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A Guide to the Records of the LeSueur–Richmond Slate Corporation, 1834–1998

Collection Number Mss3 L5673 a FA2
A Collection in the Virginia Historical Society

Contact Information:
Virginia Historical Society
P.O. Box 7311
Richmond, Virginia 23221–0311
USA
Phone: (804) 342–9677
Fax: (804) 355–2399
Email: reference@vahistorical.org
URL: http://www.vahistorical.org

Processed by: Mary Virginia S. Currie, Mark A. Lamb, and E. Lee Shepard .
c 2011 By Virginia Historical Society. All rights reserved

ADMINISTRATIVE INFORMATION

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Collection is open for research.

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There are no restrictions.

Preferred Citation
LeSueur–Richmond Slate Corporation Records, 1834–1998 (Mss3 L5673 a FA2), Virginia Historical Society, Richmond, Va. USA

Acquisition Information
Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Richard H. Rose, Jr., of Arvonia, Va., in 2008. Accessioned December 29, 2011.

Descriptive Summary

Repository: Virginia Historical Society.

Collection number: Mss3 L5673 a FA2

Title: LeSueur–Richmond Slate Corporation Records, 1834–1998

Size: 21 linear feet.

Language: English

Abstract: Historical and administrative materials relating to LeSueur–Richmond Slate Corporation. This company evolved from numerous other slate companies that operated contemporaneously over approximately 160 years and were gradually merged into or acquired by LeSueur–Richmond. These companies included the Old Dominion Slate and Mining Co., Monticello Slate Company, Williams Slate Corporation, Buckingham Slate Quarries, Arvonia–Buckingham Slate Corporation, and Buckingham–Virginia Slate Corporation. The companies operated quarries and/or produced or sold slate products mainly in Buckingham County, Virginia, but also in Albemarle County. LeSueur–Richmond Slate Corporation continues to conduct operations in Buckingham County but also maintains corporate offices in Richmond, Virginia.

Scope and Content Information

This collection not only includes loose papers but also a large number of financial and other record volumes, all related to slate mining, sale of slate and slate products, and disposal of scrap slate, as well as providing a company store for employees. The surviving records in this collection consist of correspondence, loose minutes and bylaws, other legal and financial papers, insurance documents, income tax returns, audit reports, deeds and tract maps, and photographs. The volumes include minute books, stock certificate books, wage and time data records, and numerous financial journals, ledgers, cash books, and check registers. Also significant are a roofing and flooring jobs book, advertising and related scrapbooks, and a samples book.

Organization

The records of the LeSueur–Richmond Slate Corporation are divided into eight series that reflect the history of the eight slate companies that eventually merged together. In each series description, there are notes about when that specific company was formed and what relationship it had to the other companies. In general, the companies are presented in chronological order by the date of incorporation. The collection primarily consists of bound volumes (or volumes dis–bound for preservation purposes) and some few boxes of loose papers, the volumes generally preceding the papers in order of presentation, but all designated by folder numbers.

Biographical/Historical Information

LeSueur–Richmond Slate Corporation was formed in 1924 from the merger of a family owned business, LeSueur Slate Company, and the Richmond Slate Company, both established in the later nineteenth century. Its primary operations occurred in Buckingham County, where a series of companies engaged in quarrying and slate production. A comparison of owners reveals that many of these companies had similar ownership and leadership, and many of the officers of these companies had an affiliation with the Richmond investment banking firm of Branch & Company. Officers of Arvonia–Buckingham Slate Corporation, incorporated in 1913, included James Turner Sloan, Thomas Aubrey Yancey, Robert Gamble Cabell III, Owen R. Jeffrey, Charles E. Wingo III, and James Read Branch. In 1926, James Turner Sloan was also a director of Williams Slate Corporation, which had been founded after the Civil War by two Williams brothers from Wales, Evan and John. Sixteen years after the incorporation of the Arvonia–Buckingham Slate Corporation, this company joined forces with the LeSueur–Richmond Slate Corporation and the Williams Slate Company to form the Buckingham–Virginia Slate Corporation, which became the marketing and sales arm for all three companies. In 1929 the chief officers of this new corporation included William A. LeSueur, James Turner Sloan, Robert Gamble Cabell III, and John R. Williams. Ultimately, through a series of mergers and acquisitions, Arvonia–Buckingham and LeSueur–Richmond remained the two surviving corporations, LeSueur–Richmond ultimately securing the quarries and other assets of Arvonia–Buckingham in 1985.

Index Terms

Advertising – Virginia – History – 20th century.
Albemarle County (Va.) – Economic conditions – 19th century.
Albemarle County (Va.) – Economic conditions –20th century.
Arvonia (Va.) – Commerce – History – 19th century.
Arvonia (Va.) – Commerce – History – 20th century.
Arvonia–Buckingham Slate Company, Inc.
Branch, James Read, 1919–
Buckingham County (Va.) – Economic conditions – 19th century.
Buckingham County (Va.) – Economic conditions – 20th century.
Buckingham Slate Products Company, Inc.
Buckingham Slate Quarries Corporation.
Buckingham–Virginia Slate Corporation.
Cabell, Robert Gamble, 1881–1968.
Chambers, Walter A.
Corporations – Taxation – Accounting.
J. R. Williams & Co.
Jeffrey, Owen Robert, 1878–1954.
Labor unions – Virginia – History – 20th century.
LeSueur–Richmond Slate Corporation.
Monticello Slate Corporation.
Nicholas Quarry (Buckingham County, Va.)
Old Dominion Slate and Mining Company of New York.
Quarries and quarrying – Virginia – Albemarle County – History.
Quarries and quarrying – Virginia – Buckingham County – History.
Slate industry – Virginia – History – 19th century.
Slate industry – Virginia – History – 20th century.
Sloan, James Turner, d. 1934.
Taxation – Virginia – History – 20th century.
Williams Slate Company, Inc.
Williams, Evan R.
Williams, John R., d. 1901.
Williams–Arvonia Slate Corporation.
Wingo, Charles Evans, 1917–2005.
Yancey, Thomas Aubrey.

Contents List

Series 1. Old Dominion Slate and Mining Company of New York.

Slate production in Virginia, which had commenced in Buckingham County region in the early nineteenth century, virtually stopped at the beginning of the Civil War. Old Dominion Slate and Mining Company resumed mining operations after the war. Specifically, in November 1868, it was formed from 4 different companies: Virginia Slate Company, Virginia Mills Slate and Manufacturing Company, Buckingham Slate Company, and Old Dominion Slate Company. This company operated slate quarries in Fork Union and Palmyra, Virginia, along the Arvonia line in Fluvanna County. The company was later acquired by the Williams Slate Company, Inc.

This series consists of stock certificate stubs noting the number of shares issued to individuals and some returned stock certificates pasted to the corresponding stubs showing additional stock sales. Also included are several deeds secured to the original certificates further explaining stock trades; one such agreement is dated 26 November 1868 and concerns the transfer of 250 shares of stock from the company to John Humphreys of Buckingham County, Virginia. Major stockholders were Owen R. Jeffrey, of a family of immigrant Welsh miners, and James Turner Sloan.

Series 2. Monticello Slate Company

In 1925, the Monticello Slate Company was incorporated. Specializing in roofing slate, this company operated quarries acquired from James Turner Sloan in Albemarle County, Virginia, and focused on the mining and production of roofing slate. The company was primarily operated by James Turner Sloan and Owen R. Jeffrey and it later merged with the Arvonia–Buckingham Slate Company, Inc., in 1960. Records of this company cover mining and production operations, employees and wages, acquisition of land and resources, and tax liabilities.

Bound volumes

Loose papers (Box 1)

Series 3. Williams Slate Company, Inc.

Originally commissioned as the Big Quarry Slate Company by act of the Virginia General Assembly in February 1882, this venture was re–christened the Williams Slate Company, Inc., by order of the Richmond City Circuit Court in August 1901, at which time its headquarters moved to Arvonia, Virginia. It had been founded by Evan R. Williams and John R. Williams, brothers who had emigrated from Wales in the latter half of the nineteenth century. The Williams brothers purchased significant amounts of land and resources in Buckingham County and began operating slate quarries. Their first and most significant purchase was of the Nicholas Quarry, acquired from members of the Nicholas family. John R. Williams, son of the company=s founder, served as treasurer of the company at least into the 1930s, but by then Walter A. Chambers had become its president. The firm continued operations until it merged with the Arvonia–Buckingham Slate Company, Inc., in 1956.

The records of this company are extensive and complex and are divided below into several records sub–series. While generally concerning operations and finance, they include a variety of information, some of which is noted in detail in the folder listings.

Bound volumes

Minute books

General journals

Ledgers

Cash books

Miscellaneous volumes

Loose papers (Box 2)

Land title records (some of which also concern Buckingham Mining & Development Company)

(Box 3)

Series 4. Buckingham Slate Quarries Corporation

This was a short–lived venture incorporated in 1913 and technically dissolved by 1919 when the Arvonia–Buckingham State Company, Inc., acquired all of its stock, although assets remained on the books until the 1930s. The firm was involved in the mining of slate from quarries around Arvonia, Virginia.

Series 5. Arvonia–Buckingham Slate Company, Inc.

The bulk of this collection consists of records of the Arvonia–Buckingham venture, which focused on slate quarrying and manufacture of slate products. Also incorporated in 1913, it operated quarries throughout Buckingham County, Virginia. Its officers, who included at various times James Turner Sloan, Thomas Aubrey Yancey, Robert Gamble Cabell, III, Owen R. Jeffrey, Charles E. Wingo, III, and James Read Branch, expanded operations and created numerous subsidiary or related companies until the firm was absorbed by LeSueur–Richmond Slate Corporation in the 1980s. Minute books of the company through 1985 and some directors= papers are found in other collections at the Virginia Historical Society.

Bound Volumes

Journals (daily financial record of operations)

Ledgers

Cash books (include lists of employees and wages)

Cash receipts journals

Cash disbursements journals

Miscellaneous volumes

Loose Papers (Box 4)

Series 6. Buckingham Slate Products Company, Inc.

Another short–lived venture formed by officers of Arvonia–Buckingham Slate Company, Williams Slate Company, and LeSueur–Richmond Slate Corporation in 1956 to quarry and manufacture slate products. The acquisition of Williams Slate by Arvonia–Buckingham through off the balance of control of the company, and poor performance brought about the termination of operations in 1965.

Loose papers (Box 4)

Bound volumes

Series 7. Buckingham–Virginia Slate Corporation.

Incorporated June 20, 1929, Buckingham–Virginia Slate was organized to serve as the marketing and sales arm of the Williams Slate Company, Inc., Arvonia–Buckingham Slate Company, Inc., and LeSueur–Richmond Slate Corporation. Its records focus on advertising and sales and are maintained through its dissolution in 1985 at the time the assets of Arvonia–Buckingham were acquired by the newly formed Buckingham Slate Company, Inc.

Loose papers (Box 5)

(Box 6)

(Box 7)

(Box 8)

Series 8. LeSueur–Richmond Slate Corporation.

The LeSueur Slate Quarries Company was founded as a family business prior to the turn of the twentieth century and merged with the Richmond Slate Company in 1924. The company has primarily operated slate quarries and fashioned slate products, though in recent years it has expanded more generally into the rock and stone products mining and production fields. The records in this collection focus on the company=s history in the second half of the twentieth century.

Bound volumes

Cash receipts

Accounts payable

Loose papers (Box 9)

428 North Boulevard, Richmond, VA 23220    |    Mail: P.O. Box 7311, Richmond, VA 23221–0311    |    Phone: 804.358.4901
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