Mid-Lothian Coal Mining Company

The Mid-Lothian Company was chartered in 1835 and began operations in 1836. It sat on four hundred and four acres owned by the Wooldridge family, valued at $300,000. There were 3,000 shares of stock approved, valued at $100 per. 1,000 shares sold. With that capitalization of $100,000, four shafts were sunk; Pump, Middle, Grove, and Wood.

There was not immediate success; in 1837, only 70,000 bushels were mined, and the Trustees of the Wooldridge family contemplated selling some of their property to pay off debts. But things were not going well for even the other Chesterfield mines. In 1838, in a new shaft at the Black Heth mine shafts, forty men, almost all slaves, were killed during an explosion.

It was not until Midlothian hit coal at a depth of 722 feet in the Pump Shaft in the fall of 1839 that there was positive news. It was a thirty-six foot wide seam. Three hundred thousand bushels were raised by the crew of one hundred and fifty men and twenty-five mules in 1840. The capacity in that shaft could produce one million bushels annually.

The Pump shaft continued to produce coal until 1855, when a fire, then a flood, rendered the shaft unusable. Sixty-five men were killed.

Photo above: Another view of the remnants of the Midlothian Mines, the Murphy slopes, 2024. Courtesy America's Best History.

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Mining During the Civil War

Mining was confined to the White Chimney shaft as it produced coal to be sent to the Trafalgar Iron Works in Richmond to make munitions and cannons for the Confederate effort. By the end of the war the mine was run by the Wooldridge son, George S., who borrowed $180,000 to build a new shaft, Sinking Shaft. After drilling over one thousand twenty seven feet, they then dug three hundred feet further down. The superintendent was killed during this effort. There was no coal in the shaft, and the company went bankrupt.

Although no war actually came to the area of the mines, with the exception of the burning of the Coalfield Station railroad depot, after Lee's surrender, one hundred men of the 8th Vermont patrolled the area.

Image above: Map of the area of the Midlothian mines, unknown date and time. Courtesy Wikipedia Commons. Below: Coal Miners Homes at Midlothian Mines, unknown date and author. Courtesy Library of Congress.

Midlothian Town

With the name a compromise from brothers from East Lothian and West Lothian in Scotland; the brothers were purported to be Abraham Salle and Dr. Archibald Logwood Wooldridge, founders of the town and mine of the same name. Today various remnants of historic homes and buildings remain amongst the new townhouse developments. On the square there is the 1892 jail, the Chesterfield Museum modeled after the 1749 original courthouse, the 1917 Courthouse, as well as a Civil War statue and other wayside markers.

Outside the square and in areas near and far, you can visit the Chesterfield Historical Society at Old Trinity Church, and at least pass by history at the Bellona Arsenal, now a private home, the Bethel Baptist Church, Bellgrade Plantation, Dinwiddie County Pullman Car, Trabue's Tavern, Hallsboro Store, Hallsborough Tavern, Ivymont Manor, and the site of the Chesterfield Railroad.

Photo above: Hallsboro Store, Midlothian, a general store built in 1855, 2014. Bluesnote. Courtesy Wikipedia C.C. 3.0.

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