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The microfilm collection contains 10 diaries and inserted supplementary letters, clippings, and photographs kept by Presbyterian missionary Mary Behner during her years as the first director of The Shack, a settlement house in the Scotts Run Area of Monongalia County. In addition to the microfilm, there is an addendum to this collection dating from 2006. It includes a photograph album kept by Anna Santore DeLancy, who was a Sunday School teacher at the Shack, a Presbyterian neighborhood house operating in Pursglove, West Virginia. Anna was the recreation director after the founder Mary Behner Christopher left in 1938. The photographs document the people and activities of the Shack in the 1930s. There is also correspondence between Bettijane Burger and people who knew Mary Behner Christopher, and clippings regarding the history of the Shack, among other material.

Correspondence, membership lists, forms, descriptions and by-laws of self help co-operatives organized and instituted in the vicinity of Scotts Run during the latter part of the Great Depression. Trubee was a newly ordained pastor sent upon request from local volunteers by the Mission Board of the Presbyterian Church. His task was to conduct religious services and to develop programs to alleviate poverty for those unemployed miners and their families who had not been resettled at Arthurdale. With the technical advice of Hjalmer Rutzebek of Merom, Indiana, the manager of an institute to aid in the development of self help organizations, Trubee and the community formed a co-operative that operated a bakery, gardens and food processing (canning) center. Trubee was also instrumental in obtaining better drinking water, medical and dental services and recreational facilities for the inhabitants. Nonetheless, these papers reflect not only the success of the co-operatives' efforts but also the severity of the Great Depression persisting even as late as the eve of America's entry into World War II.

Scotts Run Community Center scrapbook containing photographs, clippings, attendance statistics, and a survey of families. The survey documents families inhabiting the area, indicating their nationalities, religious affiliations, and number of children. The Scotts Run Community Center, known as 'The Shack,' was started in 1928 under the auspices of the Board of National Missions of the Presbyterian Church, U.S.A. Particularly active during the height of the Depression, its organized activities included youth groups, educational seminars, ethnic forums and political and labor meetings. The Shack has been especially beneficial to the children of destitute coal miners in trying to keep them in school by providing food, clothing tutoring. Its main impact has been in trying to better the residents' economic plight ranging from education extension programs to the creation of self help industries and workshops.

Records of the Scott's Run Settlement House located in Osage, WV and founded by the Women's Society for Christian Service of the Wesley Methodist Church of Morgantown. The settlement house provided a wide range of social services for the inhabitants of the coal mining communities along Scott's Run in Monongalia County. Included in the records are board minutes, staff and statistical reports, director's correspondence, subject files, financial records, scrapbooks and clippings which document the activities of the neighborhood center as well as the character and problems of the area.

Two reports prepared for the West Virginia University School of Mines in the 1930s related to development in the state. A June 1933 engineer's report describes the geological, mining, and social conditions of the Scotts Run district in Monongalia County, West Virginia, and includes photographs and maps. A January 1938 retail studies report provides statistics and comparative data pertaining to retail trade in several towns in West Virginia.