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Start Over Subjects African-Americans. SEE ALSO Coal miners - African Americans.

Gibson Lamb Cranmer Papers regarding Statehood and Other Material 0.4 Linear Feet 5 in. (2 document cases, 2 1/2 in. each)

Papers regarding West Virginia statehood and the history of Wheeling and Ohio County compiled by Judge Gibson L. Cranmer (1826-1903) of Wheeling, West Virginia, who served as secretary of the Wheeling Convention that repudiated Virginia's secession from the United States in 1861. Series 1 includes manuscript narratives and correspondence describing events of the West Virginia statehood movement, written by eyewitnesses at the request of Gibson L. Cranmer. Manuscript authors include John S. Burdett, John S. Carlile, Daniel Frost, Lewis Ruffner, and Benjamin Wilson. Series 2 includes Cranmer's handwritten notes, drafts of articles, copies of documents, and letters solicited by him regarding the history of Wheeling and Ohio County, West Virginia. See Scope and Content Note for details and contents list.
  1. West Virginia and Regional History Center

Gordon B. Gibbens Papers 0.4 Linear Feet 5 in. (1 document case)

Gibbens, Gordon B.

Correspondence of Gordon B. Gibbens of Parkersburg, West Virginia. Subjects discussed include personal and family business, West Virginia Republican Party affairs, and Gibbens' political appointments. Correspondents include Senators Stephen B. Elkins, Nathan B. Scott, and James A. Hughes, as well as numerous Ohio Valley politicians. One letter (1896 December 21) is an endorsement by a group of "colored" voters of Wood County for Gibbens' appointment to political office, and another letter (1898 January 17) is a similar endorsement by a group of Wood County Union veterans.

  1. West Virginia and Regional History Center

H.E. Matheny, Collector and Compiler, Papers 0.1 Linear Feet Summary: 1 in. (1 folder)

Matheny, H. E. (Herman Edmond), 1910-

Published and unpublished manuscripts on episodes in West Virginia history; civil war history; hunting; and police protection in industrial plants. Letter of Gen. T.M. Harris concerning organizing and outfitting of troops, 1861; copies of newspaper articles by Gen. Harris concerning "the Sabbath question", 1876; Letters (typescript copies) of Pvt. James Z. McCausland's Brigade, 1863-1864 (7 items), on the Battle of Droop Mountain: fight at Dublin, picket duty around Warm Springs, Virginia; the Battle of Monocacy, and Early's raid on Washington, 1864; McChesney's handwritten request for medical discharge, 1865; letter (typescript copy) from William E. Kimble to Mortimer Johnson, Feb.20, 1862, Camp Allegheny on running mail through Union lines: and an article, West Virginia's rare Civil War Books, by H.E. Matheny. Confederate Soldiers' letters: (1) to his mother from James Z. McChesney, Nov. 16, 1863, relating to the Battle of Droop Mt. (2) two letters from W. I. Kunkle to James Z. McChesney relating some Civil War experiences.

  1. West Virginia and Regional History Center

Henry Ruffner (1790-1861) and William Henry (1824-1908) Papers 0.15 Linear Feet Summary: 1 3/4 in. (1 reel of microfilm (310 items), 1.75 in.)

Pamphlets include Henry Ruffner's antislavery pamphlet, 1847, and his Union speech, 1856. Subjects of the manuscripts and correspondence include family history; travel; Kanawha Salt Works; schools in Virginia and Kanawha County; Lane Seminary Library; Presbyterian Church; slavery, coal, gas, iron, and timber; Johns Hopkins, Washington and Lee, Harvard, Hobart, Cornell, and Hampden-Sydney colleges; Greenbrier County; Alabama; election of 1904; University of Virginia; Kanawha Valley floods; Venezuela; American Colonization Society; and the Philippine Islands. Persons mentioned or commented on include Philip Doddridge, John Letcher, Hugh Mercer, and Nelson A. Miles. Correspondents include Charles H. Ambler, John Eaton, John P. Hale, H.R. Helper, W.S. Laidley, David L. Ruffner, John W. Wayland, and William L. Wilson.
  1. West Virginia and Regional History Center

Jacob H. Gerbrick, Photographer, Records 5.9 Linear Feet Summary: 5 ft. 11 in. (10 document cases, 5 in. each); (1 records carton, 15 in.); (2 small flat storage boxes, 3 in. each)

Gerbrick, Jacob H.
The photographs and negatives of the Gerbrick Studio of Martinsburg whose most prominent proprietor was Jacob H. Gerbrick. There are group and individual portraits as well as pictures of business and industry, modes of transportation, schools, churches, residences, clubs and organizations, and social events. These photographs reflect life in Martinsburg and the extreme Eastern panhandle, including unique events such as strikes or floods, annual events such as festivals and parades, and everyday occurrences of the inhabitants. There are also images of the apple industry, Gerbrick family, Shepherd College, and Storer College.
  1. West Virginia and Regional History Center

James Produce Company Papers 0.4 Linear Feet Summary: 5 in. (1 document case)

James Produce Company
Copies of correspondence and business records of Charles H. James, founder of the James Produce Company, one of the first totally black owned and managed businesses in West Virginia. Correspondents include: Governor J.J. Cornwell, John W. Davis, and Theodore Roosevelt.
  1. West Virginia and Regional History Center

John Henry Folk Festival Records 1.04 Linear Feet 1 ft. 0.5 in. (2 document cases, 5 in. each); (1 document case, 2.5 in.)

Cabbell, Edward J., 1946-
Brochures, programs and correspondence of the John Henry Folk Festivals. The festivals are an annual celebration in West Virginia of its inter-ethnic cultural folk heritage with an emphasized focus on that of black Appalachians. The festival is especially noted for featuring Blues musicians and singers. Most correspondence is between festival director, Edward J. Cabbell, and participants or contributors to the festival. The collection, the correspondence in particular, indicates the development and changes in the format and thematic agenda of the festival over the years, an example being its 1982 participation in the World's Fair at Knoxville, Tennessee. Addendum is 6 pages of papers (1996) of the John Henry Center, the parent organization of the John Henry Folk Festival.
  1. West Virginia and Regional History Center

Julia M. Davis, Author, Records 0.01 Linear Feet Summary: 1/4 in.

Davis, Julia, 1900-1993
Interviews with and reviews of the fiction of Julia Davis, a member of a prominent Harrison County family whose most distinguished member was her father, John W. Davis, the 1924 Democratic Presidential candidate. In the interviews she tells of the influence upon her career of Melville Davisson Post and of the historic activities of her family, particularly before and during the Civil War. Her maternal grandparents, who resided in Jefferson County, observed the trial and execution of John Brown. Based upon their memoirs and those of their neighbors she wrote a successful play for the West Virginia centennial, "The Anvil" about the Brown raid and trial. There are also two reviews of the body of her literature emphasizing its historical nature and its sympathetic but realistic exploration of the dialectical tensions between minorities and the dominant group in America.
  1. West Virginia and Regional History Center

Lyman C. Draper, Antiquarian, Manuscripts 17.94 Linear Feet Summary: 17 ft. 11 1/4 in. (123 reels of microfilm, 1.75 in. each)

Draper, Lyman Copeland, 1815-1891
The interviews, correspondence, notes and reports of a Wisconsin based, New York born antiquarian and early researcher of frontier history. Lyman C. Draper's manuscripts were willed to the Wisconsin State Historical Society where he had been its corresponding secretary and instrumental in its development. Microfilm was produced by the society of his papers and made available for purchase to libraries because of their significance for studying the Eastern frontier and its pioneers. Draper had originally planned to publish on the basis of these manuscripts a series of books on frontier history and biographies of famous pioneers. Only one was published, King's Mountain and Its Heroes. Draper, in his writings, generally reflected biases common to white male Americans of the nineteenth century but he collected many documents and interviewed women, Native Americans, and African Americans connected with the frontier and their descendents. Indeed he had collected enough material that he had decided to write biographies of chiefs: Tecumseh and Joseph Brant. Other materials for biographies are of white frontier notables such as Daniel Boone, George Rogers Clark, Lewis Wetzel, Simon Kenton, and Samuel Brady. His papers are also organized regionally with holdings encompassing an area bordered by the western parts of Virginia and the Carolinas and portions of Georgia and Alabama, encompassing the entire Ohio River Valley, and part of the upper Mississippi Valley from the era of frontier conflicts in the 1740's and 1750's to the American Revolution and the War of 1812.
  1. West Virginia and Regional History Center

Major W. P. Tams, Jr. Transcript of an Interview 0 Linear Feet Summary: 1 folder

Tams, W. P., Jr. (William Purviance), 1883-1977
Transcript of an interview by Richard Hadsell with Major W.P. Tams, Jr., former mine operator in the Winding Gulf coal mining region. Tams discusses his early days in coal mining, the opening of the Kanawha coal region, and coal operators and union officials such as: E.J. Berwind, Joe Beury, George Collins, Jarius Collins, Justus Collins, John J. Cornwell, Samuel Dixon, Elias Hatfield, Troy Hatfield, Isaac Mann, S.T. Patterson, J.A. Renahan, James O. Watts, and George Wolfe. Other individuals mentioned include: Henry D. Hatfield, John L. Lewis, John Mitchell, Fred Mooney, Bob Patterson, and "Mother" Mary Jones. Tams also discusses the Winding Gulf Collieries, the Beaver Coal Co., the Smokeless Coal Field, the N&W Railroad, the C&O Railroad, the Virginian Railroad, Baldwin-Felts Detective Agency, unions and strikes, racial relations, blacks, scrip, company stores, Atwater, and Castner, Curran and Bullitt.
  1. West Virginia and Regional History Center

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