Collections : [West Virginia and Regional History Center]

Papers of Samuel T.H. Holt, and other members of the Holt family of Philippi, West Virginia. There are deeds centering in Randolph, Barbour, and Tucker counties; correspondence; a medical prescription; and a clipping on Whitescarver Hall, Broaddus Institute, Philippi. Mention is made of the Wheeling Development Company.

Receipts for land, school, personal property, and road taxes in Kanawha and Putnam counties, 1863-1886 and 1898-1899; grade reports from the Wesleyan Female Institute, Staunton, Virginia, 1882, and from the Putnam County schools, 1904-1906; a printed souvenir list of the students and teacher at the intermediate school, Poca; two manuscript poems concerning the medical profession, 1879-1880; and other items. Index and table of contents are available in the 17th volume.

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).

Minute book, 1906-1923; medical care records, 1902-1922; and miscellaneous papers of a hospital founded at Hansford in 1886 by the Protestant Episcopal Church, Diocese of West Virginia. The hospital, designed to serve the medical and surgical needs of miners and railroad workers and their families, closed in 1923.

Original appraisement and account book pertaining to the estate of John S. Camden, 1862-1881. There are two ledgers of T.B. Camden, a physician, covering his medical practice in sixteen counties, listing private accounts, cost of medical care, insurance claims, and statements of Camden's income, 1865-1907. There is a scrapbook of clippings, numerous broadsides, and correspondence on professional and political activities of Camden including letters from friends regarding his dismissal as superintendent of the state hospital for the insane at Weston. The microfilm includes entries from the diary of Thomas S. Feamster, a Confederate soldier, noting troop movements in Greenbrier County, 1861, 1864-1865, and entries from the commonplace book of Theodore Woodridge.

Letters written by various members of the Varner family in Gilmer County and Baltimore, Maryland, and a number of letters of S.W. Varner, a physician in Kingwood, relating to his medical practice. Included is a letter from M.O. Dawson who is running for governor soliciting names of Republican voters. Subjects covered include death, illness, and news in the family, and West Virginia state politics.

Papers relating to the Wilson, Lewis, and Ruffner families of Prince Edward County, Virginia, Kanawha County, [West] Virginia, St. Charles County, Missouri, and Fairfield County, Ohio. Correspondence between Nathaniel V. Wilson and Dr. Goodridge Wilson, concerning land purchases, preparation for the settlement of the family, care of livestock, employment of slaves, salt making and marketing, and the market price of salt. Other members of the family migrated to St. Charles County, Missouri, and to Fairfield County, Ohio, and land prices, suitable crops, settlement and railroad building in Missouri comprise much of their correspondence. A third generation member of the family, Virgy Wilson Hall and her husband, John G. Hall, were missionaries in Matamoras, Mexico, and Colombia, South America, and her correspondence with her mother comments on living conditions, progress of the missionary work, revolution in Colombia, and health and living conditions of the residents of the Barranquilla area. In addition there is a will of Col. Charles Lewis, a series of letters between two doctors concerning health problems and treatment of various illnesses, and two diaries by Mrs. Daniel Ruffner, 1846, and Elizabeth Ruffner Wilson, 1871-1872, commenting on family life and community activities in Fairfield County, Ohio, and Kanawha County, [West] Virginia. All are photocopies. Material covers the years 1774-1942.