The Pulaski County Courthouse burned on 13 June 1903. The fire occurred after closing hours and destroyed all of the Recorder's Office records except for the book, which was being used at that time for recording.
Sam Ballard owned the business at one time. He sold the business to Sam T. Rollins. Mrs. Ida Rollins acquired the company in 1934 and sold it to my dad and uncle on 1 January 1946. The place relocated to a one-room building on the west side of South Benton Street behind the old building on the corner of Benton Street and City Route 66.
I started working part-time in the office as a teenager around 1954. Sometime around 1960, my dad and uncle had a new building constructed at the corner of North Lynn and North streets and moved the office there.
We moved again in 1986 as the building was too small. Around 1962-64, Title Insurance Corporation of St. Louis merged with St. Paul Insurance Company, which in turn merged with First American Title Insurance Co. I became the owner in 1990 after my dad's death. In the mid-1990s, I sold the business to Bruce Warren.
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