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Papers of the Hagans family of Preston County, West Virginia, including Harrison, Elisha, George M., Henry C., John Marshall, Zer Hagans, and others. There are letters, invoices, account books, advertisements, and other business records pertaining to family business enterprises including several general merchandise stores and outlets in western Pennsylvania and Maryland, and at Brandonville, Kingwood, Greenville, and Palatine, West Virginia. There are several postal records from Harrison Hagans' twenty years as postmaster, 1822-1841, at Brandonville, and magistrate papers and deeds, most regarding the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. There are also financial records documenting Hagans' tenure as president of the Greenville Mining and Manufacturing Company which produced iron in Preston County in the 1830s. Other information records Hagans' interests in: county roads, schools, churches, government and politics; the Preston Telegraph Company; a fulling mill, 1827; and a linseed oil mill, 1842. There are Hagan patents for a washing and wringing machine (1845), and working models of mowing and threshing machines. There is a volume of minutes of the quarterly conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, 1834-1859, and 1861 Wheeling Convention papers regarding a new state government, and Civil War letters from family and friends.

Deeds of Peter T. Laishley and Samuel Arnold, Preston County, 1834 and 1837; photographs of the judges of the State Supreme Court of Appeals, 1863-1937; a map of the McGraw and Yates addition to Grafton; and Dent family genealogical data.

Ledgers and daybooks of Jacob Guseman, a Preston County entrepreneur who operated a general merchandise store, a fulling mill, sawmill, gristmill, and other manufactories at Muddy Creek.

Political, legal, and business letters of James H. Carroll, an 1850's Preston County Circuit Court Clerk and Confederate sympathizer. The letters pertain to a collection of court fees and debts, discussions of criminal court decisions and opinions about the local political prospects of the Democratic party.

These real estate papers of Preston Co. resident, James M. Goff, include deeds, an 1838 Virginia land grant, an 1881 agreement for the operation of a stave mill, promissory notes, leases, a postage agreement, mineral rights agreements, and one letter. Also included is a Singer Sewing Machine rental agreement, and primary election ballots for the 1896 and 1900 Republican races in Preston County. The collection deals mostly with the Big Sandy Creek area of Preston County.

Miscellaneous family papers of John E. Jenkins, Albright, relating to Preston County, West Virginia. Included are correspondence and genealogies of Preston County families and papers dealing with education and churches in the county. Bound volumes include a minute book, "Regimental Courts of Enquiry," for the One Hundred Fourth Regiment, Virginia Militia, later the Twenty-fourth Regiment, West Virginia Militia, 1836-1866; and a minute book of the Brandonville and Terra Alta Telephone Company, 1903-1923. Johns, Mrs. Darsie. Oral History. Oak Hill, Fayette County, WV, 25 November 1980. An interview with the wife of a railroad worker, conducted by Paul J. Nyden concerning life and work in the New River Gorge. One cassette, transcription available.

Blacksmith's account book, belonging to Joseph Trickett of Preston County, (West) Virginia. Also includes accounts of land transfers and coal rights, and some family records. Dates are scattered 1851-1904. Front page of book indicates it was originally intended to be used as a Minute book for the Ebenezer Regular Baptist Church, 1845, Preston County, Virginia, but there are no records of the church in the volume.

Church record, 1852-1896, listing baptisms, marriages, probationers, members and various classes; quarterly conference records, 1899-1903, 1917-1920; church ledgers, 1910-1936; the minutes of the Women's Home Missionary Society, 1914-1937; and "A Brief History of Methodism in Kingwood and Vicinity from Our Earliest Times to March, 1874," by W.C. Snodgrass.

Correspondence between members of the Lorentz family of Buckhannon, Upshur County, (West) Virginia. Includes eight letters from scattered dates between 1848 and 1857. Most of the letters were written by Mifflin Lorentz to his wife Fannie (Whitey) Lorentz; these letters include two love letters written before their marriage (1848) and four letters written while Mifflin was travelling on business (1848-1857). These four letters remark upon business, difficulties he had traveling, and homesickness, among other topics. There is also a copy of a letter written by Jacob Lorentz, who was Mifflin's father, to his son Jasper Lorentz (1856) regarding religion and family matters; and a letter to Mifflin from his friend H.W. Williams (1857) regarding religion and mutual acquaintances.