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2000
4/15/2000This dig is situated at the country home of a settler family named Herron. The sight dates from 1830 when a log cabin was erected. In 1845 a frame house was built. The property is at a very important early crossroad near Harrison, Ohio. The Cincinnati Public Library has recently purchased the property and tore down the house and outbuildings to make way for the new Harrison Branch Library. The bulldozers will be back in june, and I have secured permission to do a salvage dig from the Library board. Much thanks to the library board for their understanding and cooperation.
This sight has proved very difficult in allowing us to find the privy hole. Its a large early farm and with the house and outbuildings gone it has been hard to get a perspective on where the privy was located. I stopped by after work and probed every day for TWO WEEKS trying to locate a privy. I dug 8 test holes and came up empty handed each time. Finaly, yesterday, (Saturday 4/15) I decided to take my wife along. I was digging in a shallow dump I had located near the rear property line while she was probing. I remember yelling to her that she was way to close to the road and that she wouldnt find anything where she was looking. I turned my attention back to the dump and about a minute later she yells," I got it". Yea, right I yelled, then I went over to see what she had found. Well, my chin almost hit the ground when I probed where she showed me and sure enough she had it. We did a test hole and the formation of a square stone liner made itself visible just under the sod.
My friend Rodney was the first to find a bottle. Unfortunately he found it with the shovel and may have chipped a large piece off of the lip. It was an unembossed clear pontiled bottle. Paper thin. A good sign ! At about 3 feet we were in heavy use layer with lots of seeds but no glass. Continuing down we found more earth and then another use layer full of seeds again with no glass at all. This privy is an early one and we were wandering if there will be any glass at all.
Finaly at 4 1/2 feet we hit a gravel layer that appeared to be the bottom. No more glass save for a few shards of broken window pane glass. BUMMER !!! Wait I said, let me see if I can get a probe through this gravel. 4 1/2 feet seems kinda shallow to go to the trouble of stone lining a privy pit. I pushed and hammered the tip of my probe through about 4 inches of gravel and whoosh, down she went. Yes, definately more use under this gravel.
And as I set here now on sunday morning, waiting for my wife to return home from work at lunch time, I am imagining the pontiled bottles that await my return. Will the bottom of the privy prove to be as empty as the top ? We will soon find out.
April 16thMy first dig story published on the web and I already have to admit I was wrong. Well, I was. What apeared to be the bottom of the privy actualy WAS the bottom. Our test hole through the bottom of the privy hole turned up three solid feet of sand so we stopped and filled'er in. BUT, we decided to sift the seed and main use layers through a sifter and got two marbles. A 1" Onion skin and a striped china.
We also found a small piece of a plastic comb near the bottom in the center of the pit. From all the clues we have concluded that this is the original, or at least a very old pre-1870 stone lined rectangular privy that has been dipped (cleaned out) many times. It must have been used right up into the late 1940's when it was capped and abandoned.
We have found a shallow bottle dump and in it my brother scratched out an aqua Bixby shoe polish bottle pat. 1883 and I found a broken Warners Safe bottle, so we're going to keep pokin around in there in spare time untill the dozers show up.
April 24th.Today, April 24th,
I probed a privy pit on an 1850 residence that served as a hotel during the 1860,s. I am
meeting the owner (my wifes Uncle Bill) at the house tomorow to dig it.
April 25th/26th/27thWell, we didn't know if Uncle Bill would go for letting us dig his privy or not. He keeps his place clean and neat so we were concerned that he may be aprehensive about a big mess being made. I explained how neat we were and told him my brother and I would split the pot with him 50/50, then my brother and I would split our half. He asked what we would do about the sod and I explained how we neatly cut it and remove it, lay it off to the side, and then lay down tarps around the pit to put the dirt on. I also told him how a couple weeks before I dug the privy's on my property and how I found two broken scroll flasks, a broken pikes peak eagle, and a broken cobalt blue Rutherfords Premium Mineral water bottle. Uncle Bill said go for it, so we went right to work.
This is Uncle Bills house Circa 1850. Owned in 1869 by a Man named DuBoise.
This looks too new.We were 3 1/2 feet deep and still finding coke bottles and aluminum foil. There was a chance that this pit was a newer one. At 4 feet I again tried to probe outwards to see how truly we had alligned our hole with that of the privy. Well, turns out we were alligned perfectly on center but had not geused the size right. At two feet deep I found the top of a square stone liner around the pit, so we enlarged our hole to the liner and continued downward. At 5 feet we were into early 20th century ABM bottles and I could not get a brobe any farther down than another foot because of the glass, so we couldnt guage the depth. Tons of window glass in this privy made it useless to probe for depth. So, we crossed our fingers and kept on digging.
Hey now, this looks olderOur first bimal bottle was a huge 9 inch clear Caldwells syrup pepsin/ Monticello, Ill. Then through the next foot of the privy were a half dozen bimals, clear with no embossing around 4 or 5 inches. Older bimal bottles soon popped up with a Dr. kennedys Medical Discovery and a Woods Sarsaparilla. By this time we were taking turns in the pit and Mike, my brother climbed down. He pulled out lots of broken fruit jars with screw caps and some broken wax sealers. Mike is kind of quiet natured so when he finds something he really likes in the pit, all I usualy hear is a whispered "oh yea" or a nice quiet "Hell yes". Well, I heard them both in about two minutes time when he pulled out a Dr. Hooflands German Bitters and then a nice L.H. Thomas embossed cone ink.
Parcial to Magnetic OintmentsUncle Bill had told us that he found a few small A Trasks Magnetic Ointment bottles in the crawlspace of his house and wondered if we might find some of those in the privy. We did. A total of seven of them.
After 6 or 8 more non embossed bottles were scratched out I took a turn. As soon as I got in the pit I started in a corner and pulled up what I thought was a just another shard of a fruit jar but as I was making to toss it behind me onto the fluff pile I felt the un evenness of a mold and pulled it back around to have a closer look. I saw the eagle flask motif and I said the word "crap" very loudly. Then leaned my shovel up against the wall of the pit, whereby the handle snagged on a root which flipped back and threw dirt into both eyeballs, adding insult to my injury. (Remeber, never wear eye protection. Dirt in both eyeballs is a part of the experience) Anyway, I kept digging in that corner because I just knew I would be able to yell CRAP again in a moments time when I found the other side to the flask. Which I did. It was a Masonic eagle flask.
I leveled off half the pit at about a foot lower than the half I was working off of. I found a broken aqua pint scroll flask with an anchor. Thin as paper at the shoulder. As I was turning to sit in the lower part to start digging the upper, my foot kicked out a tiny little bottle with week embossing that said Dr. Sages Catarrh Remedy/ Buffulo. Then all of the sudden it was like a dream. Or a nightmare. Or at least realy strong deja-vu. Just two weeks before this in my own yard, at 8 feet deep, I found the broken base to a Rutherfords Premium mineral water in cobalt blue, and now I was looking down into my hand at another one. This little town I am in has had a corner store in almost continues operation since 1830. Did perhaps they stock this product ? Did perhaps it suck and no one ever bought more than one bottle of the stuff ? Did they give everyone in town a bottle to try and nobody liked it enough to ever buy it ? Good Lord I dont know but its wierd. Ive dug only two deep privy's in this town and found the base of this bottle in both of them. Two blocks apart.
We were now at about 6 1/2 feet after removing the fluff and Mikey hopped down into the pit. He started in on a virgin use layer thick with seeds and started pulling out more window glass and frags of fruit jars. Then I heard a very quiet and almost whispered but never the less very excited "Holy Crap". (Again the crap word but in a good way this time) Man, what IS this thing ??? He handed it up and it was a perfect little handcarved ivory cigarette holder. KILLER ! I sat it gingerly aside and smoked me a dirty butted marlboro while Mikey started finding what we came for, Pontiled bottles. He tossed up a chinese linament #3. Up next was a pontiled 8 sided Turner's Balsam. Then a killer little Bear's oil. The last find of the day was a little pontiled blue marble, which I lost somewhere while we were back filling the pit. The pit finished up on a gravel base at about 9 feet deep. It took two days and a part of a third one to dig it.
Future Privy Diggers of America President Ashley B, in the pit and Scratchin' out bottles ! Wow look at those nice clean edges !!!
Filler in Mikey !
The dirt is back.
The sod is back. Where did that big mess go ??? We honered our deal and Uncle Bill took home half of the embossed bottles, while Me and Mike split our half. We also gave Bill 15 or 20 of the un-embossed bimals as we had most of them already. We all had fun and got a few Cool bottles. Life is good.
May 6thToday I walked accross the street and had a chat with my neighbor Steve. Steve and his wife Peggy are super nice people and very good neighbors. Steve's house was built in 1830. It is one of the first houses in the little town where I live that was laid out in 1815. I will be adding a page that tells about the towns history very soon, as most of my digs are located here. This house was originaly owned by D. Williamson. It is located next to the old saloon building from the 1830,s also.
This is the D. Williamson House.
Steve and Peggy said we could dig the privy. They said it was a nice large two holer and showed us where it sat. Unfortunately they had constructed their compost bin right on top of it. I agreed to deconstruct the compost bin and move the compost to a temporary pile, then move it all back when we were done. The extra work involved is equaled out by the fact that there will be no sod to remove or replace.
Now we're waiting for tomorrow to come and another unpredictable and exciting Privy Dig. This house is way old and Me, my brother Mike, and my friend Rodney are all stoked up. This is the third sight from the same time period I have dug in this small town. Will the ghost of the cobalt blue Rutherfords Mineral Water Bottle also haunt the bottom of this privy, as he did in the last two ? Time will tell. And the conclusion to this story will follow.
Stuck in the middleAfter we moved the compost bin, we began digging where the owner said the outhouse was. After we removed alot of limestone rocks and brick we hit undisturbed clay. We probed and it was obvious we were off our mark. After some more probing we determined we were in between two privy's, so, we went for the stone lined pit.
At three feet we were finding some shards of broken bimal bottles. At four feet deep I was in the pit and pulled out a local whiskey that I have never seen before. It is an abm screw top that says, "K. Friederich Distiller Harrison, Ohio". Ouch ! It had a large hole in one corner.
A few more bimal bottles were tossed up by my brother Mike, then my friend Rod got to toss up a few. Nothing too special, but some we hadn't seen before. There were lots of ketchup bottles in this pit. From screw cap abm's to applied tapered lip bimal's. On my next turn I tossed up a very old looking slender bottle with acorns on it. Maybe a pepper sauce or ketchup ?
I found the gravel bottom at about 5 feet deep and began to work my way out to the side. As I was knifing my way through a layer thick with glass I caught the flash of cobalt blue. I carefully picked the dirt away and noticed the bottle was in the shape of a mineral water. After knifing out the neck I held it up and read the bottle. It said " B. Bick. Cincinnati". Toss it up, toss it up they said. They couldnt wait to see and feel it. We took turns holding it to the sunlight and saying, "oooh" and " ahhh". I was just glad I had first pick today.
We also found a nice little pitcher and a nice two handled stoneware spitoon. The only open pontiles we seen were on broken bases of two bottles, one round and the other 8 sided. All in all a decent day. A painted china marble rounded off the dig.
This is me, probe in one hand and my boy Eddie in the other. This photo speaks a thousand words. I am just a temporary custodian to these simple treasures.
Left to right, its Mike and Rod
The bottle pile for the day.
We filled in the pit and reconstructed the compost bin. We may go back to re-probe the other soft spot in the near future. Next weekend we have a very promising dig lined up at an old general store and tavern. I'm just crazy about this stuff !
May 12thThis dig is on the property of a general store that was built in 1867. Owned by and known as the Mulholland Store from 1867 to the 1890's. Now occupied by a very nice lady, Bridget, who said we could dig her privy.
With Mothers day being tomorrow and with today slipping away very quickly, we may not be able to excavate this weekend. I am a free man at around 2:00 pm today and me and my diggin buds are going to meet there to probe. IF we are able to probe for depth and IF its not too deep we may decide to dig it today. If its deep or if we are unable to guage its depth, we will wait untill next weekend to dig it so we have two days to make a good show of it. Well, we found the privy. One of them at least. We walked straight over to it. It is on the rear corner of the lot and there is a deep sink hole. We could not geuss the depth as it is choked full of rock and debris. So, we are going to dig it next weekend. Saturday, May 20thIts raining. The weather forcast says a chance of evening pop up showers. Its 8:00 am. The local 500,000 watt doppler radar is perfectly clean. But its still raining.
I have called upon
the bottle Gods to stear my shovels path.
Its a light and aggravating rain. I am going to dig anyway. In the rain. Can you people see what this pre-occupation that borders on manic obsession has done to me ? I am a slave to the excitement and glory. My will is not my own.
The Wash Out.Yup, thats what it was. I think it was mostly because I left my lucky shirt at home. I probed three privy's on two different lots. All three were too new to mess with. One was an early poured concrete and the other two were concrete block lined. I was able to find a possible privy in the other corner of the Mulholland lot. We may go back to investigate that one in the future. So my Saturday was a bust. I thought about just deleting this whole page but I think I shall leave it so readers can know also of the dissapointment and futility that accompany the thrill and excitement of privy digging. I moved a lot of dirt just to find out these privy pits were too new to dig. Along with about two hours of probing, half of my day was gone by the time I refilled my test holes. Absolutely zero BIH. (Bottles in hand) Am I discouraged ? No ! I have had my taste of succes and I know there are literally millions more privy pits out there waiting for me, loaded with all sorts of goodies. Like maybe this here next one !!!
May 21stThis one has some real potential. This is the former residence of Andrew Mccoy Wakefield. The first store owner in the town and dating from 1820. I have gained permission to dig the privy from the owners son, who I went to school with. The owner is a lifelong resident of the township and is related to the very first settlers. His recollections of the past are priceless and have been recorded in the local history books. He is a living encyclopedia of local history. After getting permission I went a-probing and located a soft spot in a depression. I could feel the crunchy crunch of broken glass at about 3 1/2 feet. Needless to say, I am stoked and have all fingers and toes crossed that this is the first privy for the sight.Also, I have on my lucky shirt. Are you ready to hang on while I go dig up a bushel basket of unbroken pontiled bottles ? Good. Hang on.
Later that same afternoon...THIS IS THE SECOND WEEKEND IN A ROW THAT I WILL HAVE TO GO WITHOUT DIGGING ANY BOTTLES !!!!!!! It was not the sight of the former privy it was the sight of a former TREE. That was not the crunchy crunch of broken glass it was the crunchy crunch of GRAVEL. Now if I can keep a positive attitude then so can you readers so I have decided to publish these miserable results of a lost weekend for educational purposes. What have I learned this weekend ???
1. Getting the feel
for what you are tapping with the probe is a refined skill that I have not yet mastered. To elaborate, I was
so convinced I had a privy that I kind of spazzed out and cut and removed a 5 by 5 area of
sod. At least I was able to come to my senses and dig a smaller test hole in the center of
my dirt square, where upon I learned the doomed fate of my efforts. The gravel I was
tapping just fooled the crap out of me becuase the age of the sight had me all worked up. And yet, there is hope...This sight is an old one and the privy is still there. It saw me coming and was afraid it would be losing its special contents. Contents that it has held for over 150 years. When it saw me in the wrong place digging it was relieved. It even went so far as to chuckle as it watched me backfilling the tree trunk hole. Somehow I think it knew I had on my lucky shirt and this fact pleased it all the more. But thats ok because I have my secrets also. The privy doesn't know how strong my desire is to empty it of its precious horde. With the granting of permission, so also was this privy's fate told. And the day that my probe shall penetrate its very heart grows near.
May 29thMemorial Day and I had to work. What a drag ! I got home at 5:30 and saw my neighbor picking up in his yard after a party the night before. My cousin Jerry was with me and he walked over to talk to him. After a few minutes I had to ask the question that was repeating itself over and over in my mind. canIdigyourprivyCanIdigyourprivy. So I did. And he said yea, I dont care. So I looked at Jerry and he looked at me and I could tell that after a hard days work he didn't want to dig a refrigerator sized hole in the ground and he knew I was hyped and had no other helper so he sighed and cast his weary eyeballs at the ground and I took that for an official commitment and I ran home to get the shovels.
This property has tons of history and has had several houses here and there dating back to 1850 so I wasnt able to tell which house the privy may have went with. Never the less, we chopped out a square of sod and laid it off and started digging. Directly under the sod was broken wax sealer frags. At 1 foot deep I found an open pontil base frag. We were digging in a hurry as we had only two hours to dig and refill the pit. We missed the original pit by half so we enlarged it some and undercut some. We found the bottom at about 4 1/2 feet. Whole bottles were scarce. We found two more broken OP base frags. A few frags of a ten sided aqua bitters bottle. A two quart stoneware fruit jar with a crack in it. As Jerry was undercutting the wall he says, dangit another broken one, and hands me an aqua clasped hands / cannon union historic flask.
We found a few un embossed bimals and three Patent Sept. 18, 1860 fruit jars with lip chips. The single whole bottle was a Lewis and Holt, 152 Chathams St. N. Y. Its got a double applied lip with a ball pontil similar to later Bitters bottles. I cant find a referance to it though. We filled in the pit and replaced the sod. Jerry got all the Bimals and I got the broken union flask and the Lewis and Hoyt. After the last couple of miserable attemps it felt good just to dig out some glass again. Can you dig it ?
June 17thThe Privy's of MirkwoodProfitable excursion or wild goose chase. Which of the two will todays efforts turn out to be ? I am preparing for a hike into the wood to an abandoned 1840 homestead. The sky is leaking rain but thats ok. I have transcended the weather. I no longer feel the rain. My focus is true and my Privy Digging Mojo is in tune with the universe. The Zen of digging has taken hold and the end of the day is anxious for arrival to tell us his tale. Hang tight.
The Black Widows of Mirkwood
Bruce, a long time buddy of mines nephew, found this place a couple years back. Its DEEP in the woods. We walked for quite awhile before he told us we were almost there. We must have went up over hill and then down through a small creek bed about four times or so. Finaly I could see the outline of a delapitated two story frame house in a grove of large old trees. It was major creepy. We located a spot thick with stones but thought it was an old smokehouse foundation because it was way too big. We got a little frustrated by the high weeds so Bruce took us to where he thought the dump was. We found a dump area and dug for an hour or so, and found a few cool bimal bottles. While I was on my knees digging Bruce yells, "black widow". All my life I have heard people call all black spiders black widows so I realy didn't think too much of it but turned my head to look anyway. "Holy shit it IS a black widow" I yelled and I jumped up and back a little. We all got down to peer closely at the deadly insect. Bruce put his foot on it but I got him to stop before he mashed it and I put it in an old mustard jar and held a milkglass mason jar lid over the top. Well, Rod and Bruce thought I was nuts for wanting to keep it and they asked why I wanted it. I told them it was spider school for my kids. I took it home and made my wife, niece, and two kids stand back while I dumped it out on the concrete. I showed the gasping and cringing crowd how glossy black it was. How it had a red spot on the top and a red hourglass on the bottom of its abdomen. How the front legs are longest and how there is no hair on the body and legs. We survived the creepy house and the deadly poisonous spiders and I got to teach my family how to identify and ultimately avoid this tiny beast. I got three beer bottles I didn't yet have also. I have been chatting with some nice folks about digging in response to my web page and hope to get together with some of them for a joint dig real soon. Stay tuned for more exciting digs !!!
6/24/2000I got talkin to a feller named Mike on the internet about digging privy's. He's been digging them for three years now. We agreed to meet at my house for a dig this saturday morning. The dig was a few miles away at a friend of the family's on the lot of an 1865 house.
Mike turned out to be a very nice guy. He also turned out to know a lot about privy digging so I listened carefully and managed to learn some things. He showed me a probing procedure that I had never considered before and it proved itself as he located a privy pit under a spot I had probed and found nothing. My probe was not long enough to reach through the cap. I wander how many other pits I have left behind as a result of short probing a sight ???
Anyway, after he found the pit we dug untill a rectangular stone liner showed itself at about 18 inches deep. Continuing down, the pit filled in with water at the ash layer at about 3 feet. I thought we were screwed but he showed me how to deal with the water also. It seems the water is held inside the privy walls or just to the outside of the walls. After 10 or 15 bucket fulls of water were removed, we had the room to keep digging.
The pit turned out to be rather shallow at 4 1/2 feet deep. Mike found both bottles for the day in the half of the privy he was working on. And for convenience sakes they happened to be matching Cincinnati mineral water bottles marked " Best and Lothes Mineral Water Cin. Oh", in aqua blue. He also pulled out a super dark amber applied tapered lip ale bottle with no embossing.
Altogether a very pleasant experience. Got to meet a new Bud who likes digging as much as I do. Got a nice mineral/soda water bottle. And I got to learn a few new tricks of the hobby. I am looking forward to digging with Mike again soon.
July 8th/9thFor a Few Bottles MoreToday I probed up a
pit on my neighbors yard where we dug the last pit. It is behind where an 1850 house used
to be. Its also behind where an 1870 house used to be so who knows what we will find this
weekend.
Mike showed up and
right after he did my cousin Jerry showed up too. Jerry is only mildly interested in
bottles but he used to be a ditch digger and he can move a shovel pretty good so we
corraled him into helping. Jerry is the guy who handed up a broken clasped hands/ cannon
flask from the other pit on this property a couple weeks ago.
The next morning I
walked over to get a sunlit view of the pit. Mike was not able to return today due to a
prior engagement and the pile of dirt looked twice as big as I remembered it looking and I
felt about half as big as I remember feeling so I decided I would try to liberate my
brother into helping me fill it in.
He looked into the
hole and realized how much of the pit was not dug and asked me if I thought there was
anything left. I said yes. I think there may be a few bottles more. So he hopped in and
started scratching. WHAM he finds a local medicin WHAM he finds a whole green cone ink
WHAM he finds two whole hoods Sarsaparillas WHAM he finds a killer little dolls head with
both eyeballs.
Above is the local
drugist bottle. It says
We got it all filled in and re-sodded. About 20 feet away is another pit that hopefully will match the age of the 1850 house that was here. Mike is coming over next weekend to dig. Tonight I am sharpening and oiling my tools, re-tipping my probe, and wringing my bottle digging hands in anticipation. Stay tuned BABY !!!
The Whole, the Broken, and the UglyThis is the third privy from this particular lot that has history dating all the way back to 1815. We haven't found anything older than about 1865 so far so the probing shall continue.
Mike met me at my house at 8:00 ready to dig. The first spot we had probed out had the crunchies at 3 feet and a springy feeling obstruction at about 3 1/2 feet. There used to be greenhouses over this spot from the 1960's to just last year, and the ground was like concrete for the first 10 inces or so. Mike pulled out the heavy artiliary and we spud barred the sod into pieces. Our test hole was filled with bits of plastic looking stuff and at three feet we found we had dug into a dump from the greenhouses that contained about a thousand seed starting trays. YUCK !!! We filled it in and replaced the sod. 1 1/2 hours down the drain. Moving on, Mike quickly located another pit about four feet from the last pit. We removed the sod and started digging. This pit started right out with redware and salt glazed pottery frags. It looked like it might be a good one. At four feet the first bottles started popping out and to no ones surprise, they were mostly shoe polish bottles. At 5 feet the pit hit bottom on one side and continued down on the other. It was wierd. Someone must have put a privy over an older pit. Once we started getting into the older pit the bottles aged as well. We were finding key mold medicins and cone inks. Mike handed up a J.J. Butler Cincinnati dome ink and a minute later an L. H. Thomas cone ink. I got into the pit to try and find the edges of this older deeper pit and there was glass and bottles everywhere just hanging out of the wall. I had several choices to start on but my eyes focused on a large square amber base. I knifed it halfway out and the lip and neck tumbled out onto my feet. CRAP. Well then lets just see what this is already I said and pryed it out of the wall. One of the panels hit the dirt facing me and it said -dge Bitters. Oh man it was a bitters I said. Then I pryed the rest of the frags out and stuck two halves of the embossed panel together to read, "E. Dexter Loveridge Wahoo Bitters. SHEEEE IT !!! The sound that came out of me was far from a Wahoo. It was more of a BOOHOO !!!
J.J. Butler Dome Ink.
L.H. Thomas Cone Ink.
The pit finished on
a gravel stratum base at about 8 feet. We got 74 whole bottles including:
Mike down in the pit.
My boy Eddie. He's wanting to pull some buckets !!! Ataboy !!!
Next Weekend, the BIG DIG !!!Next weekend Mike and I will be welcoming Jason and Rick Blevins from the Historic Bottle Diggers of Indiana. I have been chatting with Jason via e-mail and on the phone and he sounds like a nice fellow. He also sounds smart and full of energy. I cant wait to dig with these guys. It was their web sight that motivated me into digging privies in the first place.
Below is a picture of the home we will be digging behind. It was built in 1856 on top of where the cabin was that was built in 1813. Yep, thats 1813 !!! There should be a half dozen pits here. Hope we get into a good old pontiled pit !
William Sater
purchased this land in 1813. He and his wife Nancy built a cabin that year. In 1824 they
had their third son Joseph. At the death of his father in 1849, Joseph inherited the farm
and property. Later that same year he married Eliza Ann Hedges.
Sounds like a privy dig of monumental proportions and un equaled possibilities. I should mention here also, after the split my share of the recovered articles will be displayed at the Crosby Township Historical Society Building, Hamilton County, Ohio, where Jim Innis, a board member and friend of mine has graciously allowed me ample secure display case room. I will also be displaying bottles and relics from several other Crosby Township sights. So if you live in the Cincinnati area, come over and have a look.
july 30thToday Jason Blevins of The Historic Bottle Diggers of Indiana made the three plus hour drive down to my quaint little Burg to dig with me and my new diggin buddy Mike. I had a place lined up that had such history as to rarely be found. You can see how excited I was by looking at the dig story for July 16th.
The yard was fairly massive and contained no order to its long elustrious life. Chicken coops and hog pens and corn cribs and barns and sheds and garages and dog pens....some still there and most now gone, made it hard to penetrate with the probe. A brand new septic tank with secondary tank and leach lines was installed right in the middle of the back yard and foiled us completely. The place where they tore down the privy a few years back was test holed and found to contain mostly huge chunks of concrete that the owner said was the old outhouse foundation. Not good. We quickly moved on to better prospects.
We headed back to my neighbors lot here in town and within minutes had a pit probed within feet of the three we had already dug. A test pit turned up redware and some flow blue frags. OK !!! At just 3 feet we hit a seed layer that was way to thin at just two inches and below that another thin seed layer at about 4 feet. A foot under that was the gravel base with no use on top of it. Wierd. The pit was very old and very empty. We found an open pontiled amber stemware base that was globby and crudely out of round. A few pieces of super thin window pane and some china frags was it. So now what ?
Well by golly we just headed over to the next house on the block which is the sight of the 1812 Passmore log cabin. The very nice owner and neighbor of mine said dig anywhere. Just not between the back of the house and the rear property line. He also had just put on a new two tank septic system. Bummer. Ok, next yard, keep moving please, nothing to see here.
We crossed the second street and moved on to Uncle Bills property where we had already dug an 1850 pit. Nothing here to find either. Next yard, keep moving.
Jason had a long drive and we were determined to find aomething with some bottles in it so we headed accross yet another street to the old Millholand store. My previouse permision evaporated when the elderly gentleman who lives next door and is the owners father did not remember me and ran us off. I've known him all my life. Poor guy. Maybe some of the marbles I have been finding were his ???
Today was a good
day. I got to meet and dig with Jason who is a very nice and funny guy. He really knows
what he's doing in a pit, and was happy to show me a few things.
So we sat around and talked bottles and digital images and auctions and good days and bad days. Today we paid our dues and are in good standing with the Bottle Gods. They demand pennance and today our flop sweat was offered up to them as a sign of devotion in the face of accepted failure. Surely I say unto you, a smile from them is more than due.
Im goin to Florida to watch my kids flop around on the beach. Check back in a couple weeks for an overdue update.
August 11th
Above is a picture of my Wifes Mothers house. It is in the county historical registry as being built in 1860. There is an outhouse standing on a concrete foundation. I had probed this yard till I was blue in the face and could not locate any other pits. My mind, looking for reason to this riddle came up with several possible yet unprobable scenarios as to why this was. The outhouse is on the original pit which has been dipped many times and has had a concrete foundation laid up under the outhouse at a later date than the pit was originaly dug. Or, the other pit(s) are covered by the small addition. Or, Septic systems had been installed and the other pits had been destroyed in the process.
Now would you like to hear the ACTUAL reason for my not being able to locate the other pit(s) ? 5 words will explain it all easily enough. MY PROBE WAS TOO SHORT!!!!
I went back over there last weekend with my diggin buddy Mike and we used the long 7 footer. Sure enough, the cap (or fill) on the two privies we found were 5 FEET THICK.
We insert the 4 footer first and then we yank it out and insert the 7 footer. After the 7 footer was unwillingly shoved another foot to 18 inches into the ground, whoosh, down she went. Glass at 6 feet.
Unfortunately the two pits would only produce 1890/1900 era contents. The 1860 pit is still out there somewhere.
Mike got a neat set of 5 leaf shaped green chidrens tea set plates and what else I dont even remember. The second pit I dug alone along with a little bucket pulling help from my Bro Inlaw Gary Parker. I let Gary have most of the bottles as I already have most of them in my collection. I did take home two bristless French ivory toothbrushes and a lead crystal desk ink WITH the lid.
Two Ivory Toothbrushes
Next weekend I may be digging in historic Covington KY. with Mike. I have heard alot about these big city privies and can't wait to sink my scratcher into one. Until next time, keep on diggin !!!
August 27thHello folks. I bet you are expecting another exciting privy dig story. Sorry to say that I have had a huge run of turn of the century pits with nothing worth mentioning coming from them. Also have had some not so good luck in finding the pits at a couple of real old farms. Its terrible just knowing the pits are there but not being able to find them. Oh well, such is the torment of the country privy digger. Well, All that is about to change. Got some major old pits lined up for this weekend and next.
Historic Newport, Realized !I have been chatting with a feller I met on the internet named Boyd who has been into bottles for quite awhile. He has plenty of privy pit experience and today he is driving down from Akron to meet up with Mike and I to have us a dig. I have found a brick lined pit poking its head above the surface at a former dig sight.
We met up about 8:30 at my place, and after a quick introduction including the obligatory smile and handshake, we were off. We headed down the antique road I live on and in three minutes pulled into the giant elm tree lined drive of the demolished brick 1840 residence. This round brick lined pit was chocked full of HUGE limestone slabs that we wrenched loose and hauled up out of the hole. After 15 minutes of hard work and about a quart of perspiration each was excreted, (it was 90 today) we came to the realization that this privy pit was actualy another ding dang cistern. We kept pulling out the rocks and bricks to just to see what might be seen and hit water at about three feet down. Absolutely without a doubt not worth any more time or energy.
I had dug one pit about three months prior to this at this location and it was all open pontiled bottles and frags. Nothing newer than 1855. So I knew there had to be at least one more pit if not several so we three man probed the place half to death. What I mean is, it half killed us it was so hot. 90 degrees and at least 90 % humidity today. The wind was stagnant and non moving. It was a real BURNER !!! We found nothing. This farmyard is huge !!!
" Geuss what guys. I have a permission in the historic section of Newport that I just got on the phone LAST NIGHT ! Lets shake tail over there I am tired of this country privy probing" I said, and thats what we did.
Thirty minutes later we wheeled up on a killer looking two story circa 1870 or so. A girl from my little home town moved in there awhile back and said we could dig the privy. She is a hot looking professional dancer and sweet and nice as can be. She saved us from heatstroke with jug after jug of ice water. She rooms with my wifes cousin who is a student. (A big howdy with props to Casey and Missy)
The back yard was about the size of a modest living room at best. We found a stone liner in the corner and started getting the dirt out of it right away. We were already beat from the heat and tonight is the big WEBN fireworks show here in Cinci which Mike was attending so we decided to quit at four thirty or so, and resume the dig tomorrow morning. We made our way down to about 6 feet and then sunk the 7 foot probe through the floor with no sign of the bottom. So its at least 13 feet deep and Probably around 15. Could go to 22, or 28. Its is fairly massive by my country boy standards at 6 feet accross but a common size for this area said mike. Geuss we in the big league now baby !!!
Mike felt whole sounding bottles at the 12 foot depth in a couple of places so we are anxiouse to return for the fruits of our labor. We covered the pit up and will return at 8:00 in the morning. Hang tight folks this might get good !!!
"The Deep"We returned to Newport and got right to work. A front had moved through and the heat and humidity were gone. It was great weather for digging. There was a missplaced puppy that Casey had taken in and he was our constant companion throughout the dig.
The first bottle was found at 7 feet deep and it was a local Newport KY. embossed milk pint. It said "Geo. B. Moock Newport KY". We still had hopes of getting some age as this was still just the fill. Then two more matching embossed milk pints popped out. They were "The Feldman Milk and Cream Co. Newport KY.
At about 10 feet deep Mike carefully probed for the use layer as we knew we were getting close and didn't want to break anything by digging too deep or fast. He informed us it was just another foot down and it was all glass with a few healthy sounding clunks from larger whole bottles.
When we hit the
glass at about 12 feet it was packed. Whole bottles were everywhere. We took turns sending
them up. ( Iv'e always just tossed up bottles to my partners skillfull catch, but this
thing is 12 feet deep and its a long way back down if there's a miss. I wonder how far a
bottle has to fall to reach terminal velocity ???) So we were sending up the goodies by
the bucket load. Mike sent up a whole hypodermic syringe that was pretty cool and very
fragile. Then he said, "whats this a lightbulb"? I looked down and sure enough
it looked exactly like the domed top (or bottom ?) of a lightbulb. After extracting it we
were faced with one of those exciting mystery objects. Turns out it was a blown breastpump
of ancient origins. Thin as a chimney globe and crude yet gracefull.
Casy and Missy came
out to watch and to bring us ice water. Casey said she could probably get me a few more
permissions in the area. I gave her some of my brochures and cant wait to get into some
more Newport pits !!!
Left to right, its Boyd and Mike.
This pit did not
have the age we were looking for but was very diggable never the less. Plus I got to meet
Boyd from Akron who rubs elbows with Don Dzoro and used to dig with Digger Odell back in
the 80's. (yes I'm a name dropper and I'm runnin' with the big dogs now)((lol)) But
seriously, Boyd is a nice guy with a great sense of humor and a great love for the hobby.
{C'mon back down here Boyd lets dig some more !!!) And as always, Mike was like the key
asset to the dig and a patient teacher of things unknown. At least by me. A killer time
fella's !!! And many more on the doorstep I'm sure.
So until next time folks, keep the shine on the probe.
You can't always get what you want.I have been doing quite well getting permisions at some fine old places lately. An 1816 brick built by a wealthy Welsh Immigrant, an 1803 cabin that was a squater cabin before the treaty of Greenville was signed, an 1883 downtown store building, another Welsh built 1840 brick, and an 1880 brick farmhouse on the Brookville turnpike.
I have probed them all. On about half of them I have found a single pit and dug them only to find 1900 era ABM junk. The older pits on all of the previously mentioned residences have escaped me completely.
Due to the circumstances I have altered my plan of attack as follows. Getting new permisions has been moved from priority status to secondary importance. Re-contacting my standing permisions and setting up consecutive dates to re-probe is now first priority.
All counted there
are eight of these places that all pre-date 1890, and four of those that pre-date 1850.
The pits are there. I just have to go and find them. The Historic Bottle Diggers of Indiana sometime soon for another dig and meeting of the privy digging elite. There is still lots of time to dig before the big freeze so keep checking back to see the results.
By the way, I do not offer a geustbook for many reasons, yet I still like to hear from folks who enjoy my page. Drop me an e-mail if you like what you see here. And if you would like to be placed on my mailing list to be notified of updates just let me know. Untill we dig again, Later Baby.
The four pit dig.
This is an 1865 residence in Harrison. While I was cruising the alley's I noticed this one had alot of potential. There are no outbuildings in the back yard. It was on a field stone foundation. And, there were four pronounced dips all in a row in the back yard.
I looked up the owners with a little help from my counties Auditors websight (link on my main page). The owners wife called me back within minutes to tell me she got my message, checked with her husband, and that it would be ok to dig.
The dig happens today, Sunday Oct. 1st, at 2:00 pm. when the owner is available. Check back later today for a FULL REPORT !!!
First of four pitsMike and I met in
Harrison at about 2:30 and he followed me to the dig sight. Within a few minutes Jeff, the
homeowner pulled up. We talked for a bit, then grabbed the probes to confirm the pits.
We cut off the sod
for a test hole and at two feet were finding shards of red and yellow ware, wax sealer
mouth frags, and some thin window pane.
At five and a half feet we hit a solid use layer that was about 18 inches deep. We were finding some neat yellow ware frags. Lots of fancy glazed pieces like tortoise shell and sea weed sponge decorated Rockingham.
Mike tossed up an un-embossed squat soda, followed by an embossed" J. Born Mineral Water Cincinnati" squat soda. A few un-embossed flasks and then a piece of a cobalt paneled bottle. On my turn in the pit I found the double applied lip of the cobalt bottle, then an embossed cobalt panel that said "Fountain of Youth Hair Restorer" OUCHEE !!!
We had also been
finding tiny shards of a deep forest green bubbly glass. I found the frags source and
tossed up a big piece of a deep green Saratoga Mineral Water. OUCHEE AGAIN !!!
Here I am holding the frags of the green Saratoga and the Cobalt Fountain of Youth Hair Bottle
I won 1st pick and
wound up with the Hair Restorer and the embossed soda. Mike and Jeff took their picks and
we gave all the un-embossed bottles to Jeff.
The 4 pit dig continued
I met Mike and Rod
in Harrison at about 9:00. Jeff, the owner, showed up shortly after and we started
removing sod off of two pits at once. Rod and I had the pit closest to the house and Mike
and Jeff opened up the pit closest to the alley in back. There was still a pit in between
them also. At three feet Rod was tossing up some old shards of redware and cut glass. I
looked over at Mike and he was tossing up huge pieces of sheet metal. Ha Ha
We hit bottom on our pit at 5 feet and although the age was great, there was nothing intact in the whole pit. It was fairly clean, and may have been dipped over the years. Mike and Jeff abandoned their pit after they found a ten cent coke at 5 feet deep.
We refilled our pits and squared off on the remaining one. After a foot of dirt was hauled out we saw the wall of the pit was concrete lined. POOP ! We filled it back in and sent Rodney down the road to try for another permission. We gabbed awhile, then Mike started probing again. We had dug four pits and I didn't think there would be anymore. I was watching Mike probe and after he stuck the long probe into the short probe hole and pushed it another foot or so, from all the way accross the yard I heard a loud pop of breaking glass. COOL ! We aint done yet !
We cracked open the fifth pit and it was looking to be what I call a middle aged pit. About 1875 - 1885 or so. This age pit can really produce alot of bottles. We were finding Patent Mason jar frags and some stonewear frags. Mike tossed up an embossed hutchinson soda bottle that said, " L. Schulte. Brookville IND." Brookville is a small but very old community about 20 minutes west of harrison in Indiana. The only bottle I have ever found from there was an "Old Mill" pyroglazed soda. We were all goggling that hutch after the five hours we spent digging the first bunch of pits with no finds at all, and I said, "OK Mike how about three more of those". The bottle Gods must have been listening as we each took a turn in the pit and excavated our own just like it. Four of them in all. One for each of us.
Then things got even better as we started finding local embossed squat soda's. I lost count how many we found. It was a soda pit for sure. We all wound up with a few local embossed squats. I got a neat one from Lawrenceburg IND., a "J. Forshag".
Mike said he was working on freeing a large stonewear piece but he was doubtfull it would be whole. Well, it was whole. Nary a crack in it. A nice 6 quart stonewear jug. While I was in the pit I scratched up a killer little terra cotta point pleasant trade pipe. Ive seen quite a few of these but none like this one. It had a diamond pattern on the bowl and a lined pattern on the stem.
Jeff, the homeowner, got down in the pit and was scratchin out bottles like a pro. I was watching him dig from above and saw him find a cathedral pepper sauce. I was fairly excited while he was picking it up, and then when he wiped his gloved hand accross it and I saw embossing I was like," be carefull dewd thats a goodie" ! He handed it up and it was a 6 sided cathedral in aqua that said, "Harrison and Wilson Cincinnati". Allrighty Then !
We also got a few embossed medicins, one of which was a "West side Drug" from Harrison, and smaller than I have ever seen one before. Jeff eyed up another diagonaly lined trade pipe in the pile while we were back filling the pit.
We flipped for pick
and I came in dead last at fourth, so I killed the other three guys and took home ALL the
goodies ! The End.
I would like to thank the homeowner's, Jeff and Gina, for being nice people and gracious hosts. I sold Jeff a trunk spring so chances are we will be digging with him again some day soon.
Hey, where's all the pictures ?My digital camcorder was with my wife recording our talented 8 year old daughter Ashley at her cheerleading exhibition. I did take lots of shots with my 35 mm and I will post them on this page after I get them developed and scanned.
I have never dug bottles from a dump. An online buddy and bottle digging brother Matt Schaeffer has sent me some dump digging stories that really caught my attention. Seems if things go just right, you can really do some good in a bottle dump. My sisters yard is the bottle dump for my city of 15,000, platted in 1820 or so. Im gonna go dig some big whopper holes in her yard and see what I can find. I have some sweet looking privy digging sights I am trying to get permissions at so check back soon. I'm wild about this stuff !
All Over Town.Do I have an
exciting adventure in bottle digging to report this update ? But
Ear deep in Beer.Below is a photo of the house, built in 1865. Rod got the permission for this one. We probed out two pits and on Sunday morning at 8:30 we were assembled and ready to go.
We opened up the pit in the center of the yard and found it to be a stone liner. The 7 foot probe hit the handle before it hit the bottom. The pit was fairly loaded with rock and brick. At four feet deep we still had not hit a use layer and the context of the fill was extremely new. We debated filling it but decided to at least try to reach some seeds before giving up.
Seeds were at five feet deep, and in them we found milk bottles and crown top soda's. POOP !!! But the milks were neat ones so we kept on digging. We were hoping for some local milks. To our surprise we found one. Dair dairy, Harrison, Ohio. It was located on Dair ave. What better location for a dairy. We found a couple of Wilson Dairy Cincinnati. Nicely embossed. Then a very nice pyroglazed Wilson Dairy quart. That was about it for this pit so we closed it up and scooted over to the next one.
The next pit was showing some good age in the fill. Some colored and bubbly glass frags were coming up regularly. We were anxiouse to get to the use layer on this one. When we got there, we wanted to go back to the fill. Wierd how older stuff can be found over newer stuff. Another pit full of graduated non embossed bimal medicins and cottage cheese jars. A couple Gambrinus Stock crown top beers and a couple Hauck beers and thats about it for pit number 2. Next pit, keep moving.
Third one is a charm fellas and we're losing daylight lets go !!! This pit showed no signs of any kind except for ash and some coal down to the use layer at 5 feet. And then.... It happened.... ANOTHER MILK BOTTLE !!! AAAHHHHHGHGHGH !!! This is the third 5 by 5 by 8 foot deep privy in one day !!! Thats a total vertical dig of 24 feet !!! And for digging our butts off this is what we get ???
28 Gambrinus beers and 21 Hauck beers later we were fit to pull our hair out !!! We were pitching Gambrinus bottles at the stone lined wall and smashing them in frustration. If we kept them all it would kill the market for them so we were thinking ahead. I was 7 feet deep and pitching them up with no regard when after winding up for yet another toss my arm sensed a slight differance in weight. I pulled it back around expecting to see a big stupid Hauck and it was an amber coke. Cincinnati. I hollered up to have Mike and Rod make sure there werent any more tangled up with our pile of beers and they informed me after a quick scan there was not. I never the less slowed down a little and found two more. A lexington amber coke and another cincinnati, only fancy with the arrow and the logo 3 times.
At the bottom of the pit we were very pleased to find four local Harrison whiskeys embossed "K. Friederich Distiller Harrison Ohio". The first intact examples I have ever dug. Three cork top bimal half pints and a ground top pewter screw top pint.
At the very bottom Mike found a hand painted Black Forest type pipe with a buck whitetail and a doe on it. Also a point pleasant trade pipe.
Sometimes these newer pits can pay off. They dont pay alot but sometimes a little is better than nothing.
Click to enlarge thumbnails
About halfway through the day a reporter for our local news paper, the Harrison Press, pulled up and interviewed us for a story. One of my brochures had worked its way into their office and like many others they thought it was a strange and interesting hobby. Tina, the reporter, was very nice and easy to talk to. She showed genuine interest and geuss what.... Her house was built in 1850 and we have a new yard to probe.
Next weekendWe have an 1830 stone house to dig. The three pits have been located. This house was the center of a small town that existed from the 1830's to the 1860's. They had apparently fibbed about the population in order to get a post office because they were tired of driving (or riding there beast of choice) into Harrison for their mail. A distance of about 6 miles. There was this stone house owned by the Witts, a stone addition built in the 1840's that served as a tavern and post office, and two or three other houses, one of which served as a church. The town was called Wittown, and there are reputed to be some post cards that show it in its glory. YYYEEEEAAAAA!!!!!!
Witt town UnrealizedTwo sterile pits.
No glass, no seeds, just dirt.
Here's WhatI had a fellow from my archaeological society give me a call concerning a lady who contacted him by phone in regard to my Privy Page. She had went to the Cincinnati Library with the express purpose of browsing the web looking for information about privy digging. She had found my web page, but with no e-mail resources she was unable to contact me. Her message to the arch. society was "tell Eddie to call me about a privy dig". I called her and she explained her situation. She lives in the 1860 mansion that was owned by the Longworth Winery. She had found an embossed Longworth bottle while making an addition to the rear of the house, when the cistern was uncovered. She researched the bottle and sold it at auction. In the proccess she was able to learn quite a bit about bottles and how to find them. Privy digging being something that caught her eye, which leads us up to this point where I come in. She knows where the privy used to be. We are meeting her Sunday to dig her privies. I have agreed to make her an equal partner in the split. Now....lets just see how we do. Check back on monday for a FULL REPORT.
Sniff sniff cough cough...So what if it was really nasty and cold out. I'm an old school hard core tough guy. So what if it was raining and blowing a steady 20 mph gale. And so what if I had a measly 101 degree temperature. I been in far worse situations and still managed to squeeze some fun out of it all. Like that time I was fishing in Canada and was two days away from the nearest medical center and had a 104 degree temperature and was out of aspirin. I just self medicated with a pint of seagrams and lasted it out in a blur of waking delerium and managed to catch the biggest pike of the trip on the last day. Today was nothin. I can handle it.
Mike showed up and
said, "Cough sniffle cough". To which I replied a hearty, "Hack wheeze
sniffle cough". "Sniffle sniffle HACK", replied Mike. We were talking the
same language.
The pit was probed and found right next to a ten foot high laid stone wall that was the boundry of the property. This wall had many many pvc pipes coming out of it for drainage. Two of them were trickling down directly onto us and the pit. We resolved to our task and started our test hole in the face of an obviouse test of our will and determination.
At 2 feet deep we were into what looked like a tough dig. Hard packed gravel and clay. Jumping on our shovels did little more than bury the tips of them. When Mike said it looked like we would have to use his spud bar, his freezing cold, heavy and wet 40 pound spud bar, we caved. Without a word we began backfilling the test hole. While we were filling it back in, we said things like, "Prolly be nicer next weekend". And, " Get rid-o this cold and we'll be good to go". And, " Stupid Rain".
So now its
wednesday and I'm two days late on this lamo update and I STILL feel like cr%p.
BRRRRR !!!I just started digging privies last spring, so this is my first winter as a privy digger. I thought I would just dig all year long. It is 15 degrees out as I write this and the wind is a constant 20 miles an hour. I wouldn't go out in this unless the bottles were neatly piled and waiting for me. What I have been doing is cruising the construction sites in downtown Cinci and in Newport and Covington. The amount of broken black glass is unreal. Its laying all over on the piles of dirt.
I have been talking to some folks and getting some killer permisions for whenever this frigidness lets up a little. This spring I plan to hit it HARD !!! I am the Pirate of the Privy Pit. The Duke of the Dig. The Pontif of the Probe. The Furor of the Fill. The Prince of the Pontil. The King of Cobalt. The,...well, you know what I'm talkin' about.
I am also going to be adding a cartoon page. It will feature the continuing adventures of Eddie the Bottle Viking, by Matt Schaefer. Parodies of some of my digs and such. Great stuff !!!
I will also be updating and adding to the page in other ways. I have more hard learned tips on probing and digging. So check back often to see what wacky stuff I have been up to. This concludes the year 2000.
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