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Diary of Margaret V. "Jennie" Watson, a resident of northern West Virginia, with most entries dating from 1877 to 1879 during the period of her single life. These entries provide a glimpse of the day-to-day life of the author, including giving music lessons, sewing, entertaining, traveling by horse-drawn carriages and trains, and her courtship with Clarence Smith, whom she married on 21 May 1879. A 26 June 1877 entry mentions the "Mystics" having a "Grand Meeting" at Governor Pierpont's. On 22 July 1877 she mentions the "railroad war" being "hot" in Pittsburg [Pittsburgh]; the following day's entry refers to a depot near Philadelphia being burned by a mob of strikers while women and children were killed. She reports on 25 March 1878 of a lynching that occurred on 23 March involving a man named "Wallace"; he was lynched for the alleged murder of his sister-in-law, her 8 month old child, and a fifteen year old girl. Locations mentioned in the diary include towns in West Virginia (Barracksville, Clarksburg, Grafton, Fairmont, Mannington, Palatine, Phillipi, and Rivesville) and Pennsylvania (Bobtown, Carmichaels, East Liberty, Pittsburgh [Pittsburg], Washington, and Waynesburg).

Diary written in Fairmont by an unmarried daughter of Thomas Watson and Rebecca Haymond Watson, the youngest sister of James Otis Watson. Comments concern the Civil War, the Southern cause, Lincoln and his assassination, and the attitudes of Fairmont residents toward Southern sympathizers and returning Confederate soldiers.

The microfilm collection contains 10 diaries and inserted supplementary letters, clippings, and photographs kept by Presbyterian missionary Mary Behner during her years as the first director of The Shack, a settlement house in the Scotts Run Area of Monongalia County. In addition to the microfilm, there is an addendum to this collection dating from 2006. It includes a photograph album kept by Anna Santore DeLancy, who was a Sunday School teacher at the Shack, a Presbyterian neighborhood house operating in Pursglove, West Virginia. Anna was the recreation director after the founder Mary Behner Christopher left in 1938. The photographs document the people and activities of the Shack in the 1930s. There is also correspondence between Bettijane Burger and people who knew Mary Behner Christopher, and clippings regarding the history of the Shack, among other material.

Correspondence, financial papers, diaries, scrapbooks, newspaper clippings, and photographs relating to the Max Mathers family and Monongalia County, West Virginia. The activities of Anna DeGant Mathers, wife of Max Mathers, and Margaret Mathers Barrick, his daughter, as well as of Margaret's two sons, William Mathers Barrick and George Milton Barrick, Jr. are well represented in the family papers. Max Mather's own papers document his personal life, Republican party activities, genealogical and local history interests, and his participation in civil defense planning for Morgantown, as well as his service on the local selective service board. There are letters and financial records of earlier members of the Morgan family, mostly of the Civil War period and later, but including two early 19th century account books and some early letters. Some of the names of Morgan ancestors are Elijah Morgan, Elizabeth Morgan, H.M. Morgan, H.D. McGeorge, N.H. McGeorge, and John R. Morgan. Photographs are largely of the Mathers family, but there are a few of the 175th anniversary of Monongalia County, and the dedication of a monument to Col. Zackquill Morgan, ancestor of Mathers and founder of Morgantown. The newspaper clippings cover personal mentions of Max Mathers and his family as well as local history articles, local events, and the family's involvement in the search for missing soldiers after the Korean conflict. The scrapbook was put together by Eugene L. Mathers, Max Mathers' father, and documents Monongalia County events, 1838-1951. In addition, there is a collection of greeting cards covering the first half of the 20th century and a collection of broadsides going back to the 1850s.

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.

The collection consists of unrevised, bound proofs of an unpublished book, 'The Long Tunnel: A Coal Miner's Journal', by Arble (October 15, 1976) and a photocopy of his article, 'Notes from a Coal Mine,' published in the NEW YORK TIMES MAGAZINE, Jan. 12, 1975.

Personal, medical, and business papers, account books, and daily journals of a Harpers Ferry physician (d. 1883). Subjects include the practice of a small town doctor, his related business interests, and the education and careers of his children, three of whom became medical doctors. Included are the papers of William V. Marmion (1840-1922), who studied eye surgery in Vienna and established a practice in Washington, D.C. There are letters from George Marmion, acting surgeon and secretary of the National Home for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers, and letters of Robert A. Marmion (1844-1907), who was a naval surgeon and the first president of the Naval Medical School in Washington, D.C. Many of the letters, especially after 1883, are those of the Marmion heirs and are concerned with family, personal, and financial affairs. Some letters shed light on the condition of the gold market after the Civil War and family activities as prominent members of the Roman Catholic faith. There are a few fragmentary records regarding John Hancock Hall, a relative, who invented and patented the first American breechloading rifle in 1811. He was later hired by the government in 1819 to establish and operate a "rifle works" in close proximity to the federal armory at Harpers Ferry (see box 17).

Papers relating to the early development of Marietta and the Ohio Valley include the journal, 1784-1790, and correspondence, 1776-1824 (3 vols.), of a Revolutionary War officer and organizer of the Ohio Company, General Rufus Putnam; papers of Samuel Prescott Hildreth entitled: "Early Events in the Valley of Ohio, 1787 to 1847" (2 vols.); letter from Nathan Goodale to Rufus Putnam, 15 March 1788; journal of Joseph Buell, 1785-1789; and a journal of John Mathews, 1786 (holograph copy).

A genealogy of the Ordner family which indicates its relationship to the Carrolls of Carrolton, Maryland; and a Civil War diary of George W. Ordner of Company B, Fifth Regiment, West Virginia Cavalry, relating its movements, encampments, skirmishes and battles. His unit served mainly in West Virginia, fighting at Droop Mountain and driving the Confederates from Mercer County in the 1864 campaign.