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Arthurdale, West Virginia, was the first Federal homestead community established under President Franklin Roosevelt during the New Deal. Two scrapbooks, available on microfilm only, document the history of Arthurdale, West Virginia, from 1935 to 1975. Photographs, newspaper clippings, fact sheets about the community, and event programs offer insight into the development of the town, the involvement of Eleanor Roosevelt, students, and reflections on life in Arthurdale. Photographs and clippings on Volume I are chiefly from the 1930s and 1940s. Event programs come from a Labor Day celebration in 1938 and the Mountain Choir Festival in 1946. Book II contains clippings and photographs from the 1940s to the mid-1970s. These chiefly pertain to the Arthurdale church and high school students.

Papers of the Brown, Parsons, and other West Virginia families and residents. Includes correspondence sent to J. Slidell Brown, a Democratic state senator from Elkins (1916-1935); announcements and programs for reunions of the Brown family of Preston County (1913-1930); a deed and copies of maps of land in Springfield Township, Pennsylvania (1846-1893, undated); financial documents, mainly tax receipts, of the Lilley family of Mercer County (1873-1910); correspondence sent to members of the Reckart family of Preston County (1910-1928); financial documents of W. G. Cambric of Harrison County (1895-1921); wedding announcements and other event invitations (ca. 1890-1920); holiday cards (ca. 1900); and other material.

Military records, business papers, and correspondence of a brigadier general, Kingwood attorney, state legislator, secretary of the West Virginia Horticultural Society, state adjutant general, and state Selective Service director. Other papers include a letter book, West Virginia National Guard, 1903-1907; state Selective Service memoranda, 1940-1947; and a "Historical Record of Selective Service in West Virginia." Other subjects include the Morgantown and Kingwood Railroad, Pierce's coal mining, public utilities, oil, timber, gas, fruit growing, and other business activities. Correspondents include William G. Conley, William M.O. Dawson, Davis Elkins, William E. Glasscock, Walter S. Hallanan, Lewis B. Hershey, Homer A. Holt, Harley M. Kilgore, J. Howard McGrath, Edward Martin, Clarence W. Meadows, E.F. Morgan, Matthew M. Neely, Okey L. Patteson, Chapman Revercomb, and Howard Sutherland. This collection also includes the business and legal papers, ca.1840-1890, of James H. Carroll, Kingwood attorney and editor of the PRESTON COUNTY HERALD.? Subjects include the presidential elections of 1856 and 1884 in West Virginia.? Other papers relate to Kingwood and area mercantile firms, and the operation of the PRESTON COUNTY JOURNAL, 1891-1894; and a circulation record of Preston County newspapers, 1889-1897. Correspondents include Gideon D. Camden and Henry G. Davis.

Mine disaster reports, official hearing reports, and hearing and inquest transcripts (1938-1967). Most of the mine disaster reports were created by inspectors from the West Virginia Department of Mines, and some of them involved federal inspectors. Other reports were created by the United States Bureau of Mines and the West Virginia Department of Mines Coal Mine Safety Board of Review. Also includes volumes 3 through 8 of the Decisions of the Interior Board of Mine Operations Appeals (1974-1977). The mine disaster reports and associated materials pertain to the following mining companies, with counties where the disaster occurred in parentheses: American Rolling Mill Company (Boone County), Amigo Smokeless Coal Company (Wyoming County), Boone County Coal Corporation, Christopher Coal Company (Monongalia County), Davis Coal and Coke Company (Tucker County), Hatfield-Campbell Creek Coal Company (Kanawha County), Hitchman Coal and Coke Company (Marshall County), Island Creek Coal Company (McDowell County), Katherine Coal Company (Harrison County), Koppers Coal Company (McDowell County), MacAlpin Coal Company (Raleigh County), C.H. Meade Coal Company (Raleigh County), Meadows Coal Company (Raleigh County), New River and Pocahontas Consolidated Coal Company (McDowell County), Oglebay Norton Company (Nicholas County), Page Coal and Coke Company (McDowell County), Parsons Coal Company (Preston County), Pemberton Coal and Coke Company (Raleigh County), Pocahontas Fuel Company (a division of Consolidation Coal Company, McDowell County, near Tazewell County, Virginia), Pursglove Coal Mining Company (Monongalia County), Raleigh Coal and Coke Company (Raleigh County), and Red Jacket Coal Corporation (Wyoming County).

Papers of Harold Henry Miller (24 November 1911 - 8 November 2006) regarding his military service and his career as a high school teacher in West Virginia and Maryland. Miller was a resident of Preston County, West Virginia and served during World War II and the Korean Conflict. Contains biographical information, correspondence, photographs, financial records, newspaper clippings, programs, pamphlets, brochures, handbooks, and highway maps. Also contains a soldier's pocket bible with bulletproof shield given by Miller to Paul Ray Cooper (1952); U.S.S. Missouri cruise book (1952-1953); "The Keel", United State Naval Training Center book (1952); and Terra Alta High School yearbooks, "The Altonian" (1948-1950). For biographical information, see box 1, folder 1.

The Hazel Run Baptist Church minute book with the church's covenant, minutes of meetings and lists of newly baptized members, 1856-74. The Hazel Run Baptist Church later became part of the nearby Hopewell Baptist Church, both located in Preston County. The Hopewell Baptist Church ran Sunday School classes (1883-95) of the combined Baptist and Methodist congregations (the Hopewell Union Church Sunday School) and included are class attendance records. The Hopewell Baptist Church records (1906-86) contain articles of faith, minutes of meetings and membership lists. In more recent years their records include detailed budget reports and denominational certificates of merit.

9.5' x 11' scrapbook which contains genealogical information regarding the Isaiah Bolyard family of Preston County, West Virginia. Includes a photocopied excerpt from THE BALLIET, BALLIETT, BALLIETTE, BALYEAT, BOLYARD, AND ALLIED FAMILIES by Steven Clay Balliet (1968), pp. 680-719. Also includes family photographs, greeting cards, letters, memorial cards, obituaries, and miscellaneous newspaper clippings.

Miscellaneous family papers of John E. Jenkins, Albright, relating to Preston County, West Virginia. Included are correspondence and genealogies of Preston County families and papers dealing with education and churches in the county. Bound volumes include a minute book, "Regimental Courts of Enquiry," for the One Hundred Fourth Regiment, Virginia Militia, later the Twenty-fourth Regiment, West Virginia Militia, 1836-1866; and a minute book of the Brandonville and Terra Alta Telephone Company, 1903-1923. Johns, Mrs. Darsie. Oral History. Oak Hill, Fayette County, WV, 25 November 1980. An interview with the wife of a railroad worker, conducted by Paul J. Nyden concerning life and work in the New River Gorge. One cassette, transcription available.