Papers of the Goff family of Harrison County, West Virginia. This collection is minimally processed. Includes the papers of Nathan Goff III, grandson of Nathan Goff Jr. (1843-1920), as well as his daughter Laura Ellen Goff Fireman (later Davis). Also includes correspondence of Howard Caplan, the Administrator of the Estate of Nathan Goff III, and H. Dotson Cather, the brother-in-law of Mrs. Goff Fireman Davis who may have been involved in Goff's estate. Formats in the collection include correspondence, ephemera, programs, invitations, plats, photographs, clippings, and much more. Nathan Goff's correspondence includes mostly business but also some family and personal correspondence. Correspondence includes both incoming and typescript copies of outgoing letters, as well as a few cards and telegrams. Subjects include mines, farming, livestock (especially sheep and horses, with special concentration of Clydesdale material), politics, land, wells, oil and gas leases, Citizens Publishing Company, the Waldo Hotel, the Nicholas Land Company, West Virginia Consolidated Coal Company and its Hardman Mine, Illinois State Fair, engineering, books, finances, and more. Mrs. Goff Fireman Davis's correspondence mainly concerns her father's estate. There are also two folders of material pertaining to Nathan Goff Jr., mostly correspondence and financial information (box 1, folders 17-18, 1884-1919). See Historical Note for additional information.
English
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Nathan Goff III (1907-1961) was the son of Waldo Percy Goff and grandson of Congressman Nathan Goff Jr. (1843-1920).
Nathan Goff III appears to have married Catherine Osborn Goff, and with her had two daughters, Diana Despard Goff (b. 1929) and Laura Ellen Goff (b. ca. 1932). Nathan and Catherine divorced ca. 1941.
Nathan Goff III may have later married a Thelma R. Goff (according to a June 1948 deed) and Mary Catherine Goff (1956 and 1958 deeds).
Diana Goff married Harold Dotson Cather in 1951.
Laura Ellen Goff later married someone named Fireman, then married and later divorced Shelley G. Davis.
2.7 Linear Feet (Summary: 2 ft. 7 3/4 in. (2 record cartons, 15 in. each); (1 oversize folder, 1/4 in.); (1 artifact box, 1 1/2 in.))
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