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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.

Papers of a Preston County farmer, merchant, and licensed exhorter of the Methodist Episcopal Church who served in the state legislature in the years 1870-1876. There are letters of H. Davis and William Ewin regarding land and coal properties in Preston County. Also included are minutes of the incorporators' meeting of the Iron Valley and Pennsylvania Railroad, 1873, as well as scattered items relating to the Methodist Episcopal Church, Kingwood; the Northwestern Turnpike at St. George; the Grafton and Greenbrier Railroad Company; Civil War bounty claims; the Rowlesburg Lumber and Iron Company; stave making; the Wheeling Female College; political and religious speeches; and the Morgantown District Camp Meeting Association, 1877.

Papers of a Monongalia County, West Virginia, farm family residing near Maidsville include: the farm account books of John and John J. Courtney, 1831-1877; family Bible records and photographs; college essays of Alpheus Courtney, a West Virginia University student; manuscript ciphering book, 1817; diary of Ulysses J. Courtney, 1878-1883 (7 vols.) pertaining to lumbering, farming, and livestock operations, and community religious and social life; correspondence; steamboat bills of lading, invoices of mercantile stores; Civil War bounty receipts; a record of lumbering operations, 1878; and records of the Bethel (Methodist) Church. Subjects include the construction of the Monongahela Valley Railroad; frontier conditions in Iowa; Morgantown Bridge Company; and Methodism within the Baltimore and West Virginia conferences. Correspondents include Alston G. Dayton.

Letters and business records of the mercantile establishment of David L. Wilson in Moorefield. Subjects covered include: property rentals, crops, labor costs and lumbering.

County court and public records primarily concerning deeds, estates, guardianships, executors, poor and paupers, roads, and "scalp certificates" for various animals. There are also record books, predominantly personal property and land books, and a few private accounts. There is also a breadth of material concerning records of personal property; county courthouse and jail; marriages; liquor, attorney, minister, and professional licenses; apprenticing; surveys and plats; lunacy; court proceedings; elections and voting; and public utilities and taxation.

Diaries, correspondence, notes, receipts, and newspaper clippings of a lumberman and stockman from Morgantown, West Virginia. Subjects include Johnson's agricultural activities, his extensive timber dealings in Monongalia County, and the rafting of logs to Pittsburgh and intermediate points on the Monongahela River.

Papers of Judge Gideon D. Camden (1805-1891) of Clarksburg, Harrison County, West Virginia, and papers of his grandson Wilson Lee Camden (1870-1958). Gideon D. Camden was a lawyer, Democratic politician, member of the Virginia Convention of 1850-1851, circuit judge, and state senator (1872-1876). His papers include correspondence, legal and business papers, surveys and plats, and printed material. Subjects include Virginia, West Virginia, and national politics; the railroad, oil, timber, and coal industries; and Camden's law practice. Wilson Lee Camden papers include correspondence, legal papers, surveys and plats, printed material, business manuscripts, photographs, map, and ledgers. Subjects include the settlement of his grandfather's estate, and extensive coal, timber, land, railroad, and oil interests in West Virginia and Western Pennsylvania. See Scope and Content Note for more information.

Pamphlets include Henry Ruffner's antislavery pamphlet, 1847, and his Union speech, 1856. Subjects of the manuscripts and correspondence include family history; travel; Kanawha Salt Works; schools in Virginia and Kanawha County; Lane Seminary Library; Presbyterian Church; slavery, coal, gas, iron, and timber; Johns Hopkins, Washington and Lee, Harvard, Hobart, Cornell, and Hampden-Sydney colleges; Greenbrier County; Alabama; election of 1904; University of Virginia; Kanawha Valley floods; Venezuela; American Colonization Society; and the Philippine Islands. Persons mentioned or commented on include Philip Doddridge, John Letcher, Hugh Mercer, and Nelson A. Miles. Correspondents include Charles H. Ambler, John Eaton, John P. Hale, H.R. Helper, W.S. Laidley, David L. Ruffner, John W. Wayland, and William L. Wilson.