Collections : [West Virginia and Regional History Center]

Folklore of West Virginia collected by Woofter, who was a student of John Harrington Cox and Louis Watson Chappell. The collection consists of a card file of approximately 10,000 folklore items, including superstitions, sayings, riddles, remedies and tales, as well as a pair of unpublished bound volumes entitled FOLKLORE OF WEST VIRGINIA containing folklore and folksongs with musical notation by Woofter's protege Patrick Gainer. While Woofter never published his discoveries, he did supply materials to important publications by John Harrington Cox and Josiah Combs.

These scrapbooks which were collected or compiled by B.B. Chapman concern Webster Springs High School, Fairmont State College, Glenville State College, and West Virginia University. Included are correspondence, faculty contracts, diplomas, teaching certificates, report cards, class lists, and other similar materials.

Personal papers of a Glenville attorney, dealing with his law practice, service in the Spanish-American War, and his education at Glenville State Normal School and West Virginia University College of Law.

Papers of Louis Bennett, a wealthy lawyer, and of his wife, Sallie Bennett. This collection is minimally processed. Includes letters, a few photographs, and other material. There are records regarding the Glenville Normal School (including reports, correspondence, and advertising from publishers of school books) where Mr. Bennett was a principal (1870s); and letters authored by Sallie Bennett to her husband Louis (1880s). This collection is largely unprocessed.

Correspondence, speeches, essays, financial notes, certificates, an account book, a class attendance book for 1860, and a term paper prepared for a Glenville College, West Virginia, history class entitled, 'The Aaron D. Peterson Family.' The correspondence contains letters written by David T. Peterson to family and friends while serving with Federal forces in the Civil War. Subjects include schools, politics, farming, Civil War camps, units, troop movements, and battles at Droop Mountain, Moorefield, and Winchester, Virginia.

Correspondence of the West Virginia State Board of Control, which was responsible for all state correctional institutions, educational institutions, and hospitals from 1909 to 1949. Individuals serving on the three-man board at various times were John S. Lakin, J.W. Barnes, J.A. Chambers, J.S. Darst, Edgar B. Stewart, J.Z. Terrell, W.R. Thurmond, John B. White, and F.W. McCullough. The letters in this collection deal with all state institutioris and their problems. There are letters dealing with building construction, building repairs, the purchase of new property, thehiring of new employees, employees' salaries, institution menus, building insurance, gifts and grants to institutions, and institutional financial matters. State institutions covered in the correspondence are: Bluefield State College; Berkeley Springs Sanitarium; Berkeley Springs Park; Concord College; Colored Orphans Home; Colored Insane Asylum; Colored Old Folks Home; Denmar Sanitarium; Demonstration Packing Plant at Inwood; Droop Mountain Battlefield; Fairmont Emergency Hospital; Industrial Home for Girls; Industrial Home for Colored Girls; Industrial Home for Boys; Industrial Home for Colored Boys; Hopemont Sanitarium; Huntington State Hospital; Jackson's Mill 4-H Camp; Indian Mound Cemetery; Lakin State Hospital; Marshall College; McKendree Hospital; Medium Security Prison; Miner's Hospitals 1, 2, and 3; Pinecrest Sanitarium; New River State School; Potomac State College; Spencer State Hospital; Storer College; Reymann Memorial Farms; Andrew S. Rowan Memorial Home; Rutherford Sanitarium; School for the Deaf and Blind; School for the Colored Deaf and Blind; Shepherd College; Weston State Hospital; West Liberty State College; Welch Emergency Hospital; West Virginia Training School; West Virginia State College; West Virginia Tech; and West Virginia University. Correspondents include Charles H. Ambler, R.A. Armstrong, Thurman Arnold, Cleveland M. Bailey, Charles Baker, J.J. Cornwell, Brooks Cottle, William M.O. Dawson, John W. Davis, W.E. Glasscock, Howard M. Gore, Denzil L. Gainer, C. Howard Hardesty, Henry D. Hatfield, Thomas E. Hodges, Homer A. Holt, Rush D. Holt, B.M. Laidley, E.F. Morgan, J.F. Marsh, C.W. Meadows, Robert H. Mollohan, Matthew M. Neely, Jennings Randolph, John D. Rockefeller II, A.M. Reese, D.B. Purinton, Frank B. Trotter, J.R. Turner, W.R. Thurmond, and I.C. White. More information about collection's content is available in the control folder. Please note, the contents list in the control folder does not refer to reel numbers, and the microfilm reels are not numbered. Microfilm reels contain information about the relevatn series/volumes/etc. that they contain, which should match with the same information on the handwritten contents list.

Blueprints, correspondence, contractors' accounts, photographs, and other papers for buildings at West Virginia University, Marshall College, Glenville State Normal School, West Liberty State Normal School, New River State School, and other institutions.