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This collection includes materials from Dr. Emory L. Kemp's career of researching, documenting, and preserving historic structures. Kemp was a practicing civil engineer from 1952-1959, then taught civil engineering, historic preservation, and the history of technology from 1962-2003 at West Virginia University. He served as an expert consultant for the preservation of many historic engineering structures, including bridges, waterways, and mills. He also published regularly and remained active in several professional organizations.

This collection embraces business letters, bills, receipts, notes, orders, checks, and personal correspondence of John Rogers, who was a pioneer merchant and iron manufacturer in Monongalia County, Virginia, during the first half of the nineteenth century.

Papers, mainly of Daniel and Daniel R. McNeill, stock dealers and mill owners of Hardy County. The early correspondence relates to the purchase and sale of livestock and the driving of herds to markets in the east. There is correspondence from members of the family in the vicinity of Chillicothe, Ohio, relating to farm and market conditions and commenting on travel from Hardy County to Ohio. There are also references to river traffic on the Scioto and Ohio rivers and to the quantity of merchandise being shipped to the New Orleans market. There are account statements for school fees, books, and general school expenses for several years in the period, 1809-1822, and 1870; a herd pedigree book, 1851-1861; and poultry and cattle records and accounts, 1913-1929.