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Correspondence, business and legal papers, notebooks, speeches, historical essays, genealogical records, clippings, and printed material of a Buckhannon lawyer, state jurist, member of Congress (1927-1929), and West Virginia Secretary of State (1933-1948). The collection also includes papers of O'Brien's father, Emmett J., a member of the state's first Constitutional Convention; letters from O'Brien's brother, Lieutenant A.L. O'Brien, 1874-1887, a West Point graduate serving at forts Assinniboine, Belknap, and Spokane in the Montana Territory and Washington State; letters of Henry M. White, O'Brien's brother-in-law, and a lawyer with the Immigration Bureau and the Federal Trade Commission; a diary of a trip to Texas in 1907; and genealogical records of the Joseph Hall, William Norris, O'Brien, and Jacob Reger families. Subjects include West Virginia Wildlife League; Methodism in Upshur County; an expedition in pursuit of Sitting Bull; the Rush Holt contested election of 1934; the McAdoo-Smith contest of 1924; the Townsendites; presidential election of 1936; state politics; pioneer history of West Virginia; and the Vandalia Company.

Correspondence of a Civil War general who had business interests in the Cannel Coal Company, Coal River Navigation Company, James River and Kanawha Company, and the Western Oil Company. Subjects include coal, oil, iron and steel; improvements on the Kanawha, Coal, and Ohio rivers; English investments in the Cannel Coal Company and the Winifrede Mining & Manufacturing Company; and timber prices. Civil War correspondence includes letters from Francis H. Pierpont and General Jacob D. Cox. There are letters from Rosecrans to his wife while commander of Union forces in western Virginia; persons mentioned include Generals John B. Floyd, R.C. Schenck, Jacob D. Cox, George Crook, George B. McClellan, Braxton Bragg, and U.S. Grant. There is postwar political comment on ex-Confederate officers in government positions and U.S. Grant's terms as president.

William Underwood (1780-1866) of Middlebourne, West Virginia, was a justice of the peace, coroner, and sheriff in Tyler County, West Virginia, in the nineteenth century. Collection contains two copies of Underwood's diary from 1812 to 1861 and two copies of his 1864 will. Diary consists of annual entries that chiefly note births, deaths, and significant weather for a particular year. William Underwood married Hannah Willis (1780-1869), and the couple had eleven children.

The A. J. Davis Family Collection includes journals; scrapbooks; professional and biographical information; photographs, sketches, and ephemera; and a town history. The journals (1874-1927) contain memoirs, particularly of Davis' army experiences, as well as some writing exercises, poetry, stories, and religious observations. Scrapbooks compiled by A. J. Davis include newspaper clippings, personal reflections, and a stamp collection. The professional and biographical information includes service records from Davis' time in the army, genealogy information compiled by other family members, and last wills and testaments. The collection also includes a 19-page history of Woods Hole, Massachusetts, authored by Davis, as well as a draft of the Book of A. J. Davis and other manuscripts. The collection also contain pictures of Davis and his wife.

Correspondence, clippings, land papers, and other records of James Wilson, an attorney in Wood County, ca.1800-1820; Robert M. Stribling and other members of the Stribling family in Mason County, 1821-ca.1909; and James A. and Otis Young, ca.1900-1934, in Mason County. A pocket diary of James Wilson gives information on his law practice in Kanawha, Monongalia, and Wood counties in 1804.

Papers relating to the Wilson, Lewis, and Ruffner families of Prince Edward County, Virginia, Kanawha County, [West] Virginia, St. Charles County, Missouri, and Fairfield County, Ohio. Correspondence between Nathaniel V. Wilson and Dr. Goodridge Wilson, concerning land purchases, preparation for the settlement of the family, care of livestock, employment of slaves, salt making and marketing, and the market price of salt. Other members of the family migrated to St. Charles County, Missouri, and to Fairfield County, Ohio, and land prices, suitable crops, settlement and railroad building in Missouri comprise much of their correspondence. A third generation member of the family, Virgy Wilson Hall and her husband, John G. Hall, were missionaries in Matamoras, Mexico, and Colombia, South America, and her correspondence with her mother comments on living conditions, progress of the missionary work, revolution in Colombia, and health and living conditions of the residents of the Barranquilla area. In addition there is a will of Col. Charles Lewis, a series of letters between two doctors concerning health problems and treatment of various illnesses, and two diaries by Mrs. Daniel Ruffner, 1846, and Elizabeth Ruffner Wilson, 1871-1872, commenting on family life and community activities in Fairfield County, Ohio, and Kanawha County, [West] Virginia. All are photocopies. Material covers the years 1774-1942.

Two volumes of statistics of Presbyterian churches in the Winchester Presbytery, 1719-1946; and a notebook of correspondence, 1942-1952, of Robert B. Woodworth and John G. Bishop concerning the genealogy of the Poage and allied families and Woodworth's revision of THE CAPTIVES OF ABB'S VALLEY (Staunton, Virginia, 1942).