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Typescript copies of correspondence, diary entries, biographical sketches of Confederate veterans, manuscripts recounting battles, rosters of Confederate cavalry and infantry companies, and newspaper clippings of Pvt. James Z. McChesney of the Confederate States Army. Subjects include Confederate military activities, military activity in the Shenandoah Valley, McCausland's march on Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, and information on various units and battles. Addendum of 2004/05/06 includes letters written by James Z. McChesney, transfer order, leave of absence notice, and a Confederate valentine. See Scope and Content Note for more information.

Records of marriages, 1816-1867, performed by the Reverend William Welch, Mineral County, West Virginia; Civil War typescripts, including "Capture of Generals Kelly and Crook," by Capt. Jesse C. McNeill, and "Capture of a Railroad Train," by John T. Peerce. There are scrapbooks on South Branch Valley history, and account books for grain, carding, and other activities in Morgantown. There are also clippings and photographs.

Correspondence and miscellaneous papers of a lieutenant colonel in the Eighth West Virginia Volunteer Infantry and later the Seventh West Virginia Regiment. The letters, most of which are addressed to Polsley's wife, pertain to military activities in central West Virginia, 1862-1863, and the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia. These letters comment on the West Virginia statehood movement, camp life, guerrilla warfare, Polsley's confinement in Libby Prison, General John Imboden's raid, 1863, and the West Virginia capital question.

Correspondence, business and legal papers, surveys, account books, and a diary of a Burning Springs surveyor, oil developer, rural entrepreneur, horticulturalist, and captain of the Little Kanawha River steamer GENERAL JACKSON. Collection includes a brief journal of a trip from Des Moines, Iowa, to the Forks of the Platte in 1860; papers of Clarke's venture in quartz mining and milling in the Colorado Territory, 1861-1863; surveys of the Burning Springs oil region; letters from James C. Clarke, president of the Wirt Oil and Mining Company of which Clarke was superintendent; papers on the National Grange, the West Virginia Grange (Patrons of Husbandry), cooperatives, and the Ohio, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia Wool Growers Association; a diary of farming operations at Burning Springs; letters from Clarke's brother, James C., while a member of the Pennsylvania senate, 1875-1880; letterheads from Little Kanawha and Ohio Valley mercantile firms and steamboat companies; and family letters. Other subjects covered include: the Allegheny Valley Railroad; early history of Bethalto, Illinois; the speculative spirit and western expansion, 1860; freighting on the Great Plains during the Civil War; construction of the Chicago, Rock Island, and Pacific Railroad near Council Bluffs in 1868; and the effect of the German crisis of 1866 on American oil prices.

Papers of a resident of Glenville include a notebook containing measurements of lumber, a memo book of logs sold, a tally book of rafts floated down the Little Kanawha River, a stock certificate in the Gilmer County Fair Association, and West Virginia Department of Agriculture statistics for 1920.

Photostats of deeds, surveys, plats, and grants, the latter signed by Thomas M. Randolph, David Campbell, and William Smith, governors of Virginia, in 1820, 1838, and 1847, for land in Harrison and Doddridge counties; a school attendance sheet for 1865; and a report to the board of education of the number of school-age children in District 4 of Doddridge County in 1869. Also included are a number of photographs taken around Webster Springs showing the hotel, a subscription school, and public school classes, ca.1900, along with two photographs of lumbering activities near Holly River. There is also a typescript, "An Adventure of Two Years in Webster Springs High School, 1915-1917," by Maud M. Hull; and a short history of the Webster Hardwood Lumber Company at Dixie.

Aside from routine municipal affairs these journals contain material on the development of internal improvements in the Parkersburg, West Virginia, area like the Wheeling-Parkersburg struggle for the western terminus of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, the development of the Northwestern Virginia Railroad, and the demands for various river improvements. There are also a few references to Civil War military activities and the development of the oil industry in the Wood County area. Mayors mentioned include C.S. Despard, John J. Jackson, and Peter G. VanWinkle.

Most of the letters are to Helen M. Robinson of Fetterman, Taylor County, West Virginia, from relatives and friends. Subjects discussed include housekeeping, fashions, farming, schools, religion, and the Civil War from both the Confederate and Union perspectives. There are frequent, specific references to the political and military state-of-affairs in the upper Ohio Valley region.

Papers mainly related to the Civil War in southern West Virginia, including correspondence, maps, photographs, newspaper clippings, muster rolls, and other material. Highlights of the collection include material regarding Captain John V. Young of the 11th West Virginia Volunteer Infantry; Captain James S. Cassady of the 7th West Virginia Cavalry; Captain W.D. Thurmond and his company of Partisan Rangers; and the 8th and 13th West Virginia Volunteer Infantry units. The collection is organized into seven series, including: 1. Correspondence (1841-1888, undated); 2. Maps (1861-1935, undated); 3. Miscellaneous (1851-1867); 4. Photographs (undated); 5. Sketches (1898, undated); 6. Newspaper Clippings (1861-1938, undated); and 7. Muster Rolls (1864, undated).