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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.

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.

Transcript of "Trips from Ohio to New Germany in Preston County, Virginia 1826, 1833, 1835; Journal entries taken from the Tagebuch [Diary] of David Simon, Boardman Township, Mahoning County, Ohio; translated from the German original with an introduction and indexes by Margaret Miller Simon." The journal entries record the travel experiences of David Simon from Mahoning County, Ohio to Washington, Pennsylvania and New Germany in Preston County near present-day Aurora; includes a record of relatives visited, including the Simon, Reinhart, Stemple, and Easterday (Ostertag) families. Also includes copies of selected pages of David Simon's original manuscript journal in its original German.

A history of the schools of Aurora, Preston Co. from their founding by early settlers of German descent to the present efforts to reconstruct the recently fire destroyed building. Mentioned are changes in location, types of schools, school principals, funding and various costs such as those for construction. Some early funding, especially to aid poor children, was raised locally by money accumulated in a literary fund. In the nineteenth century other funds were acquired from the Peabody Educational Fund, a national fund created by George Peabody to assist needy public schools. Early settlers mentioned in the establishment of schools are John Stough, Christian Whitehair, Jacob Ridenour, Abraham Wotring and Peter Heckart. Those influential in education after the pioneer era are Franklin V. N. Painter, C. M. Malcom, the Stemple family, Frank J. Pyles, Glenn Wright and Kenneth Parsons.

Eleven compact discs containing scans of aerial photographs of Monongalia, Tucker, and Preston Counties.

Genealogy research papers compiled by W. Guy Tetrick and his son Willis G. Tetrick, Jr. The Tetricks were from Harrison County and the material in the collection mainly regards families of Harrison County and north central West Virginia. The collection contains mostly original genealogical compilations and family histories. It also contains personal and business correspondence; financial records; publications regarding local and state history; newspapers and news clippings; obituaries, cemetery records; records of the Sons of the American Revolution; and other material.