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The letter from James Tenney, Jr. to his uncle, John Tenney of Luzerne, NY describes James' journey from upstate New York to Nicholas County, Virginia via Richmond and comments on the attributes of western Virginia. It mentions Kanawha Valley salt production and the lumber industry on the Elk River which supplied materials for boats and barrels used in the salt industry. Tenney also alludes to the New England settlement in present-day Upshur County which his father joined earlier. (a transcription and photos of the letter are also included.)

Correspondence, minutes, newspaper clippings, publications, photographs, and other papers (1965-95) of Dr. Joanna Strosnider Nesselroad documenting the organization and administration of the nation's first Head Start Program. Dr. Nesselroad began the first Head Start Program in McDowell County in 1965, and has served as West Virginia's regional training officer and as a national consultant for the Program. There are also letters, newspaper clippings, publications, photographs, slides, and other papers (1930-86) of a former West Virginia University Agriculture professor, W.W. Armentrout. Subjects include milk production and distribution, agricultural economics, broiler industries, and the West Virginia University College of Agriculture. Also includes financial records of the Armentrout Memorial.

Papers of a resident of Glenville include a notebook containing measurements of lumber, a memo book of logs sold, a tally book of rafts floated down the Little Kanawha River, a stock certificate in the Gilmer County Fair Association, and West Virginia Department of Agriculture statistics for 1920.

Correspondence and other papers of Kemble White, one-time law partner of A.B. Fleming, specialist in oil and gas law, counsel for the West Virginia subsidiaries of Standard Oil (Hope Natural Gas, South Penn Oil, and Eureka Pipeline), charter member of the West Virginia Oil and Natural Gas Association, veteran of the Spanish-American War, one-time president of the West Virginia Bar Association; and the West Virginia University Alumni Association. Additional items include: White's notebooks from language and accounting classes taken at the University; correspondence dealing with Mrs. White's gardening activities; drafts of White's proposals for constitutional revision in West Virginia; a Spanish-American War Muster-roll for Company M, 2nd West Virginia Volunteers; and two diaries (ca.1868). Subjects include: oil, land titles and leases; Fairmont Coal and Coke Company; Twin Mountain Orchards; Monongahela Valley Traction Company; Twin Mountain and Potomac Railroad; West Virginia political campaigns; and constitutional revision in West Virginia. Correspondents include: Luther Anderson, Carl G. Bachman, Fred Blue, John C. Bond, Linn Brannon, William E. Chilton, J.J. Cornwell, J.S. Darst, Wells Goodykoontz, Howard M. Gore, J.W. Harman, John H. Hatcher, Henry D. Hatfield, Frank C. Haymond, Rush D. Holt, Guy Kump, Howard B. Lee, M.M. Neely, Okey L. Patteson, William H. Sawyers, E.B. Stephenson, Robert Taft, and L. Judson Williams.

L. Henry Smith (b. circa 1805) was an attorney in Bruceton Mills, Preston County, West Virginia, in the mid-nineteenth century. He and his wife, Martha, had nine children, including Lucian H. Smith (b. circa 1830) and William W. Smith (b. circa 1848). Papers of the L. Henry Smith family chiefly include receipts, bills, notes, and letters from 1823 to 1878 and primarily concern Henry Smith, Lucian Smith, and William Smith, though materials from other family members are included. Box 1 contains financial materials for Jacob Smith from the 1830s and 1840s; receipts for purchases made by Henry Smith between the 1850s and 1870s (mostly for sewing supplies such as fabric, trimmings, and lace); promissory notes; and other financial items. Box 2 contains letters to various members of the Smith family from the 1850s to the 1870s. Topics chiefly include merchandising; Henry Smith's legal and financial matters in Preston County; and news of friends and family in the Bruceton Mills and Uniontown, Pennsylvania, areas. Several letters from the 1860s relate to buying blue cloth to make Civil War uniforms and substitutes in the Union army. Letters from the late 1860s related to West Virginia University, where William Smith was a student. Box 3 contains miscellaneous items primarily related to West Virginia politics in the 1870s and West Virginia Governor John Jeremiah Jacob.

Letters, legal and land papers, tax receipts, and other papers of Benjamin, John F.C.L., Benjamin F.M.V. and J.A.J. Lightburn in Lewis County. Included are a pocket account book of the Lightburn Mill, 1836-1855; 32 items bearing on General J.A.J. Lightburn's Civil War activities, including correspondence, orders, and reports (including battle reports in connection with the Atlanta campaign, 3 items, June-July, 1864); correspondence between J.A.J. Lightburn and Soule & Co., relative to pension claims; agricultural implement advertisements, 1890; notebooks of sermon outlines written by General Lightburn who was ordained a Baptist minister in 1867; and newspaper clippings bearing on the Lightburn family.

Papers of Hu Maxwell (1860-1927), historian, editor, and author of several county histories of West Virginia, along with papers and records of other family members. There are manuscripts of fiction, verse, and local history written by Maxwell, as well as a number of his manuscripts and publications dealing with forestry which were prepared while he was a member of the Forest Service of the United States Department of Agriculture. Maxwell kept a diary during the years 1901-1919 while residing in Morgantown, Chicago, Illinois, and Washington, D.C., which is extensive for the period of World War I and which contains notes on the diary of Rufus Maxwell (1855-1907). See scope and content note for more detail.

Business correspondence and papers, including land grants and deeds, 1761-1881, surveys, wills, and account books of William McCoy, Sr. and Jr., of Pendleton County. There are papers on the administration of estates; management of property in Mercer, Pendleton, and Randolph counties, and in Augusta and Highland counties, Virginia, for absentee owners; and on farm operations. There is material on the Central Bank of Virginia at Staunton; the Moorefield and North Branch Turnpike Company; and on military units in the eastern parts of West Virginia during the Civil War, including letters, orders, and requisitions. Also includes record of land transaction between Levi Hollingsworth and Robert McCulloh regarding 11,435 acres in Pendleton County (1803).

The business papers of Moses H. Crouch, a farmer and miller who lived near Huttonsville, Randolph County, West Virginia, in the nineteenth century. Chiefly contains receipts, deeds, promissory notes, and other financial and legal documents related to Crouch's business and property from the 1840s to the 1890s. Receipts and account information document the sale of dry goods and textiles, including meat, coffee, tobacco, sugar, tea, oatmeal, peaches, silk, thread, and chambray. Legal materials include deeds, insurance information, tax documents, and other information related to land tracts owned by Crouch. While most of the materials are Moses Crouch's papers, there are also documents for George Long, Andrew Crouch, and John Crouch. Early materials from 1802, 1821, and 1830 consist of land indentures. Also included are two account ledgers, from 1839 to 1899 and from 1853 to 1870, that record purchases of grains such as flour, corn, flax, and wheat by the pound and by the bushel and note payments on accounts.