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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.

Conditions Governing Access

No special access restriction applies.

Preferred Citation

[Description and date of item], [Box/folder number], Gideon D. Camden (1805-1891) Papers, A&M 1199, West Virginia and Regional History Center, West Virginia University Libraries, Morgantown, West Virginia.

Scope and Contents

Papers of Judge Gideon D. Camden (1805-1891) of Clarksburg, Harrison County, West Virginia, and papers of his grandson Wilson Lee Camden (1870-1958). Gideon D. Camden was a lawyer, Democratic politician, member of the Virginia Convention of 1850-1851, circuit judge, and state senator (1872-1876). His papers include correspondence, legal and business papers, surveys and plats, and printed material. Subjects include Virginia, West Virginia, and national politics; the railroad, oil, timber, and coal industries; and Camden's law practice. Wilson Lee Camden papers include correspondence, legal papers, surveys and plats, printed material, business manuscripts, photographs, map, and ledgers. Subjects include the settlement of his grandfather's estate, and extensive coal, timber, land, railroad, and oil interests in West Virginia and Western Pennsylvania.

Gideon D. Camden papers include correspondence (1785-1891); legal and business papers dealing with his extensive law practice, particularly in land claims (1784-1892); surveys and plats (1784-1905, undated); and printed material.

Subjects of the G.D. Camden correspondence include the development of transportation in western Virginia; the tariff of 1846; the election of 1848; Virginia, West Virginia, and national politics; the Virginia Constitutional Convention of 1850; the Compromise of 1850; land sales and immigration in Western Virginia; the railroad struggle between Parkersburg and Wheeling; the Whig Party; Secession; the development of the West Virginia oil fields, coal strands, and timber lands; Reconstruction in West Virginia; the state election of 1868; the Flick Amendment; the Constitutional Convention of 1872; the West Virginia Capitol question; West Virginia University; education; the senatorial contest of 1874; railroads in the post-bellum period; the Democratic National Convention of 1876; the 47th Congress; and state politics during the Cleveland Administration.

Correspondents include Lot M. Morrill, Waitman T. Willey, Albert Gallatin Jenkins, John Letcher, John S. Carlile, Peter G. Van Winkle, Francis H. Pierpont, Benjamin Wilson, A.I. Boreman, and many more.

Wilson Lee Camden papers include correspondence (1885-1958, undated); legal papers (1817-1958, undated); surveys and plats (1872-1937, undated); printed material (1895-1951, undated); business manuscripts; photographs; map; and ledgers. Map shows the Camden holdings (mostly mines). Ledgers include a daybook (1903-1904), a record of land owned, and a letter book (1895-1903).

Subjects of the W.L. Camden papers include the settlement of his grandfather's estate, and extensive coal, timber, land, railroad, and oil interests in West Virginia and Western Pennsylvania.

Related Material

1188, 1199, 1221, 1260, 1276, 1495, 1517, 1523, 1868

Subjects and Indexing Terms

• Camden, Gideon Draper, 1805-1891
• Camden, Wilson Lee.
• Coal mining.
• Compromise of 1850
• Democratic National Convention of 1876.
• Democratic Party (U.S.)
• Election of 1848.
• Election of 1868.
• Harrison County (W. Va.)
• Immigration.
• Land.
• Lawyers - letters and papers.
• Lumber trade
• Pennsylvania
• Petroleum industry and trade
• Politics and government.
• Railroads
• Railroads - Parkersburg-Wheeling railroad struggle.
• Reconstruction (U.S. history, 1865-1877)
• Secession
• Taxes - Tariff of 1846.
• Transportation
• Virginia. Constitutional Convention (1850-1851)
• West Virginia -- Capital and capitol
• West Virginia University
• West Virginia. Constitution. Flick Amendment
• West Virginia. Constitutional Convention (1872)
• Whig Party (U.S.)