Collections

Papers, photographs and maps of a wealthy Morgantown family with interests in real estate and coal mining. Most of the business papers are those of J. M. G. Brown, a West Virginia University law school alumnus, who was president of Scotts Run Fuel Corporation. Brown was also a housing developer whose company, Suburban Real Estate of Morgantown, was a competitive concern not only locally but throughout north central West Virginia and southwest Pennsylvania. There are papers indicating his attempts to open Morgantown to airline service. His sister, Mary Virginia Brown was a genealogist and local historian noted for A History of the Negroes of Monongalia County. Among her papers are genealogies of the Bannister, Brown, Bushey, Dorsey, Suter and Williams families. There are also original documents of Colonel William McCleary, an early settler of Morgantown. There is also a manuscript "List of Taxable Property for 1786, Monongalia County," including five pages listing residents and their "tithables," horses, and cattle.

Correspondence, book reviews, certificates and pictures of Waddell, a pioneering black veterinarian and author. His books (People Are The Funniest Animals, The Black Man in Veterinary Medicine, Universal Veterinarianism, and Historical Facts of the Black Veterinarian) document the little known contributions of African-Americans from antebellum times to the present in the field of veterinary science. They also indicate his beliefs that the veterinarian profession can also help heal misunderstandings among mankind. After graduation in 1935 from the University of Pennsylvania, one of the first schools to admit blacks into its veterinarian program, he taught and worked at Tuskegee Institute where he co-founded the first program in veterinary science at a black American college. During World War II, he joined the Ninth Cavalry, a famed black unit of which he includes some of its history among his papers. After the war, he established a private practice in West Virginia eventually locating in Monongalia County where he also served on the board of the Monongalia County Mental Health Association. His home near Morgantown served as a social center for some of the first black students who attended West Virginia University. He was also instrumental in fostering integration of other institutions within the county. After 1963 he moved to North Dakota where he worked on the Chippewa reservations of Turtle Mountain and Fort Totten. Waddell offers his observations on the aspirations of Native Americans and how they are discriminated against and neglected.

Correspondence, reports, statistics, maps, photographs and pamphlets related to the efforts in West Virginia of the early southern program of the General Education Board (GEB). The GEB, founded by John D. Rockefeller, is one of the most significant philanthropic efforts in the history of U.S. education particularly noted for its aid to African-American schools, teachers and students. In West Virginia it aided the African-American colleges of West Virginia State, a public institution and Storer, a privately supported school. For both colleges it was asked to fund building construction, equipment purchases and teachers salaries especially for vocational education and home economics. Mention is also made of conditions at Storer College and at other Negro colleges around the country. Other West Virginia schools aided were Bethany, Salem, Morris Harvey, West Virginia University, Davis & Elkins, and West Virginia Wesleyan. Aid was requested at these other West Virginia schools for endowments, salaries, building construction and purchases of equipment and books. There are also for these colleges selected balance sheets, resolutions, statistics, prospectuses and case studies. There is much material on vocational education, adult and extension courses, and surveys and statistics of libraries, schools and teachers on the secondary level in West Virginia supplied mainly by the West Virginia Department of Education. Other topics mentioned are expansion of secondary education in mining areas, establishment and maintenance of the West Virginia Division of Information and Statistics, the formation of the West Virginia Foundation of Independent Colleges, the employment stabilization of life planning institutes and war activities of schools in both World War I and World War II. Names mentioned are D. B. Purinton, Frank B. Trotter, W. E. Hodges, J. N. Deahl, Wallace B. Fleming, George Rice Hovey, Cloyd Goodnight, Stephen B. Elkins, Henry D. Hatfield, Nat T. Frame, L. L. Friend and M. P. Shawkey.

The photographs and negatives of the Gerbrick Studio of Martinsburg whose most prominent proprietor was Jacob H. Gerbrick. There are group and individual portraits as well as pictures of business and industry, modes of transportation, schools, churches, residences, clubs and organizations, and social events. These photographs reflect life in Martinsburg and the extreme Eastern panhandle, including unique events such as strikes or floods, annual events such as festivals and parades, and everyday occurrences of the inhabitants. There are also images of the apple industry, Gerbrick family, Shepherd College, and Storer College.

County and circuit clerks records, arranged chronologically. Records for the years 1835-1857, include bonds of ministers, tavern operators, ordinaries, ferries, and county officials; estate settlements; records pertaining to road, bridge, and public building; records of the overseer of the poor; school commissioners' and surveyors' appointments; and lists of county officials. Records for 1863-1874 include county supervisors' records; records of the Fairmont and Wheeling Turnpike; and muster certificates and reenlistment and bounty lists for the First, Second, Sixth, Seventh, Tenth, Fifteenth, Seventeenth, and Eighteenth West Virginia Volunteer Infantry Regiments, the First, Third, Fifth, Sixth West Virginia Cavalry, the First Light Artillery Regiment, and the Forty-fifth Regiment, United States Colored Troops. Papers for 1867-1907 include justice of the peace records, United States Admiralty Court records, and road surveyors' statements.

The collection consists of correspondence, periodicals, pamphlets and other material gathered by Carter concerning black miners in the coalfields of West Virginia, with particular reference to availability of extension courses in safety, foremanship, and engineering.

Correspondence of the West Virginia State Board of Control, which was responsible for all state correctional institutions, educational institutions, and hospitals from 1909 to 1949. Individuals serving on the three-man board at various times were John S. Lakin, J.W. Barnes, J.A. Chambers, J.S. Darst, Edgar B. Stewart, J.Z. Terrell, W.R. Thurmond, John B. White, and F.W. McCullough. The letters in this collection deal with all state institutioris and their problems. There are letters dealing with building construction, building repairs, the purchase of new property, thehiring of new employees, employees' salaries, institution menus, building insurance, gifts and grants to institutions, and institutional financial matters. State institutions covered in the correspondence are: Bluefield State College; Berkeley Springs Sanitarium; Berkeley Springs Park; Concord College; Colored Orphans Home; Colored Insane Asylum; Colored Old Folks Home; Denmar Sanitarium; Demonstration Packing Plant at Inwood; Droop Mountain Battlefield; Fairmont Emergency Hospital; Industrial Home for Girls; Industrial Home for Colored Girls; Industrial Home for Boys; Industrial Home for Colored Boys; Hopemont Sanitarium; Huntington State Hospital; Jackson's Mill 4-H Camp; Indian Mound Cemetery; Lakin State Hospital; Marshall College; McKendree Hospital; Medium Security Prison; Miner's Hospitals 1, 2, and 3; Pinecrest Sanitarium; New River State School; Potomac State College; Spencer State Hospital; Storer College; Reymann Memorial Farms; Andrew S. Rowan Memorial Home; Rutherford Sanitarium; School for the Deaf and Blind; School for the Colored Deaf and Blind; Shepherd College; Weston State Hospital; West Liberty State College; Welch Emergency Hospital; West Virginia Training School; West Virginia State College; West Virginia Tech; and West Virginia University. Correspondents include Charles H. Ambler, R.A. Armstrong, Thurman Arnold, Cleveland M. Bailey, Charles Baker, J.J. Cornwell, Brooks Cottle, William M.O. Dawson, John W. Davis, W.E. Glasscock, Howard M. Gore, Denzil L. Gainer, C. Howard Hardesty, Henry D. Hatfield, Thomas E. Hodges, Homer A. Holt, Rush D. Holt, B.M. Laidley, E.F. Morgan, J.F. Marsh, C.W. Meadows, Robert H. Mollohan, Matthew M. Neely, Jennings Randolph, John D. Rockefeller II, A.M. Reese, D.B. Purinton, Frank B. Trotter, J.R. Turner, W.R. Thurmond, and I.C. White. More information about collection's content is available in the control folder. Please note, the contents list in the control folder does not refer to reel numbers, and the microfilm reels are not numbered. Microfilm reels contain information about the relevatn series/volumes/etc. that they contain, which should match with the same information on the handwritten contents list.