After multiple phone calls, emails and a more than 1,000-mile roundtrip journey, Moe Musser retrieved a pilfered piece of local history last week and returned it to its rightful resting place.

Presently sandwiched between two clear protective sleeves and locked away for safe keeping, the single piece of weathered paper is an 1825 Wythe County court summons for the nation’s third president and author of the Declaration of Independence.

Jefferson, who died the next year at age 83, was asked to appear on behalf of Jacob King whose three slaves – Robin, Polly and Henry – were suing for their freedom.

“From age an infirmities I am unable to attend this summons,” Jefferson penned on the reverse, adding his iconic signature underneath. In his correspondence and according to Monticello’s website, Jefferson, in his later years, suffered from a host of maladies including chronic bowel problems, “swollen legs, painful joints, fatigue, a fractured left wrist and a boil on his jaw.”

Originally tucked away in the court’s basement with other old records, Jefferson’s summons went missing at some point — possibly around 1997 after a researcher rediscovered it.

It recently resurfaced at University Archives, a Connecticut auction house specializing in historical autographs and artifacts.

Greg Crawford, state archivist with the Library of Virginia, said someone on Monticello’s staff saw the Sept. 18 auction preview and reached out to the Rockingham County court clerk, who notified Crawford.

He immediately notified Musser.

“It was very apparent it was a court record,” Crawford said, and legally belonged where it originated.

Musser, in turn, called University Archives founder John Reznikoff, a world-renowned handwriting and document examiner who’s been featured in the New York Times and appeared as an expert guest on “Pawn Stars.”

He quickly removed the listing.

According to Musser, the man who consigned the summons told Musser he’d found it among some passed-down family papers. Copies of what appear to be the accompanying handwritten lawsuit were included in the auction lot.

In the suit, Robin, Polly and Henry claimed they were the children of a “yellow woman” who was the daughter of an Indian woman. According to the Library of Virginia, descendants of illegally enslaved Indian women could file “freedom suits” in the commonwealth’s courts.

The children’s mother also apparently sued for her freedom, and King ended up questioning Jefferson at Monticello in May 1825, according to an unofficial transcription in the National Archives.

During the deposition, King asked Jefferson about a slave’s bill of sale.

Neither the archives nor the auction documents give the outcome of either case.

Had it gone on the block, the Jefferson summons would have likely fetched $20,000 to $40,000, Reznikoff estimated.

“Most importantly University Archives and myself always cooperate in bringing historical items back to where they belong if they were improperly removed,” Reznikoff wrote in a email. “As such we have worked for decades with places like the National Archives, The FBI and Homeland Security.”

Musser said the consignor was upset about the loss.

Accompanied by Wythe County Sheriff’s Office Chief Deputy Anthony Cline, Musser collected the summons last Wednesday morning. By that evening, it was back at the courthouse with plans in the works for its future.

“It was a long trip, but it was trip well worth it,” Musser said.

Jeffrey Simmons can be reached at 228-6611, extension 572, or jsimmons@wythenews.com.