Collections

Collection contains Dayton's appointment certificate in the West Virginia University's Corps of Cadets (1878), newspaper articles containing speeches delivered by Dayton, copies and notes for speeches and lectures, notebooks, and an inventory of books owned by Dayton. Ephemera within the collection includes the 1898 report of the "New England Society of Northeastern Pennsylvania," and programs from the West Virginia Republican Association and the New York County Lawyers Association.

Two scrapbooks compiled by Dennis Wainstock that include clippings of the articles/editorials he wrote for the The Daily Athenaeum, the student-run newspaper, during his time as a graduate student in history at West Virginia University, from 1974 to 1984. Wainstock was an active member of the Socialist Party U.S.A. and the Morgantown chapter of the War Resisters League, a national secular pacifist organization founded by opponents of World War I. The articles include his perspectives and options on current events, debated political issues, and the political activities of the left-wing student groups at West Virginia University.

Correspondence and newspaper clippings of a Morgantown judge, railroad promoter, and U.S. Congressman. Papers deal with Sturgiss' political troubles in his bid for re-nomination in 1910 and the unveiling of the Francis H. Pierpont statue in Statuary Hall, Washington.

Papers of the fifteenth governor of West Virginia who was a newspaper publisher in Romney, an orchardman, lawyer, and counsel for the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. There are a few papers of W.B. Cornwell. The collection includes: personal and business correspondence, 1896-1953; correspondence as governor, 1916-1922; legal papers, ca.1843-1916; and material relating to "Cornwell Day," 1931; Baltimore and Ohio and other railroads; Romney Orchard Company, ca. 1916-1919; South Branch Development Company, ca.1913-1926; newspaper publishing; and other subjects. Box 100 includes papers regarding women's suffrage, including a proclamation by Governor Cornwell to extend the legislative session of 1920 in order to address the suffrage amendment, among other legislative concerns.

Letters from West Virginia's first Commissioner of Immigration to Governor John J. Jacobs and the Board of Public Works. Letters deal with political intrigues for the commissionership, the dissemination of the "West Virginia Handbook and Immigration Guide," and the publication of Diss Debar's "West Virginia Monitor and Real Estate Advertiser."

Correspondence of Septimius Hall (1847- 1926), a member of the Constitutional Convention of 1872 and a state legislator. Letters concern state politics, 1881-1886, and the Virginia Debt Commission, 1913-1916. Correspondents include: J. J. Woods, Johnson N. Camden, E. D. Talbott, & W. E. Chilton. The papers include an autograph volume with signatures of the members of the State Legislature, 1881-1882.

A letter regarding Mr. Hall's commission as notary public in Wetzel County; bills from the West Virginia Penitentiary, and Sweeneys & Co., Wheeling; and a typed copy of the democratic state platform in West Virginia for 1912.