Collections

Correspondence and genealogical notes of John C. Bayles of Morgantown relating to the histories of the Bayles, Vandervort and other Monongalia County families. Also included are materials on the history of West Virginia University buildings and the department of buildings and grounds, compiled by Mr. Bayles; originals and copies of wills, deeds, and land surveys in Monongalia County; an account book for general merchandise, Monongalia County, 1857-1859; newspaper clippings; photographs; a Civil War manuscript poem, "The Third Virginia", and other items.

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.

Instructions to the grand jury and opinions of the judge of the Seventeenth Judicial Circuit (Monongalia County).

Mine disaster reports, official hearing reports, and hearing and inquest transcripts (1938-1967). Most of the mine disaster reports were created by inspectors from the West Virginia Department of Mines, and some of them involved federal inspectors. Other reports were created by the United States Bureau of Mines and the West Virginia Department of Mines Coal Mine Safety Board of Review. Also includes volumes 3 through 8 of the Decisions of the Interior Board of Mine Operations Appeals (1974-1977). The mine disaster reports and associated materials pertain to the following mining companies, with counties where the disaster occurred in parentheses: American Rolling Mill Company (Boone County), Amigo Smokeless Coal Company (Wyoming County), Boone County Coal Corporation, Christopher Coal Company (Monongalia County), Davis Coal and Coke Company (Tucker County), Hatfield-Campbell Creek Coal Company (Kanawha County), Hitchman Coal and Coke Company (Marshall County), Island Creek Coal Company (McDowell County), Katherine Coal Company (Harrison County), Koppers Coal Company (McDowell County), MacAlpin Coal Company (Raleigh County), C.H. Meade Coal Company (Raleigh County), Meadows Coal Company (Raleigh County), New River and Pocahontas Consolidated Coal Company (McDowell County), Oglebay Norton Company (Nicholas County), Page Coal and Coke Company (McDowell County), Parsons Coal Company (Preston County), Pemberton Coal and Coke Company (Raleigh County), Pocahontas Fuel Company (a division of Consolidation Coal Company, McDowell County, near Tazewell County, Virginia), Pursglove Coal Mining Company (Monongalia County), Raleigh Coal and Coke Company (Raleigh County), and Red Jacket Coal Corporation (Wyoming County).

Correspondence, reports, and other manuscripts of the Morgantown chapter of the D.A.R., relating to the history of Stewartstown, Morgantown, and Monongalia County; also genealogical materials for this area.

Correspondence, 1903-1947; lists of names of Revolutionary War soldiers and officers, burials, location of graves, and pensions. There is a list of frontier forts in Monongalia County; data on servicemen in World Wars I and II; and genealogical information on about one hundred families.

Correspondence, book reviews, certificates and pictures of Waddell, a pioneering black veterinarian and author. His books (People Are The Funniest Animals, The Black Man in Veterinary Medicine, Universal Veterinarianism, and Historical Facts of the Black Veterinarian) document the little known contributions of African-Americans from antebellum times to the present in the field of veterinary science. They also indicate his beliefs that the veterinarian profession can also help heal misunderstandings among mankind. After graduation in 1935 from the University of Pennsylvania, one of the first schools to admit blacks into its veterinarian program, he taught and worked at Tuskegee Institute where he co-founded the first program in veterinary science at a black American college. During World War II, he joined the Ninth Cavalry, a famed black unit of which he includes some of its history among his papers. After the war, he established a private practice in West Virginia eventually locating in Monongalia County where he also served on the board of the Monongalia County Mental Health Association. His home near Morgantown served as a social center for some of the first black students who attended West Virginia University. He was also instrumental in fostering integration of other institutions within the county. After 1963 he moved to North Dakota where he worked on the Chippewa reservations of Turtle Mountain and Fort Totten. Waddell offers his observations on the aspirations of Native Americans and how they are discriminated against and neglected.