on real relics of the past. Doris Hodge recently had quite a find. In a box she got from an old auction, Hodge found in it a copy of The Expositor from way back in the 50s, as well as certificates for the Jenkins family. She plans to donate these historical finds to the museum here in Sparta, but first wanted to show these to everyone, and the wonderful history within.

The Expositor copy was an edition from March 4, 1954. One of the first things that caught Hodge’s eye, of course, was some of the grocery prices back then. Two loaves of bread were just 25 cents.

There were also some old business advertisements, businesses that some residents may remember from back then. King’s Department Store and Jenkins & Darwin Bros, just to name a few. That Jenkins & Darwin Bros ad may also be why this edition was within that stack of documents, given that a lot of the others pertained to the Jenkins family.

The Jenkins family clearly kept good records of awards and certifications given to their family, as the stack of papers had half a dozen attributed to them. There were Selective Service certifications thanking family members, as well as diplomas and educational certifications.

These types of documents are what make up the small, tight-knit community that White County has been known for historically. Finding such a random assortment of rather well-preserved texts like this can be rare, too, even if some of the text on the certificates was a bit faded.