Research papers of Festus P. Summers (1895-1971), a historian who served on the faculty of West Virginia University from 1932 to 1965 and as chairman of the history department from 1946 to 1962. Collection includes photocopied correspondence, articles, and typescripts, as well as manuscript notes. Many of the photocopies appear to have been made from Archives and Manuscript collections at the West Virginia and Regional History Center, including A&M 873, A&M 1661, A&M 1824, and A&M 2141. Topics include the West Virginia coal mine wars (1912-1927); West Virginia tax reform and economy (1900s-1950s); and individuals related to coal mining, labor, and legislation (1902-1971). These individuals include Van A. Bittner, W.E. Chilton, Justus Collins (President of Winding Gulf Colliery Company), Walter S. Hallanan, Henry D. Hatfield, M.M. Neely, C.E. Smith, and Walter R. Thurmond. Also included is a copy of a dissertation titled "Rush Dew Holt: The Boy Senator, 1905-1942," by William Ellis Coffey of WVU (1970), and a typescript copy of a manuscript by Dr. James Morton Callahan titled "History of West Virginia University: Problems and Policies." The Callahan typescript also includes annotations by Summers (ca. 1966).
Correspondence and photographs used by Lee, who was a lawyer and attorney general of West Virginia, in the writing of his book, BLOODLETTING IN APPALACHIA, 1969, concerning the coalfields of West Virginia and the attempts by miners to unionize. The photographs show individuals, coal camps, mine guards, and scenes from the Paint Creek-Cabin Creek area in 1912-1913, Matewan, and Monongalia County during the 1925-1929 period. Correspondents include Gordon C. Felts, Coleman A. Hatfield, Henry D. Hatfield, Chapman Revercomb, and Walter R. Thurmond.
Operator in the Logan coalfield for many years, collector of Internal Revenue for West Virginia, and president of the state Board of Control, 1937-1941. Thurmond returned to the coal industry in 1941 and helped organize the Southern Coal Producers' Association, serving as its secretary until his retirement in 1958. The collection consists of correspondence, speeches, scrapbooks, and other papers, including Thurmond's diaries for 1938-1967. Subjects include labor relations, taxes, mine safety, non-union fields, company stores, the United Mine Workers of America, race relations, and national politics. There is specific comment on the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.
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.
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