Collections : [West Virginia and Regional History Center]

Includes administrative records, such as correspondence, minutes of stockholders meetings, deeds and other land records, financial and insurance records, equipment inventories, and records of mineral water sales. There is also some ephemera, including a Borland Springs mineral water bottle label, and a photographic postcard documenting the facilities.

Records of Pleasants County businessman Hiram Carpenter, based in St. Marys, West Virginia. Includes correspondence, financial and legal records, and other material. Hiram A. Carpenter, a native of Pleasants County, West Virginia, was a well-known riverman who began his career ferrying mail between Raven Rock and Leith, Ohio, when he was 13 years old. A successful businessman, his many enterprises included a sand and gravel business and farming on 13 of the Ohio River islands, which he owned at one time. Cultivation of apples and potatoes, road construction, transportation, and his greatest undertaking, building the Short Route Bridge across the Ohio River in 1928, were among his many endeavors, spanning a lifetime of almost 90 years.

Photographs by James Edwin Green of the Green family from Foxburg, Pennsylvania (PA) and St. Marys, West Virginia (WV). Includes over 500 glass plate negatives and 1 1/2 inches of film negatives documenting subjects from ca. 1900-1918 including: the James Edwin Green family; Foxburg, PA; St. Marys, WV; the Taylor Farm, St. Marys, WV; agriculture; railroads; oil derricks; Grand Army of the Republic (GAR) reunions; the World War I era, and transportation. There are pictures of the Daniel Rupert family and Taylor family as well. Also includes exemplars of commercial packaging of glass plate negatives and film negatives.

Contains material regarding the genealogy and history of the Cuming, Sanders, and Gill Families. It focuses on the English ancestors of the families, who primarily originated from Devon. The Cuming family is traced back to the 13th century and a direct line of descent is established in the 17th century starting with Nicholas Cuming. The Sanders family begins in the late 18th century with the descendants of Elburton Sanders. Less material is available regarding the Gill family, tracing only a few generations beginning in the late 18th century with Joseph Gill. Some of the American descendants of these families were associated with Parsons, St. Marys, and other locations in and around West Virginia. The collection also includes reproductions of photographs and documents, as well as photographs, taken in 2003, of locations in Britain relevant to the history of the families.

Photocopies of the Pleasants County Home Guard regimental book (191st. Regiment, 23rd. Brigade, 3rd. Division, Virginia Militia). The book is a record of the unit's membership and routine business minutes. Included are descriptions of the jurisdictional boundaries of each company and oaths of office for commissioned and non-commissioned officers.

Records collected by Robert Fonner regarding Tyler County, West Virginia (WV) and also the Civil War. There are clippings (1958-1994) regarding the histories of Middlebourne (WV), Marietta (Ohio), and Tyler County High School. Civil War papers include three letters (1862), one short note (1863), short supply list (undated), discharge for John Brady of Ohio (1866), and three pension documents (1875-1879). There are also over 60 Tyler County appointments and commissions documents (1815-1860s); and Tyler County polling records for delegates (1815, 1857), and for creating a new county, Pleasants, from Tyler, Wood, and Ritchie Counties (1845, 1848, 1850). See access and use for separations; see scope and content note for additional information.

Papers of the Thomas Browse family documenting immigration from England to the Ohio River region in the vicinity of Ohio, western Virginia, and Kentucky (1830); farming in Pleasants County, West Virginia in the vicinity of St. Marys on the Ohio River (ca. 1830s-1900); and the acquisition of and royalties from oil lands in Pleasants County from the region of "Fish Pot" (ca. 1880s-1910). Includes diaries of Thomas Browse (1830-1878) and diaries of his daughter Mary E. Browse (1855-1910, incomplete). Also includes family papers of descendants Robert H. Browse (son) and Henry Nicholas Browse (grandson) documenting services purchased and businesses transactions conducted along the Ohio River in the region of the towns of St. Marys, New Martinsville, and Wheeling (ca. 1880-1930). There are also several maps of West Virginia lands in Pleasants and Tyler Counties (ca. 1830-1910), including oil fields in Pleasants County (ca. 1900-1920), pertaining to the business of the Browse family.

Financial statements of various West Virginia counties and cities, including city budgets, sanitation board budgets, general fund budgets, and auditor's reports. See inventory for complete list.

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.