Search

Papers of Dr. Abner Osburn, a physician who practiced in Jefferson County, West Virginia in the late nineteenth century. The collection contains Civil War material, including a letter, currency, and a pass from Harpers Ferry. Other items include bonds for the purchase of slaves, programs from various collegiate events, certificates for the legal practice of medicine, correspondence, and other material. Please see "Scope and Content Note" for further information.

Deeds and other legal papers of a farmer from Jefferson County, West Virginia. The collection also includes several legal documents, 1874-1877, pertaining to Dr. Nicholas Marmion of Harpers Ferry.

Court case papers, 1802-1913, and county record books, 1830-1905; included are records for retail merchandising, 1884-1894, in Jefferson County. A partial name and subject index to the case papers and a checklist of the bound volumes are available.

A ledger and financial records of Logan Osborne (1836-39) also containing the will of Balamm Osborne. The ledger contains accounts of an assortment of general store goods from perishables such as food and candles to durable goods such as tools and carriages. There are Osborne family deeds, land contracts and letters about family matters and debt (1808-89). There are early nineteenth century state bank script from Louisiana, Virginia, and North Carolina. There are land indentures and legal papers from eighteenth century Virginia, mainly of Matthew Rankin and Thomas Rutherford who contended for property in Ohio County. There is the thirty-eight page diary of Cleon Moore, a Confederate soldier from Charles Town. As a volunteer regiment member he was eyewitness and participant in the siege and capture of John Brown at Harpers Ferry. His unit was again called out prior to Virginia's secession resolution. He recounts their early maneuvering, stationing and being consolidated in the Virginia Second Cavalry which served at the First Battle of Bull Run. The account ends with the early 1862 campaigns in the Shenandoah Valley of General "Stonewall" Jackson. There is Civil War related material of Logan Osborne including records of loans to the Confederate government, letters to family and friends recounting and justifying the events and cause of the Confederacy and an 1861 January 28 broadside, entitled: "To The People of Jefferson County...", of Logan Osborne as a Unionist candidate to the Virginia Secession Convention. Also there are early West Virginia political papers pertaining to Jefferson County such as an attempt to move the county seat to Sheperdstown. Also included are George Shutt business letters and certificates as a geologist; certificates from the United Daughters of the Confederacy to Mary M. Shutt; and Osborne family history, genealogy and obituaries of descendents.

Four account books of financial, medical and farm records of the Springdale Farm of Shepherdstown, Jefferson County, West Virginia, kept by Martha Banks and doctors I.S. Tanner and George Washington Banks. Account book, 1855-1867, records payments made on accounts. It is organized according to date and lists the name of the customer and receipt of payment. Account book 1858-1866 also documents payments made on accounts, but it is organized in alphabetical order. The farm account book of Martha Banks dates from 1897 to 1905. Several pages document wheat sold or taken to a mill in the late 1890s. It also contains notes from 1899 related to the estate of George Washington Banks, including a detailed list of his personal property. A physician's account book from 1841 to 1845 chiefly list patients treated and cost, but also includes several pages of notes regarding treatments and observations of the physician. Original ledgers are in fragile condition; they are also available on microfilm.

This microfilm version of the Thornton Tayloe Perry Collection held by the Virginia Historical Society contains historical material collected by Perry over a 30 year period. It concentrates upon western Virginia and West Virginia with particular emphasis upon the lower Shenandoah Valley and Jefferson, Berkeley, and Morgan counties of West Virginia. The microfilm was placed in the West Virginia Collection by the Virginia Historical Society under provisions of a National Historical Publications and Records Commission grant.

Letters, legal papers, and accounts of William Parker, Hampshire County, West Virginia. Included also are scattered papers of John P., Benjamin, and James Parker and Company. Letters originate from Virginia; Greene County, Illinois, 1859; and Pleasant Hill, Dallas County, Alabama, 1849. Subjects include doctors' fees; election of 1851 in Berkeley, Jefferson and Morgan counties, and Frederick County, Virginia; prices of farm produce; and observations of Virginians newly settled in Illinois and Alabama in the middle of the nineteenth century.