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Start Over Date range 1892 Places Clay County (W. Va.)

Lewis Family Papers 6.9 Linear Feet Summary: 6 ft. 10 3/4 in. (14 document cases, 5 in. each); (1 folder, 1/4 in.); (1 oversize folder, 1/2 in.); (4 boxes, 12 in.)

Lewis family
Personal and business papers of the Lewis family, mainly of John D. (1800-1882), Charles C., Sr. (b.1839), and Charles C., Jr. (b.1865), of Kanawha County. For the period 1825-1875 there are papers of various members of the Ruffner, Dickinson, and Wilson families of West Virginia, Virginia, Ohio, Kansas, Missouri, and other states. The business papers relate to farming operations, the purchase and sale of slaves, salt manufacturing and trade, the Old Sweet Springs Company, coal, iron, oil, lumbering, railroads, and real estate in Kanawha, Clay, Boone, Fayette, and Nicholas counties. There are newspaper clippings, speeches, and other papers reflecting the Lewis' interests in the Democratic Party in the period 1914-1920. Settlement papers and correspondence regarding the estates of John D. Lewis, and Joel, Daniel, and Andrew Ruffner are in the collection. The personal papers include diaries, scrapbooks, photographs, and letters. Travel accounts in the United States, South America, and Europe are given in the correspondence, as well as comments on schools in West Virginia and Virginia; the building of a church in Kanawha County in 1834; missionary work in Colombia, South America, 1874-1875; Civil War and postwar conditions in Virginia, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Kentucky, and Missouri; conditions at Camp Chase, in the Civil War; and material relating to World War I.
  1. West Virginia and Regional History Center

Patrick Ward Gainer (1904-1981), Collector, Papers 10 Linear Feet Summary: 10 ft. (21 document cases, 5 in. each); (1 records carton, 15 in.)

Gainer, Patrick W.
Archives of an eminent folklorist and professor of English at West Virginia University. Manuscripts include field folklore collections, lecture notes, book manuscripts, correspondence, student papers, and folksong arrangements. There are also materials regarding Gainer's position as director of South Atlantic USO activities during World War II and a journal of a folksong collecting trip to Ireland in 1961. Also one hundred and fifty-three audio tapes containing vocal and instrumental folk music, folklore and oral history, recorded in West Virginia and in Scotland and Ireland. Nearly half of the material is performed by Gainer himself. The collection also includes news clippings relating to folklore and Gainer's career, as well as a variety of photographs, film clips and personal awards and memorabilia.
  1. West Virginia and Regional History Center

Reverend C. Shirley Donnelly Collection 2.34 Linear Feet (3 document cases, 5 in. each); (1 document case, 2.5 in.); (1 flat storage box, 3.5 in.); (2 flat storage boxes, 3 in. each); (1 flat storage box, 1 in.); (1 oversize folder, 0.1 in.)

Donnelly, C. Shirley, Reverend

Reverend C. Shirley Donnelly, a Baptist minister and local historian, collected these materials for his own research and interest in West Virginia history. The collection contains various materials pertaining to coal mining and West Virginia history, especially in the New River area and Fayette County. It includes correspondence, land grant and deed records, pamphlets, journals, local histories, records, photographs, and art relating to mining and life in the New River area. One set of correspondence includes recollections, a yearbook, and newspaper clippings by a World War II sailor from the USS West Virginia. Another series of correspondence includes the antebellum, wartime, and postwar letters and personal receipts of Charles Dequasie, a Confederate soldier from Fayette County, West Virginia, and Robert Edward Dequasie's personal and business correspondence. Other ephemera includes West Virginia and mining journals and certificates belonging to Donnelly and others. A scrapbook and notebook of newspaper clippings pertain to early court hangings and executions in West Virginia. Political posters include those for West Virginia Governor William C. Marland and West Virginia Senators Harley Kilgore and Robert Byrd.

  1. West Virginia and Regional History Center

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