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Military records, business papers, and correspondence of a brigadier general, Kingwood attorney, state legislator, secretary of the West Virginia Horticultural Society, state adjutant general, and state Selective Service director. Other papers include a letter book, West Virginia National Guard, 1903-1907; state Selective Service memoranda, 1940-1947; and a "Historical Record of Selective Service in West Virginia." Other subjects include the Morgantown and Kingwood Railroad, Pierce's coal mining, public utilities, oil, timber, gas, fruit growing, and other business activities. Correspondents include William G. Conley, William M.O. Dawson, Davis Elkins, William E. Glasscock, Walter S. Hallanan, Lewis B. Hershey, Homer A. Holt, Harley M. Kilgore, J. Howard McGrath, Edward Martin, Clarence W. Meadows, E.F. Morgan, Matthew M. Neely, Okey L. Patteson, Chapman Revercomb, and Howard Sutherland. This collection also includes the business and legal papers, ca.1840-1890, of James H. Carroll, Kingwood attorney and editor of the PRESTON COUNTY HERALD.? Subjects include the presidential elections of 1856 and 1884 in West Virginia.? Other papers relate to Kingwood and area mercantile firms, and the operation of the PRESTON COUNTY JOURNAL, 1891-1894; and a circulation record of Preston County newspapers, 1889-1897. Correspondents include Gideon D. Camden and Henry G. Davis.

An 1851 letter to Rebecca Coplin from Harriet Burdett of Pruntytown, West Virginia, on community health, family affairs and Methodist church matters. A merchandise account book, 1859-63, of an unidentified general store owner and inn keeper; steamboat bills of lading for the Kathryn and French of the Little Kanawha Packet Line (Creston-Parkersburg), 1899 and 1905. There are also mimeographed sketches on the history, topography, scenery, agriculture, geology, rural development and natural resources of West Virginia by a Wood County agricultural extension agent, C.R. Titlow.

Papers of a livestock broker, farmer, and merchant of Mingo Flats, Randolph County, who was associated with John T. McGraw in the development of Marlinton and the purchase and sale of land, coal, and timber in neighboring Pocahontas County. There are some items of Civil War interest, while the bulk of the correspondence relates to the marketing of ginseng, beeswax, wool, venison, animal pelts, and farm machinery. There is significant correspondence relating to state politics and railroads. Correspondents include J.M. Bennett, J.N. Camden, David Goff, John J. Jackson, McCormick Harvesting Machine Company, John T. McGraw, and The Pocahontas Development Company. Also includes some material of G.E. Jarvis, father of Anna Jarvis, the founder of Mother's Day.

L. Henry Smith (b. circa 1805) was an attorney in Bruceton Mills, Preston County, West Virginia, in the mid-nineteenth century. He and his wife, Martha, had nine children, including Lucian H. Smith (b. circa 1830) and William W. Smith (b. circa 1848). Papers of the L. Henry Smith family chiefly include receipts, bills, notes, and letters from 1823 to 1878 and primarily concern Henry Smith, Lucian Smith, and William Smith, though materials from other family members are included. Box 1 contains financial materials for Jacob Smith from the 1830s and 1840s; receipts for purchases made by Henry Smith between the 1850s and 1870s (mostly for sewing supplies such as fabric, trimmings, and lace); promissory notes; and other financial items. Box 2 contains letters to various members of the Smith family from the 1850s to the 1870s. Topics chiefly include merchandising; Henry Smith's legal and financial matters in Preston County; and news of friends and family in the Bruceton Mills and Uniontown, Pennsylvania, areas. Several letters from the 1860s relate to buying blue cloth to make Civil War uniforms and substitutes in the Union army. Letters from the late 1860s related to West Virginia University, where William Smith was a student. Box 3 contains miscellaneous items primarily related to West Virginia politics in the 1870s and West Virginia Governor John Jeremiah Jacob.

Letters, legal and land papers, tax receipts, and other papers of Benjamin, John F.C.L., Benjamin F.M.V. and J.A.J. Lightburn in Lewis County. Included are a pocket account book of the Lightburn Mill, 1836-1855; 32 items bearing on General J.A.J. Lightburn's Civil War activities, including correspondence, orders, and reports (including battle reports in connection with the Atlanta campaign, 3 items, June-July, 1864); correspondence between J.A.J. Lightburn and Soule & Co., relative to pension claims; agricultural implement advertisements, 1890; notebooks of sermon outlines written by General Lightburn who was ordained a Baptist minister in 1867; and newspaper clippings bearing on the Lightburn family.

Business correspondence and papers, including land grants and deeds, 1761-1881, surveys, wills, and account books of William McCoy, Sr. and Jr., of Pendleton County. There are papers on the administration of estates; management of property in Mercer, Pendleton, and Randolph counties, and in Augusta and Highland counties, Virginia, for absentee owners; and on farm operations. There is material on the Central Bank of Virginia at Staunton; the Moorefield and North Branch Turnpike Company; and on military units in the eastern parts of West Virginia during the Civil War, including letters, orders, and requisitions. Also includes record of land transaction between Levi Hollingsworth and Robert McCulloh regarding 11,435 acres in Pendleton County (1803).

The business papers of Moses H. Crouch, a farmer and miller who lived near Huttonsville, Randolph County, West Virginia, in the nineteenth century. Chiefly contains receipts, deeds, promissory notes, and other financial and legal documents related to Crouch's business and property from the 1840s to the 1890s. Receipts and account information document the sale of dry goods and textiles, including meat, coffee, tobacco, sugar, tea, oatmeal, peaches, silk, thread, and chambray. Legal materials include deeds, insurance information, tax documents, and other information related to land tracts owned by Crouch. While most of the materials are Moses Crouch's papers, there are also documents for George Long, Andrew Crouch, and John Crouch. Early materials from 1802, 1821, and 1830 consist of land indentures. Also included are two account ledgers, from 1839 to 1899 and from 1853 to 1870, that record purchases of grains such as flour, corn, flax, and wheat by the pound and by the bushel and note payments on accounts.

Papers of the Nathan Ochs family of Shelby and Jefferson County, Kentucky, document the family history from the late nineteenth century to the early twentieth century and chiefly concern his children. Letters from siblings Simon, Nathan Jr., and Sallie Ochs are written from Kentucky to their brother, Charles, in California between 1884 and the early 1900s. Topics chiefly include the weather, their farms (crops, animals, and farm workers), family news, and their mother's illness and death. Genealogical records document the history of the family beginning with Nathan Ochs, who was born in Germany in the 1820s. These materials include naturalization papers for Nathan Ochs, genealogical charts for his descendants, and a narrative history of the family written by Shirley A. Ochs Cocke in 1970.