How and Where to Look It Up: Resources for Researching the History of Jefferson County, West Virginia
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HOW AND WHERE TO LOOK IT UP: RESOURCES FOR RESEARCHING THE HISTORY OF JEFFERSON COUNTY, WEST VIRGINIA. William D. Theriault, Ph.D. ©2001 William D. Theriault P.O. Box 173, Bakerton, WV 25431 e-mail: [email protected] Foreword This work tries to give students of Jefferson County, West Virginia, history the resources needed to confront the mass of information relevant to its past. How and Where To Look It Up contains twenty-three chapters that provide an overview of primary and secondary sources available on a broad range of topics. The accompanying Bibliography on compact disc furnishes more than 6,500 annotated citations on county history. Together they comprise the most comprehensive reference guide published on Jefferson County history to date. Despite the scope of this effort, it is incomplete. Thousands of older sources wait to be identified, perhaps by the readers of this work. New sources appear regularly, the product of more recent studies. I have temporarily suspended my information gathering efforts to publish this book and CD during Jefferson County’s bicentennial year. I hope that those inspired by the county’s 200th anniversary celebration will find it useful and will contribute to this ongoing effort. The format I have chosen for this information reflects changing tastes and technologies. A few years ago, I would have had no choice but to print all of this work on paper, a limitation that would have made the bibliography unwieldy to use and expensive to publish. Today, compact disc and Internet publication provide new ways to access old information if you have a computer. Tomorrow, you will be able to find all of the references and texts I have laboriously collected (and more) by typing a few simple commands on your computer. How and Where To Look It Up has been published in book format for those researchers who have not yet mastered the mysteries of the computer and for those who like the solid feel of paper in their hands as they trudge through musty archives and dusty tomes. The Bibliography has been published on compact disc for those who wish to explore this guidebook’s topics in depth and who are comfortable conducting research from their desktop. I hope this guide will make your journey back in time a little easier. Bon Voyage! Bill Theriault Bakerton, West Virginia July 4, 2001 iii iv How Do I ...? Brief Answers to Frequently Asked Questions For additional information on the sources cited here, consult the Table of Contents and the Index, or search the Bibliography database on CD. Find out when my house was built? If you live in an incorporated area, you may find the information on Sanborn insurance maps (see Chapter 13), which were published from the late 1890's to the 1930's. Several other maps are available for each of the municipalities, but they often show only lots, not structures. The S. Howell Brown maps of Jefferson County for 1852, 1862, and 1883 contain property boundaries, landowners’ names, and the location of the primary residence. Varle’s 1809 map not only lacks detail but also is selective in what is recorded; people who didn’t pay to be on it were usually excluded. Michael Thompson’s Calendar of Jefferson County Plats. 1801-1900, lists plats recorded with deeds. The abstracts sometimes make reference to the location of buildings. Wills, deeds, and tax records may indicate the presence of structures on the property, although they may not be the same ones that are currently standing. Newspapers often provide other clues. Portions of some papers have been abstracted and are available on the Explorer: West Virginia History Database CD. Many older homes have been discussed in the volumes of the Magazine of the Jefferson County Historical Society. Find out who the original owner of my property was? Start with the Fairfax Grant maps in the Jefferson County Clerk’s Office. These consist of U.S. Geological Survey maps and transparent overlays showing the boundaries of each grant. Locate your property and note the reference number for your grant. Refer to the typed index to find the property owner, number of acres, date of grant, and deed book reference. The text of most Jefferson County land grants is available in the Explorer Database. Locate vital statistics about my Jefferson County ancestors? First, try to get a general idea of when they arrived and how long they stayed. Jefferson County was not formed until 1801 and was previously part of Berkeley (since 1772), Frederick (since 1738), Orange (since 1734), and Spottsylvania (since 1720). Birth, death, and marriage records for these counties (when they still exist) are available on microfilm. Birth and death records for Jefferson County are not available before 1853. (See Chapter 3 for details.) Tombstone inscriptions have been collected and published in several volumes, including the Bee Line chapter, DAR, Tombstone Inscriptions. Jefferson County, WV (1981); Hugh Vorees’ supplement to this work (Burials in Jefferson County, West Virginia, 1978-1998 [1998]), and issues of the Magazine of the Jefferson County Historical Society. (See Chapter 9 for additional information.) Census records may also be useful, providing the age (in years) of family members when the census was taken. Census records are available for all decades up to 1920 on microfilm, except 1890. Local microfilm repositories include the Berkeley County Historical Society, Martinsburg Public Library, Shepherd College, and the library at Harpers Ferry National Historic Park. (See Chapter 3 for more census information.) v vi CONTENTS Foreword ................................................................................iii How Do I...? Brief Answers to Frequently Asked Questions ..................................... v 1. Introduction ......................................................................... 1 2. Libraries and Museums ................................................................ 3 3. Public Records ...................................................................... 61 4. School Records ...................................................................... 70 5. Business and Industry ................................................................ 76 6. Church Records and Histories .......................................................... 80 7. Newspapers and Periodicals ............................................................ 86 8. Personal Papers ...................................................................... 93 9. Cemetery Records .................................................................... 99 10. Genealogy ......................................................................... 101 11. Land Grants ....................................................................... 104 12. Materials Related to John Brown ....................................................... 134 13. Maps ............................................................................. 135 14. National Register Sites ............................................................... 138 15. Pictures and Photographs ............................................................ 141 16. Archeology ........................................................................ 142 17. The Civil War ...................................................................... 148 18. Oral History ....................................................................... 157 19. The Arts .......................................................................... 160 20. African American Studies ............................................................. 182 21. Women’s Studies ................................................................... 192 22. Agriculture ........................................................................ 201 23. Internet Resources .................................................................. 206 Index ................................................................................. 207 vii viii 1. Introduction Jefferson County, West Virginia, has a rich heritage and a wealth of historical information. Unfortunately, much of it is not accessible to people who want to research the county's past. For the scholar who needs to be familiar with this topic (or at least some part of it), there has never been a detailed, extensive overview of primary and secondary sources for writing Jefferson County history. Perhaps this is the reason almost half a century has passed since anyone attempted a comprehensive history of Jefferson County. Maybe it is the sheer magnitude of materials available and their dispersal throughout the nation. Or maybe it is the lack of adequate finding aids that might help put the researcher in touch with the resource. For the student who wants to write a decent research paper or develop a social studies project, the best bet has been to scan the publications of the Jefferson County Historical Society and the other major works on county history. Yet the Historical Society Magazine is thinly indexed, and most other volumes on local history have been placed in special reference collections. Old histories have become artifacts, kept from general circulation because of their rarity, fragility, and economic value. For landowners who want to learn about the place they live or the original settler of their property, there has been no straightforward guide to locally available materials. Aspiring genealogists may have the easiest job because of the large number of persons researching family history. Yet they too are often at a loss to locate the