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A travel journal, ca. 1857; a diary, 1941; survey records, 1894-1896; account books, 1788-1811 - 1891-1894; county and parish tax levies, 1800; a book of geographic terms and facts kept by Susan I. Branson in 1836; and a Branson family record book. People mentioned include Captain Eddie Rickenbacker. Places mentioned include: Cincinnati, Ohio; and, in West Virginia, Romney, Evansville, Clarksburg, Parkersburg, Coolville, Athens, Branch Mountain, Moorefield, Front Run Valley, Camp Branch Run, Sapling Lick Ridge, Hanging Rock Ridge, Little Ridge, Cacapon River, Kim's Run, Lost River, and South Branch Valley. Subject areas covered include family and women's history, cattle business in Hardy County, and business dealings between the South Branch Valley and Baltimore and other east coast cities.

The land and legal papers of a Tucker and Randolph County family. Included are power of attorney documents between Jerome Harper of British Columbia and Ezekial Harper of Tucker County. There is also a note of a land survey done for Albert Gallatin. Other names mentioned are Jonathan W. Harper, David Goff and Wyatt J. Ferguson.

Papers of a land surveyor from Hardy County include family and business correspondence, 1888-1926; letters from George Benson Kuykendall on family genealogy, 1911-1914; Kuykendall's correspondence as a member of the county board of education, 1908-1915; account books, diaries, surveying notes, Sunday school class book, 1876-1923; and plats, surveys, and deeds of land in the Hardy-Grant County area.

Diaries, account books, and a surveyor's handbook belonging to John Morton, a farmer of Hollidays Cove, Brooke County, West Virginia. The surveyor's book includes lessons on logarithm, geometry, plane trigonometry, and surveying. The diaries and account books record Morton's life and significant events of the period. There is also an undated land deed, a property list of Morton's father, John Morton, and some genealogical information.

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.

Blacksmith's account book, belonging to Joseph Trickett of Preston County, (West) Virginia. Also includes accounts of land transfers and coal rights, and some family records. Dates are scattered 1851-1904. Front page of book indicates it was originally intended to be used as a Minute book for the Ebenezer Regular Baptist Church, 1845, Preston County, Virginia, but there are no records of the church in the volume.

Birth, marriage, and death records, registers and indexes, deed, will, map, land, lease, and minute books. Indexes of grants, leases, and wills. Surveyor's maps, surveyor records, and survey record indexes. Table of town lots, appraisement, and sale book. Mechanic's lien records, contract records, commissioner's records petitions and records, repatriation petitions. Naturalization index and declarations of intention records. These records reflect the economic and population growth typical of WV after the Civil War. The naturalization papers reflect immigration patterns to this coal mining section of the state.

County and circuit clerks records, arranged chronologically. Records for the years 1835-1857, include bonds of ministers, tavern operators, ordinaries, ferries, and county officials; estate settlements; records pertaining to road, bridge, and public building; records of the overseer of the poor; school commissioners' and surveyors' appointments; and lists of county officials. Records for 1863-1874 include county supervisors' records; records of the Fairmont and Wheeling Turnpike; and muster certificates and reenlistment and bounty lists for the First, Second, Sixth, Seventh, Tenth, Fifteenth, Seventeenth, and Eighteenth West Virginia Volunteer Infantry Regiments, the First, Third, Fifth, Sixth West Virginia Cavalry, the First Light Artillery Regiment, and the Forty-fifth Regiment, United States Colored Troops. Papers for 1867-1907 include justice of the peace records, United States Admiralty Court records, and road surveyors' statements.

One survey record book of Salt Sulphur Springs road, 1812; one survey record book of Phillip Lybrook, 1821-1824; one surveyor's account and record book of Salt Sulphur and Mt. Lake Turnpike Company, 1857-1862.