Collections

Letter of John Ewing, Corporal of the 16th Ohio Infantry, to his wife and children, written from the Kanawha Valley in the vicinity of Charleston, (West) Virginia (2 November 1862). Ewing writes that he is in good health and describes recent encounters with Confederate troops. He describes in detail his experience as a Confederate prisoner, including a time he saw a "Company" of Indians with the Confederates. He also remarks on the opinions, mood, and character of the Confederate soldiers he met while in captivity. Ewing writes about conditions and happenings at the Union camp where he was currently stationed. The collection includes a transcript of the letter.

Three maps compiled from surveys of records in the Virginia Land Office by J. Wise Norton, examiner of land titles, Wheeling, West Virginia. Though created in the 1880s, the maps depict the counties as they were in the mid 1790s. The maps are "Copy of J. Wise Norton's Map of Adjoining Surveys. Surveyed 1795-1796 in Lee County, Virginia" (ca. 1880s); "Copy of J. Wise Norton's Map of Connected Surveys. Surveyed AD 1795-1796 as in Kanawha County, Virginia" (1880s); and "Map of Connected Surveys made in the years 1794 and 1795 in Russell and Wythe Counties, Virginia" (1887). Also includes a CD (2013) which contains digital images of the three maps, as well as images of another of Norton's maps, "Map of Connected Surveys. Surveyed AD. 1795-1796 as in Kanawha County, Virginia" (1883).

Articles, broadsides, and other materials concerning selection of textbooks for the public schools of Kanawha County, West Virginia. The controversy involved confrontation between Christian fundamentalists and liberals over educational policy.

Land grants to John Hansford, Styers Keeney, Michael Keeney, William Keeney, and Jacob Grass.

A poll book signed and notarized with the results of a vote in Kanawha County on the 1863 amended state constitution of Virginia.

An agreement between Kanawha County Salt Manufacturers fixing prices and splitting the market. Parties to the agreement include Andrew Donnally, Lewis F. Donnally, William Donnally, William D. Shrewsberry, Henry H. Wood, John D. Lewis, George H. Warth, Job English, James H. Fry, Henry Chappell, Ira Hurt, Richard A. Hurt, Nathaniel B. Wilson, William C. Brooks, Richard C. Lovell, William McMullen, Lewis Ruffner, James S. Brooks, Franklin Noyes, Samuel A. Miller, E.S. Arnold, William J. Rand, John N. Clarkson, Frederick Brooks, Samuel H. Early, John P. Hale, Leonara C. Reger, Gustavus B. Quarrier, William Brigham, and Crockett Engles.

County court records consisting primarily of court case papers, related court record books (dockets, execution books, fee books, witness books, etc.), and public records concerning a variety of topics including land records, schools, and marriages. There are also a few private account books relating to various local industries, including salt, mining, sawmills, steamboats, and general stores.

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.

Diary of Luke Wilcox, a Kanawha County farmer, merchant, salt well and furnace owner and operator, written in memorandum form except for scattered entries giving more information on specific subjects, such as the weather, churches and ministers, farm operation, travel, salt wells and furnaces, slaves, names of personal and business correspondents, coal, and land purchases. There is also an addendum regarding the Wilcox family bible. See "Scope and Contents" for additional information.