Administrative Information

Access Restrictions

Collection is open to research.

Use Restrictions

There are no restrictions.

Preferred Citation

Arvonia-Buckingham Slate Company, Inc., Records, 1913–1990 (Mss3 Ar896 a FA2), Virginia Historical Society, Richmond, VA.

Acquisition Information

Gift of Charles E. Wingo, III, Richmond, Va., in 1997. Accessioned 4 January 2012.

Biographical/Historical Information

Arvonia-Buckingham Slate Corporation, incorporated in 1913, was founded through the efforts of James Turner Sloan, a major land manager and developer, and his colleague Owen Robert Jeffrey, from a local mining family in Buckingham. They were joined by Thomas Aubrey Yancey, who also served for many years as the firm's president, and Robert Gamble Cabell, III, of Branch & Co., the firm that handed much of Arvonia-Buckingham's financial and investments affairs. In fact, while operations centered in the Arvonia region of Buckingham County, corporate activities were largely run out of offices at Branch & Co. in Richmond. The firm joined with Williams Slate Company, Inc., and LeSueur-Richmond Slate Corporation to create Buckingham-Virginia Slate Corporation in 1929 as the marketing and sales arm of these three firms. For many years these firms shared a major market for roofing and structural slate products, but in the mid-1980s the directors recommended to the company's stockholders that Arvonia-Buckingham's assets to be sold and the company dissolved, which occurred in 1985. The firm remained on the books while the company pension plan was terminated and assets distributed directly or into annuities for former qualified employees. In the meantime, the assets of Arvonia-Buckingham (quarries and mining and production facilities and equipment) were eventually acquired by LeSueur-Richmond Slate Corporation, which remains the only firm currently maintaining slate quarrying and production operations in Buckingham County.

Scope and Content

The records in this collection consist of two main categories: operational records primarily comprised of minute books of meetings of the board of directors and stockholders, as well as two series of loose records; and materials relating to the dissolution of the firm and sale of its assets, and the related matter of distribution of assets of the company's pension plan to entitled beneficiaries. The company remained an entity some three years beyond its official dissolution in order to handle the latter matter, although all its assets had by then been sold and all funding of activities was covered by escrow funds established through the sale of those assets merged with those of the previously funded pension plan.

Arrangement

The records of Arvonia-Buckingham Slate Company, Inc. are divided into four series that reflect the overall history of the firm but are strongly focused on the dissolution of the company and the termination of the pension program. In each series description, there are notes about the record series overall, generally with some reference to specific materials within the series. The collection primarily consists of a mixture of bound volumes and loose papers, all grouped and designated by folder labels and numbers.

Related Material

Branch and Company Records, 1837–1976 (Mss3 B7327 a FA1), Virginia Historical Society, Richmond.

LeSueur-Richmond Slate Corporation Records, 1834–1998 (Mss3 L5673 a FA2), Virginia Historical Society, Richmond.

Index Terms

• Arvonia (Va.) - Commerce - History - 20th century.
• Arvonia Buckingham Slate Corporation (Buckingham County, Va.)
• Buckingham County (Va.) - Economic conditions - 20th century.
• Buckingham-Virginia Slate Corporation (Buckingham County, Va.)
• Cabell, Robert Gamble, 1881–1968.
• Jeffrey, Owen Robert, 1878–1954.
• Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation.
• Slate industry - Virginia - History - 20th century.
• Sloan, James Turner, d. 1934.
• State Mutual Assurance Company (Worchester, Mass.)
• Virginia - Commerce - History - 20th century.
• Wingo, Charles Evans, 1917–2005.
• Yancey, Thomas Aubrey.

Adjunct Descriptive Data