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Microfilm copy of the papers of the Henderson and Tomlinson families of Wood County, West Virginia, from 1789 to 1859. Materials relate to frontier life in the Parkersburg-Marietta area, and include Alexander Henderson's journal about his settlement on the Little Kanawha River, 1798-1803; his plantation accounts; letters on the Burr conspiracy; and an account of a duel between Henderson and Stephen R. Wilson in 1803. Also includes several items related to Marine Corps Commandant Archibald Henderson; pioneer Isaac Williams; and A.B. Tomlinson's account of the Indian mounds and frontier settlement at Grave Creek Mound in Moundsville, West Virginia.

Papers of Lewis Summers, a lawyer, businessman, member of the Virginia House of Delegates, 1817-1818, delegate to the Virginia Constitutional Convention, 1829-1830, and his brother George W., a lawyer in Charleston, a judge, a member of the House of Delegates, 1830-1832, 1834-1836, the U.S. House of Representatives, 1841-1845, a delegate to the Virginia Constitutional Convention of 1850, candidate for governor in 1851, member of the 1861 Peace Convention, and delegate to the Richmond Secession Convention, 1861. Correspondence between the brothers is for the years 1818-1843. There are also business, legal, and family papers, speeches, and an autograph book of George W. while a student at the University of Virginia, 1854-1857. Correspondents include George Carlisle, James Craik, James M. Laidley, and Luke Wilcox. Persons mentioned or commented on include John Q. Adams, John C. Calhoun, Lewis Cass, Henry Clay, Thomas R. Dew, Andrew Donnally, Millard Fillmore, John Floyd, William H. Harrison, Andrew Jackson, the Ruffner family, Martin Van Buren, Daniel Webster, and Henry A. Wise.

Typescript history of the Ward family of Ohio with a concentration on its association with Harman Blennerhassett, whose secretary was Sylvester Ward. Included is some information on the Blennerhassetts, Aaron Burr, Dudley Woodbridge, Elijah Backus and Aaron Waldo Putnam. Much mention is made of neighboring allied families to the Wards, particularly Hendersons and Putnams in the adjoining counties of Wood Co., VA and Washington Co., OH. There is a detailed transcription of an October 8, 1805 letter by William Howe Cuyler to John G. Henderson describing a disagreement and a duel between his brother, Alexander Henderson and Stephen R. Wilson. Also mentioned in this account about the duel are: Samuel Hempstead, James Henderson, Daniel Kinchelow, Robert Kinchelow, John Melrose, Hugh Phelps, Dr. Joseph Spencer, John Stephenson, Thomas Tavenner, Sylvester Ward, and James Wilson. Research on the lives and backgrounds of the participants and those connected with the duel is also included separately from the transcribed letter.