Collections

This collection includes court case papers and exhibits from Taylor & Harrison Counties; deeds; title abstracts; one land grant; a coal lease for mining & stripping; one letter; and a genealogy chart for the Morgan family.

The main part of this collection is comprised of obituaries clipped from Buckhannon, Clarksburg and Parkersburg newspapers, 1926-1939. Also 17 issues of Buckhannon and Clarksburg newspapers, 1917-1938; and the roto section of the Sunday Herald, Boston Mass., Aug 10, 1924 featuring reproductions of Civil War pictures in the Library of Congress, including several concerning WV. Some correspondence of Iva, Corrine, Allene, Mollie and Pearl Cutright, including a few letters from school friends, but mainly concerning D. A. R. activities. Items on the genealogy of the Coffman and Wolfe families, and notes on some early settlers in the vicinity of Buckhannon, including Carney, Westfall and Cutright families. Pamphlets on the 40th anniversary of Oklahoma City; Crossnore School, Crossnore, NC, and a handbook for the Exhibition Buildings of Williamsburg, VA, 1937.

The printed and bound legal briefs and law reports of the Clarksburg firm of Davis & Davis. The firm was composed of father, John J. Davis, and son, John W. Davis. Both men were prominent in politics. The elder was a member of the second statehood convention and a U. S. Congressman during Reconstruction. The younger became ambassador to Great Britain during World War I and the 1924 Democratic presidential contender. These volumes, which are numbered and labelled with the name of the legal firm, contain a table of contents listing cases. There are also penciled notes and in one case the signature of John W. Davis. The volumes continue until the firm was dissolved when John W. Davis was appointed U. S. Solicitor General.

One box of material including original and typescript copies of letters exchanged between Anna Kennedy and J.J. Davis for the period 1860-1862. Also included is material on the Chapin family, Davis and Steen family genealogy and Reed family Bible. Correspondents are J.J. Davis, Anna Kennedy, J.W. Davis, Phineas Chapin, Rev. Asa Brooks, and J. W. Wayland. John W. Davis' certificate of Admission to practice before the Supreme Court of West Virginia dated 1896. His sponsor was Melville Davisson Post and President of the Court was Homer Holt. Also, Davis' commission as a Notary Public dated 1898.

Correspondence, speeches, essays, clippings, and account books of a Clarksburg lawyer, Republican state senator, and Harrison County local historian. Subjects include the history of Clarksburg and Shinnston; the Progressive Movement, women's suffrage, and prohibition in West Virginia; West Virginia Wesleyan College; West Virginia Historical Society; Methodism in Harrison County and the state; Methodist missions in Korea, China, India, the Philippines, and the United States; gristmills and covered bridges in West Virginia; America First Day [1922]; Edward Grandison Smith; Parkersburg Branch of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad; family and personal history; history of the Mason-Dixon Line; the (Clarksburg) 50-Year Club; Nutter Fort Methodist Church; and the Harrison County Fair. Also, tape recordings of an interview relating to Mr. Harmer's career as an attorney in Clarksburg.

Papers of Ira E. Robinson (1869-1951), an attorney practicing in Grafton and Clarksburg. Robinson served in the state legislature in 1902-1904, and was a judge in the State Supreme Court of Appeals (1907-1915), a Republican candidate for Governor (1916), and a member of the Federal Radio Commission (1929-1932). The collection includes material documenting his schooling and legal career, as well as his business and financial interests, and personal and family matters. Types of material include photographs, correspondence, maps, music books, cookbooks, and ephemera. Topics include the B&O Railroad and early radio.