History of West Virginia, Old and New - Chapter I Introduction: Use of Local History

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From The History of West Virginia,
Old and New, by James Morton Callahan, 1923, 
Vol. I, pg. 1-11


History of West Virginia

CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION: USE OF LOCAL HISTORY

The importance of local historical research is steadily gaining recog-
nition. This is reflected in a growing belief that local history should
have a place in the course of study in our schools. Teachers are dis-
covering that the surest way to kindle and to stimulate to activity the
child's attention is to build on his own experience in his home com-
munity life - whose origin and development he will be interested to
know. When local life touches the larger streams of national life, local
history may be employed to introduce or to illustrate national history.
If it has little connection with national life, the history of every local
community of whatever age may still be full of vital interest and may
be made very instructive. If presented in a systematic, organized
course, it is suitable to unfold the fundamental principles of historical
development. It contains the universal motives to human action, the
universal geographic conditions and influences, the law of development
from the simple to the complex, and the evolution of institutions to
meet human needs. The common people in their home life, government,
and industrial interests, have contributed a share ,to the onward move-
ment of civilization, and a study of the story of their community life
will fortify the student with a habit of mind which will fit him to study
more intelligently the history of the nation and the world.

The study of history, like charity, should begin at home. The first
step, as in geography, is to know thoroughly the home district. The
most natural introduction to a knowledge of the history of the world is
from local environment, through ever widening circles of interest, along
lines that vitally connect the past with the present. The child should
first observe systematically the phenomena and processes which lie near
to him. He begins this himself and only needs to be guided. He sees
the institutions and life of his own neighborhood and is interested in
them. In connection with local geography he can learn many things
about the society in which he lives, he can get first-hand experience
with institutions in the concrete. What he learns in regard to the
family, the school, the church, the industrial life and the affairs of local
government will aid in giving him a conception of what history is.

Students should be led to appreciate the common and lowly things
around them, to understand the familiar facts of local environment
whose truths are as significant as those of far-away places and remote
times, to have respect for law, and for the institutions which through
long ages of the past have been developed in the great school of human
experience, and now contribute to the welfare of all. The annals, and
records, and life, of quiet neighborhoods are historically important by
their vital connection with the progress and science of the nation and
of the world.

Local history may advantageously be studied as a contribution to
national history and to a larger "world history." Almost every com-
munity has some close and intimate connection with general history.
Here, the Indians assembled in council and participated in the war
dance or smoked the pipe of peace. There, a brave explorer passed
centuries ago. Here, a self-reliant pioneer, armed -with axe and rifle,
built his log cabin and began his mission of subduing the savage forest
heavy with the sleep of ages. Through yonder gap pressed the incessant
wave of frontiersmen clearing the way for civilization. Here, in patches
of cleared land, strewn with arrow heads, they planted the seed for
future harvests. Here, they experimented with the difficulties and
opportunities of the wilderness. There, they sprang into conflict for
the protection of their homes; near by is a stone marking the graves
of those who died fighting for freedom; and yonder monument is in
commemoration of the victory that was won. On every hand also are
the living monuments of the civilization which followed: the houses,
mills, bridges, mines, railways, oil derricks, schools, churches and courts.

In almost every community there have lived conspicuous representa-
tive leaders whose simple stirring lives may be studied as a fitting in-
troduction to the vigorous life and struggles of the common people
in bygone days. They represent the men who established, guided and
saved the nation. Through them the moving dramatic panorama of
the past may be unrolled and glimpses of institutional forces may be
given.

The pioneer epoch is a delightful gateway through which the chil-
dren of our common schools may find entrance to the fields of Ameri-
can history, and of general history. The pioneer life in many states is
rich in stirring events, in difficult enterprises, in deeds of fortitude and
nobility, in stories of strong men and women, which will thrill the
children with delight and awaken a deep and permanent interest. In
the settlement of almost every community plain, modest and uncele-
brated men performed important service. They faithfully did a great
work, the consequences of which are around us to-day. From many
unnoticed, scattered fields, where they sowed their seed, came at last a
mighty harvest. They toiled not in vain.

The story of the deeds of such men not only awakens human interest
but impresses the mind with the value of high character and purpose,
and animates us to do our work with a more intense and patient fidelity.
All should be grateful for the invisible, molding influences behind these
men: their humble but reverent homes, their simple churches and their
rustic schools. The striking phases of their simple, frugal life are full
of interest and furnish valuable data for later study of social history
and government: their houses, the home life around the great fireplace,
their furniture and dress, their meeting houses and long sermons in
cold churches, their log rollings, house raisings and husking bees, their
government, methods of travel and trade.

The study of such things as these will vivify the past - will "fill
its dim spaces with figures which move and live and feel." Our his-
tory is rich in inspiring educational materials which, if properly pre-
sented, will prevent the distaste for history which has so often resulted
from the study of skeleton outlines and the memorizing of tables and
dates.

Perhaps local history may find its best opportunity as a means of
illustrating in the simplest terms possible the fundamental principles
of community life. This idea has recently been applied in the schools
of Indianapolis where it has resulted in the preparation of a series of
civic studies on the history of the various institutions of the city, be-
ginning with a short history of the water supply. Thus local history may
be utilized as a means of civic instruction. Because of its usefulness
in illuminating fundamental civic ideas, it may find its own oppor-
tunity for development in connection with a well organized course in
civics. A child is led to see that the various institutions and arrange-
ments of the community have been developed in order to satisfy the
needs and wants of himself and other members of the community.

Local history will develop in the child's mind a conception of the
nature of community life and its relations. The story of a simpler pioneer
community shows most interestingly the presence of all the motives
and interests of community life, and it shows how they were the stimuli
for the development of the various phases of early community life and
community institutions: such as schools, mills, mines, banks, churches,
railroads, streets, and government. It shows also how under the hard
conditions of pioneer life, isolated from civilization, the various interests
received only partial satisfaction.

The fascinating story of local development from this standpoint
teaches its own lesson. It enables one to understand from concrete ex-
amples that society has advanced only by slow, blind groping move-
ments - with long halts and many struggles due to ignorance, stupidity
and prejudice, and that "it is only through labor and painful effort,
by grim energy and resolute courage, that we move on to better things.''
The story of each town is one of interesting development: from the
primitive and the provincial to the modern and metropolitan; from a
sleepy condition of mere subsistance and isolation to a life of produc-
tive business and communication with the entire world; from trail and
pack horse to railway and express train; from an old log house built
as you please and surrounded by mud and broken glass to a modem house
built by permission of town council, and approached by sidewalk put
in by command of the town council, for the general good, - perhaps at
first against the strong opposition of individual citizens; from corner
smoke-befogged grocery with chairs and whittling material furnished
to the evening loafers' club to an orderly business house where loafers
are discouraged inside by lack of chairs and outside by rows of sharp
barbs and spikes; from the daily jam of the old postoffice after the
daily mail hack arrived to the modern office with iron rails to keep
the people in orderly line; from the muddy roads of a rural village to
the paved streets of a city kept clean by a street cleaning force; from
single, poorly organized schools to a system of graded schools with
proper supervision and inspection and culminating in a modem high
school; from a few old books read only by a few to a modem free public
library; from volunteer bucket brigade to an efficiently trained fire de-
partment ; from indiscriminate giving and lending to efficient, intelli-
gent organized charity; from the old wasteful Anglo-Saxon method of
working the roads to the modem plan of road construction and repair
under the supervision and direction of an efficient engineer; from un-
sanitary springs and wells to the modem system of water works and
water purification; from out-door cess-pools to a well-regulated sewer-
system; from the old individualistic method of garbage disposal by
throwing in the streets to the sanitary compulsory method of dispos-
ing of garbage by city expense and city authority; from pill vendors
and quacks to a respectable medical profession; from uncontrolled un-
sanitation to the sanitary control of modem boards of health, and to
medical inspection in the schools; a development from drift and laissez
faire to intelligent direction.

The story of each phase of development is instructive and educative.
It would certainly be an excellent thing for the development of his-
torical science in America if teachers in our public schools would culti-
vate the historical spirit in their pupils with special reference to the
local environment. Something more than local history can be drawn
from such sources.

A multitude of historical associations gather around every old town
and hamlet in the land. West Virginia and other states of the Ohio
Valley are especially rich in them. There are local legends and traditions,
household tales, stories told by grandfathers and grandmothers, inci-
dents remembered by "the oldest inhabitant." But above all in impor-
tance are the old documents and manuscript records of the first settlers,
the early pioneers, the founders of our towns, and the captains of
industries. Here are sources of information more authentic than tradi-
tion and yet often entirely neglected. If teachers would simply make
a few extracts from these unpublished records, they would soon have
sufficient material in their hands for elucidating local history to their
pupils and fellow townsmen. The publication of such extracts in the
local papers is one of the best ways to. quicken local interest in mat-
ters of history.

Much source of material for the study of local history may still be
found, although much of the earlier material was captured by Lyman
C. Draper on his pilgrimages of search. The old court records contain
much of human interest. Buried in dust and darkness of vaults or
basements and neglected corners in West Virginia court houses are
many old, time-stained records which now seldom see the light of day,
because few lawyers have business with them, and no one else is sup-
posed to have any interest in things belonging to so long a time ago.
These records are full of human interest, though mixed with. masses of
rubbish which can never again be of any use to anybody. In a few
instances local historians have had the patience and endurance to dig
through thousands of manuscript pages of early records to collect the
scraps of real history which throw light on the men who redeemed
the country from the wilderness. Rich finds have sometimes been made
by those who have taken the time to search. One investigator discovered
in a trash barrel in the basement of the Monongalia county court house
the names and locations of 1,215 of the "tomahawk rights" men who
first broke the wilderness solitude in northern western Virginia. But
generally little investigation has been done in a thorough and intelligent
way, though many persons have skimmed the surface.

While local history has a very useful function in showing the evolu-
tion of local institutions and local life, it has a larger function to trace
the relations of the local community to neighboring communities and
larger regions with which its life has been connected, to trace the rela-
tion of the community to the larger life of the state and of the nation
and of the world. When local life touches the larger stream of national
life, local history may be employed to introduce and to illustrate national
history. The most natural introduction to the knowledge of the history
of the region, the state, the nation, and the world is from local environ-
ment through ever widening circles of interest along lines that vitally
connect the past with the present. The annals and records and life of
the most quiet neighborhood may be historically important by their
connection with the progress of the nation and of the world. The
local history may be advantageously studied as a contribution to national
history. Almost every community in the Ohio Valley has some close
and intimate connection with general history.

The history of the entire region drained by the Ohio has been one
of the most important factors in our national history.

Its future significance in its relation to the rising nation was early
grasped by George Washington, the surveyor of lands for frontier
settlements along the South Branch of the Potomac, the messenger of
English civility who asked the French to evacuate the transmontane
region claimed by Virginia, the commanding officer whose men near
the Monongahela fired the opening guns of the world conflict which
terminated French occupation in trans-Appalachian territory and in
all continental America, the great American national leader who may
properly be called the first prophet and promoter of the transmontane
West as well as the "Father of his Country." The trans-Appalachian
streams of western Virginia contributed to making the great natural
waterway to the West a historic artery of commerce - and an entering
wedge to the occupation and possession of the Mississippi Valley. Early
communities in trans-Appalachian headwaters and tributaries of the
Ohio suggested the principles of the Ordinance of 1787, the basis of
the American policy of colonial government. The problems of their
early development were closely related to the most important national
problems of domestic policy and of foreign relations and policies.
Their difficulties and necessities forced the nation away from a narrow
colonial attitude into a career of territorial expansion which provided
adequate room for future growth. The possibilities and needs of this
region were among the most prominent considerations in connection
with the invention of the steamboat, which became an important in-
fluence in the development of trade between the upper Ohio country
and the region of expanding cotton culture in the Southwest. To secure
the trade of the Ohio was the objective aim which determined the
East to undertake various internal improvements for better communi-
cation with the West - improvements which later contributed largely
to the preservation of the Union and the failure of the Southern seces-
sion movement.

To the larger events of history in which the upper Ohio was an impor-
tant factor, almost every community of West Virginia has had some
vital relation. Lord Dunmore 's war was a focal point in western history
and an event of national importance in which all western Virginia had
a large interest. Wayne's victory in western Ohio in 1794 promptly
registered its results in trans-Appalachian Virginia in the increasing
activity of settlements in every part of the entire region.

The annals and records and life of the most quiet neighborhood in
the state may be historically important by their connection with the
progress of the nation and of the world.

For over a hundred years Morgantown, West Virginia, was only a
little village, without close connection with the great thoroughfares of
travel, but even in its earliest history it had a close relation to a larger
life. As early as 1772 it had a boat yard for the accommodation of the
western immigrants who followed the road from Winchester to Morgan-
town and thence continued the journey to Kentucky by the Monongahela
and the Ohio. In 1791 it obtained a shorter connection with the west
by a state road to the mouth of Fishing Creek, now New Martinsville.
In 1826 it was first visited by steam boat and by 1830 it had regular
steam boat connection with Pittsburgh. About the same time it secured
better connections with the East by better road to connect with the
national road.

Clarksburg, as early as 1790, enlarged its vision and its usefulness
by marking a road through the wilderness to attract the Kentucky
settlers, and another to the Ohio at Isaac Williams' opposite Marietta
over which cattle collected at Clarksburg were driven to the new
Marietta settlements. By 1798 it had a postoffice and soon thereafter
was connected with Chillicothe by mail route by way of Salem, Mari-
etta, and Athens. By 1830 it obtained a better connection with the
national road which enabled merchants to reach Baltimore by horse-
back in six days. It obtained additional communications with the East
by the construction of the Northwestern turnpike and later by the
Baltimore & Ohio Railroad which was extended to Parkersburg in 1857.

The early smelting of iron on the lower parts of Cheat River was
largely a local industry at first but according to tradition it furnished
some of the cannon used by Perry at Lake Erie and by Jackson at New
Orleans; and the later development of iron works on Cheat and the
decline after 1846 were closely associated with the development and
change in national tariff policy. The story of the large iron works
procession twelve hundred strong, through the principal streets of the
neighboring village of Morgantown in the fall of 1840 as told by an old
resident presents a concrete picture of the methods of the presidential
campaign of that year.

At the opening of the Civil War the Monongahela region became the
theater of contending armies in a series of introductory local episodes
whose significance cannot be measured by the size of the forces engaged
or the extent of territory covered. The local contest centering at Graf-
ton, West Virginia, from which McClellan drove the Confederates south
to Philippi and Huttonsville had a vital and important connection with
some of the chief national problems of the entire war. It prevented
the Confederates from establishing their military lines along the border
of Ohio and Pennsylvania which they had hoped to make the battle
ground. It not only determined the control of Northwestern Virginia,
including the Western division which by its geographic position between
the Ohio and the East was of inestimable value to Federal military
operations throughout the war. It greatly influenced the result of
later important military events of the war both at the East and at the
West. It was especially important in its relation to the protection of
Washington and the advance against Richmond. Last but not least it
encouraged the natural movement for the formation of a new state west
of the mountains, the logical conclusion of a long period of sectionalism
between tide-water and trans-montane regions of the Old Dominion.

In 1885-87 the government of West Virginia under the leadership
of Governor Willis Wilson urged proposed legislation to prevent the
distribution of railroad passes to state officers and party delegates at-
tending political conventions, waged a fierce and relentless war against
trunk line railroads which the governor said had discriminated against
the people of West Virginia in freight and passenger rates, and he
called a special session of the legislature to secure regulation of rates.
The story of this struggle is state history but it also illustrates a great
national movement of which it is a part, resulting in 1887 in the estab-
lishment of the Inter-State Commerce Commission which has later been
made more efficient by supplementary legislation to meet new conditions.

Often local history may be used to create an interest in the larger
history of the nation. This is illustrated by the increased interest in
the life of a man of national reputation who resided in the community
or visited it. Students at West Virginia University are stimulated to
take a new interest in the history in which George Washington was the
leader when they find that George Washington in 1784 stopped all night
three miles from our University on his return trip from a visit to his
western lands, in Western Pennsylvania. The story of how Washington
took up his abode in the room belonging to Gallatin, the young surveyor
who slept on the floor that night, and sent to Morgantown for Zachwill
Morgan is local history; but the conferences between Washington and
Morgan introduce one to problems of national history, to questions
of best roads between the East and West, and to plans for connection
by waterways between Virginia and the Ohio which eventually found
expression in the C. & O. Canal and in suggestions and plans for a canal
connection with the Ohio by the James River and Kanawha route.

The naturalization of the Swiss emigrant, Albert Gallatin, at Morgan-
town in 1785 and his settlement a few miles below at New Geneva, which
was long ahead of navigation and trade on the Monongahela, were local
events through which the student may be introduced to the larger events
of regional and national history in which Gallatin participated; the
establishment of the first glass works west of the Alleghenies in 1796,
the establishment (in 1797) of the Fayette gun factory in response to
the imminent danger of war with France, his public service as secretary of
the treasury under Jefferson and Madison and his diplomatic service
thereafter.

Through biography, even of local personages, the prominent events
or phases of national history may be introduced and studied. For the
early national period, this may be illustrated by the many brief allusions
to national events or conditions which are presented in the story of
Peregrine Foster, an early pioneer whose descendents have been useful
and representative citizens of West Virginia. Mr. Poster was born in
Brookfield, Massachusetts, in 1759. As a soldier of the Revolution he
witnessed the execution of Major Andre. After the war he became a
lawyer at Providence, Rhode Island, but the financial conditions of the
critical period, including the paper money craze, caused him great
pecuniary loss and drove him to the wilderness. In the spring of 1788
he joined the Ohio Company as a surveyor. With forty-seven New
Englanders he crossed the Alleghanies, followed the course of the
Youghiogheny and the Monongahela to Pittsburgh and went down the
Ohio by boat to Marietta where a government of the Northwest Terri-
tory was first established - three years before the settlement of Gallipolis
under the auspices of the Scioto Company. He soon returned to Rhode
Island for his family. In 1793, when the government at Philadelphia
was beginning its struggle for neutrality, he began again the long trip
which was necessary to reach the Ohio settlements; but, alarmed at
rumors which he heard of Indian dangers in the Muskingum Valley
and in the Northwest, he turned aside, ascended the Monongahela and
became a gloomy resident of Morgantown, Virginia (now West Virginia).
At Morgantown, in spite of the depressing sentences written in his
journal, he soon rose to prominence. In 1794, when he already had two
unremunerative appointments from the Governor and General Assembly,
he received a commission from the Governor appointing him magistrate
(justice of the peace) for the county of Monongalia, an office which
hardly paid enough to settle the bills for the bowls of toddy which the
court and the gentlemen of the bar drank together. In 1796, perhaps
as a reward for his services to the government in quieting disturbances
on the Monongahela, he received an appointment as the first postmaster
of the Village of Morgantown through which a post-road had been
opened, in 1794, from Hagerstown via Hancock and Cumberland to
Uniontown and Brownsville. After the alarming conditions northwest
of the Ohio had subsided and the troubles in the Northwest and South-
west had been adjusted, and in the midst of party strife which soon
resulted in the fall of his party, he moved to his original destination and
soon became a settler and land-owner near Belpre, where he died in 1804
soon after the events which enabled the West to obtain free navigation
to the sea, and on the eve of other events which were so soon to make
the neighboring Blennerhasset Island so famous and to give to the
Federal court the most prominent case which had yet arisen for their
decision.

In expanded form, this story gives one glimpses of several prominent
events or conditions in national history: the Rhode Island disorders of
the critical period, Rhode Island opposition to the new constitution,
the organization of the Northwest Territory under the Ordinance of
1787, the beginnings of the westward movement, early navigation on
the Ohio, the Whisky Insurrection, social life in a frontier village, Indian
difficulties and Wayne's victory, Jay's treaty and the British retirement
from American border posfcs the Spanish treaty of 1795, the Alien and
Sedition laws, the development of Ohio into a state, and the Louisiana
Purchase.

Other illustrations, many covering a much larger period, may be
found by inquiry in almost every community.

The children should be taught how to study at first hand many of the
things which relate to life and mankind. They may be taken to the
county clerk's office to see what documents can be found relating to
the early history or government of the town, or to the cemetery to read
inscriptions on tombstones, or to the fields to find Indian arrows or imple-
ments, or to the scene of some battle or some other point of historic
interest. They may be requested to inquire at home for old newspapers,
old relics, old costumes, old weapons, or for the earlier experiences
of their parents. They may be encouraged to make a collection of such
things as will illustrate or illuminate the earlier periods of the life of
the neighborhood. Old settlers may be invited to talk to the school
concerning the hardships of earlier days, or old soldiers may be asked
to tell experiences of camp and the battlefield, or men of business affairs
may be requested to relate the no less interesting and more useful story
of the rise and growth of industries - the story of logging and lumber-
ing, mining and railroads.

In this way a lively interest may be awakened. Another important
result may be the formation of a museum of local historical collections,
which may be of use to the whole community. Such collections may
include: relics and pictures of Indians, old costumes, dishes, tools, coins,
weapons, etc.; photographs of citizens who have been local leaders or
prominent actors in great political and economic events; old letters or
diaries, or other manuscript records of the first settlers, or the early
pioneers; files of local newspapers; written accounts of the recollections
of old settlers and soldiers; books or pamphlets which have any relation
to the locality or to the citizens; written biographies of the first settlers,
or of men and women who have been prominent in the community.

These collections and industries may prove a means of kindling his-
torical interest in the community. The people - the town fathers, the
fathers of families, and all their sons and daughters - will quickly
catch the bearing of this kind of historical study, and many will be
willing to encourage it - for it takes hold upon the life of the community
and quickens not only pride in the past but hope for the future. By
such systematic work in the most important communities of a county,
it would be possible for some trained scholar with the modern, sci-
entific, historical spirit, to write a good history of the county. And
by such systematic work in all the counties of the state, it would be
possible to collect the materials for a good history of the state.

Heretofore the use of local history in the education of children has
been very unsystematic, and unfruitful of results commensurate with
its possibilities and value. The history department of the University
several years ago submitted to the superintendents of schools in the
principal towns in West Virginia a series of special questions concerning
the status of instruction in local history in their schools. The replies
received indicate that local history has usually meant state history and
that it has been taught in the eighth grade - sometimes as an elective in
the senior year of the high school - with a text, either as a separate
study or in connection with United States history and composition. At
Bluefield, it is also taught incidentally in the lower grades. In some
instances, as at Parkersburg, some attention is given to local industrial
and economic conditions. In very few instances has there been any
attempt to utilize the history of the community in the schools. This
is largely due to the lack of materials in available form.

Such materials might properly be made available through the careful
efforts of historical students either acting independently or identifying
themselves with the local historical organizations. In some instances
local organizations or public spirited citizens of means may be willing
to appropriate money to meet the situation. By systematic planning
and cooperation all necessary materials for illustrating the. development
of each community may be obtained.

College departments of history should endeavor to find a means of
interesting advanced history students in the field of local history and
to enlist them in some phase of local history activity which, under the
direction of trained instructors might result (1) in the preparation of
useful articles for publication in the newspapers or magazines, (2) in
the encouragement of more efficient and valuable research in local history,
and (3) in some intelligent plan for the collection of local history in a
form suitable for use in the schools of our towns and rural communities.

Beginning in 1903, the department of history at West Virginia Uni-
versity has offered a seminar course on the history of West Virginia - 
exclusively for advanced history students who are able to pursue co-
operative investigation in social, economic, political and constitutional
development. Such students are given some training in scientific
methods of historical research, interpretation and construction, and are
encouraged to prepare monographs or briefer articles which will have
some permanent historical value. They are taught especially the use
of census reports, the documentary material of the state government,
old newspaper files and other materials to which they can obtain access
at the University library. Efforts are also made to collect materials
from other parts of the state. In several instances, students have pur-
sued investigations which required an examination of materials in the
department of state archives and history at Charleston.

Since 1906, other efforts have been made to encourage the study of
West Virginia local state history, and, incidentally, the collection of old
manuscripts, old newspapers, old tools, old maps, old family letters or
other historical records which might be of use in securing historical data.
In 1909, the head of the department of history published and distributed
a suggestive outline for use in the collection and study of local history.

The investigations by advanced students of the University have con-
tinued to increase in amount and value, resulting in the completion of
several monographs, some of which have been published.

In several instances the work at the University or suggestions and
encouragement from the University, has resulted in useful local historical
activities in different parts of the state - such as the publication of the
Making of Marion County through cooperative studies at the Fairmont
High School under direction of Miss Dora Lee Newman, and the pub-
lication of an excellent history of Lewis County prepared by Edward
C. Smith.

Could not some plan be devised by which local historical societies,
or the state department of archives and history, would plan their
work regularly with a view of aiding teachers and advanced students of
American history either in collecting or in publishing? It has too fre-
quently happened that there has not been sufficient contact and coopera-
tion between our institutions of learning and the state or local historical
societies. Though occasionally the college instructor consults important
documents of the society to aid him in his seminar work, there is no
close relation which should exist between the chair of history and the
society. What can be done to remedy this situation?

A state or local historical society, or a state department of archives
and history, has a wide field of possible activities. Its functions may in-
clude : the collection and preservation of historical material, printed and
manuscript, public and private; the maintenance of a library and a
museum, and perhaps an attractive portrait gallery; the publication of
original material and monographs; encouragement of special researches
in history; the maintenance of courses of historical lectures; participa-
tion in the celebration of local and national events, and in movements for
civic betterment or various phases of civic life; aid in the diffusion of his-
torical knowledge; the arousal and maintenance of public interest in
local history.

In order to attain its greatest useful development a local historical so-
ciety should not have too narrow conception of its functions. While the
reason for its existence is local history, it should take an active interest
in the larger life of the nation with respect to which many topics of local
history have their greatest significance. It may become deadened by too
close adherence to subjects which have no interest for anybody outside
the community. Its meetings may become the property of a few fossilized
antiquarians, and unattended by its sustaining members. It cannot hope
that its members or its proteges will deal with local history rightly unless
their minds are trained in larger American history and can see quickly
the relation of their problems to the history which explains them and
gives them significance. With the increase of intercommunication, it
must especially endeavor to avoid "fussy fossilized local antiquarianism"
and to look chiefly to the larger features of local history or to "Amer-
ican history locally exemplified."It must not use its research and
publication funds to further the purposes of those who devote their time
to searches for genealogies "to prove their right to entrance into the
charmed circle of the Sons of This or the Daughters of That."

Its most valuable function is the encouragement of the collection,
preservation, preparation and publication of material illustrating dif-
ferent phases of the history of the state or smaller localities, or its
connection with the larger history of the nation and the world.

It should be strenuous in the solicitation of all kinds of historical ma-
terial. It must endeavor to induce private possessors of documentary
material and historical relics, to contribute their possessions to the
collections of the society. Through its field work it must endeavor to
obtain from those pioneers who have recollections worth recording,
detailed narratives of their experiences, of their memories of public men,
of the conduct of public affairs, of the social and economic conditions of
early times, of course, with full recognition of the limitations of such
testimony - gathering documentary materials from persons who will
yield readily to appeals by post; getting in touch with early settlers at
their periodical gatherings; investigating and securing records of
archaeological discoveries; interesting the newspapers and high school
teachers in local history, and, in general, awakening within the com-
munity an historical consciousness.

A state historical society, or department of archives and history,
should be in a position to assist investigators in special fields of local
history. To this end it should prepare suitable catalogues, calendars and
indexes to facilitate the examination of its most valuable materials, and
employ trained custodians who can render intelligent assistance to
investigators. It should also prepare and publish lists, and valuations
or general descriptions of various county or municipal records which
have not been collected. It might undertake the compilation of a suit-
able guide to materials for the study of local history in all parts of the
state. It should encourage the preparation of monographic studies by
advanced students in history, and should consult with the college or uni-
versity departments of history in regard to the preparation of its publica-
tions. It should endeavor especially to enlist the interest of students
and others who have had special training in history and allied subjects,
and who, therefore, have broader historical views than the antiquarians
and genealogists whose contributions so often have no practical benefit.
It might afford to subsidize the services of trained students of history to
prepare monographs which have a special value, or to write local history
in a form suitable for use in the schools, or to direct researches for the
collection of materials needed in the library. It might also be able to
develop a general information bureau which would be of great practical
value in responding to calls for statistical or historical facts.

It should make itself useful not only in encouraging historical research
and study, but also in providing for the diffusion of the results of this
research and study. It should publish original materials selected with in-
telligence, arranged systematically and ably edited with finished scholar-
ship ; and also valuable contributions by active and resourceful members,
or local citizens, or isolated students who desire to cooperate in this kind
of work through the local press or local societies and local clubs. Many
of these studies, connected in some way with the life of the community,
it may use to quicken that life to higher consciousness. If a student, a
teacher, a leader of industry or a statesman prepares a paper or delivers
an address on some phase of local history, or on some social question,
which has a general interest or permanent value, it should encourage
him to print it in the local paper or in a local magazine, perhaps in an
educational journal, or in pamphlet form. It should also maintain a close
touch with the newspaper press and inspire the local journals to publish
series of articles on local history. It should cultivate a sound historical
interest among the people and should be of practical value to the people.

Unfortunately, while the researches in local history have often been
made by local investigators who strolled at random, without any regard
to the tenets of historical scholarship, sometimes performing some valu-
able service, but more often treating isolated subjects of no practical
value, the work in the department of history in the colleges and uni-
versities has been largely occupied with instruction in the general his-
torical culture which every student should have before he can specialize
in a narrower field. Could not the work of historical societies, or state
departments of archives and history, and of the college or university
departments of history, be readjusted to the benefit of both ? After college
students have received some training in digesting original material and
in weighing evidence, the department could assign them work on the
preparation of a thesis which would enable them to secure some experi-
ence in original investigation in some field of local history and thus
arouse their interest to pursue further work of this kind after the close
of their college courses. It is highly desirable that local history should
be written by those who have had sufficient training to enable them to
give the power setting for a local event. It seems desirable therefore
that college or university departments of history should make a special
effort to induce seniors, who have had proper preparation, to pursue
a seminar course in which they can secure special training in the prepara-
tion of some special study of local history under the personal supervision
and direction of well trained instructors. In this way trained students
from different communities may be able to arouse a widespread and
increased interest in local history which may result in the organization
of live local historical associations and the preparation of a series of mono-
graphs on local history whose publication will be immediately beneficial
to the people of the state. In this way there may be hope that the local
field which has heretofore been neglected or left in the hands of untrained
workers will be occupied by carefully directed students who approach
their work with the broad spirit of those who have a knowledge of the
historical development of mankind and are not liable to fall into the
absurd conclusions or mistakes of those who work with the merely
antiquarian spirit.