Black Heath (Chesterfield County)
Encyclopedia
Black Heath was a home and coal mine located along the Old Buckingham Road in the present Midlothian
area of Chesterfield County, Virginia
. The Black Heath coal
mining enterprises were operated by the Heth family between 1785 and 1844, when the mine closed following a fatal explosion.
(1798-1842), an officer in the U.S. Navy during the War of 1812
. His son, Confederate
Major General Henry Heth
, who fought in the American Civil War
, was born there in 1825.
of the James River
at near present-day Richmond, Virginia
includes a basin of coal which was one of the earliest mined in the Virginia Colony. This natural resource was mined by the French Huguenot
refugees who settled there and others beginning around 1700.
By the second quarter of the eighteenth century, a number of private coal pits were operating on a commercial scale in coalfield located the area we now know as Midlothian. Miners immigrated to Chesterfield from Wales
, England
and Scotland
. The Wooldridge family from East Lothian
and West Lothian
in Scotland was among the first to undertake coal mining in the area. It is likely that the mining community was eventually named after their Mid-Lothian Mining enterprise, a combination of their two home town names. The Heths, beginning with Colonel Henry "Harry" Heth
(died 1821), who emigrated about 1759, who were English investors, opened coal pits in the county.http://www.midlomines.org/history.html
Black Heath was also the name of coal
mines which were located adjacent to their home. Mining operations started there in 1785. http://xroads.virginia.edu/~Hyper/VAGuide/tour08.html U.S. President Thomas Jefferson
had the White House
in Washington, D.C.
heated with the high quality coal from the Black Heath mines. Commenting on the area's coal in his Notes on the State of Virginia, written in 1781-82, then-Governor Jefferson stated: "The country on James river, from 15 to 20 miles above Richmond, and for several miles northward and southward, is replete with mineral coal of a very excellent quality." http://etext.virginia.edu/etcbin/toccer-new2?id=JefVirg.sgm&images=images/modeng&data=/texts/english/modeng/parsed&tag=public&part=6&division=div1 Jefferson was also referring not only to the Midlothian area, but also to the area of western Henrico County
adjacent across the James River near Gayton and Deep Run.
According to records held by the Library of Virginia
, on January 25, 1832, Beverley Randolph, John Heth, and his younger brother, Beverley Heth (1807-1842) petitioned the Virginia General Assembly
for the first coal mining corporation to be chartered in Virginia. After substantial opposition to the concept, this was accomplished the following year with the incorporation of the Black Heath Colliery. In 1827, Beverley Randolph had also been one of the organizers of the Chesterfield Railroad
, a 12 mile gravity line built from Falling Creek
to Manchester
for the purpose of transporting coal to ships in the navigable portion of the James River
for export. Opened in 1831, it was the first commercial railroad in Virginia, second in the United States.
Coal mining at Black Heath was both difficult and dangerous work, and there were fatal explosions. On March 18, 1839, 40 men, mostly African American
slaves, were killed in a 700 foot shaft at the Black Heath mine. http://www.midlomines.org/timeline2.html On June 15, 1844, a mining explosion at Black Heath killed 11 more men. http://www.cdc.gov/niosh/mining/statistics/discoal.htm After the second incident, the mine was closed until 1938. http://xroads.virginia.edu/~Hyper/VAGuide/tour08.html
Around 1850, the steam-powered Richmond and Danville Railroad
was built through the property of Black Heath. In modern-times, Black Heath Road extends from Old Buckingham Road north through the property on the south of the railroad tracks where a subdivision has been built.
North of the railroad and south of State Route 711 (Robious Road), remnants of the Black Heath coal pits were extant in the 1960s.
Midlothian, Virginia
Midlothian is an unincorporated community in Chesterfield County, Virginia, United States. Founded over 300 years ago as a coal mining village, it is now a suburban community located in the Southside of Richmond well beyond the city limits of Richmond in the Richmond–Petersburg region.It was named...
area of Chesterfield County, Virginia
Chesterfield County, Virginia
Chesterfield County is a county located in the Commonwealth of Virginia, a state of the United States. In 2010, its population was estimated to be 316,236. Chesterfield County is now the fourth-largest municipality in Virginia . Its county seat is Chesterfield...
. The Black Heath coal
Coal
Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock usually occurring in rock strata in layers or veins called coal beds or coal seams. The harder forms, such as anthracite coal, can be regarded as metamorphic rock because of later exposure to elevated temperature and pressure...
mining enterprises were operated by the Heth family between 1785 and 1844, when the mine closed following a fatal explosion.
Home, Heth family
Black Heath was the home of Captain John HethJohn Heth
John Heth , of Black Heath in Chesterfield County, Virginia, was the son of Colonel Henry "Harry" Heth, who had emigrated from England in 1759, and established himself in the coal business in the Virginia Colony....
(1798-1842), an officer in the U.S. Navy during the War of 1812
War of 1812
The War of 1812 was a military conflict fought between the forces of the United States of America and those of the British Empire. The Americans declared war in 1812 for several reasons, including trade restrictions because of Britain's ongoing war with France, impressment of American merchant...
. His son, Confederate
Confederate States Army
The Confederate States Army was the army of the Confederate States of America while the Confederacy existed during the American Civil War. On February 8, 1861, delegates from the seven Deep South states which had already declared their secession from the United States of America adopted the...
Major General Henry Heth
Henry Heth
Henry "Harry" Heth was a career United States Army officer and a Confederate general in the American Civil War. He is best remembered for inadvertently precipitating the Battle of Gettysburg, when he sent some of his troops of the Army of Northern Virginia to the small Pennsylvania village,...
, who fought in the American Civil War
American Civil War
The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...
, was born there in 1825.
Coal
The geology of the area about 10 miles west of the fall lineFall line
A fall line is a geomorphologic unconformity between an upland region of relatively hard crystalline basement rock and a coastal plain of softer sedimentary rock. A fall line is typically prominent when crossed by a river, for there will often be rapids or waterfalls...
of the James River
James River (Virginia)
The James River is a river in the U.S. state of Virginia. It is long, extending to if one includes the Jackson River, the longer of its two source tributaries. The James River drains a catchment comprising . The watershed includes about 4% open water and an area with a population of 2.5 million...
at near present-day Richmond, Virginia
Richmond, Virginia
Richmond is the capital of the Commonwealth of Virginia, in the United States. It is an independent city and not part of any county. Richmond is the center of the Richmond Metropolitan Statistical Area and the Greater Richmond area...
includes a basin of coal which was one of the earliest mined in the Virginia Colony. This natural resource was mined by the French Huguenot
Huguenot
The Huguenots were members of the Protestant Reformed Church of France during the 16th and 17th centuries. Since the 17th century, people who formerly would have been called Huguenots have instead simply been called French Protestants, a title suggested by their German co-religionists, the...
refugees who settled there and others beginning around 1700.
By the second quarter of the eighteenth century, a number of private coal pits were operating on a commercial scale in coalfield located the area we now know as Midlothian. Miners immigrated to Chesterfield from Wales
Wales
Wales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain, bordered by England to its east and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It has a population of three million, and a total area of 20,779 km²...
, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
and Scotland
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
. The Wooldridge family from East Lothian
East Lothian
East Lothian is one of the 32 council areas of Scotland, and a lieutenancy Area. It borders the City of Edinburgh, Scottish Borders and Midlothian. Its administrative centre is Haddington, although its largest town is Musselburgh....
and West Lothian
West Lothian
West Lothian is one of the 32 unitary council areas in Scotland, and a Lieutenancy area. It borders the City of Edinburgh, Falkirk, North Lanarkshire, the Scottish Borders and South Lanarkshire....
in Scotland was among the first to undertake coal mining in the area. It is likely that the mining community was eventually named after their Mid-Lothian Mining enterprise, a combination of their two home town names. The Heths, beginning with Colonel Henry "Harry" Heth
Henry Heth (Colonel)
Colonel Henry "Harry" Heth was an English-born businessman who emigrated to the Virginia Colony about 1759. He served in the Continental Army and was active in the coal business.-American Revolutionary War:...
(died 1821), who emigrated about 1759, who were English investors, opened coal pits in the county.http://www.midlomines.org/history.html
Black Heath was also the name of coal
Coal
Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock usually occurring in rock strata in layers or veins called coal beds or coal seams. The harder forms, such as anthracite coal, can be regarded as metamorphic rock because of later exposure to elevated temperature and pressure...
mines which were located adjacent to their home. Mining operations started there in 1785. http://xroads.virginia.edu/~Hyper/VAGuide/tour08.html U.S. President Thomas Jefferson
Thomas Jefferson
Thomas Jefferson was the principal author of the United States Declaration of Independence and the Statute of Virginia for Religious Freedom , the third President of the United States and founder of the University of Virginia...
had the White House
White House
The White House is the official residence and principal workplace of the president of the United States. Located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., the house was designed by Irish-born James Hoban, and built between 1792 and 1800 of white-painted Aquia sandstone in the Neoclassical...
in Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
heated with the high quality coal from the Black Heath mines. Commenting on the area's coal in his Notes on the State of Virginia, written in 1781-82, then-Governor Jefferson stated: "The country on James river, from 15 to 20 miles above Richmond, and for several miles northward and southward, is replete with mineral coal of a very excellent quality." http://etext.virginia.edu/etcbin/toccer-new2?id=JefVirg.sgm&images=images/modeng&data=/texts/english/modeng/parsed&tag=public&part=6&division=div1 Jefferson was also referring not only to the Midlothian area, but also to the area of western Henrico County
Henrico County, Virginia
Henrico is a county located in the Commonwealth of Virginia, a state of the United States. As of 2010, Henrico was home to 306,935 people. It is located in the Richmond-Petersburg region and is a portion of the Richmond Metropolitan Statistical Area...
adjacent across the James River near Gayton and Deep Run.
According to records held by the Library of Virginia
Library of Virginia
The Library of Virginia in Richmond, Virginia, is the library agency of the Commonwealth of Virginia, its archival agency, and the reference library at the seat of government. The Library moved into a new building in 1997 and is located at 800 East Broad Street, 2 blocks from the Virginia State...
, on January 25, 1832, Beverley Randolph, John Heth, and his younger brother, Beverley Heth (1807-1842) petitioned the Virginia General Assembly
Virginia General Assembly
The Virginia General Assembly is the legislative body of the Commonwealth of Virginia, and the oldest legislative body in the Western Hemisphere, established on July 30, 1619. The General Assembly is a bicameral body consisting of a lower house, the Virginia House of Delegates, with 100 members,...
for the first coal mining corporation to be chartered in Virginia. After substantial opposition to the concept, this was accomplished the following year with the incorporation of the Black Heath Colliery. In 1827, Beverley Randolph had also been one of the organizers of the Chesterfield Railroad
Chesterfield Railroad
The Chesterfield Railroad was located in Chesterfield County, Virginia. It was a 13-mile long mule-and-gravity powered line that connected the Midlothian coal mines with wharves that were located at the head of navigation on the James River just below the fall line at Manchester...
, a 12 mile gravity line built from Falling Creek
Falling Creek
Falling Creek is a tributary of the James River located near Richmond, Virginia. Approximately in length, it varies in width between at its source to several hundred feet in the Falling Creek Reservoir. Falling Creek rises in the Salisbury section of northwestern Chesterfield County and empties...
to Manchester
Manchester, Virginia
Manchester, Virginia is a former independent city in Virginia in the United States. Prior to receiving independent status, it served as the county seat of Chesterfield County, between 1870 and 1876...
for the purpose of transporting coal to ships in the navigable portion of the James River
James River (Virginia)
The James River is a river in the U.S. state of Virginia. It is long, extending to if one includes the Jackson River, the longer of its two source tributaries. The James River drains a catchment comprising . The watershed includes about 4% open water and an area with a population of 2.5 million...
for export. Opened in 1831, it was the first commercial railroad in Virginia, second in the United States.
Coal mining at Black Heath was both difficult and dangerous work, and there were fatal explosions. On March 18, 1839, 40 men, mostly African American
African American
African Americans are citizens or residents of the United States who have at least partial ancestry from any of the native populations of Sub-Saharan Africa and are the direct descendants of enslaved Africans within the boundaries of the present United States...
slaves, were killed in a 700 foot shaft at the Black Heath mine. http://www.midlomines.org/timeline2.html On June 15, 1844, a mining explosion at Black Heath killed 11 more men. http://www.cdc.gov/niosh/mining/statistics/discoal.htm After the second incident, the mine was closed until 1938. http://xroads.virginia.edu/~Hyper/VAGuide/tour08.html
Around 1850, the steam-powered Richmond and Danville Railroad
Richmond and Danville Railroad
The Richmond and Danville Railroad was chartered in Virginia in the United States in 1847. The portion between Richmond and Danville, Virginia was completed in 1856...
was built through the property of Black Heath. In modern-times, Black Heath Road extends from Old Buckingham Road north through the property on the south of the railroad tracks where a subdivision has been built.
North of the railroad and south of State Route 711 (Robious Road), remnants of the Black Heath coal pits were extant in the 1960s.
Suggested reading
- Lutz, Frank E.. (1954) Chesterfield, An Old Virginia County, William Byrd Press, Inc., Richmond, Virginia.
- O’Dell, Jeffrey M. (1983) Chesterfield County: Early Architecture and Historic Sites, Chesterfield County Board of Supervisors, Chesterfield, Virginia.
- Virginia State Library (1965) A Hornbook of Virginia History, Virginia Library Board, Richmond, Virginia.
- Weaver, Bettie W. (1961—1962) The Mines of Midlothian, in Virginia Cavalcade Winter: pages 40—47.
External links
- Virginia Historical Marker O-45 Black Heath
- The Village of Midlothian
- Virginia Places: Coal Transportation pages
- Midlothian Mines and Rail Road Foundation
- Coal Mining in Chesterfield County, Virginia website
- Virginia Historical Society
- Chesterfield Chesterfield Historical Society
- Civil War Richmond
- College of William and Mary, Railroads in Antebellum Richmond
- Virginia Places, Sectional Rivalry page
