Collections : [West Virginia and Regional History Center]

Personal and business papers of Arthur I. Boreman (1823-1896), lawyer, U.S. senator, circuit court judge, and first governor of West Virginia. The bulk of the collection consists of papers relating to his judgeship and to the law firm of Boreman and Bullocks, Parkersburg, WV. Series include correspondence, notes on cases tried before Judge Boreman, envelope cases of material regarding legal cases in which Boreman was involved, financial material, and political and judicial printed material. Correspondence includes letters to Boreman from Francis H. Pierpont (1866-1867), which concern politics in West Virginia, the admission of Berkeley and Jefferson counties into the state, the Virginia debt, and Reconstruction in Virginia. There is little other material relating to the governorship or political activities. Additional correspondents include J.W. Davis, John J. Davis, D.D.T. Farnsworth, D.H. Strother, J.G. Jackson, Charles J. Faulkner, and E.W. Wilson. Also includes manuscripts of speeches; muster rolls; household accounts; civil and court case papers concerning oil well drilling and sales; railroad property inventories and operation; coal prices, shipping data, and strikes; liquid fuel transportation; and steam and tow boat cargoes, navigation data, and names of boats in service on the Ohio River. There is also genealogical information on P.G. Van Winkle and Ebenezer Zane, and a letter and deposition by J.H. Diss Debar. For more details and box-level contents list, see Scope and Content Note. For more information on Arthur I. Boreman, see Historical Note.

Car record books of the Cabin Creek Consolidated Coal Company, in Kanawha and McDowell counties. Listed are consignees, serial numbers, types of cars, route, destination, and related information for the Acme, Empire, Buckeye, and Keystone mines.

Letter book from the office of Clark & Krebs, Civil and Mining Engineers, the partnership of Charles E. Krebs, James M. Clark, George R. Krebs, and J. Walter Morgan, of Charleston, WV. Included in the letterbox are land deeds, property inventories, lists of unpaid accounts and land leases, land and mine surveys, equipment bills, reports on the working costs of coal mines and oil production, instructions for the construction of bungalows and a water plant, business contracts, and a letter concerning Chesapeake & Ohio Railroad redeemable Tickets and Coupons. There is also mention of Charles E. Krebs, Inc., a blue print company owned by Charles E. Krebs.

Weekly compilations of photocopied news clippings prepared by the publicity department of Consolidation Coal Company. The clippings are taken from a wide variety of newspapers and document to a limited extent the coal industry nationally. Principally, however, the clippings focus on issues directly related to the company, the Bituminous Coal Operators Association, and the United Mine Workers of America, relying mainly on Ohio, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia newspapers.

Photocopy of eight page letter from John Spiker to his grandfather, Watson Tenney. In the letter, dated November 7, 1927, Spiker recounts his experience witnessing the Everettville Mine Disaster in Everettville, West Virginia, on April 30, 1927. He was on-site when the Federal No. 3 mine owned by New England Fuel and Transportation Company exploded and he took part in the immediate rescue effort.

Research papers of Festus P. Summers (1895-1971), a historian who served on the faculty of West Virginia University from 1932 to 1965 and as chairman of the history department from 1946 to 1962. Collection includes photocopied correspondence, articles, and typescripts, as well as manuscript notes. Many of the photocopies appear to have been made from Archives and Manuscript collections at the West Virginia and Regional History Center, including A&M 873, A&M 1661, A&M 1824, and A&M 2141. Topics include the West Virginia coal mine wars (1912-1927); West Virginia tax reform and economy (1900s-1950s); and individuals related to coal mining, labor, and legislation (1902-1971). These individuals include Van A. Bittner, W.E. Chilton, Justus Collins (President of Winding Gulf Colliery Company), Walter S. Hallanan, Henry D. Hatfield, M.M. Neely, C.E. Smith, and Walter R. Thurmond. Also included is a copy of a dissertation titled "Rush Dew Holt: The Boy Senator, 1905-1942," by William Ellis Coffey of WVU (1970), and a typescript copy of a manuscript by Dr. James Morton Callahan titled "History of West Virginia University: Problems and Policies." The Callahan typescript also includes annotations by Summers (ca. 1966).

Papers of the Goff family of Harrison County, West Virginia. This collection is minimally processed. Includes the papers of Nathan Goff III, grandson of Nathan Goff Jr. (1843-1920), as well as his daughter Laura Ellen Goff Fireman (later Davis). Also includes correspondence of Howard Caplan, the Administrator of the Estate of Nathan Goff III, and H. Dotson Cather, the brother-in-law of Mrs. Goff Fireman Davis who may have been involved in Goff's estate. Formats in the collection include correspondence, ephemera, programs, invitations, plats, photographs, clippings, and much more. Nathan Goff's correspondence includes mostly business but also some family and personal correspondence. Correspondence includes both incoming and typescript copies of outgoing letters, as well as a few cards and telegrams. Subjects include mines, farming, livestock (especially sheep and horses, with special concentration of Clydesdale material), politics, land, wells, oil and gas leases, Citizens Publishing Company, the Waldo Hotel, the Nicholas Land Company, West Virginia Consolidated Coal Company and its Hardman Mine, Illinois State Fair, engineering, books, finances, and more. Mrs. Goff Fireman Davis's correspondence mainly concerns her father's estate. There are also two folders of material pertaining to Nathan Goff Jr., mostly correspondence and financial information (box 1, folders 17-18, 1884-1919). See Historical Note for additional information.