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Diary by E.C. Smith, a student at West Virginia University (WVU), regarding his experiences in 1874. Activities documented include academic (preparing papers, Greek and Latin studies, reading Charles Darwin, etc.), literary society (elections, debates, recitations), military cadet (drills, lectures, marching), and Methodist Episcopal Church events (including sermons and other activities). He also attended a commencement (June 18). Recreational and social activities are also recorded, including baseball, boating, swimming, croquet, and amateur musical performances; and picnics, dances, visiting friends from the Morgantown Female Seminary, and eating at restaurants. Names of professors and fellow students are recorded. Alexander Martin, the first President of West Virginia University, is reported to have delivered two sermons, and a lecture on astronomy. There are references to carriage, railroad, and steamboat travel, and to the towns and cities of Morgantown, Fairmont, Grafton, Parkersburg, Ravenswood, Point Pleasant, Spencer, and Harper's Ferry. Includes transcript of 108 pages.

Papers centering upon Williams and Vause Fox, Hampshire County; including indentures, patents a slave deed, return of supplies and regimental orders of the 77th Regiment of Virginia Militia, accounts for farm implements and household supplies; names mentioned include Johnson Barkelow, and William and George Calmes; the land papers bear the signatures of Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, James Wood, and Thomas Randolph.

Letters and business papers of the Fox family, centered on William and Vause Fox; there are accounts showing prices for goods and services in the first decades of the nineteenth century, including hides and leather, surveying, field labor, and weaving; items on Negroes and slavery, the Literary Society of Romney; and letters from Virginians who had taken up western lands.

West Virginia mountain tales by Richard Orr Curry; papers of Jacob W. Mathews, a merchant from Alvon; papers of Charles R. Mathews, judicial officer at New Helena, Nebraska; correspondence of Catherine White Hoke of Alvon pertaining to family affairs; papers of Jacob W. Mathews including correspondence pertaining to the Confederate "Immortal Six Hundred"; Confederate veteran affairs; business papers of the firm of Hoylman and Matthews; Charles Matthews papers consisting of essays, business receipts, and letters pertaining to farming in Missouri, 1867, emigration from West Virginia, the Farmer's Alliance, and the New Helena Literary Society; and a brochure of the Pence Spring Oil and Gas Company (Hinton, 1903).