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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.

Papers of a Berkeley County, West Virginia, farmer and his descendants. Included are the estate papers of Nicholas Stroyer and business and legal papers of George, Henry J., Benjamin S. and Harman L. Couchman. There is the correspondence of Adrian W. Lamon, John W. Marshall, J. Marshall Neel, the Reverend A.A.P Neel of Shepherdstown (colportage agent of the Baltimore Conference M.E. Church South), Professor J. Wilbur Neel of Romney, and various members of the Couchman and Neel families. The collection includes the subscription list for the Reverend C.P. Heathe, 1823; quarterly reports and manuscript minutes of the Cherry Grove Grange, No.13, Patrons of Husbandry of West Virginia, Berkeley County, 1892, 1893; materials on Methodism in the Berkeley County area; pocket diaries; and family photographs.

Papers of a land surveyor from Hardy County include family and business correspondence, 1888-1926; letters from George Benson Kuykendall on family genealogy, 1911-1914; Kuykendall's correspondence as a member of the county board of education, 1908-1915; account books, diaries, surveying notes, Sunday school class book, 1876-1923; and plats, surveys, and deeds of land in the Hardy-Grant County area.

A ledger and financial records of Logan Osborne (1836-39) also containing the will of Balamm Osborne. The ledger contains accounts of an assortment of general store goods from perishables such as food and candles to durable goods such as tools and carriages. There are Osborne family deeds, land contracts and letters about family matters and debt (1808-89). There are early nineteenth century state bank script from Louisiana, Virginia, and North Carolina. There are land indentures and legal papers from eighteenth century Virginia, mainly of Matthew Rankin and Thomas Rutherford who contended for property in Ohio County. There is the thirty-eight page diary of Cleon Moore, a Confederate soldier from Charles Town. As a volunteer regiment member he was eyewitness and participant in the siege and capture of John Brown at Harpers Ferry. His unit was again called out prior to Virginia's secession resolution. He recounts their early maneuvering, stationing and being consolidated in the Virginia Second Cavalry which served at the First Battle of Bull Run. The account ends with the early 1862 campaigns in the Shenandoah Valley of General "Stonewall" Jackson. There is Civil War related material of Logan Osborne including records of loans to the Confederate government, letters to family and friends recounting and justifying the events and cause of the Confederacy and an 1861 January 28 broadside, entitled: "To The People of Jefferson County...", of Logan Osborne as a Unionist candidate to the Virginia Secession Convention. Also there are early West Virginia political papers pertaining to Jefferson County such as an attempt to move the county seat to Sheperdstown. Also included are George Shutt business letters and certificates as a geologist; certificates from the United Daughters of the Confederacy to Mary M. Shutt; and Osborne family history, genealogy and obituaries of descendents.

Papers relating to the early development of Marietta and the Ohio Valley include the journal, 1784-1790, and correspondence, 1776-1824 (3 vols.), of a Revolutionary War officer and organizer of the Ohio Company, General Rufus Putnam; papers of Samuel Prescott Hildreth entitled: "Early Events in the Valley of Ohio, 1787 to 1847" (2 vols.); letter from Nathan Goodale to Rufus Putnam, 15 March 1788; journal of Joseph Buell, 1785-1789; and a journal of John Mathews, 1786 (holograph copy).

Papers of Thomas Tavenner and the Tavenner family of western Virginia, including correspondence; memoirs; journals; financial and legal documents; pamphlets; newspapers; and other material. Much of the material in this collection regards the Civil War. The Tavenner family were Confederate sympathizers.

Receipts and land records of two generations of the Weltons in Hampshire and Hardy counties, West Virginia, including papers of Job, Aaron, Archibald, and A. Archibald Welton. There is a Fairfax deed for eighty-four acres in Hampshire County in 1770, and a pocket diary of A.A. Welton, for 1880-1881, which records daily farm chores, livestock sales, and the like.

Genealogy research papers compiled by W. Guy Tetrick and his son Willis G. Tetrick, Jr. The Tetricks were from Harrison County and the material in the collection mainly regards families of Harrison County and north central West Virginia. The collection contains mostly original genealogical compilations and family histories. It also contains personal and business correspondence; financial records; publications regarding local and state history; newspapers and news clippings; obituaries, cemetery records; records of the Sons of the American Revolution; and other material.

Papers relating to the Wilson, Lewis, and Ruffner families of Prince Edward County, Virginia, Kanawha County, [West] Virginia, St. Charles County, Missouri, and Fairfield County, Ohio. Correspondence between Nathaniel V. Wilson and Dr. Goodridge Wilson, concerning land purchases, preparation for the settlement of the family, care of livestock, employment of slaves, salt making and marketing, and the market price of salt. Other members of the family migrated to St. Charles County, Missouri, and to Fairfield County, Ohio, and land prices, suitable crops, settlement and railroad building in Missouri comprise much of their correspondence. A third generation member of the family, Virgy Wilson Hall and her husband, John G. Hall, were missionaries in Matamoras, Mexico, and Colombia, South America, and her correspondence with her mother comments on living conditions, progress of the missionary work, revolution in Colombia, and health and living conditions of the residents of the Barranquilla area. In addition there is a will of Col. Charles Lewis, a series of letters between two doctors concerning health problems and treatment of various illnesses, and two diaries by Mrs. Daniel Ruffner, 1846, and Elizabeth Ruffner Wilson, 1871-1872, commenting on family life and community activities in Fairfield County, Ohio, and Kanawha County, [West] Virginia. All are photocopies. Material covers the years 1774-1942.