Collections

A family history and genealogical record of the Mercer family of Monongalia County, WV with mention of the allied families of Brown and Campbell. Robert Mercer was the first of the family to settle in what is now West Virginia near Morgantown in 1766. He was the son of Gideon Mercer and the grandson of John Mercer, the earliest known family member in America. John Mercer was a Quaker merchant of New York City and an extensive landowner of Manhattan Island. Also noted is the movement and settlement of the family, particularly of the line of Robert Mercer's son Joseph, into Pennsylvania and Ohio. Noted are the frontier activities of Joseph Mercer's children: Phoebe and Nottingham, the latter being a veteran of the War of 1812. Two sons of Phoebe, Henry Marshall Campbell and James Campbell, served in the PA 46th Volunteer Infantry, Company F during the Civil War with James being killed in Virginia at the battle of Cedar Mountain. Material covers the years 1766-1933.

M.K. Lowther (1869-1947) was a journalist and one of the first women newspaper editors in West Virginia. She was the author of the HISTORY OF RITCHIE COUNTY; BLENNERHASSETT ISLAND IN ROMANCE AND TRAGEDY; FRIENDSHIP HILL, HOME OF ALBERT GALLATIN; MARSHALL HALL AND OTHER POTOMAC POINTS IN STORY AND PICTURE; and MT. VERNON: ITS CHILDREN, ITS ROMANCES, ITS ALLIED FAMILIES AND MANSIONS. There are complete and incomplete typescripts, rough drafts, revisions, photographs and plates of her books. Also there are typescripts of news articles on Washington, D.C., the Potomac Valley, and Wood County. There are genealogical notebooks and correspondence and also correspondence to publishers concerning business arrangements. Families mentioned are: Ball, Barber, Bee, Brake, Broadwater, Burns, Chenoweth, Clayton, Collins, Corbitt, Cox, Cunningham, Davis, Day, Dougherty, Drake, Fittro, Fitzrandolph, Goff, Hall, Hardman, Harris, Haymond, Henderson, Hoff, Hughes, Ireland, Jackson, Johnson, Kapkin, Kendall, Kercheval, Kuykendall, Leep, Leg(g)ett, Lemon, Lowther, McDougal, McGinnis, McGregor, McNeill, Marsh, Maxwell, Meredith, Minear, Modesitt, Morgan, Morrison, Murphy, Null, Nutter, O'Maley, Piatt, Pierpont, Pribble, Prunty, Ralston, Reger, Riddel, Riddle, Scott, Sharp, Shinn, Sleeth, Smith, Stump, Taylor, Waldo, Web(b), Willard, Willis, Wilson, and Zinn.

The collection consists of: a scrapbook containing newspaper clippings on the explosion at Monongah Mines No.6 and No.8 on 6 December 1907, rescue operations, the inquest, and mine law reforms; photographs of the disaster; maps of the interior of the mines; printed and typescript reports and pamphlets on mining operations; script of a 1952 television broadcast on the disaster; material on mine disasters in Alabama, Pennsylvania, and Illinois; and newspaper accounts of the agitation for the removal of Judge Alston G. Dayton; and on the imprisonment of Miss Fannie Sellins, a labor organizer.

Incorporation certificate issued by the Secretary of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania to National Telephone Company of Pennsylvania. The Wheeling based company was authorized as a foreign corporation to operate in Pennsylvania with an office in Washington.

Official transcript of a civil suit which originated in 1829 when John Wishart rendered medical treatment to David White, and White failed to pay for the services. Wishart sued in Ohio Co. Court, and the case was resolved in 1832.

The papers concern the Rembrandt Peale Mines, free coal, mine insurance costs, Estep Brothers Coal Mining Co., and company houses. Also included in the collection are advertising publications for sanitation equipment. Correspondents include: Rembrandt Peale, H.A. Wertz, George M. Estep, G.E. Metzger, H.W. Henry, W.B. Oates, T.A. Estep, and F.N. Artley.

Various Pittenger family members wrote these letters, mostly to other family members. The most frequent correspondent is Abraham Pittenger, a farmer, teacher, and local government official in Hancock County. The letters detail farming and marketing of farm goods, educational developments, affairs of the Presbyterian Church, and family events. The collection also provides significant information about the early Republican party, secession crisis, Civil War and Reconstruction.

A history of the Ridenour/Reitenauer family from its early Germanic roots to their settlement in Pennsylvania in the late seventeenth century down to the present generation.

The journal of a Methodist circuit rider in eastern Pennsylvania and the Bath and Berkeley Circuits in western Virginia.