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Papers of a resident of Glenville include a notebook containing measurements of lumber, a memo book of logs sold, a tally book of rafts floated down the Little Kanawha River, a stock certificate in the Gilmer County Fair Association, and West Virginia Department of Agriculture statistics for 1920.

Correspondence and other papers of Kemble White, one-time law partner of A.B. Fleming, specialist in oil and gas law, counsel for the West Virginia subsidiaries of Standard Oil (Hope Natural Gas, South Penn Oil, and Eureka Pipeline), charter member of the West Virginia Oil and Natural Gas Association, veteran of the Spanish-American War, one-time president of the West Virginia Bar Association; and the West Virginia University Alumni Association. Additional items include: White's notebooks from language and accounting classes taken at the University; correspondence dealing with Mrs. White's gardening activities; drafts of White's proposals for constitutional revision in West Virginia; a Spanish-American War Muster-roll for Company M, 2nd West Virginia Volunteers; and two diaries (ca.1868). Subjects include: oil, land titles and leases; Fairmont Coal and Coke Company; Twin Mountain Orchards; Monongahela Valley Traction Company; Twin Mountain and Potomac Railroad; West Virginia political campaigns; and constitutional revision in West Virginia. Correspondents include: Luther Anderson, Carl G. Bachman, Fred Blue, John C. Bond, Linn Brannon, William E. Chilton, J.J. Cornwell, J.S. Darst, Wells Goodykoontz, Howard M. Gore, J.W. Harman, John H. Hatcher, Henry D. Hatfield, Frank C. Haymond, Rush D. Holt, Guy Kump, Howard B. Lee, M.M. Neely, Okey L. Patteson, William H. Sawyers, E.B. Stephenson, Robert Taft, and L. Judson Williams.

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.

Papers of Hu Maxwell (1860-1927), historian, editor, and author of several county histories of West Virginia, along with papers and records of other family members. There are manuscripts of fiction, verse, and local history written by Maxwell, as well as a number of his manuscripts and publications dealing with forestry which were prepared while he was a member of the Forest Service of the United States Department of Agriculture. Maxwell kept a diary during the years 1901-1919 while residing in Morgantown, Chicago, Illinois, and Washington, D.C., which is extensive for the period of World War I and which contains notes on the diary of Rufus Maxwell (1855-1907). See scope and content note for more detail.

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).

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.

A revised and indexed transcript copy of an interview with Dr. O.C. Stine, an expert in agricultural economics who was employed with the Department of Agriculture from the Progressive Era to that of the Fair Deal. Stine tells of his childhood on a farm in Jackson County, WV, his subsequent education in small town southeastern Ohio where his family moved, and his attendance and graduation from Ohio University with a bachelors in liberal arts and education. After teaching briefly on the secondary level agricultural vocation courses, he attained a masters in agricultural economy at the University of Wisconsin. Upon graduation he went to work in Washington, DC for the Bureau of Agricultural Economics, a statistically based research and survey branch of the U. S. Department of Agriculture. There he pioneered in the establishment of professionalized statistic keeping and in creating accurate economic forecast indicators. He was also helpful in the creation of various and changing proposals for parity farm price support programs. Privately, he was a founder of the Agricultural History Society. Of note, he mentions much interaction with the New Deal agency, Agricultural Adjustment Administration, and his opinion of it. He talks about an official trip to the Soviet Union, Nazi Germany, and Fascist Italy before World War II and comments on agriculture, the economy and society in Europe. Also he gives a candid evaluation of the Arthurdale project. Prominent names mentioned are: William J. Bryan, Calvin Coolidge, Howard M. Gore, Herbert Hoover, Benito Mussolini, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Theodore Roosevelt, Gray Silver, and Henry Wallace.

Papers mainly related to the Civil War in southern West Virginia, including correspondence, maps, photographs, newspaper clippings, muster rolls, and other material. Highlights of the collection include material regarding Captain John V. Young of the 11th West Virginia Volunteer Infantry; Captain James S. Cassady of the 7th West Virginia Cavalry; Captain W.D. Thurmond and his company of Partisan Rangers; and the 8th and 13th West Virginia Volunteer Infantry units. The collection is organized into seven series, including: 1. Correspondence (1841-1888, undated); 2. Maps (1861-1935, undated); 3. Miscellaneous (1851-1867); 4. Photographs (undated); 5. Sketches (1898, undated); 6. Newspaper Clippings (1861-1938, undated); and 7. Muster Rolls (1864, undated).