6 Coal Mines in the vicinity of Richmond, Va. 



The coal from these pits ignites easily and burns freely, being 

 very suitable for grates, locomotives, &c., but unsuitable for 

 smiths' use. There are several seams of these coals ; the first 

 from twelve to sixteen feet in thickness, the next twenty eight 

 inches, the third four and a half feet. Other seams are known 

 to exist below these, but have not been worked. These coals 

 were discovered about thirty years ago, by a craw-fish bringing 

 up coals to the surface above his hole. Wooldddge's old pits 

 ■were discovered by the wheels of the waggons running on the 

 Buckingham road turning up coal in the ruts ; and the coal at 

 the old Green Hole pits was said to be discovered by a deer jump- 

 ing across the creek and throwing up coal on the snow. The 

 time of the discovery is not accurately known. 



The Mid Lothian Coal Mining Company's pits lie immedi- 

 ately south of the Maidenhead mines, southwest of Railey's pits, 

 west of the Creek Company's mines, west and south of Stone- 

 henge, and adjoin all these mines. This company procured a 

 charter in 1835, and was organized in 1836. The sinking for 

 coal preceded the organization of the company, and was in an- 

 ticipation of it. The tracts of land contain four hundred and 

 four and a half acres ; upon the northeast corner, being the rise, 

 a shaft had been previously sunk and worked ; it is five hun- 

 dred feet deep. By improvident mining, it crushed the pillars of 

 coal, settled down, and was abandoned in 1836; there not being 

 more than five or six acres worked by the then lessees. These 

 lands, being two tracts, were valued at $300,000, and owned by 

 Wm. Wooldridge's heirs, to wit, Dr. A. L. Wooldridge, Jane A. 

 Elam, Charlotte Wooldridge and myself. The capital was divi- 

 ded into three thousand shares of a hundred dollars each ; and 

 one third, being one thousand shares, was sold to some thirty 

 shareholders, in and around Richmond — generally, of the most 

 respectable and wealthy class. The $100,000 cash, the amount 

 thus raised, was given to the company as a capital for sinking, 

 purchasing machinery, for laborers, &c. Four shafts were com- 

 menced, nearly in a hne on the run of the coal, extending a mile 

 or more. In the autumn of 1839, coal was found in one shaft, 

 at the depth of seven hundred and twenty two feet to the coal, 

 at which time the other three were temporarily suspended, one 

 being six hundred and twenty five feet deep, one three hundred, 

 and the other eighty five feet. These shafts are eleven feet 



