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Military records, business papers, and correspondence of a brigadier general, Kingwood attorney, state legislator, secretary of the West Virginia Horticultural Society, state adjutant general, and state Selective Service director. Other papers include a letter book, West Virginia National Guard, 1903-1907; state Selective Service memoranda, 1940-1947; and a "Historical Record of Selective Service in West Virginia." Other subjects include the Morgantown and Kingwood Railroad, Pierce's coal mining, public utilities, oil, timber, gas, fruit growing, and other business activities. Correspondents include William G. Conley, William M.O. Dawson, Davis Elkins, William E. Glasscock, Walter S. Hallanan, Lewis B. Hershey, Homer A. Holt, Harley M. Kilgore, J. Howard McGrath, Edward Martin, Clarence W. Meadows, E.F. Morgan, Matthew M. Neely, Okey L. Patteson, Chapman Revercomb, and Howard Sutherland. This collection also includes the business and legal papers, ca.1840-1890, of James H. Carroll, Kingwood attorney and editor of the PRESTON COUNTY HERALD.? Subjects include the presidential elections of 1856 and 1884 in West Virginia.? Other papers relate to Kingwood and area mercantile firms, and the operation of the PRESTON COUNTY JOURNAL, 1891-1894; and a circulation record of Preston County newspapers, 1889-1897. Correspondents include Gideon D. Camden and Henry G. Davis.

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.

Correspondence, legal papers, photographs, and printed materials of John W. Mason (1842-1917). Mason was a circuit court and state Supreme Court judge, member of the Virginia State Debt Commission, and commissioner of Internal Revenue. The general correspondence contains personal and business letters, as well as manuscript speeches, notebooks, and reports. The period while Mason was circuit judge is particularly sparse. Also includes Internal Revenue correspondence consisting of about 8,500 pages in letter press copy books. Roughly half of the collection is devoted to his legal papers and printed materials concerning law in general. Subjects include early development of the Republican Party in West Virginia; political campaigns in West Virginia from 1870-1916; Monongalia Academy; industrial development; Internal Revenue Service (1889-1893); the Virginia Debt question; early banking development in Grafton; and the development of coal companies, particularly around Fairmont. Correspondents include Arthur I. Boreman, A.W. Campbell, Stephen B. Elkins, Benjamin Harrison, Francis H. Pierpont, and others.

Correspondence, diaries, writings, newspaper clippings, and miscellaneous papers of Wilson, a private in the Twelfth Virginia Cavalry (Confederate), President of West Virginia University, 1882-1883, member of Congress, 1883-1895, Postmaster General, 1895-1897, author of the Wilson-Gorman Tariff, 1894, and President of Washington and Lee University, 1897-1900. The collection includes portions of the diaries covering the years 1862-1863, 1865, 1868-1870, 1877-1891, 1896-1899. Most of the correspondence pertains to Wilson's career as Congressman and Postmaster General and his acceptance of the presidency of Washington and Lee University. Subjects include the tariff, the currency and bimetalism controversy, West Virginia state politics, the income tax, and foreign affairs. Also includes research papers of West Virginia University history professor Festus P. Summers on microfilm; there is a detailed listing of their contents, which includes newspaper editorials and letters.