Webster County (W. Va.) Court Records
Collection
Collection Number: A&M 0763
County court and public records consisting primarily of case papers, Administration of Justice-related books, financial records, and vital statistics records. There are also many court calendar (docket) records and land-related records.
Of the original paper materials and record books, only box 15 of the original materials have been microfilmed.
Highlights include:
Item 69 (of the record books) is a court transcript of the case State v. Annie L. McKenzie (1928), which was a murder trial in which the defendant was accused of murdering her husband. This case gained media attention at the time, having coverage in multiple newspapers.
For materials in box 15, researchers should use microfilm. Paper materials and record books that have not been microfilmed are open for research.
The medical records that are included in WEB 31, 32, and 33 (Department of Public Assistance Records) are restricted until 2038, 2040, and 2041, respectively, which is 100 years from the dates of creation, unless an individual grants permission to access their record or the WVRHC is given proof of death that occurred in excess of 50 years prior to the date of request. Researchers collecting summary data may submit an Acces Request Form
Permission to publish or reproduce is required from the copyright holder. For more information, please see the Permissions and Copyright page on the West Virginia and Regional History Center website.
14.67 Linear Feet (Summary: 14 ft. 8 in. (15 document cases, 5 in. each); (1 flat storage box, 3.5 in.); (14 ledgers, 2 ft. 4.25 in.); (34 reels of 16 mm microfilm, 0.75 in. each); (25 reels of 35 mm microfilm, 1.75 in. each))
English
Microfilm was originally sorted by “series,” which largely corresponded to subject matter. In this organization, there were multiple “reel 1”’s, as the numbering of the reels would restart every time a new series began. The current usage of “series” denotes different physical forms of materials (i.e., microfilm, original materials, and record books). To preserve the organization of the original sense of the “series,” the microfilm reels that fall under these same “legacy series” have been grouped together by individual reels being denoted under the “instances” tab for each legacy series. WEB 1 is Series 1, WEB 2-30 is Series 2, WEB 31-33 is Series 3, and WEB 34 is Series 4. Not every reel corresponds to a “series,” because these series were devised for only part of the collection that was donated to the Center at the same time, while other microfilmed materials in the collection were donated to or created by the Center at a later time, by the same entity.
Dates for WEB 2-24 were able to be extrapolated by seeing the dates listed for those reels on the legacy inventories. However, the correlations between the microfilm and the inventory stop at the end of “Series 4.”
WEB 1 to 34 (all 16mm) are microfilm of original materials. WEB 35a to 47 are microfilm of record books.
West Virginia and Regional History Center / West Virginia University / 1549 University Avenue / P.O. Box 6069 / Morgantown, WV 26506-6069 / Phone: 304-293-3536 / URL: West Virginia & Regional History Center
Gift of Herold, Charles (Clerk of Webster County Court), 1955 July 15
(for previously A&M 1235 reels) Loan for photoreproduction, Webster County Court, Webster Springs, W. Va, 1959 August 1B
It has been decided to merge the collection A&M 1235 into this collection, because it has the same provenance (thought the microfilmed ledger books from A&M 1235 were lent a few years later than this collection) and because the microfilm numbering incorporates A&M 1235 into the numbering for this collection. The contents of A&M 1235 were 12 reels of 35mm microfilm, which are WEB 35a to 44.
To determine scope and contents of original paper materials, the processor randomly sampled a few archival materials from a given box to get an idea of what its contents are. Additionally, when the processor was unsure of what to call a commonly occurring record type, the record type was described rather than outright named.
Part of the West Virginia and Regional History Center Repository