Administrative Information

Access Restrictions

Collection is open to research.

Use Restrictions

See the University of Virginia Library’s use policy.

Preferred Citation

Dover Coal and Iron Company Papers, Accession 727, Special Collections Department, University of Virginia Library

Acquisition Information

These papers were given to the University of Virginia Library by the Baker Library, Harvard University, Boston, Massachusetts, on January 8, 1940, and February 13, 1941.

Funding Note

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

Scope and Content

This collection consists of the official records and correspondence of the Dover Coal and Iron Company , Richmond, Virginia , and New York, miners and manufacturers of coal and iron in Virginia, ca. 225 items (1 Hollinger box), ca. 1865-1874, including one letterbook with an index, 1869. The Dover Coal and Iron Company was incorporated in 1866 with the following members, Joseph Reid Anderson (1813-1892), head of Tredegar Iron Works and former general in the Confederate army; merchant and railroad promoter, William Henry Aspinwall (1807-1875), partner of Howland and Aspinwall, New York City; Samuel Latham Mitchell Barlow (1826-1889), New York City corporate lawyer; Charles Pomeroy Stone (1824-1887) Engineer and Superintendent, 1865-1869; and Judge Joel Parker (1795-1875), a lawyer of Cambridge, Massachusetts, and president of the company after 1869.

The Dover Company letterbook details the daily coal mining business of the company, as well as the foundry and furnace operations, including estimates of the amount of coal taken from various named shafts (pages 7-17), a report on the canal boats (pages 18-19), lists of office employees (page 20), employees at Richmond & Westham   Furnace (pages 21 & 22), and employees at the Goochland County mines (pages 23-24) .

Includes much information about its business relations with Tredegar Iron Works , Richmond, especially Charles P. Stone's suspicions of their motives in some of their actions (see pages 31-32, 41, 44-45. 58-59, 72, and 77-79, suspicions on page 144; for many other references see the index of the letterbook), Lynchburg Mining and Manufacturing Company (see pages 33, 72, and the index for other references), Old Dominion Iron & Nail Works , Westham   Iron Company , and various mines in the ore banks of Amherst, Augusta, Chesterfield, Goochland, Henrico, and Rockbridge counties of Virginia.

Other documents include a very detailed description of the property of the Dover Coal and Iron Company in Goochland County, Virginia, which was situated in the Richmond coal fields, with the James River and Kanawha Canal passing through it. The description was written by Thomas Petherick and Charles P. Stone on December 13, 1865.

The correspondence files, 1866-1874, and undated, include letters, memoranda, notices of stockholders' meetings, reports, receipts, notice of the intent of the directors to consolidate the Dover Company and the Westham Iron Company, formerly headed by its president, Frederick H. Wolcott (1868 Feb 26, Mar 10 & 30), minutes of the meetings of the Board of Directors, reports concerning the progress of the mines, furnace, foundry, and other aspects of the company, an analysis of the iron made by the Dover Company by Dr. Werth of Pittsburg (n.d.), financial summaries, and accounts. Also present is correspondence between Judge Joel Parker and Wellington Goddin , a Richmond real estate auctioneer and land agent, ca. 1871-1874.