Search

One leaf with a different message on each side. The first is a letter to Clark from Joel Davidson of Ice's Ferry, West Virginia, promoting a folk-medicine cancer cure. En verso is a letter written by Clark to Lyman Robbins requesting a subscription to a dairy farming newspaper. Clark, a Bridgeport, Ohio, cheesemaker, mentions selling cheese to Union soldiers.

Correspondence, legal and business papers, mercantile records and tax receipt books of Isaac McNeel, who operated a store at Edray and Mill Point, Pocahontas County, West Virginia, served as sheriff of the county, operated a gristmill, raised livestock, and was appointed provost marshal of the county in 1862 by the Confederate Army. The collection also includes letters and school reports of McNeel's sons, Winters and Summers, while students at Washington and Lee and the Medical and Law Departments of the University of Virginia, 1893-1897. Other school material pertains to the Hillsboro Male and Female Academy and the Lewisburg Female Institute. Subjects include mercantile and cattle trade with Baltimore and Richmond; business conditions in the l850s and in Richmond during the Civil War; slave hiring; ginseng trade; agriculture; the American Party, 1855; Henry A. Wise; Virginia Secession Convention; effect of the Union blockade on Richmond commerce; speculation in whiskey, tobacco, and cattle during the Civil War; and postwar economic and political conditions in the Pocahontas County area.

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.

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).

Yearly diaries in 39 volumes by Sarah Morgan McKown of Berkeley County, West Virginia, regarding everyday domestic and agricultural activities, local auctions, births, weddings, deaths, emigrations, churches, and religious activities. Also mentioned are the Civil War and its personalities. An index to the Sarah Morgan McKown diaries can also be found in the control folder--includes errata, pages missed on microfilming.