Collections : [West Virginia and Regional History Center]

Correspondence and photographs used by Lee, who was a lawyer and attorney general of West Virginia, in the writing of his book, BLOODLETTING IN APPALACHIA, 1969, concerning the coalfields of West Virginia and the attempts by miners to unionize. The photographs show individuals, coal camps, mine guards, and scenes from the Paint Creek-Cabin Creek area in 1912-1913, Matewan, and Monongalia County during the 1925-1929 period. Correspondents include Gordon C. Felts, Coleman A. Hatfield, Henry D. Hatfield, Chapman Revercomb, and Walter R. Thurmond.

Two chapters of a study by Howard P. Wade, D.A., titled "Eckman: A Coal Camp in McDowell County, West Virginia", regarding the late 18th century African Americans immigrants to the McDowell County coal camp of Eckman, their origins, social and religious organizations, and experiences assimilating to the coal fields, as well as African American life in Eckman between the years of 1892 and 1942.

Diary and account book, 1804-1811, of John Thompson containing accounts of items bought and sold, money owed by and to Thompson, two journeys on the Mississippi River between Nashville, Natchez, and New Orleans, 1804-1805, and numerous remedies for diseases and medical complaints. There is a second diary by Robert C. Thompson, a Confederate soldier, from August 1862 to February 1863. Robert Thompson was a member of a Tennessee unit, imprisoned at Camp Morton, exchanged in September 1862, and spent the remainder of the time covered by the diary with his reorganized company in Mississippi near Vicksburg. Places mentioned include Camp Morton near Indianapolis, Indiana; Richmond, Virginia; Gallatin and Memphis, Tennessee; Cairo, Illinois; Columbus and Hickman, Kentucky; Vicksburg, Clinton, Jackson, Corinth, Holly Spring, Tippa Ford, and Oxford, Mississippi.

Building inventories, photo Xeroxes and indexes, street maps, taped interviews and summary reports of a historic buildings survey of Keystone by the WVU Public History Program in conjunction with the Historic Preservation Unit of the WV Dept. of Culture & History. The study of this McDowell County community provides "a basic architectural history of one southern coal town". Additionally, the oral histories and narrative report provide a more complete history than contained in typical building inventory forms. Keystone (originally Cassville) acquired its name from the company which opened the first mine there in 1892. This town, along the Norfolk & Western Railroad line, prospered up to the time of the Great Depression, and it was noted for its various neighborhoods of Blacks, immigrants and wealthy as well as a part of town, called "the Cinderbottom", that was a thriving red light district.

Typed 23 page manuscript history of the McDowell County coal mining communities of Caretta and Coalwood by Homer Hickam, the author of Rocket Boys. Caretta and Coalwood were started early in the twentieth century as coal camps by the mine operator George L. Carter. The fortunes of both towns represent the economic cyclical nature of mining throughout the twentieth century reflective of many coal field communities within the state.

Scotts Run Community Center scrapbook containing photographs, clippings, attendance statistics, and a survey of families. The survey documents families inhabiting the area, indicating their nationalities, religious affiliations, and number of children. The Scotts Run Community Center, known as 'The Shack,' was started in 1928 under the auspices of the Board of National Missions of the Presbyterian Church, U.S.A. Particularly active during the height of the Depression, its organized activities included youth groups, educational seminars, ethnic forums and political and labor meetings. The Shack has been especially beneficial to the children of destitute coal miners in trying to keep them in school by providing food, clothing tutoring. Its main impact has been in trying to better the residents' economic plight ranging from education extension programs to the creation of self help industries and workshops.

UMWA international representative and organizer, member of the Steel Workers Organizing Committee, director of the CIO Organizing Committee, and vice-chairman of the CIO Political Action Committee Correspondence, legal papers, diaries, clippings, and other papers relate to Bittner's early career in the western Pennsylvania coal fields; his presidency of District 5, UMWA, 1911-1916; and his organizational activities in southeastern Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama, northern West Virginia, Oklahoma, and Kansas, 1916-1928. Subjects include labor strife and strikes in West Virginia, 1912-1913, 1924-1928, Alabama, 1920-1921, Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania, 1911, and Oklahoma and Kansas, 1922; UMWA intra-union affairs; relief for striking miners; Kansas Industrial Court; Workers Communist Party; Red International of Labor Unions; American Association for Labor Legislation; National League of People's McAdoo Clubs; labor trouble in Montana, 1920; the railway assigned coal car problem; and Bittner's activities on various state and national labor boards and committees. There are photographs of mining towns, camps, and tent colonies, labor parades, conventions, demonstrations, and strikes; portraits of labor leaders; and pictures of the Irwin, Pennsylvania coalfield strike of 1911, the Ludlow Massacre of 1914, and the northern West Virginia strikes of 1924-1926. Frank Farrington, William Green, Frank J. Hayes, John L. Lewis, John Mitchell, Philip Murray, and John P. White are included among the correspondents. A detailed listing of the correspondence in boxes 1-7 is available upon request.