Collections

Chronicle written by Hayden, Mayor of Fairmont, of his trip to the west coast. He describes the perils of a steamboat trip from Pittsburgh to Independence, Missouri, and the joys and hardships of travel by wagon across the Great Plains to California. Indian encounters, river crossings, inclement weather, scarcity of water, thieves, and firing squads are some of the topics noted.

A collection of court records, genealogies, historical sketches and other materials relating to Hampshire and Mineral counties in West Virginia and surrounding areas in Virginia and Maryland. Subjects include a naturalist description of the area and an early history of the region including Indians, white settlement, the French and Indian War and the American Revolution. There is material on the Civil War and World War I and World War II veterans.

Six page typescript by John L. Johnston, 1920, titled "Historical Notes, Ice's Ferry." Covering the time span of 1758-1920, the narrative locates and describes early settlements; roads; forts; Indian trails, villages and tribes; industries; the land office; and men and families prominent in the development of Monongalia County. Mention is made of the proposed construction of the dam and recreation area on the Cheat River.

ALS from Capt. John Pomroy of Clarks Station, Crooked Creek, PA to Gen. Anthony Wayne, commander of the U.S. Army's Western Dept., penned during the height of the last frontier war in the Upper Ohio Valley. Capt. Pomroy reports upon the recent activities of his command and requests further instructions asking specifically whether or not a militia should be drafted for a future campaign. Pomroy estimates that he could raise "between two and three hundred men for a volunteer expedition...if peace is not concluded with the Indians."

Letters of Henry and Joseph Bennett concerning travel by sea from New York to Chagres, Panama, overland across Panama and by ship to San Francisco in 1851. Letters from California, 1852-1853, discuss arrival of immigrants; employment conditions and wages; gambling and social life in San Francisco; investment opportunities; conditions in the gold mines; travel by steamboat to Hangtown (Placerville); churches; crime; Indians; mining profits; cost of land; ranching; blacksmith and plough shop in Santa Clara; digging a canal to take water from the American River to supply Hangtown, Coon Hollow, and Gold Hill; and Webber Run. Two letters by Joseph Bennett from Australia in l853 comment on mining, living conditions, profits of mining, and criminals sent from Great Britain. There is one 1849 letter to Samuel Bennett from relatives in Sheffield, England. There are several items of Jacobs family correspondence, 1880-1923, concerning family affairs, schools, economic conditions in Jackson County, and Monongalia County taxes in 1907.

The interviews, correspondence, notes and reports of a Wisconsin based, New York born antiquarian and early researcher of frontier history. Lyman C. Draper's manuscripts were willed to the Wisconsin State Historical Society where he had been its corresponding secretary and instrumental in its development. Microfilm was produced by the society of his papers and made available for purchase to libraries because of their significance for studying the Eastern frontier and its pioneers. Draper had originally planned to publish on the basis of these manuscripts a series of books on frontier history and biographies of famous pioneers. Only one was published, King's Mountain and Its Heroes. Draper, in his writings, generally reflected biases common to white male Americans of the nineteenth century but he collected many documents and interviewed women, Native Americans, and African Americans connected with the frontier and their descendents. Indeed he had collected enough material that he had decided to write biographies of chiefs: Tecumseh and Joseph Brant. Other materials for biographies are of white frontier notables such as Daniel Boone, George Rogers Clark, Lewis Wetzel, Simon Kenton, and Samuel Brady. His papers are also organized regionally with holdings encompassing an area bordered by the western parts of Virginia and the Carolinas and portions of Georgia and Alabama, encompassing the entire Ohio River Valley, and part of the upper Mississippi Valley from the era of frontier conflicts in the 1740's and 1750's to the American Revolution and the War of 1812.

Sketches of pioneer life on the Virginia frontier (what is now central West Virginia) in the late eighteenth century including the exploits of pioneers and Indian fighters such as Jacob Reger, Sam Hughs and Joseph and Joel Martin. White comments on the activities of the company, Confederate sympathies and activities of various citizens, the Ringgold Raiders, and the Confederate scout, John Righter.