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Papers of Archibald W. Campbell (1839-1899), editor of the Wheeling Daily Intelligencer. A strong unionist and Republican Party member, he worked hard through his editorials and behind the scenes in order to support the formation of the new state of West Virginia. The collection includes correspondence, clippings, ephemera, and scrapbooks dealing with the Civil War and political affairs in West Virginia's early statehood period. Some of the correspondence asks Campbell to publish specific accounts of events or rebuttals of others, showing the importance of the newspapers in shaping public perception. Correspondents include family members, Jacob B. Blair, Cassius M. Clay, Sherrard Clemens, B.F. Kelley, Francis H. Pierpont, John C. Underwood, and others. See Scope and Content Note for more information.

Papers of Francis Harrison Pierpont (1814-1899) of Monongalia and Marion Counties, West Virginia, who served as governor of the Restored Government of Virginia during the Civil War. Includes manuscripts, typescripts, printed materials, and photocopies consisting of genealogies, correspondence, college essays, speeches, official messages, articles prepared for newspapers, legal documents, pamphlets, scrapbooks, and ephemera. Topics include Pierpont's education; his career as governor of the Restored Government of Virginia at Wheeling, Alexandria, and Richmond; the West Virginia statehood movement; politics; and his later work in the Methodist Protestant Church. Notable series include Pierpont's personal and professional correspondence; his writings and speeches, which include several drafts of his reminiscences on Lincoln; correspondence and notes of Charles H. Ambler, biographer of Pierpont, in the Subject Files series; and a series of several hundred telegrams related to statehood and the Civil War. Pierpont's correspondents include Gordon Battelle, Arthur I. Boreman, John S. Carlile, Abraham Lincoln (copies), Waitman T. Willey, and others. For civil war telegrams related to this collection, go to wvhistory.org.

Suit papers and correspondence in the case of the BALTIMORE AND OHIO RAILROAD VS. J.B. FORD, general agent of the railroad at Cumberland and Wheeling. The papers include copies of documents relative to the building of the railroad from Cumberland westward to Parkersburg and Wheeling and the activities of Ford as general agent at Cumberland and Wheeling, 1852-1874. Most of Ford's evidence deals with the role of the railroad during the Civil War and its relations with the state of West Virginia. There are copies of letters from John S. Carlile, J.W. Garrett, George B. McClellan, Francis H. Pierpont, and Edwin M. Stanton. The correspondence is with Ford's attorney, William P. Preston of Baltimore.

This collection contains a certificate from the federal government recognizing Private John R. Little (1844-1929), 139th Indiana Volunteer Infantry, for one hundred days of volunteer service in General W. T. Sherman's campaign during the American Civil War. The document was issued to volunteers in Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, and Wisconsin upon serving one hundred days in the army. The certificate is signed by President Abraham Lincoln and Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton.

Papers of Waitman T. Willey (1811-1900), lawyer, senator, and founding father of West Virginia. A resident of Monongalia County, Willey was a delegate to the Constitutional Convention of 1850, the Secession Convention of 1861, the First Wheeling Convention of 1861, and the Constitutional Convention of 1871. He was U.S. Senator from the Restored Government of Virginia (1861-1863) and Senator from West Virginia (1863-1871). Includes several thousand pieces of incoming correspondence to Waitman T. Willey dating from 1833 to 1900 (bulk 1859-1869) concerning political, social, and economic affairs. There is much material on the temperance movement in Virginia (1845-1860), the Civil War, and the statehood movement in West Virginia. Also includes miscellaneous financial records (1837-1869) and legal papers (1820-1856); Willey's diary (entries from 1830-1899, posthumously added clippings through 1908); and other material. For more information about Willey, see the Historical Note.