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 Date range 1830 Places Harrison County (W. Va.)

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

Chapin family
Letters of Phineas Chapin (1792-1857), and other family members in Kentucky; Cincinnati, Ohio; and Clarksburg, West Virginia. There are: intimate sketches of the social life of Clarksburg in the first half of the nineteenth century; descriptions of a plantation house in Mississippi in 1860; and a few papers bearing on family business affairs, including cattle raising in Harrison County.
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Charles Carpenter, Collector, Papers 0.2 Linear Feet Summary: 2 in. (2 folders)

Carpenter, Charles, 1889-1975

This collection includes court case papers and exhibits from Taylor & Harrison Counties; deeds; title abstracts; one land grant; a coal lease for mining & stripping; one letter; and a genealogy chart for the Morgan family.

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Charles James Faulkner (1806-1884) Papers 0.1 Linear Feet Summary: 1/2 in. (1 folder); (1 oversize folder, 1 item)

Faulkner, Charles James, 1806-1884
Papers of Charles J. Faulkner (1806-1884) and family. Charles J. Faulkner was a Martinsburg attorney, Virginia legislator, member of Congress, and ambassador to France during the James Buchanan administration. Includes business and land papers of James Faulkner of Baltimore, 1804-1811; letters to and papers of Charles J. Faulkner; a colored plat of a survey made for William McMurtrie [1786, Harrison, now Upshur County] along French Creek; and a Thomas Haymond survey plat in Harrison County, May 1844. For more information about Faulkner, see the Historical Note.
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Clarksburg Public Library, Collector, Miscellaneous Papers 0.19 Linear Feet Summary: 2 1/4 in. (1 folder, 1/2 in.); (1 reel of microfilm, 1.75 in.)

Clarksburg Public Library.

Miscellaneous papers collected by the Clarksburg Public Library, including Harrison County land papers of John Lang, 1782-1821; General Land Office Warrant of Thomas Cunningham, an 1812 veteran for 160 acres in Illinois; letter from Melville D. Long from Point Lookout prison, April 1865; letter to Mrs. John J. Davis, Clarksburg, telling of an unexpected invasion of Baltimore by the Rebels in July 1854; and farm diary, 1856-1861 of P.R. Page, Gloucester County, Virginia. This volumes gives accurate and detailed information on the operation of a grain and livestock farm in eastern Virginia

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Davis Family Papers 0.4 Linear Feet Summary: 5 in. (1 document case)

Davis, John J. (John James), 1835-1916

One box of material including original and typescript copies of letters exchanged between Anna Kennedy and J.J. Davis for the period 1860-1862. Also included is material on the Chapin family, Davis and Steen family genealogy and Reed family Bible. Correspondents are J.J. Davis, Anna Kennedy, J.W. Davis, Phineas Chapin, Rev. Asa Brooks, and J. W. Wayland. John W. Davis' certificate of Admission to practice before the Supreme Court of West Virginia dated 1896. His sponsor was Melville Davisson Post and President of the Court was Homer Holt. Also, Davis' commission as a Notary Public dated 1898.

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Deakins Family Papers 0.25 Linear Feet Summary: 3 in. (1 document case, 2 1/2 in.); (1 oversize folder, 1/2 in.)

Deakins family

Additional Deakins family papers, consisting of correspondence, bond of conveyance, deeds, surveys and plats. [ALS] to Colonel Francis Deakin from John Compton, 1793, relative to surveys made by John Compton in 1792; bond of conveyance for land in Randolph County owned by Deakins heirs, 1809; five deeds for land owned by the Deakins family in Randolph and Preston counties W. Va., 1808-1885; 1848 deed from Francis Deakins to Northwestern Turnpike Co.; seven surveys and plats for lands in Preston, Tucker, Harrison and Upshur counties, largely owned by the Deakins family, 1788-1881.

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Deakins Family Papers and Surveying Compass 2.5 Linear Feet 2 ft. 6 1/4 in. (5 document cases, 5 in. each); (1 large flat storage box, 5 in.); (1 oversize folder, 1/4 in.)

Deakins family
Includes records from several generations of the Deakins family of Montgomery County, Maryland and north central West Virginia. William (1742-1798) and Francis (1739-1804) Deakins, among the first generation, were active as land speculators after the American Revolution, applying their skills as surveyors to leverage acquisition of western lands. From 1778 their activities are documented through deeds, agreements, surveys, plats, surveyors' field books, court papers, and letters related to land purchased in Harrison, Monongalia, Preston, Randolph, Tucker, and Upshur counties. Other papers concern Leonard M. Deakins (1747-1824) and his descendants. Of special significance in the collection is the compass used by Francis Deakins to survey the "Deakins Line" in 1787-1788, a north-south line separating western Maryland from (West) Virginia.
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Gideon D. Camden (1805-1891) Papers 35.7 Linear Feet Summary: 35 ft. 7 1/2 in. (84 document cases, 5 in. each); (2 document cases, 2 1/2 in. each); (1 large flat storage box, 5 in.)

Camden, Gideon Draper, 1805-1891
Papers of Judge Gideon D. Camden (1805-1891) of Clarksburg, Harrison County, West Virginia, and papers of his grandson Wilson Lee Camden (1870-1958). Gideon D. Camden was a lawyer, Democratic politician, member of the Virginia Convention of 1850-1851, circuit judge, and state senator (1872-1876). His papers include correspondence, legal and business papers, surveys and plats, and printed material. Subjects include Virginia, West Virginia, and national politics; the railroad, oil, timber, and coal industries; and Camden's law practice. Wilson Lee Camden papers include correspondence, legal papers, surveys and plats, printed material, business manuscripts, photographs, map, and ledgers. Subjects include the settlement of his grandfather's estate, and extensive coal, timber, land, railroad, and oil interests in West Virginia and Western Pennsylvania. See Scope and Content Note for more information.
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Gideon D. Camden (1805-1891) Papers 0.1 Linear Feet Summary: 1 in. (2 folders)

Camden, Gideon Draper, 1805-1891
Papers of Judge Gideon D. Camden (1805-1891) of Clarksburg, Harrison County, West Virginia. Camden was a lawyer, Democratic politician, member of the Virginia Convention of 1850-1851, circuit judge, and state senator (1872-1876). Includes correspondence, legal documents, photocopies of printed material, and land grants. Subjects of the correspondence include West Virginia politics; the elections of 1840, 1860, and 1861; Reconstruction; the Flick Amendment; Southern sentiment in Clarksburg; and the location of the capital. Other papers deal with Indian scouting between the West Fork and Buckhannon Rivers during the Revolution; land speculation in Harrison and nearby counties; New York merchants and the Civil War; public schools in Shepherdstown, 1850; the Meade Collegiate Institute; Mount de Chantal Academy; Wheeling Female Seminary; the Chicago, Parkersburg, and Norfolk Railroad; and the Virginia Debt Question. There are several items of correspondence of the Reverend John S. Martin which relate to Methodism in Virginia, Maryland, and D.C., particularly camp meetings, parish life and the slave question. There are also original and photocopied land grants signed by James Monroe, Edmund Randolph, Patrick Henry, and Henry Lee (late 1700s to early 1800s). Correspondents include Judge John J. Allen, Robert M.T. Hunter, Alexander Campbell, Judge E. J. Pitts, James A. Hall, W.P. Cooper, George W. Thompson, Judge Hugh W. Shuffey, Thomas Maslin, William E. Arnold, J. M. Mason, and Samuel D. Tompkins.
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Gideon D. Camden (1805-1891) Papers 2.1 Linear Feet Summary: 2 ft. 1 in. (5 document cases, 5 in. each)

Camden, Gideon Draper, 1805-1891
Papers of Judge Gideon D. Camden (1805-1891) of Clarksburg, Harrison County, West Virginia. Camden was a lawyer, Democratic politician, member of the Virginia Convention of 1850-1851, circuit judge, and state senator (1872-1876). Includes business correspondence, financial records, legal papers, and court records. Materials include the early land papers of Camden's law partner, John J. Allen, and the legal papers of the firm Allen and Camden, which deal primarily with land suits and surveys in Harrison and surrounding counties. Later legal and business papers relate to the development of the West Virginia oil fields and Camden's extensive holdings in mineral and timber lands in central West Virginia. Other papers concern the Constitutional Convention of 1872, subsequent ratification, attempts to remove the legislature to Clarksburg, and West Virginia politics in general, particularly the period 1860-1874. Other subjects include Diss Debar's attempts to stimulate immigration from Alsace-Lorraine; H.G. Davis and the development of West Virginia railroads; and a debate on Christian baptism at Fairmont, 1872, between Benjamin Franklin and Professor Solomon of West Virginia University. Correspondents include Henry G. Davis, John J. Davis, J.H. Diss Debar, Johnson N. Camden, John J. Allen, Spencer Dayton, John S. Carlile, John Bassel, James M. Bennett, David Goff, Lot M. Morrill, James S. Wheat, Alpheus J. Haymond, John Jay Jackson, Jr. and Sr., George R. Latham, Nimrod Dent, Benjamin F. Martin, Okey Johnson, J. Marshall Hagans, J.W. Arbogast, and W.J. Bland. For partial inventory of business correspondence, see control folder. For series list, see Scope and Content Note.
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