Citation | Print View
Search Finding Aid
New Jersey Zinc Corporation [Austinville, Virginia] Records A Preliminary Inventory of the New Jersey Zinc Corporation [Austinville, Virginia] Records, 1850-1969 Ms.1991.032

A Preliminary Inventory of the New Jersey Zinc Corporation [Austinville, Virginia] Records, 1850-1969 Ms.1991.032


[logo]

Special Collections and University Archives, Virginia Tech

Special Collections and University Archives, University Libraries (0434)
560 Drillfield Drive
Newman Library, Virginia Tech
Blacksburg, Virginia 24061
Business Number: 540-231-6308
specref@vt.edu
URL: http://spec.lib.vt.edu

Laura Katz Smith, Archivist, and LM Rozema, Archivist

Repository
Special Collections and University Archives, Virginia Tech
Identification
Ms.1991.032
Title
New Jersey Zinc Corporation [Austinville, VA] Records 1850-1969
Quantity
55 Cubic Feet, 58 boxes; 3 oversize folders
Creator
New Jersey Zinc Company
Location
Please note: All boxes of this collection are in off-site storage and require 1-3 days notice for retrieval. Please contact Special Collections and University Archives for more information.
Language
The materials in the collection are in English.
Abstract
The collection consists of maps, blueprints, and files of the New Jersey Zinc Corporation operations in Austinville, Virgina.

Administrative Information

Conditions Governing Reproduction and Use

The copyright status of this collection is unknown. Copyright restrictions may apply. Contact Special Collections and University Archives for assistance in determining the use of these materials.

Reproduction or digitization of materials for personal or research use can be requested using our reproduction/digitization form: http://bit.ly/scuareproduction . Reproduction or digitization of materials for publication or exhibit use can be requested using our publication/exhibition form: http://bit.ly/scuapublication . Please contact Special Collections and University Archives (specref@vt.edu or 540-231-6308) if you need assistance with forms or to submit a completed form.

Conditions Governing Access

The collection is open for research.

Preferred Citation

Researchers wishing to cite this collection should include the following information: [identification of item], [box], [folder], New Jersey Zinc Corporation [Austinville, Virginia] Records, Ms1991-032, Special Collections and University Archives, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, Va.

Source of Acquisition

The New Jersey Zinc Corporation [Austinville, Virginia] Records were donated to Special Collections and University Archives 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 added 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 inventory is preliminary only.

Arrangement

The collection is in its original order.

Related Material

See the New Jersey Zinc Corporation (Austinville, VA) Records II, Ms2011-037 also at Virginia Tech Special Collections and University Archives.

Subjects and Indexing Terms

  • Bertha Mineral Company
  • Coal mines and mining
  • Local/Regional History and Appalachian South
  • New Jersey Zinc Company
  • Science and Technology
  • Union Lead Mining Company (Austinville, Va.)
  • Wythe Lead and Zinc Mine Company

Rights Statement for Archival Description

The guide to the New Jersey Zinc Corporation [Austinville, Virginia] Records by Special Collections and University Archives, Virginia Tech, is licensed under a CC0 ( https://creativecommons.org/share-your-work/public-domain/cc0/ ).

Container List

box 1
Reports and files.
Scope and Content

-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

box 2
Correspondence and files.
Scope and Content

-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

box 3
Correspondence and files.
Scope and Content

-Rent statements for Bertha Mineral Company (12/1913-12/1939) -Business correspondence

box 4
Publications.
Scope and Content

American Society of Mechanical Engineers. 1880. Transactions of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers . New York City: The Society.

box 5
Maps, charts, and files.
Scope and Content

-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

box 6
Correspondence, deeds, and files.
Scope and Content

-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

box 7
Reports and files.
Scope and Content

-Minor accident reports (c.1940s) -Bulletin board notices -Real estate (c.1950s-1960s)

box 8
Publications.
Scope and Content

American Society of Mechanical Engineers. 1880. Transactions of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers . New York City: The Society.

box 9
Correspondence, files, and publications.
Scope and Content

-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.

box 10
Files.
Scope and Content

-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

box 11
Publications.
Scope and Content

American Society of Mechanical Engineers. 1880. Transactions of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers . New York City: The Society.

box 12
Drawings, reports, and files.
Scope and Content

-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

box 13
Files?
Scope and Content

No inventory

box 14
Files, correspondence, and maps.
Scope and Content

-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

box 15
Photographs and maps.
Scope and Content

-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

box 16 box 17 box 18 box 19 box 20 box 21 box 22
Geological surveys, charts, and technical documents.
Scope and Content

-Geological surveys of the United States for various counties -Maps -Charts -Technical documents

box 23
Files and correspondence.
Scope and Content

-"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

box 24
Files and correspondence.
Scope and Content

-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

Maps and blueprints
  • 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
  • folder 2 folder 3
    Julia Mines, Ivanhoe, Cofer-Harris, Bingamon, and other mines, plans, sections, transit and traverse locating
    c. 1937-1967
  • 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 46
    Surface geological maps of Chisell Hole and Bunker Hill, Austinville, Virginia
    c. 1960s
  • box 47
    Head frame, Van Mater shaft, Steel details, Lackawana Steel Construction Co.
    1926
  • 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