Collections : [West Virginia and Regional History Center]

West Virginia and Regional History Center

West Virginia & Regional History Center
West Virginia University
P.O. Box 6069
1549 University Avenue
Morgantown, WV 26506
Primary Collecting Areas:
West Virginia and Appalachia History and Culture
Description:
The West Virginia & Regional History Center preserves and provides access to the records that document the history and culture of the state and the central Appalachian region. The Center is part of West Virginia University Libraries.
POC: Lori Hostuttler
Phone: (304) 293-3536
Start Over Repository West Virginia and Regional History Center Date range 1886 Subjects Missionaries

Adolphus P. Howard Papers, 1850/1938 0.4 Linear Feet 5 in. (1 document case)

Howard, Adolphus P.

Includes business and personal correspondence, accounts, legal papers, bank statements, maps, etc. Business correspondence, 1850-1938, include letters concerning A. P. Howard's various business enterprises; farm, livestock, fruit and produce, Wellsville, Ohio; printing firm, Columbus, Ohio; tannery, Corry, Penna.; bank and metal works, Pittsburgh, PA; farm, Congo, WV; subscription agent in Wellsville, Ohio for National Era, Washington, D.C. Earlier letters are to A. G. DeSellem, an uncle, including several concerning missionary work and anti-slavery activities; mention is made of several colleges, Western Reserve, Oberlin, and a school in Albany.

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Adolphus P. Howard Papers, 1854/1904 0.4 Linear Feet Summary: 5 in. (1 document case)

Howard, Adolphus P.

Includes the wills of A. P. Howard, Corry, Pennsylvania; 1897, and Sarah H. Howard, Wellsville, N. Y., correspondence, reports, leases, tax receipts, and mortgage. Information on J. W. Howard and Hugh H. McCullough estates. Copy of Bradstreet's report on the University Company of Olympia, Washington and J. R. Chaplin, manager of the Company. Also, report on various business enterprises and financial standing of A. P. Howard. Some correspondence of Edward Spencer and tax receipts for land in Kansas. One copy of "The Practical Engineer," John Wallace, Pittsburgh, Penna., 1865, and one copy of "The Popular Educator," Vols. III and IV, London, N. C.

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Gravely and Moore Studio, Photography Business in Charleston, Negatives, 1860/1969, bulk 1930/1945 14.79 Linear Feet 32 document cases, 5 in. each; 1 index card box, 15 in.; 1 document case, 2.5 in (box 25a)

Gravely and Moore Studio
Negatives and other material from the Gravely and Moore Studio of Charleston, West Virginia. The majority of items within the collection are cellulose acetate negatives; the collection also includes glass plate negatives, prints, two photograph albums, and other material, as well as a card catalog documenting business transactions with customers. The collection is organized into customer project files as established by the Studio; the contents of these files are stored in envelopes usually containing one or two negatives, but they can contain up to a dozen or more. There are approximately 3,500 customer project files containing an estimated 11,000 items, most of which are negatives. The majority of photographs within the collection are portraits of individual adults. Other subjects include portraits of children; group photographs; businesses and advertising; members of the military; civil servants; civic organizations; missionaries; and aerial photographs, among others.
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Henry Ruffner (1790-1861) and William Henry (1824-1908) Papers, 1829/1913 0.15 Linear Feet Summary: 1 3/4 in. (1 reel of microfilm (310 items), 1.75 in.)

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.
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Lewis Family Papers, 1825/1936 6.9 Linear Feet Summary: 6 ft. 10 3/4 in. (14 document cases, 5 in. each); (1 folder, 1/4 in.); (1 oversize folder, 1/2 in.); (4 boxes, 12 in.)

Lewis family
Personal and business papers of the Lewis family, mainly of John D. (1800-1882), Charles C., Sr. (b.1839), and Charles C., Jr. (b.1865), of Kanawha County. For the period 1825-1875 there are papers of various members of the Ruffner, Dickinson, and Wilson families of West Virginia, Virginia, Ohio, Kansas, Missouri, and other states. The business papers relate to farming operations, the purchase and sale of slaves, salt manufacturing and trade, the Old Sweet Springs Company, coal, iron, oil, lumbering, railroads, and real estate in Kanawha, Clay, Boone, Fayette, and Nicholas counties. There are newspaper clippings, speeches, and other papers reflecting the Lewis' interests in the Democratic Party in the period 1914-1920. Settlement papers and correspondence regarding the estates of John D. Lewis, and Joel, Daniel, and Andrew Ruffner are in the collection. The personal papers include diaries, scrapbooks, photographs, and letters. Travel accounts in the United States, South America, and Europe are given in the correspondence, as well as comments on schools in West Virginia and Virginia; the building of a church in Kanawha County in 1834; missionary work in Colombia, South America, 1874-1875; Civil War and postwar conditions in Virginia, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Kentucky, and Missouri; conditions at Camp Chase, in the Civil War; and material relating to World War I.
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Storer College Administrative and Operational Records, 1865/1960, bulk 1930/1950 87.58 Linear Feet (160 document cases, 5 in. each; 28 document cases, 2.5 in. each; 7 record cartons, 15 in. each; 4 notecard boxes, 5 in. each; 2 notecard boxes, 4.5 in. each; 5 large flat storage boxes, 5 in. each; 4 large flat storage boxes, 3.5 in. each; 1.5 large flat storage boxes, 3 in. each; 1 small artifact box, 1.5 in.; 1 oversize folder, 0.25 in.; 1 reel microfilm, 1.75 in.)

Storer College

Records of Storer College, West Virginia's first African American institution of higher learning, located in Harpers Ferry. This collection contains mainly administrative and operational records of the college. Types of records include annual reports, publications, memorabilia, artifacts, and other material. This collection includes material regarding John Brown's Fort.

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Storer College Correspondence, Business Papers and Other Material, 1854/1964 21.3 Linear Feet Summary: 21 ft. 4 in. (39 document cases, 5 in. each); (4 document cases, 2 1/2 in. each); (2 records cartons, 15 in. each); (1 small flat storage box, 3 in.); (1 large flat storage box, 3 in.); (2 large flat storage boxes, 3 1/2 in. each); (1 card file box, 4 in.); (1 roll storage box, 4 in.)

Storer College
Records of Storer College, West Virginia's first African American institution of higher learning, located in Harpers Ferry. Types of records include correspondence, business papers, photographs, memorabilia, issues of the Storer Record (the Storer College newspaper), financial records, scrapbooks, bulletins, minute books, newspaper and magazine clippings, diaries, motion pictures, and miscellaneous material. Includes records regarding the early years of the College, among other topics. See "Scope and Content Note" and "Historical Note" for further information.
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Wilson-Lewis Family Papers, 1693/1942 0.42 Linear Feet 5 in. (1 document case)

Wilson-Lewis family
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.
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