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The collection includes a wealth of information on the Baughman and Hulver families, and others who established the Baughman Settlement in the late eighteenth century. The collection spans from the antebellum Civil War era through World War Two. The collection includes correspondence, postcards, family photograph albums and assorted photographs, biographical sketches and family history, books, legal documents, receipts, certificates, and Confederate money. Also present are assorted newspapers and news clippings from Hardy County and other areas of West Virginia, as well as papers from the Midwest, upper South, and East Coast from the late nineteenth century through the early twentieth century. The collection also contains a number of medical, agricultural, religious, and consumer catalogues and pamphlets. This collection includes information on family history in Hardy County and the surrounding areas, as well as information about the experiences of a West Virginia agricultural community in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

The papers of a Martinsburg native related to local prominent families. There are genealogical notes and papers concerning the following families: Anderson, Beall, Chenowith, Cowan, Cromwell, Gilbert, Gray, Hoffman, Magruder, McConnell, Newcomer, and Silver. Also included are the letters and papers of Edmond L. Hoffman, who served early in the Civil War as a lieutenant in the Stonewall Brigade. He describes in extensive detail the First Battle of Bull Run. In later letters, he presents his and the prevailing Confederate opinion about the Northern generals Pope, Burnside, Hooker and Meade. He also describes Confederate forces and their officers. Included are a few letters after the Civil War from the frontier mentioning Kansas City and Oklahoma (the Indian Territory). Also includes three Confederate currency notes (1864) and one reproduction of a Confederate currency note (1954).

Papers of the Hays family of Gilmer County, West Virginia, centering on Peregrine Hays and his son Samuel Hays. The collection includes Civil War related material; correspondence; financial, business, and legal records; and other material. The Civil War material includes a receipt for the sale of enslaved Africans, military orders, and records of financial transactions made in Confederate currency. The correspondence within the collection includes personal letters between members of the Hays family as well as correspondence with friends and acquaintances. The financial, business, and legal records within the collection include material regarding Peregrine Hay's postbellum financial difficulties. See "Historical Note" for further information.