1800s McCoy Estate Foundation Findings

1liquigirl

Sr. Member
Jun 13, 2005
393
13
Bellefonte, PA
1800's McCoy Estate Foundation Findings

I found these items 'yesterday' (sorry for my posting time, but had to clean the pieces up a bit first) in an old foundation known as the old McCoy Estate and apple orchard. There is dirt inside each room with outlying foundation of the house still standing as well (to a height of a few feet, but one has a concrete floor with little troughs, which could have been a barn. To reach it requires a long hike of about 2 miles I'd guess, up the side of a mountain in our valley, some areas are very steep going. Judging the looks of things, I don't believe the sight has been MDed before, although people do camp near there. I found an older Pepsi bottle without its label, with a Nintendo Game Piece cap on it close to the foundation, just laying there. Also, near the path into the estate, there is a pile of rocks, which looks to be an old Indian grave or just a regular grave, with many years of moss growing on it, maybe just a pile of rocks, but the correct size to be otherwise. Good thing the brush was bare so I could see it from the path. I'll post pictures of this and the looks of the foundation on the next trip there, although I need to do some recovering from this one, huff, huff :P. I'm posting a few pics below. I'm not sure what the one object is, there are a few close ups of it. My friend told me, he saw something similar to this at his great grandfather's barn, but never saw one in one piece. He said it could be an item used to hang tools, like wheelbarrows, etc. It was hung over a rail, or track, to move the items quickly. And that on the back (the curved inward side), a wheel would be attached to move it on the track, the wheel would attach to the area furthest away from the ring part. There is a rounded off bolt through the front side that is bent and is folded over touching the iron piece in the back in the correct spot for a wheel. Also there is lettering on it as well, but it is hard to make out. My guess is B(or R)-E-A(or the letters N or R)-D-I-N-G. Does anyone know what it may mean? We do have a town of Reading here in Pennsylvania. Maybe it is just to tell us where it was made, but maybe not. The back curved area looks to be broken off because it is not straight at all there and may have had an identical piece structure on the other side. These pieces were all found within an hour (we were afraid of dark setting in before we made it back to the truck, and it was sleeting on us the whole time we were there), all pieces are made of iron. Thanks ahead of time for any help or oppinions on this piece. ;D
 

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Re: 1800's McCoy Estate Foundation Findings

Well Seeker, we went up again this past Wednesday. And wouldn't you know we found all the heavy hardware posted in the next pic outside Foundation 5. For reference the Sharpie in the pics is 5 and 1/2 inches long. In the first picture, from top left and down left side: First item, I was told was possibly a weigh scale or the end pieces were used as hooks to hold up a cow for slaughter. Second item, I think is an old iron lock piece for a gate. The third item, is a given, a sickle. When that came out of the ground, I was chitty choping all the small branches from the trees near the foundation. Fourth items are unknown, the left piece slides in the back of the dagger looking thing, which may be a decoration to an iron fence, since both of them were found near the iron gate lock piece. The right one in that pic is anyone's guess. The bottom 3 pics are of the same shot bullet. This was found in foundation 5!? Who was shooting and what were they shooting at!? I wonder what gun this was from. There are two clear ridges going around it. The right side pic is of more square nails in various sizes all found inside Foundation 5. A stake on the left side of the row, one very large bolt (fourth from the left which may fit in the pulley, not checked that yet), and there are 2 unknowns at the bottom, probably very encrusted nails, but maybe not. The second posted picture is of the dagger thingie. The left is of it's front and the right is of the back. If anyone has any possitive ID's on any of the heavy hardware, let me know. Enjoy all! And Happy Hunting.
 

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Re: 1800's McCoy Estate Foundation Findings

Hey LG....that bottom pic looks familiar! ;D ;)

Great stuff! Maybe we can get an id!

Nana ;)
 

Re: 1800's McCoy Estate Foundation Findings

Keep it up -- that's a lot of relics for one day -- neat dagger thingie -- looks like the top of iron fence.
 

Re: 1800's McCoy Estate Foundation Findings

Gabbit, thanks, all these items are only a few inches below the surface, this time out we designated more time and weren't sleeted and rained out after an hour or so of digging. Also, the second time out my partner was busy giving a friend a complete tour of the place and remained busy building a fire at the site (with a few minor grass fires to put out ;D). This time my partner actually picked up the detector, used it for the first time, set out to the outside of the Foundation on Seeker's idea, dug holes and was very amused and excited to find almost all of the good stuff this time out. I found the sickle...and all the nails :P. I'll keep you all posted on the finds from our next outing.
 

Re: 1800's McCoy Estate Foundation Findings

I'm thinking you have been bitten by the relic bug! Hope you find more cool stuff. Tsgman
 

Re: 1800's McCoy Estate Foundation Findings

This looks like a draw knife. It would have a wooden handle on each end, and is a wood shaping tool.
 

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Re: 1800's McCoy Estate Foundation Findings

1liquigirl said:
Well Seeker, we went up again this past Wednesday. And wouldn't you know we found all the heavy hardware posted in the next pic outside Foundation 5. For reference the Sharpie in the pics is 5 and 1/2 inches long. In the first picture, from top left and down left side: First item, I was told was possibly a weigh scale or the end pieces were used as hooks to hold up a cow for slaughter. Second item, I think is an old iron lock piece for a gate. The third item, is a given, a sickle. When that came out of the ground, I was chitty choping all the small branches from the trees near the foundation. Fourth items are unknown, the left piece slides in the back of the dagger looking thing, which may be a decoration to an iron fence, since both of them were found near the iron gate lock piece. The right one in that pic is anyone's guess. The bottom 3 pics are of the same shot bullet. This was found in foundation 5!? Who was shooting and what were they shooting at!? I wonder what gun this was from. There are two clear ridges going around it. The right side pic is of more square nails in various sizes all found inside Foundation 5. A stake on the left side of the row, one very large bolt (fourth from the left which may fit in the pulley, not checked that yet), and there are 2 unknowns at the bottom, probably very encrusted nails, but maybe not. The second posted picture is of the dagger thingie. The left is of it's front and the right is of the back. If anyone has any possitive ID's on any of the heavy hardware, let me know. Enjoy all! And Happy Hunting.

Nice relics that youve found.The dagger things are off of a sickle bar mower.
 

Re: 1800's McCoy Estate Foundation Findings

Have you gone to the library to check out the history
of this family and homestead?
It could give you a lot of info...we have books
here that goes way back to the start to the town.

Someone is always around to answer questions..
the library will give you the answer without asking
questions.

There has to be a lot of old stories after all a family lived
there at one time...you have done a good job sharing
this with us...it sure has kept my interest.

We have a history here of bootlegging and out of the
way places hidden so thats where I went to get my info.

Saves for a lot of oops.

Be careful of old wells.

cwe
l
 

Re: 1800's McCoy Estate Foundation Findings

I agree with Someguy on the draw knife (I think they're also called spokeshaves)

The "dagger thingy" is definately a "point" from a sickle-type hay mower or other piece of harvesting equipment. The little cross pieces are guards that helped to keep stones out of the knives.



Diggem'
 

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Re: 1800's McCoy Estate Foundation Findings

Looks like an awesome site.
Im 30 and have been detecting since I was 16, friends thought it was dorky, but they are just pokin fun at me, but they think its cool since I found my first gold coins...haha...
As for the dagger, it may be from machinery, but my guess from the size(cant really tell the size but im assuming) it looks like the top of an Iron gate. Just my .02
From the pics, looks like there are some nice sites to hit without headin up the hill, like that old white Victorian house...
Good luck and I cant wait to see the cache you pull out of there.
~J~
 

Re: 1800's McCoy Estate Foundation Findings

J2fun

Nope, definately a mower point.

The photo on the right side is the top side of the point and shows the 'pocket' in which the knives slide back-and-forth.

I've got an old (1920-ish) horse-drawn 6 footer that I pull behind a tractor to keep the weeds down around my place


Looking forward to seeing more good finds from this site.............

Diggem'
 

Re: 1800's McCoy Estate Foundation Findings

Wow. Cool finds. That place looks awesome.
 

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