Search

Papers, photographs and maps of a wealthy Morgantown family with interests in real estate and coal mining. Most of the business papers are those of J. M. G. Brown, a West Virginia University law school alumnus, who was president of Scotts Run Fuel Corporation. Brown was also a housing developer whose company, Suburban Real Estate of Morgantown, was a competitive concern not only locally but throughout north central West Virginia and southwest Pennsylvania. There are papers indicating his attempts to open Morgantown to airline service. His sister, Mary Virginia Brown was a genealogist and local historian noted for A History of the Negroes of Monongalia County. Among her papers are genealogies of the Bannister, Brown, Bushey, Dorsey, Suter and Williams families. There are also original documents of Colonel William McCleary, an early settler of Morgantown. There is also a manuscript "List of Taxable Property for 1786, Monongalia County," including five pages listing residents and their "tithables," horses, and cattle.

Includes records from several generations of the Deakins family of Montgomery County, Maryland and north central West Virginia. William (1742-1798) and Francis (1739-1804) Deakins, among the first generation, were active as land speculators after the American Revolution, applying their skills as surveyors to leverage acquisition of western lands. From 1778 their activities are documented through deeds, agreements, surveys, plats, surveyors' field books, court papers, and letters related to land purchased in Harrison, Monongalia, Preston, Randolph, Tucker, and Upshur counties. Other papers concern Leonard M. Deakins (1747-1824) and his descendants. Of special significance in the collection is the compass used by Francis Deakins to survey the "Deakins Line" in 1787-1788, a north-south line separating western Maryland from (West) Virginia.

Correspondence of the Varner and Darrah families. Folder 1 includes original manuscript letters to and from members of the two families (1870-1884). Folder 2 includes manuscript genealogical information from the Varner family bible, and typed transcripts of the papers of the Varner family of Monongalia County, West Virginia, dating from 1775 to 1918, which includes correspondence with the Darrahs. The two families were related. For additional materials related to the Varner family, please see A&M 3543.

Papers of a Morgantown resident who practiced medicine and operated a pension claim office in Mt. Morris, Greene County, Pennsylvania, ca.1847-1859, and who later conducted his claim business in Morgantown while serving with the U.S. Internal Revenue Bureau as collector for the second district of West Virginia. The collection contains letters, accounts, and business papers of Morgantown residents, 1790-1855, including a private account book of Hugh McNeely, 1790-1800. The internal revenue returns and tax statements give the occupations of many persons in northern West Virginia, ca.1861-1886. There are also photographs; genealogical compilations on the Statler, Morgan, and Wendell Brown families; and typescripts of Monongalia County history.

The collection consists largely of correspondence to Morgantown businessman John Rogers from relatives in Pennsylvania and Maryland. It also includes two letters from Sgt. William A. Widney, who was assigned to the U.S. War Department during the Civil War, to a Morgantown friend (possibly William Hennen). One letter was written by an unidentified woman to her grandson, a West Virginia University student.

Ridgedale School District by C.G. Howell. Includes builders of early houses, the school, Mount Calvary Church and its ministers, grist and saw mills of the area, prominent men of the community, and a record of Civil War veterans, a story of the Jones Raid, April 29. Also a history of the Goshen Baptist Church.

Bound typescripts of reminiscences and local history prepared by James R. Moreland, Morgantown, including "History of the Various Courts of the County of Monongalia...," and "Morgantown, West Virginia, Its Practical Jokes and Jokers...With Some Sketches Pertaining to Its History and Development." Indexed.