NATCHEZ — Franklin County’s 200th bicentennial committee put together something that not only could be used to raise funds for the celebration, but also could make the committee for the county’s 300th birthday very happy.

When the committee decided to include information from the history of the county from the 1930s, which was compiled as a Works Progress Administration project, they thought it would be a small section in volume one of their series on stories from people in the county. When committee member Cookie Herring Stroud accessed the information on microfilm, she decided it would have to be its own volume.

“Looking at it, I could tell that many of the families that started the county were still there, and I knew people would be interested in learning more about these families,” Stroud said. “Microfilm is difficult to read, and many of the people who would be most interested in this information would not be able to read it, so I thought it would be better to have a bound copy that people could read.”

The whole idea of putting together what would become four volumes, including one volume from the WPA, started with Franklin County resident and committee member Dorothy McGehee.

“One idea was for people to tell their family stories and share photographs — it sounds so easy, but convincing people to do this was difficult,” McGehee said. “But, once they started they had so much fun that we kept making more (volumes).”

Stroud got involved through an advertisement in the county newspaper and started, simply, by researching the Herring family — but her research took her farther than just her family.

“In doing research on my family I discovered these documents in the library,” Herring said. “Any time I found anything in print, it was almost like going back and touching part of the past.

“I knew this document would do the same for others. If the whole document wasn’t published, there were many people who would never have the opportunity — reading microfilm is horrendous.”

Bicentennial member and retired librarian Joan McLemore said microfilm is hard to read.

“It is very difficult,” McLemore said. “There is no index, so if you want to find something, you just have to go in there and read. It is a strain.”

McLemore said there were treasures buried in the microfilm that she is grateful Stroud made the effort to uncover.

“Someone in Franklin County is said to own the britches of Napoleon,” McLemore said. “Another interesting fact that we would have never known without the works progress effort is that (some of the stone) of St. Mary’s came from the quarries in Franklin County.”

Stroud said all of the history contained in the book is interesting, but one story that stood out involved the deer of Franklin County.

“In the ‘30s, there was an article in the paper that they introduced deer to the Homochitto National Forest,” Stroud said. “They put a male and female deer into the forest, and told people not to harm them and take care of them so they could populate the area.

“It is amazing to think about, from these two deer came all the deer that we are now hitting with our cars.”

Once Stroud took up the mantle on herself to complete the project, she said she was driven.

“It was something I had to do, something that needed to be done, and I had the time to do it,” Stroud said. “It took more time than I thought it would, but it was well worth the effort.”

Stroud said it took her three weeks, working 8-10 hour days to scan the 500-page document.

“I had to make a Xerox copy of every page,” Stroud said. “And the pages were too big to fit on one 8×11 copy, so I’d have to copy a page twice.

“Much of it was also hard to read, so we’d have to go in and focus it at a higher level.”

Next, she delegated out typing responsibilities and then came the hard part — editing and formatting.

“Editing and formatting was probably the most difficult part, because none of us knew anything about it,” Stroud said.

But, after about 10 months in total, they were able to get it to a publisher.

“There really is a legacy here, that we are leaving for future generations,” Stroud said of all four volumes. “I’m really proud of them.”

McGehee said the legacy was written by the ladies of Franklin County, to give them work during the era of The Great Depression.

“If you read this book you will be amazed with the beauty, skill and the completeness of their history of Franklin County,” McGehee said.

The four-volume set was a labor of love for Franklin County and the people who live there, McGehee said.

“It is easy to love Franklin County and the people are very special,” McGehee said. “Compiling these books has been such a great experience for all of us, and I think all the people who wrote stories, shared photos or worked on these books.”

Stroud said she did it because her roots are buried deep in Franklin County, even though she moved out West to be with her daughters.

“When I need to go back, be renewed, refreshed, I go back to Franklin County and get centered in life again,” Stroud said. “I am part of the fifth generation of my family from Franklin County.”