Collections

Correspondence, legal papers, photographs, and printed materials of John W. Mason (1842-1917). Mason was a circuit court and state Supreme Court judge, member of the Virginia State Debt Commission, and commissioner of Internal Revenue. The general correspondence contains personal and business letters, as well as manuscript speeches, notebooks, and reports. The period while Mason was circuit judge is particularly sparse. Also includes Internal Revenue correspondence consisting of about 8,500 pages in letter press copy books. Roughly half of the collection is devoted to his legal papers and printed materials concerning law in general. Subjects include early development of the Republican Party in West Virginia; political campaigns in West Virginia from 1870-1916; Monongalia Academy; industrial development; Internal Revenue Service (1889-1893); the Virginia Debt question; early banking development in Grafton; and the development of coal companies, particularly around Fairmont. Correspondents include Arthur I. Boreman, A.W. Campbell, Stephen B. Elkins, Benjamin Harrison, Francis H. Pierpont, and others.

A ledger and financial records of Logan Osborne (1836-39) also containing the will of Balamm Osborne. The ledger contains accounts of an assortment of general store goods from perishables such as food and candles to durable goods such as tools and carriages. There are Osborne family deeds, land contracts and letters about family matters and debt (1808-89). There are early nineteenth century state bank script from Louisiana, Virginia, and North Carolina. There are land indentures and legal papers from eighteenth century Virginia, mainly of Matthew Rankin and Thomas Rutherford who contended for property in Ohio County. There is the thirty-eight page diary of Cleon Moore, a Confederate soldier from Charles Town. As a volunteer regiment member he was eyewitness and participant in the siege and capture of John Brown at Harpers Ferry. His unit was again called out prior to Virginia's secession resolution. He recounts their early maneuvering, stationing and being consolidated in the Virginia Second Cavalry which served at the First Battle of Bull Run. The account ends with the early 1862 campaigns in the Shenandoah Valley of General "Stonewall" Jackson. There is Civil War related material of Logan Osborne including records of loans to the Confederate government, letters to family and friends recounting and justifying the events and cause of the Confederacy and an 1861 January 28 broadside, entitled: "To The People of Jefferson County...", of Logan Osborne as a Unionist candidate to the Virginia Secession Convention. Also there are early West Virginia political papers pertaining to Jefferson County such as an attempt to move the county seat to Sheperdstown. Also included are George Shutt business letters and certificates as a geologist; certificates from the United Daughters of the Confederacy to Mary M. Shutt; and Osborne family history, genealogy and obituaries of descendents.

Correspondence of Elizabeth T. Mann, a farmer's widow of Ft. Spring, Greenbrier Co. The letters written to Mann describe family matters and farm home life during the late nineteenth century. The addendum of 2025 October 27 consists of assorted correspondence, estate papers, legal and financial paperwork, ledgers, and other material pertaining to the Mann and Hutchinson families, particularly James Mann, I.T. Mann, and Matthew Mann. Includes brochures, books, and other material related to tourism in and the history of Bramwell, WV, Bluefield, WV, and other West Virginia locations.

The Monongah Mines Relief Committee was formed to collect and distribute funds for the widows and children of the 362 victims of the explosions at Monongah Mines No.6 and No.8, Marion County, West Virginia, on 6 December 1907. The collection includes correspondence and individual case files. These files contain age and place of birth of each victim; dependents' names, ages, and places of residence; and amount of each relief payment. There is a record of all contributions to the Relief Committee, financial transactions with banks in Fairmont and Monongah, committee organization and reports, and correspondence with foreign embassies concerning relatives of deceased miners. There is also an agreement concerning the transfer of funds between the Monongah Relief Committee and the Disaster Relief Unit of the American Red Cross for the Barrackville Mine Disaster on 26 March 1925; and a volume regarding Braxton fire relief.

Correspondence and legal papers of a Preston County attorney who was counsel for the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. There is much material on cases tried by Crogan for banks, utilities, lumber, and coal companies.

Pictures and genealogical information on the Zinn and allied families, namely the Shafers, from France and Germany who eventually settled in West Virginia, particularly the line of George Zinn, a Revolutionary War veteran of Preston County. There are also two postcards of Williamstown, Wood County, West Virginia, and 108 photos of Morgantown, West Virginia, especially of the Farmers and Merchants Bank while C. Glenn Zinn was an executive, ca. 1742-1974. Addenda to the collection include: 1) Sixty-one glass lantern slides of a WWI flight squadron's activities, ca. 1917-1918; 2) postcards and travel memorabilia, ca. 1940s; 3) artifacts and illustrations featuring General Lee and "Stonewall" Jackson of the Confederacy during the Civil War, 1994-2002; 4) collectible liberty bell bank issued by the Second National Bank of Morgantown, undated (3 3/4 in. wide, 4 in. tall); 5) State of West Virginia Certificate for Edward W. Dering appointing him a member of the West Virginia Board of Embalmers and Funeral Directors, 1969; and 6) aerial view (11 in. x 16 in.) of Cheat Lake in the vicinity of the "old" bridge before the Interstate 68 bridge was built. Material covers the years 1742-2005.