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Papers regarding West Virginia statehood and the history of Wheeling and Ohio County compiled by Judge Gibson L. Cranmer (1826-1903) of Wheeling, West Virginia, who served as secretary of the Wheeling Convention that repudiated Virginia's secession from the United States in 1861. Series 1 includes manuscript narratives and correspondence describing events of the West Virginia statehood movement, written by eyewitnesses at the request of Gibson L. Cranmer. Manuscript authors include John S. Burdett, John S. Carlile, Daniel Frost, Lewis Ruffner, and Benjamin Wilson. Series 2 includes Cranmer's handwritten notes, drafts of articles, copies of documents, and letters solicited by him regarding the history of Wheeling and Ohio County, West Virginia. See Scope and Content Note for details and contents list.

Correspondence of A.F. Haymond and A. Brooks Fleming, Fairmont attorneys. Correspondents include J.M. Bennett, G.D. Camden, J. Carlile, Henry Mathews, and F.H. Pierpont mentioning politics, separation from Virginia, the Arthurdale community development, and routine legal business. Included are land and legal papers, 1760-1797, from Hampshire, Monongalia, and Ohio counties, mentioning Patrick Henry and Henry Lee. Also in the collection are: a leather billfold; estate papers and marriage records; stock certificates of early West Virginia public utility and industrial firms; and miscellaneous personal papers of A. Brooks Fleming.

Typescripts relating to Marion County, including "In Memory of John Marshall Jacobs, a Good Churchman," "Early Days of Mining in Marion County," and "In Memory of Jessie Hickman Jamison," all written by Helen M. Fleming. There are a number of photographs of Fairmont and Marion County, family photo albums, and seven scrapbooks of clippings of U.S. and West Virginia history, with emphasis on Marion and Monongalia counties.

Correspondence, newspaper clippings, photographs, and miscellaneous printed items of a corporal in the Fourteenth [West] Virginia Volunteer Infantry (Union) and his two daughters, Mary Baker and Nell Baker Rightmire. Subjects include Monongalia County local history; Union troop movements in the vicinity of New Creek, June 1863; and local G.A.R. affairs. The collection also includes the Register and Order Book of Post No.5 (Morgantown), Department of West Virginia, G.A.R., 1878-1901.

Papers of the Jackson family of Monongalia and Preston County, (West) Virginia, including business, financial, and legal documents. Includes Civil War pension records for Henry C. Jackson (1864); business records of Jackson and Lamb documenting transactions with Tassey and Church, Grocers of Pittsburgh (1833-1834); and records regarding Cheat Iron Works, St. John's Furnace, and Hampton Forge (1833 and undated), among other material (1814-1891).

Papers of James S. Watson relating to the Watson and Jollife families. Watson served in Civil War and was a member of the Grand Army of the Republic (GAR) in Monongalia County, West Virginia. Includes calling card, books, genealogical information, and photographs. See scope and content note for detailed information.

Papers of a Morgantown resident who practiced medicine and operated a pension claim office in Mt. Morris, Greene County, Pennsylvania, ca.1847-1859, and who later conducted his claim business in Morgantown while serving with the U.S. Internal Revenue Bureau as collector for the second district of West Virginia. The collection contains letters, accounts, and business papers of Morgantown residents, 1790-1855, including a private account book of Hugh McNeely, 1790-1800. The internal revenue returns and tax statements give the occupations of many persons in northern West Virginia, ca.1861-1886. There are also photographs; genealogical compilations on the Statler, Morgan, and Wendell Brown families; and typescripts of Monongalia County history.

Letters of Henry and Joseph Bennett concerning travel by sea from New York to Chagres, Panama, overland across Panama and by ship to San Francisco in 1851. Letters from California, 1852-1853, discuss arrival of immigrants; employment conditions and wages; gambling and social life in San Francisco; investment opportunities; conditions in the gold mines; travel by steamboat to Hangtown (Placerville); churches; crime; Indians; mining profits; cost of land; ranching; blacksmith and plough shop in Santa Clara; digging a canal to take water from the American River to supply Hangtown, Coon Hollow, and Gold Hill; and Webber Run. Two letters by Joseph Bennett from Australia in l853 comment on mining, living conditions, profits of mining, and criminals sent from Great Britain. There is one 1849 letter to Samuel Bennett from relatives in Sheffield, England. There are several items of Jacobs family correspondence, 1880-1923, concerning family affairs, schools, economic conditions in Jackson County, and Monongalia County taxes in 1907.