Collections

Start Over Subjects Slaves and slavery. Level Collection

Felix G. Hansford Papers 0.1 Linear Feet 1/2 in. (1 folder)

Hansford, Felix G.

Correspondence, business and legal papers, and Justice of the Peace documents of Felix G. Hansford, Kanawha County J.P., entrepreneur, and President of the Giles, Fayette, and Kanawha Turnpike.

  1. West Virginia and Regional History Center

Fletcher Brock Papers 0.25 Linear Feet Summary: 2 1/2 in. ( 1 document case)

Brock, Fletcher
Papers of Fletcher Brock, a Pennsylvania legislator from Blacksville, and of his family. Mainly correspondence between Fletcher and his son H.W. about medical schools, health problems, and family news. There are also letters to and from Fletcher Brock about local and national political issues such as temperance, slavery, roads, and elections.
  1. West Virginia and Regional History Center

Fox Family Papers 0.1 Linear Feet Summary: 1/2 in. (2 folders)

Fox family

Letters and business papers of the Fox family, centered on William and Vause Fox; there are accounts showing prices for goods and services in the first decades of the nineteenth century, including hides and leather, surveying, field labor, and weaving; items on Negroes and slavery, the Literary Society of Romney; and letters from Virginians who had taken up western lands.

  1. West Virginia and Regional History Center

Fox Family Papers 0.1 Linear Feet Summary: 1/2 in. (1 folder)

Fox family

Papers centering upon Williams and Vause Fox, Hampshire County; including indentures, patents a slave deed, return of supplies and regimental orders of the 77th Regiment of Virginia Militia, accounts for farm implements and household supplies; names mentioned include Johnson Barkelow, and William and George Calmes; the land papers bear the signatures of Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, James Wood, and Thomas Randolph.

  1. West Virginia and Regional History Center

Frances Packette Todd Papers 20.67 Linear Feet Summary: 20 ft. 8 in. (44 document cases, 5 in. each); (4 document cases, 2 1/2 in. each); (1 small flat storage box, 3 in.); (3 large flat storage boxes, 3 in. each); (1 large box, 6 in.)

Todd, Frances Packette, 1901-1987
Correspondence, photographs, post cards, newspapers, pamphlets (regarding typical antebellum and postbellum topics such as slavery, states rights, etc.), official records including the 1793 marriage license for Lund Washington (George Washington's cousin) and Susanna Grayson, a 1732 shipping order for items, including gold and silver, to be transported from Delaware to London, a 1837 document authorizing payment of a navy pension to the children of Lt. John Packette, and memorabilia of a prominent Jefferson County family, the Davenport-Gibson-Packette-Todds. The bulk of the correspondence is that of Mrs. Frances Packette Todd, Braxton Davenport (Port) Gibson, Susan G. (Zan) Gibson and Mrs. Anne Gibson Packette. Mrs. Todd was an heiress who travelled much in her youth and she was married to a distant cousin, Augustine J. Todd, who, like her, also claimed descent from George Washington's family. Her aunt, Zan Gibson, was an active local historian and genealogist. Her uncle B. D. (Port) Gibson was a lawyer who was a state legislator at the turn of the century. There are letters and artifacts of his days as a student at the University of Virginia where he was quite popular and an esteemed member of the rowing team. There are also several letters of his sisters, Anne and Zan, from a private French school in Canada. There is a shell jacket of a Confederate uniform belonging to Mrs. Todd's grandfather, John Thomas Gibson. He was a non-commissioned officer serving in an engineering unit of the CSA Army which was stationed around Richmond near the end of the Civil War. Gibson also commanded militia units during John Brown's raid on Harpers Ferry in 1859. There are letters of his concerning the hiring out of slaves before and during the war. After the war he once again became successful in business and built a mansion in Charles Town upon the site where John Brown was executed. One other prominent family member was Capt. James Gibson who served in a Virginia infantry regiment stationed at Norfolk during the War of 1812. Subjects covered include family matters, politics, land, slavery, education and warfare.
  1. West Virginia and Regional History Center

Frederick B. Lambert, Collector and Compiler, Papers 1.76 Linear Feet Summary: 1 ft. 9 in. (9 items in 1 folder, 0.1 in.); (12 reels of microfilm, 1.75 in. each)

Lambert, Fred B., 1873-1967

Historical and genealogical notebooks, notes on census reports, cemetery readings, newspaper history, copies of church and school records, notes on slavery, newspaper clipping scrapbooks, and correspondence.

  1. West Virginia and Regional History Center

Fred T. Newbraugh, Collector, Papers regarding Berkeley Springs 0.08 Linear Feet 2 folders, 1 in. total

Newbraugh, Fred T.

Material includes signed letter from David H. Strother to Perley Poore, Berkley Springs, March 25, 1858; lottery ticket for town lot in Bath, 1814; Porte Crayon autograph, and a slave list, Berkley County. Photostats of material in the Library of Congress include an signed letter from William Wirt to his daughter, August 31 1823 on Berkeley Springs; Thomas Jefferson to Mr. Rodney Washington, December 8, 1808 in regard to gambler Thomas Bailey's assault on Jefferson's secretary; portion of a Journal of President James K. Polk describing a visit to Bath in 1848; and a section of the journal of Samuel Vaughan noting a visit to Bath in 1787. The collection also includes a section of "Uria Brown's Journal" from the "Maryland Historical Magazine," volumes 11 and 12 (1915, 1916), detailing a visit to the springs at Bath.

  1. West Virginia and Regional History Center

Hays Family of Gilmer County, West Virginia Papers 0.4 Linear Feet Summary: 5 in. (1 document case, 5 in.)

Papers of the Hays family of Gilmer County, West Virginia, centering on Peregrine Hays and his son Samuel Hays. The collection includes Civil War related material; correspondence; financial, business, and legal records; and other material. The Civil War material includes a receipt for the sale of enslaved Africans, military orders, and records of financial transactions made in Confederate currency. The correspondence within the collection includes personal letters between members of the Hays family as well as correspondence with friends and acquaintances. The financial, business, and legal records within the collection include material regarding Peregrine Hay's postbellum financial difficulties. See "Historical Note" for further information.

  1. West Virginia and Regional History Center

Henry Ruffner (1790-1861) and William Henry (1824-1908) Papers 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.
  1. West Virginia and Regional History Center

Isaac McNeel (b.1830) Papers 3.7 Linear Feet Summary: 3 ft. 7 1/2 in. (8 document cases, 5 in. each); (1 small flat storage box, 3 in.); (1 account book, 1 1/2 in.)

McNeel, Isaac (b. 1830)
Correspondence, legal and business papers, mercantile records and tax receipt books of Isaac McNeel, who operated a store at Edray and Mill Point, Pocahontas County, West Virginia, served as sheriff of the county, operated a gristmill, raised livestock, and was appointed provost marshal of the county in 1862 by the Confederate Army. The collection also includes letters and school reports of McNeel's sons, Winters and Summers, while students at Washington and Lee and the Medical and Law Departments of the University of Virginia, 1893-1897. Other school material pertains to the Hillsboro Male and Female Academy and the Lewisburg Female Institute. Subjects include mercantile and cattle trade with Baltimore and Richmond; business conditions in the l850s and in Richmond during the Civil War; slave hiring; ginseng trade; agriculture; the American Party, 1855; Henry A. Wise; Virginia Secession Convention; effect of the Union blockade on Richmond commerce; speculation in whiskey, tobacco, and cattle during the Civil War; and postwar economic and political conditions in the Pocahontas County area.
  1. West Virginia and Regional History Center

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