Collections : [West Virginia and Regional History Center]

Folklore of West Virginia collected by Woofter, who was a student of John Harrington Cox and Louis Watson Chappell. The collection consists of a card file of approximately 10,000 folklore items, including superstitions, sayings, riddles, remedies and tales, as well as a pair of unpublished bound volumes entitled FOLKLORE OF WEST VIRGINIA containing folklore and folksongs with musical notation by Woofter's protege Patrick Gainer. While Woofter never published his discoveries, he did supply materials to important publications by John Harrington Cox and Josiah Combs.

Newspaper clippings, photographs, sheet music, and other material regarding Isaac B. Smith, a farmer and music teacher from Gilmer County. Smith (1876-1984) lived to be 107 years old. See "Scope and Content Note" for further information.

Archives of an eminent folklorist and professor of English at West Virginia University. Manuscripts include field folklore collections, lecture notes, book manuscripts, correspondence, student papers, and folksong arrangements. There are also materials regarding Gainer's position as director of South Atlantic USO activities during World War II and a journal of a folksong collecting trip to Ireland in 1961. Also one hundred and fifty-three audio tapes containing vocal and instrumental folk music, folklore and oral history, recorded in West Virginia and in Scotland and Ireland. Nearly half of the material is performed by Gainer himself. The collection also includes news clippings relating to folklore and Gainer's career, as well as a variety of photographs, film clips and personal awards and memorabilia.

Papers collected by Roy Bird Cook, a Lewis County native and Charleston pharmacist, who in his role as historian, researcher, and author, was a pioneering and effective advocate for the preservation of West Virginia history. This collection includes the papers he collected in connection with his research, including documentation of the Civil War in West Virginia, Stonewall Jackson and his family, and genealogy of North Central West Virginia, among other topics. Materials include letters and papers of the Hays family, including Samuel L. and Peregrine Hays of Gilmer County (1836-1884, 1952-1962, undated [includes facsimiles]); records of the Confederate 31st Virginia Volunteer Infantry Regiment, and later correspondence, clippings, and papers about the regiment and its members (ca. 1856-1955, undated [includes facsimiles]); various collections of individual and family papers and Civil War correspondence (1793-1974, undated [includes facsimiles]); original and copies of Stonewall Jackson letters and papers, as well as papers pertaining to Jackson family members (1801-1963, undated [includes facsimiles]); and materials related to the history of pharmacy and medicine, with a special focus on West Virginia (ca. 1832-1961, undated [includes facsimiles]). There is also an extensive series of bound notebooks containing manuscripts, transcriptions, clippings, genealogies, pamphlets, and images regarding the following topics: Stonewall Jackson, Mary Anna Morrison Jackson, Colonel George Jackson, and Thomas Jackson Arnold; the Civil War, including historical sketches of battles as well as originals and copies of soldiers' diaries, journals, and letters; Lewis County; Charleston and the Kanawha Valley; Douglas S. Freeman; Granville Davisson Hall; Camden family; George Washington; and other topics.

Materials collected by Roy Bird Cook regarding General Joseph Andrew Jackson Lightburn. Includes letters sent to Dr. Bird regarding General Lightburn and the Lightburn family, newspaper clippings regarding Lightburn and the Civil War in West Virginia, two maps, a pamphlet, and other material. See the "Historical Note" for further information about General Lightburn.

Letters written by various members of the Varner family in Gilmer County and Baltimore, Maryland, and a number of letters of S.W. Varner, a physician in Kingwood, relating to his medical practice. Included is a letter from M.O. Dawson who is running for governor soliciting names of Republican voters. Subjects covered include death, illness, and news in the family, and West Virginia state politics.

Genealogy research papers compiled by W. Guy Tetrick and his son Willis G. Tetrick, Jr. The Tetricks were from Harrison County and the material in the collection mainly regards families of Harrison County and north central West Virginia. The collection contains mostly original genealogical compilations and family histories. It also contains personal and business correspondence; financial records; publications regarding local and state history; newspapers and news clippings; obituaries, cemetery records; records of the Sons of the American Revolution; and other material.

Correspondence, ledger books, account and cashbooks of the Parkersburg, West Virginia, firm of Withers and VanDevender (later Wiant and VanDevender), specializing in timber cutting, but also dealing in real estate, coal, oil, and orange growing. Subjects include timber cutting methods, costs, timber shipping, floods, freezes, droughts, log jams, timberland locations, timber purchases and sales, salaries of timber workers, and fruit groves in Florida. Counties mentioned include: Boone, Braxton, Calhoun, Gilmer, Lewis, Marshall, Mercer, Nicholas, Ritchie, Roane, and Wirt. Firms and corporations mentioned include the Copen Creek Coal Company, Gilmer Fuel Company, MCCAA Coal Company, Marietta Chair Company, Nixolette Lumber Company, and the Parkersburg Mill Company.