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Correspondence, business and legal papers, surveys, account books, and a diary of a Burning Springs surveyor, oil developer, rural entrepreneur, horticulturalist, and captain of the Little Kanawha River steamer GENERAL JACKSON. Collection includes a brief journal of a trip from Des Moines, Iowa, to the Forks of the Platte in 1860; papers of Clarke's venture in quartz mining and milling in the Colorado Territory, 1861-1863; surveys of the Burning Springs oil region; letters from James C. Clarke, president of the Wirt Oil and Mining Company of which Clarke was superintendent; papers on the National Grange, the West Virginia Grange (Patrons of Husbandry), cooperatives, and the Ohio, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia Wool Growers Association; a diary of farming operations at Burning Springs; letters from Clarke's brother, James C., while a member of the Pennsylvania senate, 1875-1880; letterheads from Little Kanawha and Ohio Valley mercantile firms and steamboat companies; and family letters. Other subjects covered include: the Allegheny Valley Railroad; early history of Bethalto, Illinois; the speculative spirit and western expansion, 1860; freighting on the Great Plains during the Civil War; construction of the Chicago, Rock Island, and Pacific Railroad near Council Bluffs in 1868; and the effect of the German crisis of 1866 on American oil prices.

Bratton was born, ca.1838, and lived in the town of Millboro Springs, Bath County, Virginia, where she married Townley Cauthorn, ca.1860. Correspondence is to Martha from other women friends, dealing with courtship, marriage, education, and domestic life Some are letters from Virginians pioneering in Illinois and Missouri, detailing the hardships of their new lives; and others are love letters from suitors.

Correspondence, bills, receipts, and memoranda books of Gordon, Gordon, Jr., Jacob, George H., and Mrs. F.R. Mullen of Charleston. Subjects include farming operations; the management of a small store in Kanawha County, West Virginia; Barboursville College; and the State Free Silver Headquarters. The collection includes letterheads, business cards, and calendars of Charleston mercantile establishments, ca.1877-1914; and some Ku Klux Klan papers, 1928, of Dr. A.G. Mullen of Galesburg, Illinois.

Various Pittenger family members wrote these letters, mostly to other family members. The most frequent correspondent is Abraham Pittenger, a farmer, teacher, and local government official in Hancock County. The letters detail farming and marketing of farm goods, educational developments, affairs of the Presbyterian Church, and family events. The collection also provides significant information about the early Republican party, secession crisis, Civil War and Reconstruction.

Letters, legal papers, and accounts of William Parker, Hampshire County, West Virginia. Included also are scattered papers of John P., Benjamin, and James Parker and Company. Letters originate from Virginia; Greene County, Illinois, 1859; and Pleasant Hill, Dallas County, Alabama, 1849. Subjects include doctors' fees; election of 1851 in Berkeley, Jefferson and Morgan counties, and Frederick County, Virginia; prices of farm produce; and observations of Virginians newly settled in Illinois and Alabama in the middle of the nineteenth century.