The Clover Hill Pits are a number of coal shafts and mines that operated in the Southside area of

Richmond, Virginia Richmond ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the Commonwealth (U.S. state), U.S. commonwealth of Virginia. Incorporated in 1742, Richmond has been an independent city (United States), independent city since 1871. ...

, from 1837 until around 1883.

History

In 1837, coal was found after a heavy rain at Clover Hill Plantation, in

Chesterfield County, Virginia Chesterfield County is a County (United States), county located just south of Richmond, Virginia, Richmond in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Virginia. The county's borders are primarily defined by the James River to the north an ...

, possibly by a slave. After mining began, mules carried the coal four miles to Epps Falls on the

Appomattox River The Appomattox River is a tributary of the James River, approximately long,U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map, accessed April 1, 2011 in central and eastern Virginia, named for the ...

to be loaded onto boats on the

Upper Appomattox Canal Navigation System The Upper Appomattox Canal Navigation system allowed farmers who took their wheat and corn to mills on the Appomattox River, as far way as Farmville, Virginia, to ship the flour all the way to Petersburg, Virginia, Petersburg from 1745 to 1891. The ...

. In 1841, the Clover Hill Railroad was created to haul coal from the Clover Hill Pits, to the Osborne Landing Docks and later

Bermuda Hundred Bermuda Hundred was the first Hundred (county division), administrative division in the English overseas possessions, English colony of Virginia Colony, Virginia. It was founded by Sir Thomas Dale in 1613, six years after Jamestown, Virginia, ...

dock to be transported by barge over the ocean to the Northern States. In 1848 the Clover Hill Railroad had produced 56,000 tons of coal for export and 22,000 tons for use in Richmond and Petersburg. The Clover Hill Pitts had several mining sites, the Brighthope Pit, the Halls pit and Racoon Pit. The company spread outside of Virginia. In 1876, Bituminous Coal from the Clover Hill Railroad Company was advertised in the Coal and Coal Trade Journal from a sales Office in New York. In 1877 the Brighthope Railway replaced the Clover Hill Railroad. In 1883, 83 employees worked for the Brighthope Mining Company. The mines were declining when the Brighthope Railway was founded. In 1890, the

Norfolk and Western Railway The Norfolk and Western Railway , commonly called the N&W, was a US class I railroad, formed by more than 200 railroad mergers between 1838 and 1982. It was headquartered in Roanoke, Virginia, for most of its existence. Its motto was "Precisio ...

brought in coal from a new coal mine in the

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, the

Pocahontas Coalfield Pocahontas Coalfield, which is also known as the Flat Top-Pocahontas Coalfield, is located in Mercer County/ McDowell County, West Virginia and Tazewell County, Virginia. The earliest mining of coal in the coalfield was in Pocahontas, Virgini ...

which could provide coal more cheaply and ship the coal on a larger standard gauge, class one railroad. This brought an end to the success of the Clover Hill Pits.

Miners

Slave owners leased their African slaves to be miners in the Clover Hill Pits. Slave owners would collect pay for the mining work as part of the lease agreements. Because the slave owner would suffer financial loss at the death of the slave, they purchased insurance policies that would pay the value of the slave to the owner in case of accidental death in the dangerous mines. The mining company also hired whites and hired

free people of color In the context of the history of slavery in the Americas, free people of color (; ) were primarily people of mixed African, European, and Native American descent who were not enslaved. However, the term also applied to people born free who we ...

Mining town

Many of the miners lived in a town named Winterpock. Winterpock had over 1000 residents in 1870, but as mining dwindled the community of miners became smaller. All that exists of the town today is the Reformed Baptist Church of Richmond established in 1825 and a store that was opened in 1926 to sell gasoline and food for automobile travelers after the railroad was converted into roads.

Accidents

The mining work was dangerous. In 1867, an explosion closed mine pits temporarily and a cholera epidemic slowed work. Methane explosions killed 17 and then 69 miners in 1859 and 1873 respectively.

Nunnally Brothers Accident

Two brothers, E. C and William Nunnally, were killed instantly an accident in the mine. The accident occurred at the Clover Hill pits on February 28, 1874. Heavy Timbers that held up the earth above them snapped. The breaking of the timbers caused them to be crushed by the falling earth.

References