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Correspondence, legal and business papers, mercantile records and tax receipt books of Isaac McNeel, who operated a store at Edray and Mill Point, Pocahontas County, West Virginia, served as sheriff of the county, operated a gristmill, raised livestock, and was appointed provost marshal of the county in 1862 by the Confederate Army. The collection also includes letters and school reports of McNeel's sons, Winters and Summers, while students at Washington and Lee and the Medical and Law Departments of the University of Virginia, 1893-1897. Other school material pertains to the Hillsboro Male and Female Academy and the Lewisburg Female Institute. Subjects include mercantile and cattle trade with Baltimore and Richmond; business conditions in the l850s and in Richmond during the Civil War; slave hiring; ginseng trade; agriculture; the American Party, 1855; Henry A. Wise; Virginia Secession Convention; effect of the Union blockade on Richmond commerce; speculation in whiskey, tobacco, and cattle during the Civil War; and postwar economic and political conditions in the Pocahontas County area.

A letter written to his parents in West Chester, Pennsylvania, describing his travels from Maysville, Kentucky to Natural Bridge, Virginia, on the way to Richmond, Virginia. Everhart vividly describes the conditions he experienced in travel by steamboat and stage and the mountain scenery he passed through. Sites mentioned are Guyandotte, Virginia, Charleston, West Virginia, White and Blue Sulphur Springs, and The Hawk's Nest.

Bills, receipts, and letters of Kincaid of Greenbrier County, West Virginia, mainly concerning his attempts to obtain a position at the Richmond, Virginia insane asylum as a medical student and his various contacts with Greenbrier County as a school teacher. Also there is a Renick family history.

The collection documents parts of John Barton Payne's varied professional career. It contains correspondence, including letters from President Woodrow Wilson and federal agencies including the White House, Senate, House of Representatives, and Postmaster General, as well letters from Payne's former employer, invitations, letters of thanks, and requests from private entities. The collection also contains photographs from trips that Payne took during his tenure as Secretary of the Interior, most of which were taken at Mt. Washburn in Yellowstone National Park, but also a photo album from a trip to Alaska as part of the Alaskan Engineering Commission (AEC).

Clippings and illustrations regarding abolitionist and activist John Brown, who led a raid on Harper's Ferry in 1859, precipitating the American Civil War. Includes: 1) facsimile of a page of the newspaper "Independent Democrat" of Charlestown, Virginia from 10-25-1859 including article giving an account of the raid by John Brown; 2) facsimile of a page of the newspaper "Daily Enquirer" of Richmond, Virginia from 11-21-1859 including copy of Brown's petition for a writ of error in his trial; 3) original copy of pages from "Frank Leslie's" illustrated newspaper from 12-10-1859 featuring article of final interviews with John Brown and an illustration of John Brown's execution; 4) photocopy of pages from "Harper's Weekly" from 1909 featuring article titled "How Patrick Higgins Met John Brown, His Story of What He Saw of the Raid on Harper's Ferry", October 16, 1859". Also includes two small undated newspaper clippings of images of "John Brown's House on Franklin Street", and of Brown's "Wool Warehouse on Railroad Row"; and two small undated magazine clippings of images of the schoolhouse John Brown used as an arsenal, and of insurgents thrown off a bridge at Harper's Ferry.