A Guide to the New Jersey Zinc Corporation [Austinville, Virginia] Records, 1850-1969
A Collection in
Special Collections
Collection Number
Ms1991-032
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Special Collections, Virginia Tech
Special Collections, University Libraries (0434)560 Drillfield Drive
Newman Library, Virginia Tech
Blacksburg, Virginia 24061
USA
Phone: (540) 231-6308
Fax: (540) 231-3694
Email: specref@vt.edu
URL: http://spec.lib.vt.edu/
©2010-2018 By Virginia Tech. All rights reserved.
Processed by: Laura Katz Smith, Laurel Rozema Special Collections
Administrative Information
Access Restrictions
Collection is open for research.
Use Restrictions
Permission to publish material from New Jersey Zinc Corporation [Austinville, Virginia] Records must be obtained from Special Collections, Virginia Tech.
Preferred Citation
Researchers wishing to cite this collection should include the following information: New Jersey Zinc Corporation [Austinville, Virginia] Records, Ms1991-032, Special Collections, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, Va.
Acquisition Information
The New Jersey Zinc Corporation [Austinville, Virginia] Records were donated to Special Collections in 1991.
Processing Information
The majority of the New Jersey Zinc Corporation [Austinville, Virginia] Records are unprocessed. A preliminary inventory was created in 1991, and the maps and blueprints were processed in 2018.
Historical Note
The lead mines of southwest Virginia were first discovered by Colonel John Chiswell in 1756. Chiswell mined lead ore on the New River in Augusta County (now Wythe County) from 1760 to 1766, and furnished large supplies of lead to Virginia during the French and Indian War. A fort and trading post were sut up at this time near the mines. Chiswell died in 1766, and ownership of the mines was trasnferred to William Byrd. The mines were leased to the state during the Revolutionary War.
In 1789 Moses and Stephen Austin contacted for the lead mines and bought them from the Commonwealth of Virginia. Due to mismanagement, the lead mines reverted back to the state in 1802. In 1806, Thomas Jackson bought the proerty, now in the town of Austinville, in Wythe County, at a public auction in Richmond. He constructed a shot-tower on the New River, which operated from 1812 to 1830 and still stands today.
From 1830 to 1898, the property was mined by Daniel Sheffey and David Pierce or their descendants. From 1838 to the 1850s, the firm was called the Wythe Lead Mines Company. The Union Lead Mine Company, as it was called in 1860, contributed more than 2,000 tons of lead to Confederate troops in the Civil War. After the discovery of zinc in the 1860s, the Union Lead Company formed the Wythe Lead and Zinc Company.
The Wythe Lead and Zinc Company sold all of its ore in 1898 to the Bertha Mineral Company, which operated in Pulaski, six miles northeast of Austinville. In 1902, the New Jersey Zinc Corporation purchased Bertha holdings and the Austinville property.
For more information on the early history of the Austinville lead and zinc mines, see: Austin, Vera Lee. 1977. The Southwest Virginia Lead Works, 1756-1802. Thesis (M.A.)--Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, 1977.
Scope and Content
The collection consists of maps, blueprints, and files of the New Jersey Zinc Corporation operations in Austinville, Virgina. Maps in the collection, dating from the 1930s-1960s, describe the geological plans, the Ivanhoe mines, hydrology, ore reserves, and geochemistry of the area, including portions of North Carolina. Eight rolls of blueprints depict equipment and furnace works.
Files include superintendent memos, tenant applications, Ivanhoe property records, employment records and correspondence, senoirity lists, unemployment compensation forms, contracts, deeds, death claims, and company rules and regulations. The collection also has some information on the Ivanhoe Furnace Company (1911-1913).
In addition, there are 31 volumes (1888-1908) of published materials: American Society of Mechanical Engineers. 1880. Transactions of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers. New York City: The Society.
Please note: The majority of this collection is unprocessed and the "Contents List" below is a preliminary inventory only.
Arrangement
Please note: The majority of this collection is unprocessed and the "Contents List" below is a preliminary inventory only. The collection is in its original order.
Related Material
An additional accession relating to the New Jersey Zinc Corporation was donated to Special Collection in 1999. These materials are available as New Jersey Zinc Corporation (Austinville, VA) Records II, Ms2011-037 .
Index Terms
- Local/Regional History and Appalachian South
- Bertha Mineral Company.
- New Jersey Zinc Corporation.
- Union Lead Mining Company. (Austinville, Va.)
- Wythe Lead and Zinc Mine Company.
Subjects:
Corporate Names:
Contents List
Personnel Dept. reports, montly and annual (c. 1949-1969) -Applications for employment (c. June 1920-April 1923) -Austinville property -1965 VICC Company property -Chaffin: folders dated 1951-1958 -Chaffin: illustration -Chaffin: outstanding interests -Chaffin estate
Business correspondence and legal documents -Wythe and Carroll County properties -Carter lands -Middletown and Frederick County materials -Timbervill -Options agreements: Georgia pyrite area -North Carolina -Stafford County -Bertha mines -Stoots-Trepass suit -Chaffin
Rent statements for Bertha Mineral Company (12/1913-12/1939) -Business correspondence
American Society of Mechanical Engineers. 1880. Transactions of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers. New York City: The Society.
Plot plans: Austinville Elementary School. Wytheville, Va (May 1950) -Topographical maps -Lab analysis: Speedwell, Sugar Grove -Charts of grand geophysics area, Callahan Mining Corp, Louisa County, Va
Business correspondence and land surveys -C.T. & Mary Graham -Sanders Mine -Ivanhoe ready deeds -Pulaski, Delton, and Barren Spring, Virginia -Thurston Tract, Pulaski -Nissen Mine -Swansea Land and Improvement Company -Pulaski and Osborne areas, Russell County, Va -Porter Bank and Bearer Creek near Saltwell areas, Smyth County, Va -Lease, Marion office -Poplar Camp, Patterson area
Minor accident reports (c.1940s) -Bulletin board notices -Real estate (c.1950s-1960s)
American Society of Mechanical Engineers. 1880. Transactions of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers. New York City: The Society.
Correspondence regarding union issues; officers and commmittee members -Recreation 1/4/1950 - American Society of Mechanical Engineers. 1880. Transactions of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers. New York City: The Society.
Rent statements (c.Jan 1940-Dec 1944) -Recreation (c.1926-1958) -Exploration department: payroll changes, requests for forms, exams, compensation -Documents regarding garnishments, arbitration, grievances, pay practices, and union matters
American Society of Mechanical Engineers. 1880. Transactions of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers. New York City: The Society.
Possible index to maps and drawings -Ivanhoe headframe steel drawings -Accident reports (Jan 1926-Dec 1926) -Residential inspections -Property rights and holdings of NJ Zinc (1958?) -Geochemical results for Northeast Hill Belt, Smyth and Bland Counties, Va
No inventory
Personnel records, including work program -Embree Slimes -Correspondence, insurance agreements, purchase agreements -Sanders Mine/property -Carter Jackson files -Maps -W. M. Cornett estate -Patterson area, Va -Introduction cards -Labor/union agreements -Group picture: White House reception (10/4/1929) -Lease agreements, including Ivanhoe Mining & Smelting Company, others -Maps and plats
Group picture: N&W Railway Systems Efficienty Meeting, Bluefield, WV (October 22-23, 1929) -Group pictures: Association of Railway Claim Agents -Geologic maps for part of Virginia
Geological surveys of the United States for various counties -Maps -Charts -Technical documents
"Adventure to Baltimore," list of lead buyers, 1850 -Wythe Lead and Zinc Mine Company, capital stock certificates, 1889-1893 -Copies and transcripts of historical documents and data, 1901-1948 -Recreation, 1912-1915, 1916-1918 -Schools and churches, 1913-1919, 1921-1926 -Applications for employment, including correspondence, 1914-1915 -Employment applications, 1916-1919 -State tax returns, 1916-1935 -Recreation and zinc publications, 1941-1943 -Tax returns, 1936-1969 -Recreation and trade publications, 1944-1946, 1947-1949 -College recruitment program, 1951-1952 -Applications - salary (rejected), 1952 -Labor Policy and Practice: Bulletin to Management, 1952-1953 -Wage surveys, 1952 -Employment records, including correspondence, 1952-1959
Monthly payroll, accident and compensation reports, 1917-1928, 1929-1948 -Market development division, 1944-1949, 1950-1954 -Property sales, 1952-1959 --Labor Policy and Practice: Bulletin to Management, 1953-1954 -Wage surveys, 1955-1956, 1957-1959 -Employment correspondence, 1920 -Report and analysis of financial condition and productivity of Wythe Lead and Zinc Company, 1883 -Lead mine history, 1917 -"The Story of Austinville," by W. O. Borchedt, 1950 -Lot sales, Little Mountain subdivision, 1931-1941 -"The Story of the New Jersey Zinc Company," by G. B. Hechel, 1934
- oversize folder: 1
Maps and blueprints, 1930s-1960s, n.d.
- oversize folder: 1
Map of Property from Austinville East Below Ivanhoe towards Pierce's Mill (photocopy), c. 1930
- box 25
Geological, railroad, and mining maps
- box 26
Architectural plans, Bertha Division, c. 1947
- box 27
Bertha Mineral Co., North and South Section through "Shot Shaft", Austinville
- box 27
Key maps showing Austinville surface and plane table sheet co.
- box 27
Austinville area surface maps, 1949-10
- box 27
US Dept. of Interior, Bureau of Mine, Proj. 15-165, Idol-Dalton Zn. Prospect, Grainger County, Tennessee
- box 28
Mining maps
- box 29
Mining maps, North Carolina, 1967-1970
- box 30
Ivanhoe and Austinville mining maps
- box 31
Bertha statistics and contour maps, 1977-1980
- box 32
North Carolina, Delft mine area, 1967-1980
- box 33
Contour maps for New Jersey Zinc Corportation, 1956
- box 34
Ringwood area, Halifax County, North Carolina
- box 34
Map showing Bertha Mineral Company's lands in Carroll County, Virginia, HGB-1, 1913
- box 35
Mechanical drawings
- box 36
Austinville and Ivanhoe mining maps and water surveys, 1962
- box 37
Austinville, Ivanhoe geological maps, Simmerman Development Plan
- box 38
Office building and plant, 1948-1975
- box 39
Black Lick, Speedwell, Fort Chiswell, Lead Mines Districts maps and Austinville office building
- box 40
Oxide Furnace Drawings, Austinville, Virginia, 1920
- box 41
Geologic, topographic, and geochemistry maps for southwestern Virginia and western West Virginia, c. 1960s
- box 42
Maps of southwestern Virginia
- box 43
Contour maps, longitudinal sections, stratigraphic sections, aerial photo
- box 44
Geological and topographical maps, southwestern Virginia, c. 1940s-1960s
- box 45
Callahan Mining Corporation sections, New Jersey Zinc maps and sections, c. 1970s
- box 46
Cofer Mine, Julia Mine, Mineral, Virginia, c. 1960s-1970s
- box 48
Geological maps of East Tennessee, State of Tennessee, Department of Conservation, Division of Geology, compiled by John Rodgers, 1952
- box 48
Stope sections of Ivanhoe, Virginia, New Jersey Zinc
- box 49
Geological and contour maps of North Carolina, South Carolina, and Virginia
- box 50
Bertha Mineral Company, Austinville, Virginia, equipment diagrams, 1914-1942
- box 50
185 Acre Pulaski Tract, Bertha Mineral Company, 4GB-5, 1912-1936
- box 50
Bertha Mineral Company, Austinville and related mines and land tracts, maps, 1905-1936?
- box 50
Bertha Mineral Company, Austinville, Virginia, equipment drawing, 8GB 500
- box 50
Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railway System map of the US and Canada
- box 50
Norfolk and Western Railway System map of the USA
- box 51
New Jersey Zinc Company, equipment blueprints
- box 52
Bertha Mineral Division, New Jersey Zinc Company, housing blueprints, 1922-1930
- box 53
Unidentified mining map
- box 53
Unidentified mining maps, Bertha Mines, c. 1948-1965
- box 53
Julia Mines, Ivanhoe, Hoagland, Arnold, etc. mining maps and geologic maps, c. 1940s-1960s
- box 53
Paulding County, Virginia mines, etc. and geologic maps, c. 1940s-1960s
- box 54
Bertha Mineral Co., Equipment blueprints, 8GB, 302, c. 1925-1931
- box 55
Bertha Mineral Co., wedge furnace, c. 1920
- box 56
New Jersey Zinc Company, equipment blueprints, 1926
- box 57
Ivanhoe cross sections, Hoagland, Arnold, etc., c. 1946-1970
- box 58
Bertha Mineral Company, equipment drawings, 1GB and 8GB