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Papers of Judge Gideon D. Camden (1805-1891) of Clarksburg, Harrison County, West Virginia, and papers of his grandson Wilson Lee Camden (1870-1958). Gideon D. Camden was a lawyer, Democratic politician, member of the Virginia Convention of 1850-1851, circuit judge, and state senator (1872-1876). His papers include correspondence, legal and business papers, surveys and plats, and printed material. Subjects include Virginia, West Virginia, and national politics; the railroad, oil, timber, and coal industries; and Camden's law practice. Wilson Lee Camden papers include correspondence, legal papers, surveys and plats, printed material, business manuscripts, photographs, map, and ledgers. Subjects include the settlement of his grandfather's estate, and extensive coal, timber, land, railroad, and oil interests in West Virginia and Western Pennsylvania. See Scope and Content Note for more information.

Papers of Judge Gideon D. Camden (1805-1891) of Clarksburg, Harrison County, West Virginia. Camden was a lawyer, Democratic politician, member of the Virginia Convention of 1850-1851, circuit judge, and state senator (1872-1876). Includes business correspondence, financial records, legal papers, and court records. Materials include the early land papers of Camden's law partner, John J. Allen, and the legal papers of the firm Allen and Camden, which deal primarily with land suits and surveys in Harrison and surrounding counties. Later legal and business papers relate to the development of the West Virginia oil fields and Camden's extensive holdings in mineral and timber lands in central West Virginia. Other papers concern the Constitutional Convention of 1872, subsequent ratification, attempts to remove the legislature to Clarksburg, and West Virginia politics in general, particularly the period 1860-1874. Other subjects include Diss Debar's attempts to stimulate immigration from Alsace-Lorraine; H.G. Davis and the development of West Virginia railroads; and a debate on Christian baptism at Fairmont, 1872, between Benjamin Franklin and Professor Solomon of West Virginia University. Correspondents include Henry G. Davis, John J. Davis, J.H. Diss Debar, Johnson N. Camden, John J. Allen, Spencer Dayton, John S. Carlile, John Bassel, James M. Bennett, David Goff, Lot M. Morrill, James S. Wheat, Alpheus J. Haymond, John Jay Jackson, Jr. and Sr., George R. Latham, Nimrod Dent, Benjamin F. Martin, Okey Johnson, J. Marshall Hagans, J.W. Arbogast, and W.J. Bland. For partial inventory of business correspondence, see control folder. For series list, see Scope and Content Note.

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.

Typescript of "West Virginia University: A University Under Control" written by Harold J. Shamberger, an assistant to several West Virginia University presidents, regarding the presidential terms of Elvis Jacob Stahr, Jr., Clyde Lemuel Colson, Paul Ausborn Miller, James Gindling Harlow, Gene Arthur Budig, and E. Gordon Gee.

Contains the appointment of James E. Mann to West Virginia's Mercer County Local Board No. 1 (draft board) during World War II (1940); diploma awarded to Lucy Austin Higginbotham (later Mrs. James E. Mann) for graduation from West Virginia University (1929); and a scrapbook of newspaper clippings, most regarding Sergeant James T. "Junior" Spurrier, Jr. (ca. 1945). Spurrier was a WWII hero from Bluefield, and a recipient of the Congressional Medal of Honor.

Selected documents from the service record of Col. James Monroe Ingalls, U.S. Army, who was professor of military science and tactics and professor of mathematics at West Virginia University, 1877-1878. The collection includes correspondence and memoranda, 1878-1884, concerning the retention of Ingalls at WVU or the assignment of another qualified officer, comments on the inadequacy of the law governing the apportionment of officers to land-grant colleges, and a catalog of the professional works and papers of Ingalls. Correspondents include William W. Belknap, James R. Thompson, George W. McCrary, Rutherford B. Hayes, Waitman T. Willey, and George C. Sturgiss.