Mid-Lothian Mines and Rail Roads

Coal Mining Chronology in Chesterfield

1835 Mid-Lothian Coal Mining Company is chartered.

1836 The Company organizes with 3,000 shares valued at $100 each with 1,000 shares being sold to raise $100,000 capital. The Wooldridge family contributes 404.5 acres valued at 300,000. Four ...

Mid-Lothian Mines and Rail Roads

The Mid-Lothian African Church

Near the Grove Shaft, 54 free blacks, slaves and six white males at the Mid-Lothian Coal Mining Company started the Mid-Lothian African Church on February 8, 1846. Assisted by the company the 60 member congregation built a ...

Mid-Lothian Mines and Rail Roads

Early History of the Grove Shaft

1836-61

The Grove Shaft plunged 625 feet and took workmen three years to dig. The Wooldridges employed 150 men and boys. Twenty-five mules stabled underground pulled coal carts on an underground railroad. Workmen, – white, free ...

Mid-Lothian Mines and Rail Roads

Local Coal Mining in the 18th and 19th Centuries

Outcroppings of coal along the south bank of the James River in what is now Powhatan County were discovered circa 1700. A hunter from the nearby Huguenot settlement, Manakintown, dislodged lumps of ...

Mid-Lothian Mines and Rail Roads

Coal Mining Chronology in Chesterfield

1835 Mid-Lothian Coal Mining Company is chartered.

1836 The Company organizes with 3,000 shares valued at $100 each with 1,000 shares being sold to raise $100,000 capital. The Wooldridge family contributes 404.5 acres valued at 300,000. Four ...