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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.

A collection of biographical sketches written by West Virginia Representatives and Senators for inclusion in the 1859 and 1869 editions of Charles Lanman's "Dictionary of the United States Congress", as well as correspondence and photographs. Congressmen represented in this collection include William Armstrong, Jacob Blair, Arthur I. Boreman, Alexander Boteler, William Gay Brown, John S. Carlile, Sherrard Clemens, Isaac Duval, C.D. Hubbard, A. G. Jenkins, Zedekiah Kidwell, B.M. Kitchen, George R. Latham, Isaac Leffler, James McGrew, William S. Morgan, Daniel H. Polsley, James Stephenson, George William Summers, Peter Van Winkle, Kellian Whaley, John S. Witcher, Waitman T. Willey, Edgar C. Wilson, Henry Wise, and John S. Witcher. This collection contains photographs of Hubbard, Kidwell, Whaley, and Charles James Faulkner. Also includes a photocopy of the Foreword to the 1971 edition of "The Biographical Dictionary of the American Congress".

Correspondence and miscellaneous papers of: a Monroe County, West Virginia, farmer and politician; his wife, Harriette Boswell Alexander; their daughters, Isabel and Alice Beulah; Alice's husband, Frank Hereford, U.S. senator from West Virginia; and his daughter, Katherine Hereford Stoddard. There is one folder of business papers, 1820-1841, of Thomas Edgar; a few letters from Caperton's son, John, while a cadet at the Camp of Instruction, Richmond, 1861; a folder of letters concerning Isabel's trips through the American West, the British Isles, and Europe; and a folder on family genealogy. Subjects include mid-nineteenth century life in Union, Monroe County; the excitement in Virginia following John Brown's raid; Washington, D.C., and the slavery controversy, 1860; the secession crisis in Virginia; impressment of material in Monroe County by Union troops; the effect of the war on the social and economic life of Richmond; work of the Ladies Relief Hospital in Lynchburg; and the aftermath of war in Virginia.

The personal business papers of William Hereford McGinnis (1855-1930), a Beckley lawyer who was prosecuting attorney of Raleigh County, 1892-1896, a senator in 1902, judge of the Supreme Court of Appeals, 1922-1924, chairman for a number of years of the executive committee of the Democratic Party in Raleigh County, and delegate to the national convention in 1920. There are case papers, correspondence and other records of the Hatcher-McGinnis Law Firm, 1834-1930; family photographs; and materials relating to the Methodist Church and World War I.

Contains records of Scott's career as a U.S. Congressman and Senator of Virginia from 1967-1979, including reports, bills, hearings, campaign materials, appointment books, voting records, correspondence, publications, photographs, video tapes, and congressional research materials.

Letter and account books, clipping scrapbooks, and miscellaneous family papers of a pioneer, Ohio Valley, general merchandise firm founded by Dudley Woodbridge, Sr., at Marietta, Ohio, and operating under various names for a period of more than sixty years. The collection also includes the account books of Daniel, Richard, and John Greene, 1808-1844; account books of F.B. Loomis, 1842-1844; a medicinal formulary book; the estate records of John Brody; records of a pension and bounty land claims agency operated by George M. Woodbridge, 1861-1864; and justice of the peace accounts, 1832-1863. Subjects include the development of river markets, transportation, and the livestock industry in the early Ohio Valley; fur trade and commerce with England and Europe; the Marietta and Susquehanna Trading Company; Kanawha and Sciota salt works; Ohio Company lands; Woodbridge-Harman Blennerhassett partnership; ginseng trade; Wheeling Cotton Manufacturing Company; ropewalk and shipbuilding in Marietta; military land warrants; estate of George Morgan; career of William Woodbridge, United States senator and governor of Michigan; pioneer education; Meadville Seminary; Ohio University; Miami University; Marietta Collegiate Institute; Belpre, Ohio; American Catholic missions; early history of Marietta; the American Colonization Society; Washington County Colonization Society; churches; Washington County Tract Society; recruiting in Marietta during the Civil War; impact of the War of 1812 on westward migration and labor; and Woodbridge family affairs. Letters are addressed to merchants in London, France, New York, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Charleston (West Virginia), Lexington and Louisville (Kentucky), Cincinnati, St. Louis, New Orleans, Washington, Detroit, and Baltimore. Correspondents include Lewis Cass, Philip Doddridge, and Benjamin Reeder.