Dick Ralston, Collector, Lewis County Historical Material
Collection
Collection Number: A&M 4259
Collection includes various materials relating to Lewis County history and the history of Lewis County families. This collection is minimally processed.
Series 1. Family Histories; boxes 1 and 4. This series includes family history materials for the Ralston, Hoffman, and Harrison families, including genealogy charts, photographs, clippings and booklets entitled “Ralston Family History” and “Harrison Family History.”
Series 2. Lewis County Local Histories; boxes 2, 3, 6, and oversize folder. This series contains material relating to the history of Lewis County places, including Weston High School, the Weston Hospital, and Jackson’s Mill.
Box 2: Contains two yearbooks for West High School (1917 and 1939), Anna Ralston’s graduation scrapbook, a booklet entitled “One Hundred Years of Masonic History in Weston,” plans for the museum and interpretive plan of Jackson’s Mill, and documents relating to the reconstruction of the grist mill at the Jackson’s Mill site. The 1917 Weston High Yearbook includes several mentions of young Rush Dew Holt. Also included is a folder of West Virginia brochures and publications with several West Virginia maps.
Box 3: Contains three binders with clippings of the Yester Year column from the Weston Democrat,
Box 6: Contains several scrapbooks of newspaper clippings.
An oversize folder includes O.W. Gray and Sons maps of Fairmont, Clarksburg, Wheeling (with Martins Ferry and Bridgeport, OH), and Morgantown, a map of Virginia and West Virginia, a Fowler map of Weston dated 1900, a fragile print titled “Lee and His Generals,” and a publication from 1934 titled “Travel in Italy.”
Series 3. A.H. Winchester Correspondence and Clippings; box 4. This series contains a collection of correspondence and newspaper clippings relating to A.H. Winchester and the lumber industry in West Virginia. Winchester, a Buckhannon man who owned a lumber company that he later moved to South America, served as the forestry expert for the US commission to the Paris Exhibition of 1900. Most of the correspondence dates from 1901-1902.
Series 4. Vinyl Record Collection; box 5. This series contains a collection of early vinyl records, the majority of which are labeled “radio station copy” or “not for sale.” One is a home recording of Colvin Ralston’s 12th birthday in May of 1959. Other titles include “The Presidential Election – Part I” by Amos and Andy, “Can I Sleep in your Barn Tonight, Mister?” by Vernon Dalhart, and “Moonglow” by Benny Goodman, among others.
Series 5. Religious Publications; boxes 1 and 4. This series contains several booklets regarding Anglican prayer and missionary activity belonging to Mr. James Ralston. Titles include “A Church Awake: A Study of the Vital Elements in the Gospel,” “The World Call to the Church,” and “The Prayer Book Issue,” among others.
Series 6. Ephemera; box 4. This series contains miscellaneous ephemera, not necessarily relating to West Virginia or Lewis County. Included are an 1874 publication entitled “Patron of Husbandry,” an early twentieth century wall calendar, an 1897 Montgomery Ward advertisement, a photograph captioned “The Robert’s Building,” a 1939 Ford advertisement, and the November 11, 1940 issue of Opera News, among others.
English
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.
4.8 Linear Feet (4 ft. 10 1/4 in. (3 record cartons, 15 in. each); (2 document cases, 5 in. each); (1 oversize box, 3 in.); (1 oversize folder in map cabinet, 1/4 in.))
Collection of Lewis County local history material collected by Dick Ralston of Buckhannon. Includes genealogy and history, and photographs of the Ralston family. Also includes Gray and Sons maps of Wheeling, Morgantown, Clarksburg, and Fairmont. See Scope and Content for details.
West Virginia and Regional History Center / West Virginia University / 1549 University Avenue / P.O. Box 6069 / Morgantown, WV 26506-6069 / Phone: 304-293-3536 / Fax: 304-293-3981 / URL: https://wvrhc.lib.wvu.edu/
Two C&O prospectuses (ca. 1940s) and one ticket to the Lewis County Agricultural and Mechanical Society annual fair (1875) were separated to the Printed Ephemera Collection.
The fair ticket can be viewed in the online Printed Emphemera Collection on the website of the West Virginia and Regional History Center, call number P18959: https://printedephemera.lib.wvu.edu/catalog/wvulibraries:63189
Part of the West Virginia and Regional History Center Repository