Search

Broadsides and other materials dated between 1855 and 1951 that relate to Jackson and Marion counties in West Virginia. Includes a Marion County petition for a court of limited jurisdiction, undated; a petition from Jackson County about the establishment of school districts, undated; a photograph of six types of paper money, 1852-1914; and a newspaper column by E. E. Meredith about Nathan Goff, 1951. Broadsides are titled "To the Voters of Marion County," 28 January 1861; "On the Internal Improvement Policy of the State, and the debt, resources, revenue and expenditures of the Commonwealth of Virginia," 8 May 1855; and "Programme of the Fairmont Sabbath Schools, July 4th 1864".

Papers relating to the Full family of Pendleton and Wirt counties, West Virginia. Includes nearly 350 original items, each with an item number. Items are subdivided into three categories, including: 1. non-tax receipts, court-related documents, promissory notes, etc.; 2. letters, deeds (including a land grant), and miscellaneous longer items; and 3. tax receipts. The Full family lived in Pendleton County, (West) Virginia until moving in 1817 to what would become Wirt County (in 1848). In 1817, that area was still on the edge of the frontier. While the Full family were not the first settlers, they arrived when the area was still very sparsely settled. Their receipts and store account records reflect the growing population and increased availability of goods over time. As was typical of most settlers, they were farmers. Two documents highlight the problems that many settlers faced with getting clear title to their land. Several documents reflect Reuben Full's time serving as a Justice of the Peace for Wirt County (1858-1860). The oldest dated item relates to Lewis Full paying his Revenue Tax to Jos. Henkle via Joseph Roy in pounds, shillings and pence in Pendleton County in 1791. A few undated items are possibly older. Most items are dated between 1800 and 1880. The most recent document is a 1904 letter. The collection also includes a document of transcriptions (2015; in box 2), which includes background information on the family, a table of contents, and an index of persons, places, businesses, and topics.

Letters of Henry and Joseph Bennett concerning travel by sea from New York to Chagres, Panama, overland across Panama and by ship to San Francisco in 1851. Letters from California, 1852-1853, discuss arrival of immigrants; employment conditions and wages; gambling and social life in San Francisco; investment opportunities; conditions in the gold mines; travel by steamboat to Hangtown (Placerville); churches; crime; Indians; mining profits; cost of land; ranching; blacksmith and plough shop in Santa Clara; digging a canal to take water from the American River to supply Hangtown, Coon Hollow, and Gold Hill; and Webber Run. Two letters by Joseph Bennett from Australia in l853 comment on mining, living conditions, profits of mining, and criminals sent from Great Britain. There is one 1849 letter to Samuel Bennett from relatives in Sheffield, England. There are several items of Jacobs family correspondence, 1880-1923, concerning family affairs, schools, economic conditions in Jackson County, and Monongalia County taxes in 1907.

A revised and indexed transcript copy of an interview with Dr. O.C. Stine, an expert in agricultural economics who was employed with the Department of Agriculture from the Progressive Era to that of the Fair Deal. Stine tells of his childhood on a farm in Jackson County, WV, his subsequent education in small town southeastern Ohio where his family moved, and his attendance and graduation from Ohio University with a bachelors in liberal arts and education. After teaching briefly on the secondary level agricultural vocation courses, he attained a masters in agricultural economy at the University of Wisconsin. Upon graduation he went to work in Washington, DC for the Bureau of Agricultural Economics, a statistically based research and survey branch of the U. S. Department of Agriculture. There he pioneered in the establishment of professionalized statistic keeping and in creating accurate economic forecast indicators. He was also helpful in the creation of various and changing proposals for parity farm price support programs. Privately, he was a founder of the Agricultural History Society. Of note, he mentions much interaction with the New Deal agency, Agricultural Adjustment Administration, and his opinion of it. He talks about an official trip to the Soviet Union, Nazi Germany, and Fascist Italy before World War II and comments on agriculture, the economy and society in Europe. Also he gives a candid evaluation of the Arthurdale project. Prominent names mentioned are: William J. Bryan, Calvin Coolidge, Howard M. Gore, Herbert Hoover, Benito Mussolini, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Theodore Roosevelt, Gray Silver, and Henry Wallace.