Administrative Information

Access Restrictions

Collection is open to research.

Use Restrictions

See the University of Virginia Library’s use policy.

Preferred Citation

Weaver-Brady Papers, Accession 38-98-b, Special Collections Department, University of Virginia Library

Acquisition Information

This collection was purchased on September 13, 1989.

Funding Note

Funded in part by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities

Scope and Content

This collection consists of four letters from Thomas Mayburry , manager of the Etna Furnace , Pattonsburg, Botetourt County, Virginia , to his partner William Weaver (1780-1863) a merchant of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania , who became one of the most prominent and successful ironmasters in the Valley of Virginia . These letters complement the Weaver-Brady Papers which contain eighty volumes of the Weaver-Brady Iron Works and Grist Mill Records, 1825-1878, and other financial papers. This correspondence was apparently written about seven years before Weaver came to Virginia to supervise his Iron Works directly.

In the earliest letter, February 4, 1816, Mayburry furnishes a report on the operation of the blast furnace at Pattonsburg which he claims would be as good as one in Pennsylvania if he only had enough black laborers, inquires of the market for pig and bar iron in Philadelphia and New York , asks Weaver's advice on the best place to sell pig iron, gives his opinion that furnaces where the ore banks are good and convenient are the best and most profitable property for an investor, mentions that Mr. Wilson's property on the river is for sale, and discusses the impossiblility of continuing to plan for a rolling mill that year unless Weaver could send him several good forgemen.

The second letter, March 3, 1816, reports that Etna Furnace produced 260 tons of iron in fourteen weeks, discusses the difficulty in securing a market for the pig iron produced at Etna Furnace , mentions how brisk a trade item that the bar iron was at Lynchburg , mentions progress at Retreat and how the rolling mill if built could create a market for the iron at home.

Mayburry also requests the hiring of two good refiners, hopes that the furnace at Retreat will blow on the morrow, reports a break-in and theft at the store, sends an inventory of goods needed for the store, notes that Wilson has not yet received the patent for his land and discusses the arrangements to secure the property, March 31, 1816.

In the last letter, he begs Weaver to keep the sale of pig iron in mind, again expresses his frustration at the difficulty of hiring enough black laborers for the needs of the furnace, reports that the furnace is still blowing, agrees with Weaver about the advantage of running a rolling mill but feels that it is not yet possible, mentions Mr. Moore's property, located eight miles north of Lexington on the North River , as a good place to extend their iron works since it already had the dam and race complete with a forge partially built, and would have water carriage to their Union Forge . Mayburry proposes to establish at that location a forge, rolling mill, saw and grist mill, and a furnace if they can secure the property.