Use Restrictions

Permission to publish material from Samuel Bolitho Jeffries Diaries must be obtained from Special Collections, Virginia Tech.

Access Restrictions

The collection is open for research.

Preferred Citation

Researchers wishing to cite this collection should include the following information: Samuel Bolitho Jeffries Diaries, Ms2016-016, Special Collections, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, Va.

Acquisition Information

The Samuel Bolitho Jeffries Diaries were purchased by Special Collections in March 2016.

Processing Information

The processing, arrangement, and description of the Samuel Bolitho Jeffries Diaries was completed in May 2019.

Biographical Note

Samuel Bolitho Jeffries was born in Frostburg, Maryland, November 28, 1884, to Samuel Bolitho (1834-1906) and Mary Susan Hocking (1846-1924) Jeffries, the youngest of five children. Jeffries married Isabelle Williamson McLuckie (1885-1979) on June 29, 1909, in Frostburg, Maryland. The couple had five children: Samuel B. Jeffries Jr. (b. abt. 1911), Mary Susan (b. abt.1914), Jean J. (b. abt. 1916), Isabelle Williamson Jeffries (later, Pifer) (1919-1933), and William A. Jeffries (1922-2010). Jeffries worked as an engineer for coal companies, eventually ended up as the chief engineer for the Davis Coal and Coke Company and assistant to the president of that firm, while also working in an advisory capacity by the Masteller Coal Company until his retirement from both positions in 1945. Jeffries died February 18, 1953, in Keyser, West Virginia and is buried in Frostburg, Maryland.

Scope and Content

The collection contains Samuel Bolitho Jeffries (1884-1953) diaries from 1912-1951 (minus several individual years). These diaries depict both Jeffries' personal life, as well as his career as a civil engineer, mostly for the Davis Coal and Coke Company. Although short, his entries tend to record the weather, family and personal events (how he rung in each New Year, for example), and his work activities and travels (which train he took to which location on a given day or if he drove someplace, for example). The 33 diaries provide a detailed view of nearly half of Jeffries' life and career. He writes of his work and personal life, and of employees, injuries, strikes, the union, F.D.R. taking over mines during WW2, reports of war events, fires in the mining community and at the mine, politics (apparently he was a candidate in 1928 and lost by one vote), he & his family becoming very ill with flu in 1918, and the death of his 13 year old daughter in 1933, among others.

Arrangement

The diaries in this collection are in folders by decade. Diaries are in chronological order within each folder.

Subjects and Indexing Terms

• Coal mines and mining
• West Virginia