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David Boston Stewart (1826-1915), a farmer from Monongalia County, West Virginia, who served with the 48th Virginia Infantry and the 20th Virginia Cavalry during the Civil War and was a member of the Virginia Legislature from 1863 to 1864. Collection primarily consists of letters written to D.B. Stewart between 1862 and 1864 and between 1894 and 1906 that concern Stewart's time as a Confederate prisoner of war during the Civil War, and his personal life in the 1890s and early 1900s.

Personal and business papers of the Lewis family, mainly of John D. (1800-1882), Charles C., Sr. (b.1839), and Charles C., Jr. (b.1865), of Kanawha County. For the period 1825-1875 there are papers of various members of the Ruffner, Dickinson, and Wilson families of West Virginia, Virginia, Ohio, Kansas, Missouri, and other states. The business papers relate to farming operations, the purchase and sale of slaves, salt manufacturing and trade, the Old Sweet Springs Company, coal, iron, oil, lumbering, railroads, and real estate in Kanawha, Clay, Boone, Fayette, and Nicholas counties. There are newspaper clippings, speeches, and other papers reflecting the Lewis' interests in the Democratic Party in the period 1914-1920. Settlement papers and correspondence regarding the estates of John D. Lewis, and Joel, Daniel, and Andrew Ruffner are in the collection. The personal papers include diaries, scrapbooks, photographs, and letters. Travel accounts in the United States, South America, and Europe are given in the correspondence, as well as comments on schools in West Virginia and Virginia; the building of a church in Kanawha County in 1834; missionary work in Colombia, South America, 1874-1875; Civil War and postwar conditions in Virginia, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Kentucky, and Missouri; conditions at Camp Chase, in the Civil War; and material relating to World War I.

Papers of the Tavenner family of western Virginia, including correspondence, newspaper clippings, maps, and other material. Much of the material in this collection regards the Civil War. The Tavenner family was sympathetic to the Confederate cause. One member of the family, William Cabell Tavenner, served in the Confederate army; his letters are part of the collection. This collection also contains material related to families allied to the Tavenner family by marriage, particularly the Withers family, including material regarding Alexander Scott Withers and his book Chronicles of Border Warfare . The collection is organized into six series, including: 1. Genealogy (1868-1952); 2. Correspondence (1778-1953); 3. Maps (1863, 1939, undated); 4. Miscellaneous (1822-1950, undated); 5. Newspaper Clippings (1829-1931); and 6. Oversize Materials (1829-1861). Please see "Scope and Content Note" and "Historical Note" for further information.

Correspondence and miscellaneous papers of: a Monroe County, West Virginia, farmer and politician; his wife, Harriette Boswell Alexander; their daughters, Isabel and Alice Beulah; Alice's husband, Frank Hereford, U.S. senator from West Virginia; and his daughter, Katherine Hereford Stoddard. There is one folder of business papers, 1820-1841, of Thomas Edgar; a few letters from Caperton's son, John, while a cadet at the Camp of Instruction, Richmond, 1861; a folder of letters concerning Isabel's trips through the American West, the British Isles, and Europe; and a folder on family genealogy. Subjects include mid-nineteenth century life in Union, Monroe County; the excitement in Virginia following John Brown's raid; Washington, D.C., and the slavery controversy, 1860; the secession crisis in Virginia; impressment of material in Monroe County by Union troops; the effect of the war on the social and economic life of Richmond; work of the Ladies Relief Hospital in Lynchburg; and the aftermath of war in Virginia.