Appalachian Studies Commons^™

05. Newspaper Columns, Melville Homer Cummings, Robert H. Ellison

Cummings, Melville Homer, 1890-1978

The Cummings collection includes 66 columns written for various newspapers. They were published under 4 headlines: "Clergyman Chatter," "Our Weekly Message," "Our Weekly Visit," and "The Parson Writes." In some of the clippings, only the words "Our Weekly" are visible, so we cannot be sure which category they belong to.

All 66 columns are posted here as s single PDF. There are also supplemental files for "Clergyman Chatter," "Our Weekly Message/Visit," and "The Parson Writes."

The columns do not have individual titles, but they often have section headings; for ease of navigation, the first heading in each column is included …

11. Miscellaneous Items, Melville Homer Cummings, Robert H. Ellison

Cummings, Melville Homer, 1890-1978

The Cummings collection includes 34 miscellaneous items, ranging from his drivers licenses to a document entitled "End Alien Control of the United States." All items are posted here as a single PDF; additional information is provided in the User Guide.

03. Sermons, Melville Homer Cummings, Robert H. Ellison

Cummings, Melville Homer, 1890-1978

The Cummings collection includes approximately 100 typed and handwritten sermons, sermons printed or summarized in the newspaper, and some "sermons in rhyme." The sermons and radio addresses have been combined in a single tab in the User Guide.

The master PDF of the sermons is nearly 150MB in size; to make things somewhat more manageable, the contents of each folder in the physical collection have been upload as supplemental files.

On The Plains In ’65 : The 6th West Virginia Volunteer Cavalry In The West, George H. Holliday, Glenn V. Longacre

Ohio University Press Open Access Books

A new scholarly edition of an Ohio boy soldier’s revealing post-Civil War memoir.

This annotated edition of Holliday’s recollections—known primarily among historians of the American West—re-contextualizes his memoir to include his boyhood in southern Ohio and the largely untold story of the hundreds of Buckeyes who crossed the Ohio River to serve their country in Virginia (later West Virginia) regiments, ultimately traveling across Kansas, Nebraska, Colorado, and Wyoming to safeguard mail and stage routes along the celebrated Oregon Trail during a pivotal time in American history.

Glenn Longacre’s extensive research in federal, state, and local archives, manuscript collections, and period …

“A Constant Reminder To All”: Remembering Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson In West Virginia, Steven Cody Straley

Theses, Dissertations and Capstones

This thesis argues that Confederate heritage groups leading the Lost Cause Movement in West Virginia promoted Stonewall Jackson, through tactics such as ceremonies, publications, and monuments, to the point where his appeal expanded beyond that of former Confederates and their descendants. During the late 1800s, Confederate supporters in the state formed branches of Confederate heritage organizations and espoused a Lost Cause narrative with Stonewall Jackson as its figurehead. In doing so, they accomplished two things: to integrate the seemingly proUnion West Virginia into Confederate memory, and to gain acceptance of Confederates as full members of West Virginia society. Jackson’s advocates …

"Our Women Are Made Of The Right Stuff": Gender, Politics, And Conflict In Civil War West Virginia, Amanda Romain Shaver

Theses, Dissertations and Capstones

“’Our Women Are Made of the Right Stuff:’ Gender, Politics, and Conflict in Civil War West Virginia” examines the lives and contributions of white West Virginia women and argues that they were not merely victims of the war, but dynamic participants whose opinions were influential and whose actions determined the ability of both the Union and Confederate armies to wage war in Appalachia. Striking a balance between the antebellum standards of “True Womanhood” and the emerging ideals of the women’s rights movement, West Virginia women became politically engaged in both the statehood movement and the Civil War. They transformed their …

Doctors, Miners, And Black Lung: A Transatlantic Comparison Of Organized Medicine's Role In The Fight For Black Lung Recognition In West Virginia And Wales, Mollie M. Cecil Md

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Black lung disease is a crippling occupational lung disease experienced by coal miners throughout the world. However, this disease was not always recognized by the medical profession and required significant efforts on the part of miners’ unions to force mainstream recognition. The historiography on the subject is limited, especially with respect to the relationship between organized medicine and organized labor. This work further explores this relationship, particularly how this relationship differed between the parties in Wales and in West Virginia. In doing so, it portrays a more detailed picture of the fight for black lung recognition as well as highlights …

Engaging Underserved Voters In West Virginia During The Pandemic Election, Jacob Wasserman

Capstones

This report is the final product of my Social Journalism practicum for the Class of 2020 at the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism. My community focus for the degree program was underserved voters in West Virginia during the pandemic election. Within this report, I discuss the community that I intended to serve with engagement journalism, the activities and approach that I took to pursue that engagement, and how I evaluated the project with both quantitative and qualitative metrics. I also discuss ideas that I learned during the process of this project, and offer reflections on the philosophy of engagement …

Episcopal Sermons In The Library Of Appalachian Preaching, Robert Ellison, Larry Sheret

English Faculty Research

The Library of Appalachian Preaching provides online access to sermons preached in Appalachia, or elsewhere by preachers with ties to the Appalachian region. This article, in a newsletter published by the Historical Society of the Episcopal Church, discusses Episcopal sermons that are currently in the Library, and some that will be added in the very near future. 

Sixteenth Street Baptist Church, Kelli Johnson

Publications

In June 1905, on the fourth Sunday of that month, a petition signed by forty-one members of First Baptist Church was read. The petition asked for letters of dismissal from the Church in order to organize and start and new church. Those forty-one people wanted to create a new church that better met the needs of the community. After a vote, with only one dissent, the news was delivered to the Church clerk on a Thursday in July. This new church would become the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church.

Resilience In The Mountains: Exploring The Labor And Motives Of Food-Caregiver Women Repairing Broken Food Systems In West Virginia Communities, Heidi Lynn Gum

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Over the past four years the Food Justice Lab, now housed within the Center for Resilient Communities at West Virginia University, hosted a series of food access planning workshops across the state of West Virginia. Mobilizing more than 200 participants, the Nourishing Networks workshop training program was designed to build grassroots capacity for food system change. Eighty-percent of workshop participants were women and dialogues recorded at these events revealed how women are disproportionately impacted by food insecurity and disproportionately labor to repair a broken food system. Women in West Virginia are not only growing food, feeding their families, selling it …

A Very Glabrate Form!: How A Diminutive Plant Enthralled Botanists On Both Sides Of The Atlantic, Douglas Tuers

Journal of the South Carolina Academy of Science

Spanning over the 19^th and 20^th centuries the great botanists of America and Europe fought to resolve the taxonomy of Clematis ovata Pursh. The taxonomic moves that took place in the debate between the early 1800’s and the 1960’s support six meta-statements. 1. The botany practiced throughout this story eventually required an attention to the geology of shale-barrens from botanists beginning with Edward Steele. 2. This story requires a few amendments to Weldon Boone’s three causes for the botanical celebrity of Kate’s Mountain. 3. Kate’s Mountain acted as a proto-repository for shale barren endemics. 4. The botanists in …

Series Iii. Folder 7. Handwritten Notes, N.D, Melville Homer Cummings

Cummings, Melville Homer, 1890-1978

The final folder contains a miscellaneous assortment of letters, sermon manuscripts, and sermon notes or outlines. Topics include “Mutual Dependence” (1 Cor. 3), “A Stairway to Heaven” (Gen. 28:12), “The Misunderstood Christ” (Mark 15:36), and “The Looks of Christ” (several verses in Mark and Luke).

Series Iii. Folder 6. Poems, N.D., Melville Homer Cummings

Cummings, Melville Homer, 1890-1978

This folder contains approximately 15 poems and 2 letters: a letter to a parishioner praising her singing voice, and one to Cummings thanking him for making regular payments on his account with the Benson Printing Co., located in Nashville, Tennessee.

Series Iii. Folder 5. Poems, N.D., Melville Homer Cummings

Cummings, Melville Homer, 1890-1978

This folder contains typescripts and manuscripts of approximately 10 poems. Some of them show Cummings’ political side, criticizing what he saw as the shortcomings of the GOP and warning that “If you vote for Ike you’ll cut your throat.”

Series Iii. Folder 4. Poems, N.D., Melville Homer Cummings

Cummings, Melville Homer, 1890-1978

This folder contains typescripts and manuscripts of approximately 15 poems. Topics include the dangers of cynicism, the fleeting nature of wealth, and Cummings’ reflections on his long pastoral career.

Series Iii. Folder 3. Articles, N.D., Melville Homer Cummings

Cummings, Melville Homer, 1890-1978

This folder contains materials ranging from a poem written in honor of retired ministers to several sayings by a character named Josh Hayseed. Most of items are approximately 25 newspaper columns written by Cummings, under the titles “Clergyman Chatter,” “Our Weekly Message,” and “Our Weekly Visit.” The dates and names of the papers do not appear on the clippings; according to the Register, “Our Weekly Visit” appeared in the Grantsville News, with “other featured columns” published in the Huntington Herald-Dispatch.

Series Iii. Folder 2. Articles, N.D., Melville Homer Cummings

Cummings, Melville Homer, 1890-1978

The majority of the items in this folder are approximately 15 “Our Weekly Message” and roughly the same number of “Our Weekly Visit” columns. The dates and names of the papers do not appear on the clippings; according to the Register, “Our Weekly Visit” appeared in the Grantsville News, with “other featured columns” published in the Huntington Herald-Dispatch.

Some items appear to be duplicates of articles in Series III, Folder 3. Topics range from pastoral visitation to the value of optimism and a clear conscience to an anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor.

Other items in this …

Series Iii. Folder 1. Articles, 1931-1965, Melville Homer Cummings

Cummings, Melville Homer, 1890-1978

This folder contains approximately 20 columns and other newspaper pieces written by Cummings, most of which are entitled either “Our Weekly Message” or “Our Weekly Visit.” The names of the papers rarely appear on the clippings; according to the Register, “Our Weekly Visit” appeared in the Grantsville News, with “other featured columns” published in the Huntington Herald-Dispatch. Other examples of these recurring columns can be found in folders 2 and 3 of this series as well.

Topics of columns in this folder range from death and eternity to George Washington’s birthday to the various meanings of the word …

Series Ii(B). Radio Sermons. Folder 3. Radio Sermons, N.D., Melville Homer Cummings

Cummings, Melville Homer, 1890-1978

This folder contains of approximately 20 sermons delivered on the radio at unspecified times (some bear the month and date, but not the year). Some are typed, others handwritten; some are complete, others unfinished. Topics include “domestic subjects,” church membership, and “turning defeat into victory.”

Series Ii(B). Radio Sermons. Folder 2. Radio Sermons 1948-1960, Melville Homer Cummings

Cummings, Melville Homer, 1890-1978

This folder contains typescripts of approximately 20 sermons Cummings delivered between 1948 and 1960. Most were broadcast on WMON, a radio station in Montgomery, WV; one, a “Pre-Christmas Sermon,” was done for the “chapel” of WSAZ, a TV station with studios in Huntington and Charleston. Other topics include self-examination, “falling and rising,” “trusting in God,” and “the importance of the home and the family.”

Series Ii(B). Radio Sermons. Folder 1. Radio Sermons, 1929-1941, Melville Homer Cummings

Cummings, Melville Homer, 1890-1978

This folder contains typescripts of approximately 10 sermons Cummings delivered on the radio between 1933 and 1941. One indicates that it was given on Cincinnati-based WLW; the station is not identified on the others. Topics come mostly from the New Testament and include the early church, the Apostle Paul, and the second coming of Christ.

Series Ii(A). Sermons. Folder 9. Sermons, N.D., Melville Homer Cummings

Cummings, Melville Homer, 1890-1978

This folder contains a song/hymn entitled “A Sacrifice of Praise” and typescripts of approximately 15 sermons, some of which appear to be unfinished and/or have handwritten notes on them. Titles and text include “An All Night Wrestling Match” (Genesis 32:29), “Bartimaeus” (Luke 18:35-38), “The Laziest Man in this Community” (Proverbs 12:27), and “The Living Past” (Ecclesiastes 3:15).

Series Ii(A). Sermons. Folder 8. Sermons, N.D., Melville Homer Cummings

Cummings, Melville Homer, 1890-1978

This folder contains typescripts of approximately 15 sermons, some of which appear to be unfinished and/or have handwritten notes on them. Titles and texts include “After that the Judgment” (Eccles. 11:9), “Christ Our Example” (1 Peter 2:21), “Self-Examination” (2 Cor. 13:5), and “Ministerial Ethics” (no text specified).

Series Ii(A). Sermons. Folder 7. Sermons, N.D., Melville Homer Cummings

Cummings, Melville Homer, 1890-1978

This folder contains typescripts of approximately 10 sermons, some of which appear to be unfinished and/or have handwritten notes on them. All are undated, but one—“The Hand of God in History”—is labeled an “Armistice Address.” Titles and texts of the others include “All Things Work Together for Good” (Romans 8:28), “Christ’s Charge to the Women of Jerusalem” (Luke 23:28), “Finding God” (Psalm 42:3), and “A Funeral Discourse for a Child” (Isaiah 49:21).

Series Ii(A). Sermons. Folder 6. Sermons, N.D., Melville Homer Cummings

Cummings, Melville Homer, 1890-1978

This folder contains typescripts of approximately 10 sermons. Titles and scripture texts include “Backsliding”(Luke 22:31-32), “Building Skyward” (Hebrews 8:5), “The Signs of the Times” (2 Timothy 3:1-6), and “The Span of Life” (Psalm 90:10).

Series Ii(A). Sermons. Folder 5. Sermons, N.D., Melville Homer Cummings

Cummings, Melville Homer, 1890-1978

This folder contains typescripts of approximately 10 sermons, some of which appear to be unfinished and/or have handwritten notes on them. Some, such as “the father” and “the ideal husband,” appear to be duplicated in other folders; those unique to this folder include sermons on Moses, heaven, and the Christmas season.

Series Ii(A). Sermons. Folder 4. Sermons, N.D., Melville Homer Cummings

Cummings, Melville Homer, 1890-1978

This folder contains typescripts of 8 sermons. Titles and texts include “The Old-Fashioned Way” (Jeremiah 6:16), “Family Religion” (Mark 5:19), “Reasons for Missions” (Mark 16:15), and “His Riches—Our Riches” (2 Corinthians 8:9).

Series Ii(A). Sermons. Folder 3. Sermons, N.D., Melville Homer Cummings

Cummings, Melville Homer, 1890-1978

This folder contains typescripts and handwritten notes for approximately 10 sermons. Titles and texts include “It is Not Good that Man should be Alone” (Gen. 2:18), “A New Commandment I Give unto You” (John 13:34), and a “Commencement Sermon” and “A New Year’s Message” (no texts specified).

Series Ii(A). Sermons. Folder 2. Sermons, N.D., Melville Homer Cummings

Cummings, Melville Homer, 1890-1978

This folder contains typescripts and handwritten notes for approximately 10 sermons. The texts come from both the Old and New Testaments; titles include “How to Get Saved,” “The Blessing of Suffering,” “The Home,” and “After that the Judgment.”