West Virginia and Regional History Center
1549 University Ave.P.O. Box 6069
Morgantown, WV 26506-6069
Business Number: 304-293-3536
wvrhcref@westvirginia.libanswers.com
URL: https://wvrhc.lib.wvu.edu
Staff of the West Virginia & Regional History Center
Administrative Information
Conditions Governing Use
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.
Researchers may access digitized and born digital materials by visiting the link attached to each item or by requesting to view the materials in person by appointment or remotely by contacting the West Virginia & Regional History Center reference department at https://westvirginia.libanswers.com/wvrhc.
Preferred Citation
[Description and date of item], [Box/folder number], David H. Sutton, Compiler, Research Papers regarding Helvetia, West Virginia, A&M 3687, West Virginia and Regional History Center, West Virginia University Libraries, Morgantown, West Virginia.
Scope and Contents
The collection contains material in 19 series, including:
Series 1. Schneider Family
Series 2. Lutz Correspondence
Series 3. Oral Histories -- Transcriptions
Series 4. News clippings
Series 5. Genealogy
Series 6. Research Material
Series 7. Philatelic Material
Series 8. Subjects
Series 9. Ephemera
Series 10. Aegerter Papers
Series 11. Aegerter Photographs with Index
Series 12. Aegerter Photographs from Album
Series 13. Aegerter Photographs from Box
Series 14. Hofer Photographs
Series 15. Oversize Material
Series 16. Oral Histories -- Tapes
Series 17. Glass Plates -- Aegerter
Series 18. Glass Plates -- Hofer
Series 19. Funeral Programs and Obituaries
An album of Ruth Ramsey Marti's postcard correspondence from 1910-1918 can be found in A&M 3819.
Separated Material
Books separated to the WVC Rare Books Collection:
Bollinger, Theodore P., ed. History of Saint John's Classis . Cleveland: Central Pub. House, 1921.
Frey, Heinrich. Schweizer Brevier: Was Ich Von Meiner Heimat Wissen Muss. Bern: Bitterli, 1947.
Keller, Paul. Unsere Schweizerlieder: 118 Volks Und Nationallieder Fur Klavier Allein Oder Fur Gesang Und Klavier = Nos Chants Suisses = I Nostri Canti Svizzeri . Lausanne: Foetisch, 1931.
Subjects and Indexing Terms
- Aegerter family
- Funeral rites and ceremonies
- Genealogy - Randolph County (W. Va.)
- Helvetia (W. Va.)
- Helvetia (W. Va.) -- History
- Hoffer family
- Lumber industry - Randolph County (W. Va.)
- Lutz family
- Obituaries and death records.
- Photographs - Randolph County (W. Va.)
- Snyder family
- Steiger family
Significant Places Associated With the Collection
- Helvetia (W. Va.)
- Helvetia (W. Va.) -- History
Container List
Records of the Schneider family, including photographs, photograph albums, post cards, and other material. Items of note include a "bible birthday book" (1944) listing birth dates of friends and family members, a day book regarding management of the Schneider farm, (1942-1968), bull stud breeding receipts (1967, 1969), and other material belonging to Herman Schneider. Also includes material regarding Hedwig Schneider Steiger, Margrit Steiger, and Max Schneider, including portraits, a Steiger family book (1904; contains genealogy information), and an outline of Alvin Schneider's death (1945).
Includes photocopies of correspondence between land merchant and Helvetia booster C.E. Lutz. and others. There are letters between Lutz, Gideon D. Camden, David Goff, and J.M. Bennett, many of which document the involvement of Lutz in land transactions in Randolph County, West Virginia. There is also a photocopy facsimile and transcription of an advertisement (1873) written by Lutz designed to attract settlers to Helvetia by describing the location of the community, job opportunities, wages, terrain, seasonal weather, and average acreage per plot of land (box 2, folder 1). The letters in folders 2-6 include citations indicating their provenance from the following collections at the West Virginia and Regional History Center: A&M 1199 Camden Papers (1785-1958), A&M 975 Goff Papers (1826-1904), and A&M 32 Bennett Papers (1785-1899).
Includes five bound transcriptions of eight interviews between the compiler of the collection, David H. Sutton, and various individuals who were raised in the Helvetia community during its early years (1880s through 1890s). The transcriptions cover a wide range of topics including the types of food the interviewees recalled having for supper; the crops that were grown on their farms; and recreational activities, such as attending church, community dances, hunting, playing music, and attending the Helvetia fair. Many interviewees discuss their education, including descriptions of their school house, curriculum, and other activities of a normal school day in the Helvetia community. Interviewees include Minnie Betler Malcomb, Mary Huber Marti, Mary Metzener Morris, Anna Merkli McNeal, Genevieve Hofer, Myrtle Brownersack Koener, Ella Karlen Betler, and Anna Zumbach Daetwyler. This series also includes two photographs of David H. Sutton in the process of interviewing Anna Merkli McNeal and other material. There are also audio recordings of oral history interviews in Series 16 with these interviewees.
Includes clippings from The Inter-Mountain newspaper (Elkins, West Virginia) and other local papers regarding events and news involving the Helvetia community. Subjects of articles include the historic architecture of Helvetia, a grant for an Appalachian music program, and the naming of Helvetia to the National Register of Historic Places, among other topics.
Includes genealogies and other material regarding some of Helvetia's early settlers, including the Betz, Merkli, Bopp, Halder, Koprio, Buff, Sennhauser, Stutzman, Vogel, Sassi, Hofer, Asper, Burhl, Hasel, Dubach, Betler, Gimmel, Anderegg, Metzener, and Aegerter families.
Includes event day philatelic covers for Pickens Maple Syrup Festival (1980-1990s) and Helvetia Fair (1980-1990s), both Randolph County, West Virginia events. There are also twenty-five foreign postage stamps from Switzerland ("Helvetia") from 1954, 1955, 1962, and 1987.
Includes two autograph books of Bertha Teuscher (1893-1909), a second cornet part book for a local wind band (ca. 1880-1910), a Pickens High School newsletter titled "Trail Blazer," (1935), a menu from the Helvetia restaurant Hutte (ca. 1960-1980), postcards of Helvetia and Elkins (1982), Helvetia Community Fair premium list (1962), a brochure regarding the Helvetia Players in the comedy "Arsenic and Old Lace," (1968) and other material.
Includes cardboard ribbons from the Helvetia Community Fair and quilt raffle tickets (1974).
Includes the personal papers of Gottfried and Maria Anna Aegerter. They include letters, military records, oil and gas lease information, a marriage certificate, and other material.
Includes 120 numbered photographs of the Aegerter family and other families of the Helvetia community. The numbers are referenced in a 198 page topical index which provides identification of people and other subject matter in the photographs. There are also images documenting activities such as farming, hunting, clearing timber, playing music, and traveling by horse drawn carriage, among other topics. Photographs numbered 8, 43, 46, 47, 54, 61, 62, 72, 80-84, 89, 100, and 109-114 are missing from this series.
Includes 120 numbered photographs of the Aegerter family and other families of the Helvetia community. The numbers are referenced in a 198 page topical index which provides identification of people and other subject matter in the photographs. There are also images documenting activities such as farming, hunting, clearing timber, playing music, and traveling by horse drawn carriage, among other topics. Photographs numbered 8, 43, 46, 47, 54, 61, 62, 72, 80-84, 89, 100, and 109-114 are missing from this series.
Includes unidentified photographs of Aegerter family members (originally filed together in a box) similar to those of Series 11 and 12. The Aegerter photographs in this series were originally filed with the Aegerter glass plates in Series 17; there is no apparent connection between this series and Series 17.
Includes 35 photos of the Hofer family. Most individuals are identified; identifications are recorded to the back of each print. Family members identified within this series include: John Sr., John, Susie, Ruth, Ernest, Caroline, Gottlieb, Ida, Carrie, Katherina, and Mary Isch. There is no apparent connection between this series and Series 18.
Includes a greeting card book belonging to Paul Aegerter, the diary of Ruth Ramsey Marti (1961), a photograph of Mary Ramsey Marti, a photograph of the Ramsey family in Webster County, West Virginia (1896), the Confirmation Certificate of Herman Schneider (1889), a broadside from the Annual Helvetia Ramp Supper (1988), pictures of Helvetia (1890-1910), and a published illustration of Helvetia (1876), and a few more items.
Includes 66 audio cassette tapes in three boxes of interviews between David H. Sutton and individuals who were raised in Helvetia during the early years of the community. Names of interviewees are listed by each box.
Transcriptions of these interviews can be found in Series 3.
- Mixed Materials Box: 8
Oral History Tapes1979Scope and Contents
Pesons interviewed: Anna McNeal, Margaret Egleson Isch, Ralph Burkey, Ella Betler, Marian Aegerter Doyle, Margaret Koerner, and Edward A. Sutton.
Transcriptions of these interviews can be found in Series 3.
- Mixed Materials Box: 9
Oral History Tapes1979Scope and Contents
Persons interviewed: Helen Schneider Sutton, Hedwig Steiger, Myrtle Koerner, Gene Daetwyler, Anna Sutton Fischer, Della Metzener, Louis Lehmann, and Eleanor Fahrner Mailloux.
Transcriptions of these interviews can be found in Series 3.
- Mixed Materials Box: 10
Oral History Tapes1979Scope and Contents
Persons interviewed: Virginia Malcomb Zumbach, Edwin Ramsey, Mary Metzener Morris, Mary Zickefoose, Genevieve Hofer, Minnie Betler Malcomb, Mary Huber Marti, Anna and Freda Balli, Margie Fahrmer Daetwyler, Paul Daetwyler, Anna Zumbach Daetwyler, Julia Arnold, the Helvetia Men's Chorus, and the Helvetia Quartet. Also includes two tapes of interviews by Susan Leffler for West Virginia Public Radio, one of which contains interviews conducted at the Helvetia Fair.
Transcriptions of these interviews can be found in Series 3.
Includes 24 glass plate negatives of Helvetia families. Plates of images of the Aegerter and Burkey families in folder 1 are identified; other plates of family images, however, are not identified. Other glass plates depict recreational and outdoor scenes of Helvetia. Folders 2-13 of this series were originally filed with the Aegerter photographs in Series 13. There is no apparent connection between this series and Series 11, 12, and 13.
Includes 12 glass plate negatives of members of the Hofer family and Helvetia community participating in recreational activities such as horseback riding and reading on a creek bank. The glass plates also depict a statue of a horse, a scarecrow in a field, a man holding a Pentecostal hymn song book, as well as other individuals and scenes of Helvetia, West Virginia. There is no apparent connection between this series and Series 14.
Includes funeral and memorial service programs, obituaries, news clippings, and other material related to the deaths of Helvetia residents.
This addendum includes photographs and negatives, such as negatives of the 1978 Fourth of July and the 1979 Helvetia Fair (1978-1979); oral history releases (1979); a deed pertaining to Upshur and Randolph Counties (1874); Helvetia Farm Women's Club records, record book, and correspondence (1950-2004); Margrit Schneider, nee Steiger, Swiss and American legal papers, including naturalization certificate (1928-1961); Favri correspondence and a typescript Favri family history (1998, undated); and Helvetia: The History of a Swiss Village in the Mountains of West Virginia by David H. Sutton, with two CDs of images used in the book (2010).