Collections : [Roanoke Public Libraries]

The Bonnie S. Ball collection comprises 1 record storage box. The collection is made up of handwritten notes by Ball, all done on standard notebook paper; genealogical charts; an 8x12 scrapbook contains various church photos, both in color and black and white. This collection dates mainly from the late 1950s through the early 1980s.

The Kern Papers are comprised of documents, photographs, and newspaper articles that are a product of the research done by Kern during his time as Roanoke Regional Director for the Virginia Department of Historic Resources at the Department of Historic Resources. The collection includes copies of nominations of historic sites in Southwest Virginia to the National Registry of Historic Places and the research that went into those nominations, including records, photographs, and newspaper articles. Also included in Kern’s papers is his research of several areas in Southwest Virginia, including sites in Roanoke, Henry, Montgomery, Pulaski, Rockbridge, Smyth, Franklin, Floyd, Washington, Giles, and Russell Counties as well as in Roanoke City, Blacksburg, Wytheville, Buena Vista, and Covington, that were not nominated, research on Robert J. Boland and John Willis Chappelear, Jr, that were submitted to the Dictionary of Virginia Biography series, articles and research on subjects related to black history in Southwest Virginia, and documents related to workshops and conferences on black history that Kern helped organize. Research and a paper done under Kern’s supervision by an intern on Roanoke’s segregation ordinances is included as well. Many of the reports and nominations included can also be accessed online at www.dhr.virginia.gov.

This collection consists of materials such as photographs, articles, maps and brochures collected by the creator predominately on coal mining and coal mines in West Virginia and Virginia. Also included are materials pertaining to iron furnaces in Virginia and West Virginia and geographical locations of interest to the creator. Contents of the collection were originally held in three-ring binders, however the contents were removed from this housing for preservation purposes. The order in which the items were placed in the binders by the creator was maintained.

This is a genealogical collection of 49 family names arranged by Mrs. Gayle Fisher. The collection includes computer printouts of Bible records, research by others, obituaries, photographs, and other notes.

The collection is comprised of 4 record storage boxes. The boxes house 213 files containing different surname records and 17 files containing various miscellaneous materials. This collection is a medley of materials. There are photos, obituaries, wedding announcements, newspaper articles, letters, copies of wills, deeds, etc. Most of Mason’s work comes from the 1970s-early 90s, while the records she collected date from the 1700s-1900s. This collection consists of genealogical information relating to the Mason and Bowman families. Most of the information is regional, although correspondence regarding the search for genealogical information comes from all over the country.

The Ora Belle Mayberry McColman Memoir Manuscripts are comprised of twelve yellow ruled notepads of the thirteen piece collection. The first notepad in the collection was missing at time of donation. This is her fourth family history book unpublished.

This is a collection of materials related to Ruth Davis’ enrollment in the Jefferson Hospital School of Nursing from which she graduated in 1926. The collection includes five folders that contain items such as newspaper articles about Jefferson Hospital and its founder, Dr. Hugh H. Trout, memorabilia about Florence Nightingale, nursing, and unidentified photographs. The collection also contains Ruth Davis’ Nurses New Testament Bible and her Memory Book that holds many unidentified photographs, most likely of fellow nursing students, doctors, and other hospital staff. Jefferson Hospital, formerly located on Franklin Road, was founded in 1907 by Dr. Hugh H. Trout, Sr., and served Roanoke for 50 years. Originally organized as a proprietary organization, it became a charitable hospital in 1957. A training school for nurses was opened in 1914. 660 nurses graduated from the Jefferson Hospital School of Nursing which eventually merged with the Lewis-Gale Hospital School of Nursing to form the School of Nursing of the CHRV (Community Hospital of Roanoke Valley) in 1965. The hospital and school of nursing were closed for approximately a year during World War I when Dr. Trout went to France to direct an Army Mobile Operating Unit. During this time, the nursing students were sent to Baltimore to continue their studies. In 1967, Jefferson Hospital merged with Lewis-Gale Hospital to form the Community Hospital of Roanoke Valley.

This is a genealogical collection focusing on the Hale/Ahl/All families and connecting families. Many other families of Craig County, Virginia and surrounding areas are also included. Materials in the collection include notes, correspondence, news clippings and copies of official records (births, marriages, deaths, cemeteries, funeral homes, military pensions etc.) along with photographs: both originals and copies and photo negatives. Date range for the collection: the collection was created between ca. 1970 and 2001; materials included in the collection cover the 16th-20th centuries, with coverage varying for each family name. Names and locations will turn up multiple times throughout the records. Researchers interested in a certain family or locality should make sure to go through the name files as well as the cemetery files and files organized geographically by county or locality. Geographical designations are made at various levels: county, city or town, and cemetery names. Many of the family records include photographs; there are also photographs of buildings and local historical landmarks. Folders with photographs are marked. This includes original photographs as well as the photocopies Mrs. Hale often made of original family photographs. The cemetery records in the collections often include photographs of markers, maps and Mrs. Hale’s handwritten notes; they may also include obituaries. Mrs. Hale recycled paper. Occasionally a small article of importance will be mounted on a larger piece of which the text is not relevant. Box 25 contains the materials from a box of loose materials including a number of unlabeled antique photographs; it also contains Mrs. Hale’s spiral notebooks. Box 26, the last box in the collection, contains the materials from nine notebooks Mrs. Hale had marked “General.”

This collection is arranged into four main series, and seven subseries, in seven record storage boxes for a total of 10.25 linear feet. The first series is documents and records, which includes official records, lists, receipts, summons, deeds, wills, certificates, financial documents, bank deposits, cancelled checks, and tax statements. The second series is miscellaneous manuscripts, such as notebooks, poems and other non-correspondence of a non-official nature. The third series is published and printed materials. The fourth series is Ellison family correspondence and other correspondence, which is further divided into subseries for the correspondence of Beirne Ellison’s parents Charles L. and Leona B. Ellison, for Beirne Ellison himself, with separate subseries for personal and for business and professional correspondence, for the correspondence of his wives Gracie and Nannie, and finally for the miscellaneous correspondence of other relatives and associates. Apparently Beirne Ellison compiled or retained this collection himself, a collection which includes correspondence, cards, and miscellaneous documents from his family and friends and family associates. The bulk of the materials in the collection were gathered from the 1880s to the early1900s. A few of the documents go back to the ante-bellum period of the nineteenth century, one dated as early as 1838. Among the documents and records are various lists and certificates, including articles of agreement for teaching, teachers’ certificates, church subscriptions, school term and monthly reports, and a wedding invitation for the marriage of Nannie Givens and Beirne Ellison on September 1, 1910. Other documents in the collection are receipts, bank statements, cancelled checks, petitions, articles of financial agreement and copies of deeds, including a deed from Mary F. Huffman to C. A. Sanders. Also among the documents and records are bills of lading and shipping orders, payment agreement notes, a lottery list, a lumber price list, and a railway schedule and train order. There is a menu from the Mountain Lake Hotel, tailor’s measurements for Floyd Snidow, school grades, reports and surveys, various summonses, and a packet of C.O.D. orders for Beirne Ellison. One ante-bellum tax receipt lists the tax paid on a slave. Charles Ellison, Beirne’s father, was a man of substance in West Virginia and Virginia. He was involved in many 19th century business deals and acted as the administrator of the estate of Jordan Lively, who was a property owner and whiskey distiller, whose last will and testament is among the documents. There is also a copy of the will of Samuel Huffman. Many of Charles Ellison’s accounts and business and tax records are included in this collection, as are records from his associates, and some of his correspondence. Manuscripts are varied and include ledger books, notebooks, notes, marginalia, school papers, tests and assignments, poems, and other writings. Many of the notebooks include numerous inserts of various sorts, but have not been disturbed and were left as discovered. Non-official documents and non-correspondence were all included in this category. Publications and printed materials include a large run of church bulletins from 1932 to 1940, the bulk of which are from 1932 to 1938. There are several complete and incomplete books. School grammars, textbooks and atlases are among the publications in the collection. There are brochures, including promotional literature on Mountain Lake and Mountain Lake Hotel, booklets, political flyers, catalogs, a miniature almanac, and a cookbook. Advertising is well represented, both as contents of letters (that is as “junk mail” and enclosures) in the correspondence series, and separate as printed matter in the published and printed materials series. Some of the advertising and promotional literature relates to publications of interest to teachers and educators, and other advertising is aimed at the business of hotel management, farming, or property management in general. Beirne Ellison kept his father Charles Ellison’s personal, professional and business correspondence, which extends from about the end of the civil war until the 1880’s. Charles Ellison’s correspondents included W.W. Adams, J.H. Alderson, F.B. Baber, W.W. Baker, R.G. Ballinger, C.E. Black, Richard Burke, John Casden, Jonathan M. Davis, J.W. Davis, R.L. Deeds, H.M. Dickinson, E.G. Duncan, E.L. Dunn, D.C. Gallaher, William W. Johnson, R.B. Lively, J.D. Logan, R.M. McClelland, John C. McNeer, C.L. and W.W. Rance, William M. Reynolds, Fleming Sanders, J.S. Schumate, A.G. Tabbetts, and C.L. Thompson. Leona Ellison, Beirne Ellison’s mother, maintained an extensive correspondence with relatives, friends, and various associates. She wrote many letters to and received many letters from her brothers Benton Hobbs and William Hobbs, and her sisters Lizzie and Jane. Leona also received numerous missives from Isaac M. Brogles, J.L. Broyles, Mary Crawford, E.L. Dunn (a cousin), Harriet D. Ellison, J.W. Francis, L.P. Hobbs (a nephew), Martha Johnston, A.L. Keadle (an uncle), J.D. Logan, Gracie Lowe (a cousin), Joshua Lowe, J.P. McNutt, E.H. Peck, Horace G. Peck (a nephew), A.J. Skaggs (a dentist), J.D. Thrasher (a physician), John Wanamaker, S. W. Willey, and Jennie Wilson. Beirne Ellison’s earliest surviving letters were written to his mother and are located with the subseries for her correspondence. His personal correspondence begins with letters from the late nineteenth century and continues into the 1930s. Among his family and other associated correspondents are C.L. and Anna E. Boone, E.P. Buchanan, W.H. Buchanan, Julia W. Bullard, Blanche Carroll, Charles Carroll, Nancy A. Dun, Lora Epling, Clarence Fisher, J.H. Gillispie, Sam Gillispie, Emma B. Hale, Hugh Hodge Hill, J.B. Hobbs (Belle’s husband), W.H. Jones, L.D. Keadle, C.L. King, Mrs. E.L. Landrum, Fay Martin, Julia F. May, Fannie A. McLaurey, C.E. Miller, F.C. Nunemacher, C.A. Peck, C.J. Peck, Duke Putney, Eva R. Robinson, Joseph and Mrs. J. Robinson, L.D. Shumate, George L. Smith, Floyd E. Snidow, Frank M. Snidow, Frank P. Snidow, L. B. Snidow, Ethel Snidow (Mrs. L.B. Snidow), Florence W. Thompson, W.B. Thompson, Florence Wells, Nannie S. White, C.A. Worley, Harvey B. Worley, and Mrs. L. Young. There are times when Beirne Ellison’s personal and business or professional letters overlap, so there is not always a clear distinction between these series. Beirne Ellison included business and professional matters in some personal correspondence, and vice versa. Beirne Ellison collected his business and professional correspondence as a teacher, hotel manager and property owner. Among these letters is extensive correspondence about Mountain Lake Hotel with H.E. Dorland (circa 1899-1912), T. Gilbert Porterfield (circa 1900-1909) and others. Other business correspondents include J.D. Bolton, Walter H. Boude, Daisie Buchanan, G.L. and Mrs. G.L. Collins, J.E. Coalter, Lyman Denison, J.E. Dunklee, E.L. Dunn, Charles E. Eckerle, W.J. Finley, Frederic J. Haskin, Mrs. J.C. Heaberlin, Belle G. Hobbs (his aunt), S.F. Humphreys, A.P. Huffman, D.P. Hylton, B.F. Johnson, Nannie Keister, G. L. Kinsley, C.W. Lowe, Mrs. C.W. Lowe, M.E.C. Merriman, C. H. Pack, G.J. Porterfield, W.S. Rogers, L. B. Rowan, M.J. Sanders, M.A. Smythe, John Stickler, Bettie St. Clair, Paul S. Stonesifer, J. H. Walken, Charles Wilkerson, and J. W. Younger. Gracie Ellison’s collected correspondence is mostly addressed to her husband Beirne and spans the period from 1899 to 1902. Nannie Ellison’s correspondence goes back to her life before marrying Beirne Ellison. She has an extensive correspondence with her mother Mertie A. Slusser and other relatives and friends. Her correspondents include an old boyfriend, William J. (Willie) Shelburne, as well as others such as J.A. Campbell, Cora Harper, Lelia Hunter, Lotta McPherson, Hester Price, Mattie Pearle Shelburne, and Clara Warner. Her letters also include correspondence with her husband Beirne and their daughters Mary and Martha. The miscellaneous correspondence includes general mailings to Mountain Lake Hotel as well as correspondence to and from relatives and associates such as Martha Ellison (daughter of Beirne), Webb Ellison (brother of Beirne), Haven Hoge, Jordan Lively, Calvin Moss, Fleming Sanders, and Joseph Patton. Some of the other names that appear among the materials as subjects and correspondents, relatives, friends and associates include: F.E. Atkins, W.H. Ballard, W.S. Beasley, Phebe S. Bell, Lila Bridges, Phil F. Brown, Lacy Crawford, D. L. Duncan, P.B. Durham, J.B. Elkins, J. Taylor Ellyson, G.C. Foster, S.M. Goldsmith, Edward S. Green, Wallace G. Hale, H.H. Hawkins, W.C. Henderson, William Hinchman, G. Hinton, Samuel Hinton, Nancy Hitchens, S.P. Hobbs, Mrs. Ray H. Jester, James Jowett, Ruth Jowett, Mary D. Long, Fleming Lowe, Joshua Lowe, L.C. Lucas, John Lynn, Helen Mason, J.P. McNutt, Thomas Miller, Horace G. Peck, Alice Lemon Price, G.B. Price, C. H. Pritchard, Louise M. Schmidt, Lilia Smith, L.W. Snidow, Alex Turnstall, and Jennie Wilson. There was no order to the materials, as they were received. All of the items in the collection were individually arranged chronologically, from 1938 to 1940. Letters in envelopes were left folded in the envelopes. Letters without envelopes were flattened. Each item was sorted into categories based on the following schema:

This collection is comprised of office memos, photographs, news clippings, meeting minutes, stock ledger books, office directories and artifacts.