This collection is minimally processed.

Collection includes the papers of R. Emmett Mockler, most of which pertain to his research on the history of Mannington. Types of material include writings, research notes, correspondence, clippings, photographs, maps, and more. Subjects include local history from the settlement of the Mannington area to the 1950s, local schools and businesses, natural resources including gas and oil, notable local residents and families, Robert Rutherford, genealogy, and more.

Robert Emmett Mockler (November 17, 1879 to October 10, 1964) was elected as Mannington City Clerk and Treasurer in 1922, and was repeatedly reelected thereafter. Mockler attended Fairmont Normal School, taught in Mannington schools for a few years, and was known as a local historian and genealogist. During his lifetime, he published Landmarks of Methodism in Mannington and Vicinity; posthumously, the book Footprints at the Forks of Buffalo : an early history of Mannington, West Virginia was published with the help of his son William. It is compilation of newspaper columns on the history of Mannington which Mockler had published in the Fairmont Times West Virginian in 1956.