Collections

Contracts, correspondence, records, agreements, circulars, reports, proceedings, and pictures of AFGWU Locals 536 and 95 of Morgantown, West Virginia. Some of the material relates to glass workers at the Beaumont Glass Company of Morgantown.

Papers of Asa Philip Randolph, a prominent civil rights and labor leader, who founded and edited The Messenger, an influential black radical labor newspaper of the 1920s and who organized and presided over the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, the only independent, viable black trade union in the American labor movement. Much of the correspondence deals with raising subscriptions for The Messenger, gaining an International Charter as an independent affiliate to the American Federation of Labor and the early organizing strike actions against the Pullman Company. This correspondence emphasizes the difficulties of convincing black workers of the feasibility of an independent fledgling black trade union; the necessity of organizing black workers for the benefit of the whole labor movement; and the challenge of maintaining jurisdictional independence from competing trade unions with predominantly white membership, such as the Hotel Workers union. These letters also reflect Randolph's desire to attain full civil rights for blacks.

Correspondence, business and legal records, account books, news releases, clippings, and family papers and photographs of a U.S. Marshall (1916-1922); editor of the Fairmont TIMES (1925-1959) and Wheeling REGISTER (1933-1935); Democratic politician; member of the National Bituminous Coal Commission (1935-1939); and businessman. Subjects include: Smith's student days at Virginia Military Institute; West Virginia National Guard; Monongah Mine Relief Committee; Associated Press; Association Against the Prohibition Amendment; Eighteenth Amendment; presidential elections and national and state politics, 1916-1956; John W. Davis; Alfred E. Smith; post-World War I radicalism and reaction; Ku Klux Klan; United Mine Workers; National Miners' Union; labor conflict, 1920s; U.S. Railway Administration; New Deal agencies; and Mountain Lake Park, Maryland. Correspondents include Van A. Bittner, William E. Chilton, William G. Conley, John J. Cornwell, John W. Davis, Eugene V. Debs, James A. Farley, William Green, Averell Harriman, Homer Adams Holt, Rush Dew Holt, Hugh S. Johnson, Louis Johnson, Harley M. Kilgore, H.G. Kump, John L. Lewis, William A. MacCorkle, J. Howard McGrath, Clarence W. Meadows, M.M. Neely, Okey L. Patteson, Jennings Randolph, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Adlai E. Stevenson, Harry S. Truman, Clarence W. Watson, and James O. Watson. There are also papers of Clarence L. Smith (1850-1905), editor of the Fairmont INDEX (1889) and founder of the Fairmont TIMES (1900), which include a domestic diary of his wife, 1876-1910; minute book of the Fleming Association, 1890-1894; papers of Clarence Edwin Smith, Jr., 1940-1941; papers of Thomas Barns (1750-1836), and his sons, John S. and James F.; Marion County millers and manufacturers, 1795-1908. There are also papers of Waitman T. Willey and a taped interview with C.E. Smith, 1956. Correspondents include John L. Lewis, George B. McClellan, Matthew M. Neely, Francis H. Pierpont, John J. Cornwell, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and Harry S. Truman. There are also papers, 1917-1950, of Smith's brother, Earl H. (1880-1941), co-founder and editor of the Fairmont TIMES (1900-1925), state legislator, officer in the National Guard, and state commander of the American Legion. Subjects include World War I; Woodrow Wilson; American Legion; and state and national politics, 1918-1940. Correspondents include John J. Cornwell, John W. Davis, Sam T. Mallison, M.M. Neely, Jennings Randolph, and Howard Sutherland. The collection also includes papers, 1908-1940, of Herschel H. Rose, Smith's son-in-law, Fairmont attorney, Democrat politician, and circuit court judge. M.M. Neely is a correspondent. Financial records include account books, 1826-1893, of Thomas Barns, John S. Barns and Company, Barns, Fleming and Company (1857), James R. Fleming, woolen and flour milling, shoe manufacturing, and general merchandise operations in Marion County; account book of Mary Fleming Smith, 1888-1912; Fairmont Newspaper Publishing Company, 1919-1949; Fairmont Broadcasting Company, 1932, 1947-1949; and Jackson Coal Company, 1917-1924.

Correspondence, business and legal records, account books, news releases, clippings, and family papers and photographs of a U.S. marshal (1916-1922); editor of the Fairmont TIMES (1925-1959) and Wheeling REGISTER (1933-1935); Democratic politician; member of the National Bituminous Coal Commission (1935-1939); and businessman. Subjects include: Smith's student days at Virginia Military Institute; West Virginia National Guard; Monongah Mine Relief Committee; Associated Press; Association Against the Prohibition Amendment; Eighteenth Amendment; presidential elections and national and state politics, 1916-1956; John W. Davis; Alfred E. Smith; post-World War I radicalism and reaction; Ku Klux Klan; United Mine Workers; National Miners' Union; labor conflict, 1920s; U.S. Railway Administration; New Deal agencies; and Mountain Lake Park, Maryland. Correspondents include Van A. Bittner, William E. Chilton, William G. Conley, John J. Cornwell, John W. Davis, Eugene V. Debs, James A. Farley, William Green, Averell Harriman, Homer Adams Holt, Rush Dew Holt, Hugh S. Johnson, Louis Johnson, Harley M. Kilgore, H.G. Kump, John L. Lewis, William A. MacCorkle, J. Howard McGrath, Clarence W. Meadows, M.M. Neely, Okey L. Patteson, Jennings Randolph, Adlai E. Stevenson, Clarence W. Watson, and James O. Watson. There are also papers of Clarence L. Smith (1850-1905), editor of the Fairmont INDEX (1889) and founder of the Fairmont TIMES (1900), which include a domestic diary of his wife, 1876-1910; minute book of the Fleming Association, 1890-1894; papers of Clarence Edwin Smith, Jr., 1940-1941; papers of Thomas Barns (1750-1836), and his sons, John S. (delegate to Second Wheeling Convention) and James F.; Marion County millers and manufacturers, 1795-1908. There are also papers of Waitman T. Willey and a taped interview with C.E. Smith, 1956. Correspondents include John L. Lewis, Matthew M. Neely, Francis H. Pierpont, and John J. Cornwell. There are also papers, 1917-1950, of Smith's brother, Earl H. (1880-1941), co-founder and editor of the Fairmont TIMES (1900-1925), state legislator, officer in the National Guard, and state commander of the American Legion. Subjects include World War I; Woodrow Wilson; American Legion; and state and national politics, 1918-1940. Correspondents include John J. Cornwell, John W. Davis, Sam T. Mallison, M.M. Neely, Jennings Randolph, and Howard Sutherland. The collection also includes papers, 1908-1940, of Herschel H. Rose, Smith's son-in-law, Fairmont attorney, Democrat politician, and circuit court judge. M.M. Neely is a correspondent. Financial records include account books, 1826-1893, of Thomas Barns, John S. Barns and Company, Barns, Fleming and Company (1857), James R. Fleming, woolen and flour milling, shoe manufacturing, and general merchandise operations in Marion County; account book of Mary Fleming Smith, 1888-1912; Fairmont Newspaper Publishing Company, 1919-1949; Fairmont Broadcasting Company, 1932, 1947-1949; and Jackson Coal Company, 1917-1924; Fairmont Coal Company founding mortgage document, 1901 (box 2, folder 4).

Two-Page telegram from the Williamson Kiwanis Club to the Prosecuting Attorney of Boone County concerning an armed group of UMWA miners preparing to march through Logan County to Mingo County.

Two scrapbooks of newspaper clippings and two volumes of typed copies of correspondence written by Guy Despard Goff (September 13, 1866 - January 7, 1933), son of Nathan Goff, Jr. (1843-1920). Guy D. Goff was United States district attorney for the eastern district of Wisconsin (1911-1915), assistant to the Attorney General of the United States (1917, ca. 1920-1923), and a U.S. Senator from West Virginia (1925-1931), among other things. One scrapbook concerns labor violence in 1911-1912, including the bombings of iron and steel plants in Milwaukee and other Wisconsin cities and trial of accused persons in which Goff served as counsel for the prosecution. The other scrapbook concerns the appointment of Guy D. Goff to U.S. District Attorney for the Eastern District of Wisconsin, 1912. Correspondence includes one collection and one bound volume of letters written during Goff's time as a colonel in the American Expeditionary Forces (1 3/4 inches, 1918-1920). Topics include Goff's work in the military, his travels in France and Germany, and his observations on the political, economic, and social conditions in post-World War I Europe. Please note, the bound volume of letters is identical to the volume in A&M 17. For more information on the correspondence, please see the Scope and Content note.

Archives of the Fairmont Labor Temple, 1921-1940, including certificate of incorporation, bylaws, financial records, minutes, and correspondence. There are also notes on the labor movement in Marion County, compiled by Huett Nestor, concerning the membership and officers of local unions, and a list of "Prominent Members of the A.F.L.-C.I.O. from Marion County."

Minutes of the Laborers International Union of North America, Local 814 which represents West Virginia University employees. Documents first organizational meeting of April 28, 1960 through June 14, 1963.

Letter from Mary "Mother" Jones to T.V. Powderly, Department of Labor, Washington, D.C. "Mother" Jones introduces Fred Mooney, secretary-treasurer of the United Mine Workers, District 17, asks Powderly to get him a passport, and says she does not know when she will leave for Mexico.