Conditions Governing Reproduction and Use

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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], Pulaski Iron Company Correspondence, 1895-1923, Ms2024-091, Special Collections and University Archives, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, Va.

Source of Acquisition

The Pulaski Iron Company Correspondence was purchased by Special Collections and University Archives in March 2020.

Processing Information

The processing, arrangement, and description of the Pulaski Iron Company Correspondence was completed in September 2024.

Administrative History

The letters in this collection are mostly from the Pulaski Iron Company to John N. Gordon, a lawyer and iron company merchant from Richmond, Virginia. The Pulaski Iron Company operated out of an office in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, but the company had many locations in Southwest Virginia. It began operations in the 1880s and closed during the Great Depression in the 1930s. This company constructed the first pig iron blast furnace in Southwest Virginia.

External Sources:

Ancestry.com. U.S., City Directories, 1822-1995. Lehi, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2011, https://www.ancestrylibrary.com/discoveryui-content/view/561364909:2469, accessed on September 16, 2024.

"History," Town of Pulaski, http://www.pulaskitown.org/history/ , accessed on September 16, 2024.

Scope and Content

This Pulaski Iron Company Correspondence contains 43 documents, letters, and receipts dated 1895-1923. Almost all of the letters dated 1895-1899 are written to John N. Gordon, a lawyer and iron company merchant from Richmond, Virginia. Most of the correspondence is from Abraham Patterson and Horace Haldeman, who were each at seperate times the secretary and treasurer of the Pulaski Iron Company operating out of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, from the 1880s-1930s. There are a few letters from other iron companies, including Matthew Addy & Company operating out of Cincinnati, Ohio, and The Low Moor Iron Company of Virginia from Frank Lyman, the treasurer. These letters discuss their respective company's prices, their customers, and the overall state of the market. The collection also contains several receipts for iron and two reports on the tests of a charcoal pig iron.

An additional three letters are seemingly unrelated to Gordon or the Pulaski Iron Company. A 1901 letter to Mrs. E. L. Stacy of Richmond, Virginia, from her cousin Henry R. Todd of St. Louis, Missouri, discusses previous correspondence between the two. A 1923 letter to the Virginia Tech Tech Minstrels Manager at Blacksburg, Virginia, from J. Alvin Vaughan of Radford, Virginia, Virignia Tech class of 1918, discusses a performance on campus.

Arrangement

The collection is arranged chronologically with undated materials at the end.

Related Material

See the Pulaski Iron Company Title Abstracts, Ms1994-025, also at Virginia Tech Special Collections and University Archives.

Subjects and Indexing Terms

• Gordon, John N. (Richmond, Va.)
• Iron foundries -- Virginia
• Local/Regional History and Appalachian South
• Pulaski (Va.)
• Pulaski County (Va.)

Rights Statement for Archival Description

The guide to the Pulaski Iron Company Correspondence by Special Collections and University Archives, Virginia Tech, is licensed under a CC0 ( https://creativecommons.org/share-your-work/public-domain/cc0/ ).