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Gift of Richard Hulver, 2021 September. Donated in memory of Lisle and Virginia Hulver.
This collection consists of information about the Baughman settlement in Hardy County, located in the northeast section of West Virginia. It was once a large community, founded in 1787 by Andreas "Andrew" Baughman. Many of his family remained in the area for many decades, and many documents and receipts relate to Jacob Baughman (1784-1857). The Hulver family was another family whose roots in the area stretched back to the 1790s. George Hulver (d. 1830?) settled there after his service in the Revolutionary War, transitioning to Hardy County from Shenandoah County, Virginia. He and his wife, Susannah, had nine children who survived to adulthood. The Hulvers were farmers who lived on the east side of the Lost River. During the Civil War, several men, including two of George's grandsons, Hayden (1837-1915) and Isaac (b. 1841), served in different Confederate Virginia cavalry units. Hayden's son, George B. Hulver (1872-1938) and his wife, Christena "Tena" (Baughman) Hulver (1880-1958), stayed in the Lost River area, as did their son, M. Lisle Hulver (1907-2006) and his wife, Virginia (Coffman) Hulver (1914-1996). The Mount Moriah Lutheran Church played a prominent role in the community, and the church cemetery is the final resting place of many Hulver and Baughman family members. Many families left the settlement in 1940 after floods destroyed the Lost River bridge.
[Description and date of item], [Box/folder number], Collection of the Hulver Family and Baughman Settlement, Hardy County, West Virginia, A&M 4552, West Virginia and Regional History Center, West Virginia University Libraries, Morgantown, West Virginia.
The collection includes a wealth of information on the Baughman and Hulver families, and others who established the Baughman Settlement in the late eighteenth century. The collection spans from the antebellum Civil War era through World War Two. The collection includes correspondence, postcards, family photograph albums and assorted photographs, biographical sketches and family history, books, legal documents, receipts, certificates, and Confederate money. Also present are assorted newspapers and news clippings from Hardy County and other areas of West Virginia, as well as papers from the Midwest, upper South, and East Coast from the late nineteenth century through the early twentieth century. The collection also contains a number of medical, agricultural, religious, and consumer catalogues and pamphlets. This collection includes information on family history in Hardy County and the surrounding areas, as well as information about the experiences of a West Virginia agricultural community in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
Correspondence includes a mixture of personal correspondence between Hulver and Baughman family members and friends, as well as business correspondence and catalogues of companies interested in selling their goods. Noted correspondents include Hayden Hulver and his brother, Adam Hulver, and Hayden's children, including Miranda Hulver Reed and George B. Hulver, and his wife, Christena "Tena" (Baughman) Hulver and her relatives. Correspondence includes Christmas and Easter postcards, as well as postcards of notable landmarks and other sites. There are a few small business cards and note cards and undated school papers. This series contains several typed manuscripts of the history and genealogy of the Baughman and Hulver families and the settlement of the area. It also includes a decorated red mail envelope from Julius Hines and Son, Baltimore, Maryland (Box 13, Folder 1).
Many family photographs are included in this series; subjects include Hayden Hulver, his wife, Melinda (Strawderman) Hulver, and their son, George B. Hulver, George's son, M. Lisle Hulver, Harvey and Miranda (Hulver) Reed, Leah Baughman, and others. Some people and places remain unidentified. This series includes two photo albums and a magnetic photo scrapbook. Some are loose photographs on glossy photo paper that appear to be from the 1940s. Others are older carte de vistes and cabinet cards and are posed studio and family prints (circa 1860s-1920). Some pictures feature men working outside with lumber and other industries. There are a few pictures of local scenes and buildings, including several of the Mount Moriah Lutheran Church in Baughman Settlement. There is a photo of Co. D, 1st Regt. West Virginia National Guard, undated (Box 3, Folder 2). There is also a 2013 article about Hardy County Korean War veteran Edmund Reel (Box 4). There are some labeled Hulver family photographs in front of the Hulver family homestead (Box 13, Folder 2) and an unidentified landscape photograph of several buildings (Box 13, Folder 3). Additional information identifying the subjects of specific photographs, provided by the donor, is available in the control folder.
There are a number of hardcover and softcover books, some of which contain writing by the family. The two small hardcover books are
This series contains legal and other financial documents, including legal summons, estate settlements, and promissory notes. In terms of financial material, there are various receipts, account and memorandum books, certificates, and bank statements and notes of the Baughmans and Hulvers. Box 6 contains a scrapbook with receipts, property tax receipts, promissory notes, lists, a few letters of personal correspondence, and Confederate Civil War money. The series also contains a few items of World War Two memorabilia, including a Victory Garden certificate, rations booklet, and selective service brochure (Box 8, Folder 16). Another item of interest is a 1937 West Virginia Motor Vehicle Registration and Title belonging to M. Lisle Hulver (Box 8, Folder 15). This series also includes Jacob Baughman's 1852 will (Box 13, Folder 4).
There are assorted newspapers and news clippings from Hardy County and the surrounding region (Boxes 10-11). It includes the local paper, the