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Papers, photos, pamphlets and postcards of a prominent Morgantown attorney, financier and businessman, James Rogers Moreland. Included are drafts of books and articles by James R. Moreland about local and family history, in particular "Early Iron Industry in Cheat Mountains" and "My Father Another Country Lawyer." There are family histories and records about the Finnicum, Hawthorne, Huston, Lewis, Lyle, Moreland and Rogers families. There are also many items of World War I that especially pertain to Morgantown. Included among these is information about the Morgantown Militia Reserve and the Military Training Camps Association. Among other papers collected by Moreland are the records and a history of the Bank of Monongahela Valley, the papers of the Mercersburg Academy, the Rotary, Sons of the Revolution, and the WVU Kappa Alpha fraternity.

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.

Collection is chiefly composed of genealogical materials compiled by Ruffner R. Payne. It contains various types of genealogical information for different West Virginia families from the seventeenth to the twentieth century. Documents include charts, notes, letters, certificates, pamphlets, narrative histories, and legal documents, and date from 1805 to 1943. Materials are loosely arranged in alphabetical order by family name and vary in number and format for each family. Families for whom there are several documents include the Fowke, Franklin, Furman, Payne, Rogers, and Ruffner families. A complete inventory of names is available in the library. Collection also includes typewritten copies of journals and letters belonging to Henry Bedinger (1753-1843) that detail his service in Boston as a member of Captain Hugh Stevenson's Company of Riflemen. Bedinger chiefly records he unit's movements, places they camped, and engagements with the British. Bedinger served in defense of Fort Washington, Pennsylvania, and was captured there in November 1776. He was held as a prisoner of war until his exchange in October 1780. He later served as postmaster of Shepherdstown and a member of the Virginia Assembly. Collection also includes a bound volume of typewritten letters to and from Henry Bedinger from September 1781 to 1799. Most letters are written to Bedinger during the 1790s and pertain to Assembly meetings and Bedinger's business as a merchant. Letters written from Bedinger are typically to his wife and friends and relate more to family matters.

Newspaper articles of historical and genealogical interest by Scotland G. Highland, compiled and published in magazine form as the Third and Fourth Annual Christmas Plea, 1926 and 1927. Each of the pleas contains information about the Lewis, Smith, Highland, Fulton, Patton, Maxwell, Moore, Gore, Reynolds, Post, and Haymond families. Each Plea also contains an appeal for the abolition of capital punishment.

Papers of Walter Dix Lewis (1891-1958), a carpenter and facilities worker, and Osie Grose Lewis (1891-1979), his wife, of Morgantown, West Virginia. The collection is divided into six series: Series 1. Letters, 1908, 1923, 1934-1979 and undated; Series 2. Diaries, 1927-1957; Series 3. Cards, 1940, 1951-1979 and undated; Series 4. Financial and Legal Materials, 1927-1978; Series 5. Family Material, 1960-1974 and undated; and Series 6. Printed Material, 1931-1977 and undated. Collection also contains an oversize 1937 map of the buildings at West Virginia University and the school's underground telephone conduits.

Papers relating to the Wilson, Lewis, and Ruffner families of Prince Edward County, Virginia, Kanawha County, [West] Virginia, St. Charles County, Missouri, and Fairfield County, Ohio. Correspondence between Nathaniel V. Wilson and Dr. Goodridge Wilson, concerning land purchases, preparation for the settlement of the family, care of livestock, employment of slaves, salt making and marketing, and the market price of salt. Other members of the family migrated to St. Charles County, Missouri, and to Fairfield County, Ohio, and land prices, suitable crops, settlement and railroad building in Missouri comprise much of their correspondence. A third generation member of the family, Virgy Wilson Hall and her husband, John G. Hall, were missionaries in Matamoras, Mexico, and Colombia, South America, and her correspondence with her mother comments on living conditions, progress of the missionary work, revolution in Colombia, and health and living conditions of the residents of the Barranquilla area. In addition there is a will of Col. Charles Lewis, a series of letters between two doctors concerning health problems and treatment of various illnesses, and two diaries by Mrs. Daniel Ruffner, 1846, and Elizabeth Ruffner Wilson, 1871-1872, commenting on family life and community activities in Fairfield County, Ohio, and Kanawha County, [West] Virginia. All are photocopies. Material covers the years 1774-1942.