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Papers of Archibald W. Campbell (1839-1899), editor of the Wheeling Daily Intelligencer. A strong unionist and Republican Party member, he worked hard through his editorials and behind the scenes in order to support the formation of the new state of West Virginia. The collection includes correspondence, clippings, ephemera, and scrapbooks dealing with the Civil War and political affairs in West Virginia's early statehood period. Some of the correspondence asks Campbell to publish specific accounts of events or rebuttals of others, showing the importance of the newspapers in shaping public perception. Correspondents include family members, Jacob B. Blair, Cassius M. Clay, Sherrard Clemens, B.F. Kelley, Francis H. Pierpont, John C. Underwood, and others. See Scope and Content Note for more information.

Personal and business papers of Arthur I. Boreman (1823-1896), lawyer, U.S. senator, circuit court judge, and first governor of West Virginia. The bulk of the collection consists of papers relating to his judgeship and to the law firm of Boreman and Bullocks, Parkersburg, WV. Series include correspondence, notes on cases tried before Judge Boreman, envelope cases of material regarding legal cases in which Boreman was involved, financial material, and political and judicial printed material. Correspondence includes letters to Boreman from Francis H. Pierpont (1866-1867), which concern politics in West Virginia, the admission of Berkeley and Jefferson counties into the state, the Virginia debt, and Reconstruction in Virginia. There is little other material relating to the governorship or political activities. Additional correspondents include J.W. Davis, John J. Davis, D.D.T. Farnsworth, D.H. Strother, J.G. Jackson, Charles J. Faulkner, and E.W. Wilson. Also includes manuscripts of speeches; muster rolls; household accounts; civil and court case papers concerning oil well drilling and sales; railroad property inventories and operation; coal prices, shipping data, and strikes; liquid fuel transportation; and steam and tow boat cargoes, navigation data, and names of boats in service on the Ohio River. There is also genealogical information on P.G. Van Winkle and Ebenezer Zane, and a letter and deposition by J.H. Diss Debar. For more details and box-level contents list, see Scope and Content Note. For more information on Arthur I. Boreman, see Historical Note.

Photostat negatives of correspondence to Francis H. Pierpont concerning statehood and secession. Also includes a petition of Harrison County, (West) Virginia citizens to Brigadier General Kelly protesting the return and admittance to the county of former members of the Confederate Army (undated); a petition of Gilmer County, (West) Virginia citizens denouncing secession and pledging action to suppress rebellion (1861); and the act by which the Restored Government of Virginia gave permission for the new state of West Virginia to be formed from Virginia (May 12, 1863). Also includes a photostat negative of a typescript checklist of Pierpont manuscript material held at the Virginia State Library (now Library of Virginia) (1916). Correspondents include: Arthur I. Boreman, John I. Brown, William G. Brown, A.W. Campbell, John S. Carlile, Spencer Dayton, James Evans, Thomas. M. Harris, J.H. Jordan, Daniel Lamb, J.A.J. Lightburn, A.F. Ritchie, Lewis Ruffner, Henry I. Samuels, J.C. Paxton, P.G. Van Winkle, and John O. Watson.

Papers of Francis Harrison Pierpont (1814-1899) of Monongalia and Marion Counties, West Virginia, who served as governor of the Restored Government of Virginia during the Civil War. Includes manuscripts, typescripts, printed materials, and photocopies consisting of genealogies, correspondence, college essays, speeches, official messages, articles prepared for newspapers, legal documents, pamphlets, scrapbooks, and ephemera. Topics include Pierpont's education; his career as governor of the Restored Government of Virginia at Wheeling, Alexandria, and Richmond; the West Virginia statehood movement; politics; and his later work in the Methodist Protestant Church. Notable series include Pierpont's personal and professional correspondence; his writings and speeches, which include several drafts of his reminiscences on Lincoln; correspondence and notes of Charles H. Ambler, biographer of Pierpont, in the Subject Files series; and a series of several hundred telegrams related to statehood and the Civil War. Pierpont's correspondents include Gordon Battelle, Arthur I. Boreman, John S. Carlile, Abraham Lincoln (copies), Waitman T. Willey, and others. For civil war telegrams related to this collection, go to wvhistory.org.

A letter from Peter G. Van Winkle (8 Nov. 1862) and another letter from Colonel T.M. Harris (4 Sept. 1862) to Francis H. Pierpont, Governor of Restored Virginia. Van Winkle's letter speaks of the poor prospects of the proposed new state's survival, particularly the guerrilla threat south of the Little Kanawha River. Colonel Harris conveys from a wounded Confederate officer a warning that General Loring is planning an offensive into western Virginia.

Correspondence to Judge Gideon D. Camden (1805-1891) of Clarksburg, Harrison County, West Virginia. Camden was a lawyer, Democratic politician, member of the Virginia Convention of 1850-1851, circuit judge, and state senator (1872-1876). The letters discuss antebellum Virginia politics, legal cases, land deals, banking, river improvement, personal business, and family relations. Correspondents include George W. Berlin, Johnson Newlon Camden, R.P. Camden, John S. Carlile, John A. Dille, John Hall, A.F. Haymond, George A. Jackson, John J. Jackson Jr., Z. Jacob, B.H. Lurty, Peter G. Van Winkle, Benjamin Wilson, and Samuel Woods. See inventory in control folder.

Correspondence and papers of a major political figure dealing largely with politics in Virginia, West Virginia, and Virginia in the Confederacy. Bennett, a lawyer and legislator, was a member of the Virginia General Assembly, 1852-1853; president of the Weston Branch of the Exchange Bank of Virginia; auditor of Virginia, 1857-1865; member of the senate of West Virginia, 1872-1876; and a member of the commission appointed to adjust the Virginia debt question in 1871. Correspondents include James Barbour, Arthur I. Boreman, G.D. Camden, J.N. Camden, R.P. Camden, John S. Carlile, Spencer Dayton, J.H. Diss Debar, Matthew Edmiston, John W. Garrett, Nathan Goff, William L. Jackson, Joseph Johnson, Edwin Maxwell, J.H. Pendleton, Francis H. Pierpont, Beverly Randolph, John H. Reagan, William Prescott Smith, Felix Sutton, William P. Thompson, John Tyler, and P.G. Van Winkle.

Aside from routine municipal affairs these journals contain material on the development of internal improvements in the Parkersburg, West Virginia, area like the Wheeling-Parkersburg struggle for the western terminus of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, the development of the Northwestern Virginia Railroad, and the demands for various river improvements. There are also a few references to Civil War military activities and the development of the oil industry in the Wood County area. Mayors mentioned include C.S. Despard, John J. Jackson, and Peter G. VanWinkle.

Letter from 1842 authored by Peter G. Van Winkle (1808-1872) regarding business and political matters. Van Winkle was a Parkersburg attorney, delegate to the Constitutional Convention of 1850-1851, member of the Second Wheeling Convention of 1861, delegate to the Constitutional Convention of 1861-1862, legislator from Wood County in 1863, U.S. Senator from 1863-1869, and participant in West Virginia railroad and business enterprises. Contains original manuscript and typescript copy of a letter from Van Winkle, Parkersburg, to Charles P. Bailey, dated April 12, 1842, describing his opinions on imports and foreign debt, a tariff on foreign imports, a proposed national bank, internal improvements, and other subjects of political importance in the early forties.