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Start Over Date range 1933 Subjects Coal mining.

Justus Collins (1857-1934) Papers 23.3 Linear Feet Summary: 23 ft. 4 1/4 in. (56 document cases, 5 in. each); (1 oversize folder, 1/4 in.)

Collins, Justus, 1857-1934

Justus Collins [1857-1934] was an entrepreneur who opened his first coal mine in the Pocahontas- Flat Top coal field of Southern West Virginia, and thereafter operated mines in the New River, Tug River, and Winding Gulf coal fields. He headed a coal sales agency, speculated in coal and timber lands, headed a cement company, and was interested financially in rubber, oil, and gas companies. He played an important role in organizing the Tug River Coal Operators Association, the Winding Gulf Operators' Association, and the Smokeless Coal Operators Association of West Virginia.

  1. West Virginia and Regional History Center

Lewis Family Papers 6.9 Linear Feet Summary: 6 ft. 10 3/4 in. (14 document cases, 5 in. each); (1 folder, 1/4 in.); (1 oversize folder, 1/2 in.); (4 boxes, 12 in.)

Lewis family
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.
  1. West Virginia and Regional History Center

Major W. P. Tams, Jr. Transcript of an Interview 0 Linear Feet Summary: 1 folder

Tams, W. P., Jr. (William Purviance), 1883-1977
Transcript of an interview by Richard Hadsell with Major W.P. Tams, Jr., former mine operator in the Winding Gulf coal mining region. Tams discusses his early days in coal mining, the opening of the Kanawha coal region, and coal operators and union officials such as: E.J. Berwind, Joe Beury, George Collins, Jarius Collins, Justus Collins, John J. Cornwell, Samuel Dixon, Elias Hatfield, Troy Hatfield, Isaac Mann, S.T. Patterson, J.A. Renahan, James O. Watts, and George Wolfe. Other individuals mentioned include: Henry D. Hatfield, John L. Lewis, John Mitchell, Fred Mooney, Bob Patterson, and "Mother" Mary Jones. Tams also discusses the Winding Gulf Collieries, the Beaver Coal Co., the Smokeless Coal Field, the N&W Railroad, the C&O Railroad, the Virginian Railroad, Baldwin-Felts Detective Agency, unions and strikes, racial relations, blacks, scrip, company stores, Atwater, and Castner, Curran and Bullitt.
  1. West Virginia and Regional History Center

Monongah Mine Disaster Papers 0.45 Linear Feet Summary: 5 1/3 in. (1 small flat storage box, 3 in.); (1 folder, 1/2 in.); (1 oversize folder, 5 items); (1 reel of microfilm, 1.75 in.)

Jones, Carter D.
The collection consists of: a scrapbook containing newspaper clippings on the explosion at Monongah Mines No.6 and No.8 on 6 December 1907, rescue operations, the inquest, and mine law reforms; photographs of the disaster; maps of the interior of the mines; printed and typescript reports and pamphlets on mining operations; script of a 1952 television broadcast on the disaster; material on mine disasters in Alabama, Pennsylvania, and Illinois; and newspaper accounts of the agitation for the removal of Judge Alston G. Dayton; and on the imprisonment of Miss Fannie Sellins, a labor organizer.
  1. West Virginia and Regional History Center

Mrs. James R. Moreland, Director of Women's Work, Records regarding Monongalia County Relief Administration, Civil Works Administration, and Federal Emergency Relief Administration 1.96 Linear Feet 1 ft. 11.5 in. (4 document cases, 5 in.); (3 ledgers, 3.5 in.)

Monongalia County. Relief Administration
Correspondence, reports, and other records of the Monongalia County Relief Administration, the Civil Works Administration, and the Federal Emergency Relief Administration, from the office of the Director of Women's Work, Mrs. James R. Moreland. There are also two volumes of daily reports of the Lynchburg Coal and Coke Company, January-November, 1938.
  1. West Virginia and Regional History Center

Oscar Kubach Papers 1.8 Linear Feet 21 1/2 in. (3 document cases, 5 in. each); (2 document cases, 2 1/2 in. each); (1 flat storage box, 1 1/2 in.)

This collection of personal, business and financial papers, and photographs reflect Kubach's business interests and employment in West Virginia coal mines, Honduras gold and silver mines, and other activities. The correspondence, concentrated in the years 1885-87, concerns Kubach's responsibilities as secretary-treasurer of the Beury Coal & Coke Company of Stone Cliff, West Virginia, as well as personal and family matters. There are also thirty-six letters to Kubach written in German from 1818 to 1886. Among the business and financial papers are also several publicity circulars from the Honduras Mining Company, a gold and silver ore venture in which Kubach probably had a financial stake. An index to the correspondence is available.

  1. West Virginia and Regional History Center

Pardee and Curtin Lumber Company Records 8.25 Linear Feet 8 ft. 3 in. (33 flat storage boxes, 3 in. each)

Pardee-Curtin Lumber Company
Records of the Pardee and Curtin Lumber Company. Includes 55 account books in 9 series: 1) Bills Payable & Bills Receivable (1 item); 2) Cash Books (9 items); 3) Cashier's Check Registers (9 items); 4) Check Registers and Records (5 items); 5) Day Book (1 item); 6) Journals (8 items); 7) Ledgers (4 items); 8) Petty Cash Books (2 items); 9) Sales Books and Shipping Books (16 items). These records are from company offices in Clarksburg, Curtin, and Sutton, and from logging operations in Braxton, Nicholas, and Webster counties, including the Cherry Run, Hominy, Palmer, and Sutton Mills. There are also 43 photographs documenting logging and coal mining operations, including mills and railroads.
  1. West Virginia and Regional History Center

Paul Nyden, Collector, Five Unpublished Manuscripts Dealing with Coal Mining, Miners, and Unions 0.77 Linear Feet 9 1/4 in. (1 document case, 5 in.); (1 document case, 2 1/2 in.); (1 reel of microfilm, 1.75 in.)

Nyden, Paul

Five unpublished manuscripts relating to coal mining, miners, and unions, in Kentucky, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia.
(1) Tom Myerscough, Bloody Hell in Kentucky, circa 1932, a fictionalized account of the National Miners Union strike in Harlan County, Kentucky, in 1931. Myerscough became an organizer and then president of the National Miners Union.
(2) Adam Getto, Autobiography, 1975, an autobiography of his experiences as a union section leader at Bethlehem Steel's Ellsworth Mine in Bentleyville, Pennsylvania.
(3) Miriam Schultz, Bread Upon the Waters, circa 1970, a novel about coal miners in western Pennsylvania.
(4) Miriam Schultz, "Larry Corcoran," circa 1970, a short story about a coal miner in western Pennsylvania.
(5) Tony Sabo, Stripped Naked in Public, circa 1971, an autobiographical account about his life in coal towns in northern West Virginia and his work in the Welfare Rights Organization.
Microfilm contains copies of Autobiography, Stripped Naked in Public, and "Larry Corcoran."

  1. West Virginia and Regional History Center

Progressive Mine Workers of America, Archives 16.94 Linear Feet Summary: 16 ft. 11 1/4 in. (35 document cases, 5 in.); (2 ledger books, 2 1/2 in.); (3 bound volumes, 10 in.); (1 oversize folder, 1/4 in.); (2 artifact storage boxes, 3/4 in.); (8 reels of microfilm, 1.75 in. each)

Progressive Mine Workers of America

Records of the Progressive Mine Workers of America.

  1. West Virginia and Regional History Center

Rush Meadows Papers 23.4 Linear Feet 23 ft. 5 in. (52 document cases, 5 in. each); (7 large flat storage boxes, 3 in. each)

Meadows, Rush
Papers of Rush Meadows, a Charleston, West Virginia, mining engineer and mine operator, containing correspondence, maps, reports, and photographs on companies involved in coal, oil and gas production in Appalachia, the Rocky Mountain states, and Latin America.
  1. West Virginia and Regional History Center

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