Collections

Letters from John Ruff, Lexington, Virginia, to his son-in-law, John D. Martin, a Methodist clergyman stationed in Lewistown, Pennsylvania; Salem, Lewisburg, Front Royal and Leesburg, Virginia; and Baltimore, Maryland. Also one letter from Martin to his wife, Susan, dated Lewisburg, Virginia, 1841. Subjects include Methodism and meetings in the Lexington-Covington area, slavery controversy within the Methodist Church and in particular the Baltimore Conference, and farming in Lexington, Virginia.

Book manuscripts by John Edmund Stealey III, Distinguished Professor of History at Shepherd University. Born of a prominent Clarksburg family, Stealey is known generally for his work on West Virginia and Appalachia including industrial slavery, antebellum business and industry, nineteenth century United States legal history. He has extended his research and publication range to include early Porfirian Mexico and Civil War era constitutionalism, African American life, and political development in the Border States. Collection includes galley proofs of The Antebellum Kanawha Salt Business and Western Markets (1993). An addendum of 2000/09/19 includes the final manuscript, typescript, and galley proof versions of Stealey's book Kanawhan Prelude to Nineteenth-Century Monopoly in the United States (2000), and galley proof of his book The Antebellum Kanawha Salt Business and Western Markets (1993). An addendum of 2007/08/27 includes a manuscript copy and final proof copy of Porte Crayon's Mexico: David Hunter Strother's diaries in the early Porfirian era, 1879-1885, edited and authored by John E. Stealey, and floppy discs (2005-2006). For more information about these books, see Scope and Content Note.

Interviews with and reviews of the fiction of Julia Davis, a member of a prominent Harrison County family whose most distinguished member was her father, John W. Davis, the 1924 Democratic Presidential candidate. In the interviews she tells of the influence upon her career of Melville Davisson Post and of the historic activities of her family, particularly before and during the Civil War. Her maternal grandparents, who resided in Jefferson County, observed the trial and execution of John Brown. Based upon their memoirs and those of their neighbors she wrote a successful play for the West Virginia centennial, "The Anvil" about the Brown raid and trial. There are also two reviews of the body of her literature emphasizing its historical nature and its sympathetic but realistic exploration of the dialectical tensions between minorities and the dominant group in America.

County court records consisting primarily of court case papers, related court record books (dockets, execution books, fee books, witness books, etc.), and public records concerning a variety of topics including land records, schools, and marriages. There are also a few private account books relating to various local industries, including salt, mining, sawmills, steamboats, and general stores.

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.

Diary of Luke Wilcox, a Kanawha County farmer, merchant, salt well and furnace owner and operator, written in memorandum form except for scattered entries giving more information on specific subjects, such as the weather, churches and ministers, farm operation, travel, salt wells and furnaces, slaves, names of personal and business correspondents, coal, and land purchases. There is also an addendum regarding the Wilcox family bible. See "Scope and Contents" for additional information.

Group of six manuscript documents, 26 total pages, dated 1827-1830, regarding a court case, Benjamin Green vs. Robert Kelly, involving the determination of a slave's value for one year of work in Lewisburg, Greenbrier County. List of documents: 1) deposition of Benjamin Green making charge, 4 pp., 1827; 2) depositions of John Duffield, Robert Duffield, and others, 8 pp., 10/9/1828; 3) deposition of Duffield, 4 pp., 8/29/1829; 4) summation of case, 2 pp., n.d.; 5) court decision, 4 pp., 6/17/1830; 6) accounting of interest and labor, 4 pp., 11/1/1830. There are transcripts for documents two and six.

Two copy books and two loose leaves by Martin Browne, a land owner who lived near Red House Shoals on the north bank of the Kanawha River in Union District, Putnam County, Virginia (now West Virginia). Martin Browne was a native of Leeds, York County, England, and immigrated to America around 1785 to 1787. He operated a tavern near Winchester, Virginia until about 1808, when he moved to Red House Shoals. The copy books in this collection date from 1810 to 1833 when he was living in western Virginia and include primarily correspondence; the main correspondents are family members and his friend Thomas Stribling of Winchester, Virginia; topics include business transactions involving land, money, and slaves, as well as personal matters involving his family. Entries are detailed and literate. Copy book 1 (28 pages) dates from 1810 to 1814; copy book 2 (25 pages) dates from 1817 to 1833 (the pages of copy book 2 are not in clear chronological order). There are also two loose leaves regarding a slave sale in Frederick County, Virginia (1805), and a land sale in Mason County, Virginia (1806) respectively.

Contains material regarding George Washington and the Washington family, including the order book of the 8th U.S. Regiment stationed at Harper's Ferry, Virginia (1799-1800); typescript regarding Harewood, residence of Washington's brother (undated); New York Times article regarding observation of Washington's birthday (1862); and material regarding the genealogy of the Washington family (1891-1931). Also contains receipt for purchase of slave (1864); genealogy regarding the Forrest family and other families (undated); and a deed for a cemetery plot (1884). Please see "Scope and Content Note" for further information as well as information regarding an addendum to this collection.