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The papers and receipts of Sheriff Daniel Lefevre that reflect county business and his legal practice, with similar papers of other nearby residents. Also includes letters, documents, and news clippings about the socioeconomic, antebellum, and Civil War history of Berkeley County, [West] Virginia and Maryland. There are slave inventories containing descriptions and prices, and letters about the treatment of slaves and their conduct. Specific reference is made to Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin.

Surveyor's compass from the collection of Charles R. Nuzum, late of Cumberland, Maryland. Includes brass compass, two sight vanes, and wooden mount. The compass was made by "F.W. and R. King"; the maker's mark is visible on the compass face. Frederick W. and Richard King operated as makers of mathematical and nautical instruments between the years of 1851 and 1875 in Baltimore, Maryland.

A travel journal, ca. 1857; a diary, 1941; survey records, 1894-1896; account books, 1788-1811 - 1891-1894; county and parish tax levies, 1800; a book of geographic terms and facts kept by Susan I. Branson in 1836; and a Branson family record book. People mentioned include Captain Eddie Rickenbacker. Places mentioned include: Cincinnati, Ohio; and, in West Virginia, Romney, Evansville, Clarksburg, Parkersburg, Coolville, Athens, Branch Mountain, Moorefield, Front Run Valley, Camp Branch Run, Sapling Lick Ridge, Hanging Rock Ridge, Little Ridge, Cacapon River, Kim's Run, Lost River, and South Branch Valley. Subject areas covered include family and women's history, cattle business in Hardy County, and business dealings between the South Branch Valley and Baltimore and other east coast cities.

Correspondence, legal and business papers, mercantile records and tax receipt books of Isaac McNeel, who operated a store at Edray and Mill Point, Pocahontas County, West Virginia, served as sheriff of the county, operated a gristmill, raised livestock, and was appointed provost marshal of the county in 1862 by the Confederate Army. The collection also includes letters and school reports of McNeel's sons, Winters and Summers, while students at Washington and Lee and the Medical and Law Departments of the University of Virginia, 1893-1897. Other school material pertains to the Hillsboro Male and Female Academy and the Lewisburg Female Institute. Subjects include mercantile and cattle trade with Baltimore and Richmond; business conditions in the l850s and in Richmond during the Civil War; slave hiring; ginseng trade; agriculture; the American Party, 1855; Henry A. Wise; Virginia Secession Convention; effect of the Union blockade on Richmond commerce; speculation in whiskey, tobacco, and cattle during the Civil War; and postwar economic and political conditions in the Pocahontas County area.

Papers of Dr. Margaret Byrnside Ballard (1900-1991), regarding the history of Monroe County, West Virginia, and the Ballard family. As a genealogist and author of local history, she was an avid collector of the historical materials contained in this collection, most of which relate to her family and Monroe County. The collection includes personal papers, business records, historical and genealogical research material, scrapbooks, bibles, memorabilia, artifacts, photographs, broadsides, paintings, and postage stamps. See the Historical Note for more information about Dr. Ballard.

Letter and account books, clipping scrapbooks, and miscellaneous family papers of a pioneer, Ohio Valley, general merchandise firm founded by Dudley Woodbridge, Sr., at Marietta, Ohio, and operating under various names for a period of more than sixty years. The collection also includes the account books of Daniel, Richard, and John Greene, 1808-1844; account books of F.B. Loomis, 1842-1844; a medicinal formulary book; the estate records of John Brody; records of a pension and bounty land claims agency operated by George M. Woodbridge, 1861-1864; and justice of the peace accounts, 1832-1863. Subjects include the development of river markets, transportation, and the livestock industry in the early Ohio Valley; fur trade and commerce with England and Europe; the Marietta and Susquehanna Trading Company; Kanawha and Sciota salt works; Ohio Company lands; Woodbridge-Harman Blennerhassett partnership; ginseng trade; Wheeling Cotton Manufacturing Company; ropewalk and shipbuilding in Marietta; military land warrants; estate of George Morgan; career of William Woodbridge, United States senator and governor of Michigan; pioneer education; Meadville Seminary; Ohio University; Miami University; Marietta Collegiate Institute; Belpre, Ohio; American Catholic missions; early history of Marietta; the American Colonization Society; Washington County Colonization Society; churches; Washington County Tract Society; recruiting in Marietta during the Civil War; impact of the War of 1812 on westward migration and labor; and Woodbridge family affairs. Letters are addressed to merchants in London, France, New York, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Charleston (West Virginia), Lexington and Louisville (Kentucky), Cincinnati, St. Louis, New Orleans, Washington, Detroit, and Baltimore. Correspondents include Lewis Cass, Philip Doddridge, and Benjamin Reeder.