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The collection consists of receipts, bills, Promissory notes, tax notes, letters, and other various papers created between 1825 and 1912 by members of the Brown, and other related families.

The Brown Family Papers, 1872-1919, consist of correspondence and other materials pertaining to the Brown Family of the Shenandoah Valley, Virginia. Also included are photographs, printing blocks, and a typescript copy of Johannes Braun's 1818 "Treatise on slavery and serfdom."Johannes Braun or John Brown, born 1771 in Germany and later settling in the Shenandoah Valley, became the leading minister of the German Reformed Church in Virginia.

Papers, photographs and maps of a wealthy Morgantown family with interests in real estate and coal mining. Most of the business papers are those of J. M. G. Brown, a West Virginia University law school alumnus, who was president of Scotts Run Fuel Corporation. Brown was also a housing developer whose company, Suburban Real Estate of Morgantown, was a competitive concern not only locally but throughout north central West Virginia and southwest Pennsylvania. There are papers indicating his attempts to open Morgantown to airline service. His sister, Mary Virginia Brown was a genealogist and local historian noted for A History of the Negroes of Monongalia County. Among her papers are genealogies of the Bannister, Brown, Bushey, Dorsey, Suter and Williams families. There are also original documents of Colonel William McCleary, an early settler of Morgantown. There is also a manuscript "List of Taxable Property for 1786, Monongalia County," including five pages listing residents and their "tithables," horses, and cattle.

The collection contains correspondence and papers of the Brown, Selby, Kirkland, Robine, Spong, Strode, Thomas, Waters, Hammond, Billmyer, Shepherd and Hamtramck families. Includes genealogical information on the Brown, Billmyer, Shepherd, and Hamtramck families; ledger, 1795-1796; and a receipt book, 1835-1843, of Walter Brown Selby.

Collection is chiefly composed of genealogical materials compiled by Ruffner R. Payne. It contains various types of genealogical information for different West Virginia families from the seventeenth to the twentieth century. Documents include charts, notes, letters, certificates, pamphlets, narrative histories, and legal documents, and date from 1805 to 1943. Materials are loosely arranged in alphabetical order by family name and vary in number and format for each family. Families for whom there are several documents include the Fowke, Franklin, Furman, Payne, Rogers, and Ruffner families. A complete inventory of names is available in the library. Collection also includes typewritten copies of journals and letters belonging to Henry Bedinger (1753-1843) that detail his service in Boston as a member of Captain Hugh Stevenson's Company of Riflemen. Bedinger chiefly records he unit's movements, places they camped, and engagements with the British. Bedinger served in defense of Fort Washington, Pennsylvania, and was captured there in November 1776. He was held as a prisoner of war until his exchange in October 1780. He later served as postmaster of Shepherdstown and a member of the Virginia Assembly. Collection also includes a bound volume of typewritten letters to and from Henry Bedinger from September 1781 to 1799. Most letters are written to Bedinger during the 1790s and pertain to Assembly meetings and Bedinger's business as a merchant. Letters written from Bedinger are typically to his wife and friends and relate more to family matters.