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Correspondence and genealogical materials related to the William B. Edwards family of King George County, Virginia, and the Capt. William Sommerville family of Martinsburg, Virginia (now West Virginia) from the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. These families were joined when Elizabeth Sommerville (1812-1886), daughter of the Revolutionary War veteran, married William B. Edwards (1810-1888), a Methodist clergyman from a planter family, in 1833.

Newspaper clippings, mainly from Doddridge and Harrison county, concerning marriages, deaths, family histories, letters from World War I service men, nurses, and from former residents who had moved, or gone to other states to teach, including a series of letters from L.P. Willis from the Phillippine Islands and Japan. Mr.Willis was employed as a teacher and Head Of the Bureau of Education in Japan, and the Phillipines for twenty years. Also, included in the collection are tax and school tuition receipts, orders,unsigned copy of Thomas Hickman's will, deed and other papers of several members of the Hickman family of Harrison county. A photostat copy of a form letter from the State Medical Society Committee on Examination of the Medical Botany of the State addressed to Dr.P. Davis from Wheeling, 1868.

Personal correspondence written to members of the Hiram and Mary Henshaw family of Mill Creek, Berkeley County, West Virginia, from their relatives between 1825 and 1876. Letters from the 1820s to 1840s are chiefly written from Sarah McConnell and William McConnell in Washington County, Virginia, to their sister, Mary Henshaw, and her children, Martha Henshaw Silver and James Henshaw. Topics include news about family activities, health issues, finances, education, gardening, and other household chores. Several letters from the late 1840s and early 1850s are from David Miller to his sister, Nancy Henshaw, and contain news about family relationships, deaths and family estates, and moving to California. Three letters from James McConnell to Martha Henshaw Silver in 1861 discuss the beginning of the Civil War and concern for family in the northern part of what will become West Virginia. Several letters from the late 1860s and 1876 are from Sarah McConnell, Rebecca Park, and Peter and Ellen Black. Topics chiefly include health, financial issues, household arrangements, and news of family and friends. Other correspondents include Isabella Henshaw, Sarah McKown, and D.C. McConnell. Collection also includes undated and unsigned letters; a 1786 land patent for Samuel Beall and an 1826 executor's account of an estate settlement.

Personal and business correspondence of Harmon, Molly, John, and other members of the Snyder family; genealogical information on the Lantz and Snyder families; land grants, surveys and deeds for land in Barbour, Greenbrier, and Randolph counties, West Virginia; and poll and registration books for Randolph County. Included also is Harmon Snyder's daybook and diary, listing accounts for the years 1866-1896 and incidents of the Civil War.