About this collection:

➤The Hazlett family has long been involved in Wheeling’s finance and banking industry. Robert C. Hazlett was born on December 24, 1863 to Dr. Robert W. and Mary Elizabeth (Hobbs) Hazlett. After attending the Linsly Military Institute and studying civil engineering at the Ohio State University, he married Ann Cummins on March 18, 1909. They had one daughter, Catharine, and two sons, Robert Cummins (1910) and James C. Hazlett. In 1914, Hazlett became the secretary of the Dollar Savings and Trust Company, and in 1925 he was elected President. He was also president of the Wheeling and Belmont Bridge Company. Hazlett served in both branches of the West Virginia legislature and served six years as city councilman. He died on June 9, 1944 and is buried in Greenwood Cemetery.

Robert Cummins Hazlett also attended the Linsly Military Institute and studied engineering at Cornell University. He married Susan Arbenz in 1936. They had five sons, Robert C. Jr., John, James, George and Thomas. In 1933, when Dollar Savings and Trust Company merged with the Wheeling Bank and Trust Company to form the largest bank in West Virginia, Wheeling Dollar Savings and Trust Company, Hazlett became head of the bank's trust department, a position he would hold for 25 years. He became president of the bank in 1958 and later served as chairman of the board and executive committee. Under his leadership, Wheeling Dollar Bank, which later became WesBanco, opened the Ohio Valley's first drive-in facility in 1951. Robert C. Hazlett died on September 21, 1996.

The collection consists of stock certificate books for several early Wheeling banks with which the Hazlett family was involved, including The German Bank of Wheeling, Citizens Mutual Trust Company and the Dollar Savings and Trust Company, 1880s-1930s. The collection also includes other local company stock certificates and West Virginia railroad stock certificates and various other historical documents relating to Hazlett financial investments. Additional items of interest include a toll receipt for Wheeling and Belmont Bridge Company, January 1, 1870, and a 5 cent note from E.B. Winans & Co., Bellaire, Ohio, January 1, 1863.

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