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Special Collections and University Archives, Virginia Tech
Special Collections and University Archives, University Libraries (0434)Laura Katz Smith, Archivist, and LM Rozema, Archivist
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.
The collection is open for research.
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.
The New Jersey Zinc Corporation [Austinville, Virginia] Records were donated to Special Collections and University Archives in 1991.
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.
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.
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.
The collection is in its original order.
See the New Jersey Zinc Corporation (Austinville, VA) Records II, Ms2011-037 also at Virginia Tech Special Collections and University Archives.
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/ ).
-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