Administrative Information

Access Restrictions

Collection is open to research.

Use Restrictions

Permission to publish material from the Thomas J. Matthews Correspondence must be obtained from Special Collections, Virginia Tech.

Preferred Citation

Researchers wishing to cite this collection should include the following information: Thomas J. Matthews Correspondence, Ms2009-032 - Special Collections, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University.

Acquisition Information

The Thomas J. Matthews Correspondence was purchased by Special Collections in 2009.

Processing Information

The processing, arrangement and description of the Thomas J. Matthews Correspondence commenced and was completed in March 2009.

Biographical Information

Thomas J. Matthews served as surveyor for Kanawha County, West Virginia in 1878. No other biographical information could be found.

Scope and Content

This collection contains two letters from Thomas J. Matthews, surveyor for Kanawha County, West Virginia. The first letter, written by Matthews from Kanawha Court House to W. W. Gitt, discusses and describes coal lands south of Brownstown, West Virginia, on the Chesapeake & Ohio Railroad, at Coal River and Cabin Creek. In the second, undated letter (which may be merely a postscript to the first), Matthews writes that prior claims on the land were not noted on the Swann map and that it would require a great deal of work to create a map showing prior claims on the land. Also on this second sheet is a set of instructions to an unnamed recipient from Gitt, in which he writes, "I do not want Mr. Matthews to be written to or any one else in the county, because I shall, when I go in for the specimen of the coal to get a squatter on the land to sign a lease thus giving me possession of the whole tract."

Arrangement

The collection is arranged chronologically.