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Appomattox Iron Works and Supply Company Records, 1834-1992. Accession 42633. Business records collection, The Library of Virginia, Richmond, Virginia.
Gift of Marvin T. Broyhill III, Petersburg, Virginia.
The Appomattox Iron Works and Supply Company was founded in 1872 by Esek Steere and E. J. Armstrong, and was located in Petersburg, Virginia. In 1876, Esek Steere and his son Albert Lippett Steere (1872-1931) bought out Armstrong's interest. The company specialized in machinery for the peanut industry, including planters, harvesters, and shellers, and also tobacco industry equipment. The firm also manufactured household products, such as andirons, urns, and firebacks, and also produced bar iron, sheets and plates, and boiler tubes. The company also operated a sawmill, and employed iron and brass founders and machinists. The company ceased to exist in 1972, and the complex was sold to the Godley Land and Cattle Company of North Carolina, but was soon purchased from them by the Historic Petersburg Foundation. The Foundation soon sold it to Frank Peckinpaugh, a retired engineer. The complex was renovated into a living history museum and opened to the public in 1991 by real estate developers Marvin T. Broyhill III and George Pilarinos, but was severely damaged by a tornado that struck Petersburg in August 1993. In 1996, it was sold to the Center for Industrial Preservation.
Records, 1834-1992, of the Appomattox Iron Works and Supply Company of Petersburg, Virginia, including correspondence, customer orders, receipts, credit reports, price sheets and supply catalogs, account ledgers, weekly time books, day book, and cash ledger. Also included are photocopies of diaries of company founder Esek Steere (1831-1908). The collection also contains files relating to the renovation of the company headquarters into a living history museum in the early 1990's. There is artwork, brochures, clippings, genealogical notes on the Armstrong and Steere families, photographs, proposals and specifications, reports, histories, and information relating to tax credits, grants, and urban enterprise zones.