Collections : [West Virginia and Regional History Center]

Personal and business correspondence, legal papers, ledgers, family records, and other papers of the Allen family of Moorefield, Hardy County, West Virginia. Also includes papers of members of the Barr, Weibley, Taylor, and Gamble families. The majority of the collection includes personal and business correspondence, legal papers, and financial records of Judge James W.F. Allen (1813/12/03 - 1875/07/16), a Hardy County lawyer, Jacksonian Democrat, and Circuit Court Judge in Hardy and Grant Counties (active ca. 1852-1865, 1872-1875). Also includes the papers of Allen's second wife, Caroline Williams Allen (d. 1907), several of Allen's children, and other related people, and a large group of 19th century advertising memorabilia. See Scope and Content Note for more information.

Scrapbook titled LOOK TO THE WEALTH OF WEST VIRGINIA, containing layouts for ads prepared by the Chesapeake and Potomac Telephone Company of West Virginia.

Memoirs of a retired newspaperman, editor, and Republican state house representative (1898-1901). McIntosh supported the Republican party and coal operator interests through his newspapers and periodicals, which included: HUNTINGTON GAZETTE, HUNTINGTON SUNDAY GAZETTE, HINTON FREE LANCE, FAYETTE JOURNAL, NEWS-MAIL CO., RALEIGH HERALD, and company magazines for the Island Creek Coal Company and Solvay Collieries. McIntosh discusses: his early employment on the railroads as census taker and assessor; his newspaper career; state politics; his fight against the Fayette Whiskey Ring; taxation; "The Committee of Twenty-eight"; "Lincoln Party" Convention; West Virginia Coal Association; United Fuel Gas Company; United Mine Workers; strikes; March on Mingo and Logan; Logan Coal Operators Association; and World War I and the National Defense Board. There is also some information on the McIntosh family history and genealogy. Among the persons mentioned are: Mather Archer, W.R. Bennett, William Blizzard, William M.O. Dawson, Samuel Dixon, Charles A. Goddard, Henry D. Hatfield, Bob Patterson, Oscar Price, Gen. J.W. St. Clair, M.J. Simms, and Z.T. Vinson.

Papers of the Hagans family of Preston County, West Virginia, including Harrison, Elisha, George M., Henry C., John Marshall, Zer Hagans, and others. There are letters, invoices, account books, advertisements, and other business records pertaining to family business enterprises including several general merchandise stores and outlets in western Pennsylvania and Maryland, and at Brandonville, Kingwood, Greenville, and Palatine, West Virginia. There are several postal records from Harrison Hagans' twenty years as postmaster, 1822-1841, at Brandonville, and magistrate papers and deeds, most regarding the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. There are also financial records documenting Hagans' tenure as president of the Greenville Mining and Manufacturing Company which produced iron in Preston County in the 1830s. Other information records Hagans' interests in: county roads, schools, churches, government and politics; the Preston Telegraph Company; a fulling mill, 1827; and a linseed oil mill, 1842. There are Hagan patents for a washing and wringing machine (1845), and working models of mowing and threshing machines. There is a volume of minutes of the quarterly conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, 1834-1859, and 1861 Wheeling Convention papers regarding a new state government, and Civil War letters from family and friends.

Well leases and records, geologic reports, maps, printed material, photographs, and other papers of McGinnis, an oil and gas operator who owned the Tri-State Oil & Gas Co. of West Virginia, and who, after graduating from Marshall University in 1910, became a leading figure in the oil and gas business. Some of his poetry is included in the collection.

Papers and ephemera of Rosalie Stewart Detch, West Virginia University alumna and school teacher and administrator in Greenbrier County. Includes material regarding Detch's father John L. Stewart, her time as a student at WVU, and her career in education. Includes programs, news clippings, tickets, schedules, postcards, and photographs, among other material. See "Scope and Content Note" for further information.

Records of the "It's Wheeling Steel" radio program. Includes photographs (1930s-1940s, 5 in.), program scripts (1937-1944, 5 in.), clippings and magazines (1930s-1940s, 3 in., including Life Magazine of March 21, 1938 with article featuring the radio program), and scrapbooks containing clippings and photographs (1930s-1940s, 3 in.). Also includes original audio transcription discs of the program (1930s-1940s, 7 ft., 6 in.), and reel-to-reel/cassette preservation copies of the transcription discs (1936-1944, 34 ft., ca. 620 reels). Addendum of 2012/11/29 includes sheet music written by Leo Bonenberger (undated, 1/4 in.). See Scope and Content Note for links to samples of the radio program.