Collections : [West Virginia and Regional History Center]

West Virginia and Regional History Center

West Virginia & Regional History Center
West Virginia University
P.O. Box 6069
1549 University Avenue
Morgantown, WV 26506
Primary Collecting Areas:
West Virginia and Appalachia History and Culture
Description:
The West Virginia & Regional History Center preserves and provides access to the records that document the history and culture of the state and the central Appalachian region. The Center is part of West Virginia University Libraries.
POC: Lori Hostuttler
Phone: (304) 293-3536
Start Over Repository West Virginia and Regional History Center Subjects Missionaries Level Collection

Adolphus P. Howard Papers, 1850/1938 0.4 Linear Feet 5 in. (1 document case)

Howard, Adolphus P.

Includes business and personal correspondence, accounts, legal papers, bank statements, maps, etc. Business correspondence, 1850-1938, include letters concerning A. P. Howard's various business enterprises; farm, livestock, fruit and produce, Wellsville, Ohio; printing firm, Columbus, Ohio; tannery, Corry, Penna.; bank and metal works, Pittsburgh, PA; farm, Congo, WV; subscription agent in Wellsville, Ohio for National Era, Washington, D.C. Earlier letters are to A. G. DeSellem, an uncle, including several concerning missionary work and anti-slavery activities; mention is made of several colleges, Western Reserve, Oberlin, and a school in Albany.

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Adolphus P. Howard Papers, 1854/1904 0.4 Linear Feet Summary: 5 in. (1 document case)

Howard, Adolphus P.

Includes the wills of A. P. Howard, Corry, Pennsylvania; 1897, and Sarah H. Howard, Wellsville, N. Y., correspondence, reports, leases, tax receipts, and mortgage. Information on J. W. Howard and Hugh H. McCullough estates. Copy of Bradstreet's report on the University Company of Olympia, Washington and J. R. Chaplin, manager of the Company. Also, report on various business enterprises and financial standing of A. P. Howard. Some correspondence of Edward Spencer and tax receipts for land in Kansas. One copy of "The Practical Engineer," John Wallace, Pittsburgh, Penna., 1865, and one copy of "The Popular Educator," Vols. III and IV, London, N. C.

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Clarence Norwood Weems, Commemorative Booklet for Christian Missionary Work in Korea, 1939 6.96 Gigabytes 70 .tif files

Digital copy of a commemorative booklet honoring Christian missionary work of Clarence Norwood Weems in Korea. The book is titled "In Commemoration of Thirty Years of Missionary Service of C. N. Weems, 1939." Includes text and many photographs. The photographs appear to date mainly from the 1930s.

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David R. Preston Diary, 1828/1829 0.1 Linear Feet Summary: 1/2 in. (1 folder)

Preston, David R.
Manuscript diary of David R. Preston, Presbyterian minister and missionary assigned to Pensacola, Florida, and St. Charles, Missouri, 1828-1829, containing information on the number of missionaries and regularly assigned ministers of the Presbyterian, Methodist, and Episcopal churches in the areas, the number of church services held, attendance and interest of the congregations, organization of Bible classes, and Sunday schools. Preston also preached to black congregations and comments on their attendance and attitude. There is comment on the Roman Catholic Church, its activities, means to combat its influence, and its social and business life. Preston also held services in the Escambia River area of Alabama. Names of people living in the areas are given as well as descriptions of land and business enterprises, and opinions concerning future settlement and economic development. The names of U.S. Navy ships in the Pensacola harbor are mentioned with comments on the officers, condition of the ships, and discipline maintained. Conditions and cost of travel by stage and boat are commented on with accounts of Preston's journeys from Philadelphia to Pensacola, and from Pensacola to St. Charles.
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George H. McGrew Papers, 1865/1885 0.4 Linear Feet Summary: 5 in. (1 document case)

McGrew, George H.
Correspondence, sermons, religious writings, and accounts of a graduate of Wesleyan University and Harvard Law School, Methodist missionary to India (ca.1876-1885), and son of Representative James Clark McGrew of Kingwood. Subjects include West Virginia politics; social activities in Kingwood; conditions in the Indian mission field; nautical improvements tested at the Brooklyn Navy Yard, 1879; Northwestern University; and the Republican National Convention of 1880.
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Gravely and Moore Studio, Photography Business in Charleston, Negatives, 1860/1969, bulk 1930/1945 14.79 Linear Feet 32 document cases, 5 in. each; 1 index card box, 15 in.; 1 document case, 2.5 in (box 25a)

Gravely and Moore Studio
Negatives and other material from the Gravely and Moore Studio of Charleston, West Virginia. The majority of items within the collection are cellulose acetate negatives; the collection also includes glass plate negatives, prints, two photograph albums, and other material, as well as a card catalog documenting business transactions with customers. The collection is organized into customer project files as established by the Studio; the contents of these files are stored in envelopes usually containing one or two negatives, but they can contain up to a dozen or more. There are approximately 3,500 customer project files containing an estimated 11,000 items, most of which are negatives. The majority of photographs within the collection are portraits of individual adults. Other subjects include portraits of children; group photographs; businesses and advertising; members of the military; civil servants; civic organizations; missionaries; and aerial photographs, among others.
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Henry Ruffner (1790-1861) and William Henry (1824-1908) Papers, 1829/1913 0.15 Linear Feet Summary: 1 3/4 in. (1 reel of microfilm (310 items), 1.75 in.)

Pamphlets include Henry Ruffner's antislavery pamphlet, 1847, and his Union speech, 1856. Subjects of the manuscripts and correspondence include family history; travel; Kanawha Salt Works; schools in Virginia and Kanawha County; Lane Seminary Library; Presbyterian Church; slavery, coal, gas, iron, and timber; Johns Hopkins, Washington and Lee, Harvard, Hobart, Cornell, and Hampden-Sydney colleges; Greenbrier County; Alabama; election of 1904; University of Virginia; Kanawha Valley floods; Venezuela; American Colonization Society; and the Philippine Islands. Persons mentioned or commented on include Philip Doddridge, John Letcher, Hugh Mercer, and Nelson A. Miles. Correspondents include Charles H. Ambler, John Eaton, John P. Hale, H.R. Helper, W.S. Laidley, David L. Ruffner, John W. Wayland, and William L. Wilson.
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John Wade Kidwell Family, African Missionary Correspondence of Dorothy E. O'Neal, 1950/2013 0.1 Linear Feet Summary: 3/4 in. (1 folder)

O'Neal, Dorothy E.
Correspondence and other material of missionary Dorothy E. O'Neal (1925-2012), a friend of Dessie Kidwell and family (see A&M 3823). She was the first missionary from St. John's United Methodist Church in Parsons, West Virginia, to accept foreign service. She worked as a medical missionary in the Belgian Congo during the 1950s and 1960s, and later moved back to the United States to continue working in the nursing field until her retirement. The collection includes typescripts (2012-2013), photographs of Dorothy and friends (1950s-1960s), correspondence (1950s-1960s), and a hand-carved African ivory letter opener. Correspondence includes manuscript letters from Dorothy during her missionary work (1955-1958). Her letters discuss her training in Belgium, trips in Europe, her missionary and medical work in a leper colony in the Congo, and cultural observations.
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Lewis Family Papers, 1825/1936 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.
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