Collections

Material written and collected by a former curator of the West Virginia and Regional History Collection that includes bibliographies, transcripts, photostats, papers and historical sketches on various aspects of West Virginia history. Items deal with prominent West Virginia University historians, the Civil War, early settlement, industrial growth, and West Virginia University. A number of letters and circulars discuss the West Virginia Historical Society in 1869.

The letter from James Tenney, Jr. to his uncle, John Tenney of Luzerne, NY describes James' journey from upstate New York to Nicholas County, Virginia via Richmond and comments on the attributes of western Virginia. It mentions Kanawha Valley salt production and the lumber industry on the Elk River which supplied materials for boats and barrels used in the salt industry. Tenney also alludes to the New England settlement in present-day Upshur County which his father joined earlier. (a transcription and photos of the letter are also included.)

Book manuscripts by John Edmund Stealey III, Distinguished Professor of History at Shepherd University. Born of a prominent Clarksburg family, Stealey is known generally for his work on West Virginia and Appalachia including industrial slavery, antebellum business and industry, nineteenth century United States legal history. He has extended his research and publication range to include early Porfirian Mexico and Civil War era constitutionalism, African American life, and political development in the Border States. Collection includes galley proofs of The Antebellum Kanawha Salt Business and Western Markets (1993). An addendum of 2000/09/19 includes the final manuscript, typescript, and galley proof versions of Stealey's book Kanawhan Prelude to Nineteenth-Century Monopoly in the United States (2000), and galley proof of his book The Antebellum Kanawha Salt Business and Western Markets (1993). An addendum of 2007/08/27 includes a manuscript copy and final proof copy of Porte Crayon's Mexico: David Hunter Strother's diaries in the early Porfirian era, 1879-1885, edited and authored by John E. Stealey, and floppy discs (2005-2006). For more information about these books, see Scope and Content Note.

An agreement between Kanawha County Salt Manufacturers fixing prices and splitting the market. Parties to the agreement include Andrew Donnally, Lewis F. Donnally, William Donnally, William D. Shrewsberry, Henry H. Wood, John D. Lewis, George H. Warth, Job English, James H. Fry, Henry Chappell, Ira Hurt, Richard A. Hurt, Nathaniel B. Wilson, William C. Brooks, Richard C. Lovell, William McMullen, Lewis Ruffner, James S. Brooks, Franklin Noyes, Samuel A. Miller, E.S. Arnold, William J. Rand, John N. Clarkson, Frederick Brooks, Samuel H. Early, John P. Hale, Leonara C. Reger, Gustavus B. Quarrier, William Brigham, and Crockett Engles.

Papers collected by Roy Bird Cook, a Lewis County native and Charleston pharmacist, who in his role as historian, researcher, and author, was a pioneering and effective advocate for the preservation of West Virginia history. This collection includes the papers he collected in connection with his research, including documentation of the Civil War in West Virginia, Stonewall Jackson and his family, and genealogy of North Central West Virginia, among other topics. Materials include letters and papers of the Hays family, including Samuel L. and Peregrine Hays of Gilmer County (1836-1884, 1952-1962, undated [includes facsimiles]); records of the Confederate 31st Virginia Volunteer Infantry Regiment, and later correspondence, clippings, and papers about the regiment and its members (ca. 1856-1955, undated [includes facsimiles]); various collections of individual and family papers and Civil War correspondence (1793-1974, undated [includes facsimiles]); original and copies of Stonewall Jackson letters and papers, as well as papers pertaining to Jackson family members (1801-1963, undated [includes facsimiles]); and materials related to the history of pharmacy and medicine, with a special focus on West Virginia (ca. 1832-1961, undated [includes facsimiles]). There is also an extensive series of bound notebooks containing manuscripts, transcriptions, clippings, genealogies, pamphlets, and images regarding the following topics: Stonewall Jackson, Mary Anna Morrison Jackson, Colonel George Jackson, and Thomas Jackson Arnold; the Civil War, including historical sketches of battles as well as originals and copies of soldiers' diaries, journals, and letters; Lewis County; Charleston and the Kanawha Valley; Douglas S. Freeman; Granville Davisson Hall; Camden family; George Washington; and other topics.

Microfilm copy of assorted books, speeches, and pamphlets related to early West Virginia history. Includes: On The Plains In '65 by George H. Holliday; Heyward Shepherd, Victim Of Violence, by Matthew Page Andrews; and The Harpers Ferry Insurrection by J. Ewing Glasgow. For a complete listing, see the control folder.