STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
Now we have news of a president who was elected in 1908. People in his hometown have discovered a signature from when he was a young man. Here's Nick Swartsell from NPR member station WVXU.
NICK SWARTSELL, BYLINE: In the basement of Cincinnati's Hamilton County courthouse, court archivist Jason Alexander wheels out a cart full of records from the 19th century. One of these blue paper folders with handwritten identifying notes contained a rare document with a very famous name on it.
JASON ALEXANDER: What we found in here was a William Howard Taft signature.
SWARTSELL: Taft is the only person in U.S. history to serve as both president and Supreme Court chief justice. But in 1884, he was just a fledging attorney trying an estate case over $410 before Ohio's now-defunct superior court. He didn't serve as an attorney very long before joining the local judiciary, something that Alexander says makes this discovery even more unlikely.
ALEXANDER: It's absolutely staggering. There was only one box of superior court files that would have been in the era in the year that he was practicing. And it just so happened that box was the one that contained his signature.
SWARTSELL: Historical context lends this document some fascinating mystery. While there's a clear date and Taft's signature is quite legible, no one knows exactly where he signed it. Alexander says that's because just months before, rioters burned down Hamilton County's courthouse due to mounting anger over perceived delays and corruption in the local courts.
ALEXANDER: They were scrambling to try to find places to try the criminals again, because they were afraid if there was another delay in justice, another building might perhaps succumb to fire.
SWARTSELL: Hamilton County clerk of courts Pavan Parikh says Taft's humble beginnings during a time of deep mistrust in the justice system make the recently discovered signature that much more meaningful.
PAVAN PARIKH: To find something that is original to what he did long before he was president or chief justice, when he was just a lawyer cutting his teeth and then to see the trajectory of his career and see all that he accomplished - and that's a reminder to all of us of the work that we do now may seem trivial and unimportant, but we never know what's in store for our futures.
SWARTSELL: The clerk's office is currently in talks with the National Park Service to have the document displayed at Taft's birthplace. Parikh says future generations likely won't get the thrill of similar discoveries if another president passes through the courthouse. Almost all court documents these days are digitized - no pen and ink signatures necessary.
For NPR News, I'm Nick Swartsell in Cincinnati. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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