Collections

Miscellaneous items, mainly dealing with the southern counties of West Virginia, particularly the Miller family of Logan County. These include one letter from B.F. Miller of Enterprise, Oregon to his brother, John S. Miller of Logan, two letters from Tollison Shumat of Raleigh County to his daughter, Clara Shumat Miller, and a letter from John L. Miller of Virginia to Mr. and Mrs. John S. Miller of Logan, describing President Harding's funeral. Also includes a letter from West Virginia Governor G.W. Atkinson to Mingo County Prosecutor John L. Stafford (9 August 1899), concerning the extradition and prosecution of the Hatfields, and a sentence of death pronounced on Laban T. Walken in Wayne County (1879).

Correspondence, clippings and other documents collected through 1953, on George Rogers Clark Floyd, secretary of state for the Territory of Wisconsin, 1845-1848, member of the West Virginia House of Delegates, 1872-1873, and longtime resident of Logan County. There is data on other members of the Floyd family.

A collection of 400 letters, cards, petitions, telegrams, printed, and other similar items received and sent by U.S. Senator and Representatives Howard Sutherland (1865-1950) of West Virginia. The papers are part of Sutherland's constituent mail and are all concerned with the question of women's suffrage. The period covered is 1914-1919, and correspondence regarding both the Bristow-Mondell House Resolution, considered in Jan. 1915, and the Susan B. Anthony Amendment, voted upon 5 June 1919, is included. About one-third of the collection is anti-suffrage in sentiment; the other two-thirds is made up of material from suffrage supporters. The collection is arranged chronologically, with carbon copy replies from Sutherland attached to the letters to which they reply. Among supporters of women's suffrage may be found the National American Women Suffrage Association, the National Woman's Party, the West Virginia Equal Suffrage League, the Congressional Union for Women Suffrage, various West Virginia chapters of the Women's Christian Temperance Union, individual professional women and housewives, the West Virginia chapter of Daughters of the American Revolution, the American Victory Union, the Women's Home Missionary Society of Wheeling, West Virginia, the Leslie Woman Suffrage Commission, Inc., various labor groups, including the West Virginia Federation of Labor, numerous professional and business men, the Woman's Republican Club of New York City, and various other non-West Virginia state women's suffrage organizations. Anti-suffrage correspondents include the American Constitutional League, numerous individual professional and business men, housewives, and various state and local associations opposed to women's suffrage. Especially important among the pro-suffrage correspondence are letters signed by Carrie Chapman Catt, Anna Howard Shaw, and Maud Wood Park of the National American Woman Suffrage Association. These letters are dated 25 Sept. 1918, and 17 Feb. and 13 June 1919. Further description of the collection, including excerpts from some letters, may be found in the inventory folder for the Howard Sutherland Papers.

Agreement giving Adams Express Company the rights to operate express service along Island Creek Railroad in Logan County.

Birth, marriage, and death records, registers and indexes, deed, will, map, land, lease, and minute books. Indexes of grants, leases, and wills. Surveyor's maps, surveyor records, and survey record indexes. Table of town lots, appraisement, and sale book. Mechanic's lien records, contract records, commissioner's records petitions and records, repatriation petitions. Naturalization index and declarations of intention records. These records reflect the economic and population growth typical of WV after the Civil War. The naturalization papers reflect immigration patterns to this coal mining section of the state.

The collection consists of case papers for the trials of coal miners and UMWA leaders, indicted for treason in connection with the armed march into Logan County, West Virginia, during August and September, 1921. The main part of the papers concern the trials of Walter Allen, William Blizzard, C. Frank Keeney, Rev. J.E. Wilburn, and John Wilburn. There are also photocopies of an indictment dated 17 September 1921 and an indictment dated 12 January 1922, as well as other court records concerning the trials, collected by Prof. Festus P. Summers of West Virginia University.

Transcribed oral histories taken by Paul Salstrom in 1988 from Ray and Mabel Elkins and Virgie Workman Farley. The oral histories are comprised of: childhood reminiscences; genealogy of the Workman, White, and Elkins families; and the industries and occupations of Lincoln, Logan, Wayne, and Mingo Counties, West Virginia, including farming, timbering, teaching, mining, police work, and the introduction of a railroad into the area. There are also two typed statements, one by Jim Chojnacki and one by Julian Martin, given at a public hearing held by the West Virginia Department of Energy in Lincoln County, West Virginia on June 28, 1988 regarding an application by Black Gold Coal Company and Mountain Black Diamond Coal Company to strip mine at Six Mile Creek. Also includes a copy of handwritten notes on the case. There is one unidentified portrait photograph.

Correspondence, reports, petitions, agreements, newspaper clippings, and magazine articles relating to the soft coal industry and labor conditions, generally in southern West Virginia. Subjects covered include the eight-hour day; strikes; consolidation of coal operations; freight rates; government contracts for coal; Paint and Cabin creeks, 1912-1913; working conditions in the Polack Cigar Factory, Wheeling, 1914; investigation of the Gay Coal and Coke Company, Logan County, 1917; investigation of the Wheeling Can Company, 1918; labor conditions in West Virginia, 1917; publicity releases of Winding Gulf Operators Association, 1923-1925; and eviction of miners; labor conditions in Logan County, 1923. Correspondents include D.T. Evans, Carl Hayden, W.E. Borah, M.M. Neely, Van A. Bittner, J.P. White, F.J. Hayes, Mary "Mother" Jones, Thomas Haggerty, Woodrow Wilson, and J.J. Cornwell.