halfdime
Silver Member
A smokin' privy!
I've been detecting an old home site in the neighborhood where I grew up; a 90 year old man who still lives nearby was just born when the site was abandoned by his parents. When I asked him if he remembered where there might have been a privy, he described another location, closer to the house he grew up in. That area is overgrown a bit right now, and it made sense to me that there should have been one closer to the original site. Last Sunday, I was doing some detecting there and noticed the telltale depression in the ground where a privy should have been. I had my probe with me and pushed it easily into the ground almost four feet; BINGO! Today was the day I chose to dig it; it was sunny, with a high about 62. Not too hot, that's for sure. The dirt was dry and almost powder all the way down (which, in this case, was between 3-4 feet). In the pit were lots of bottles and pieces of pottery; the intact ones are shown here. Left in the hole were three or four of the old "Patented Nov 30, 1858" aqua Mason jars; unfortunately, they were all broken
. What I was able to salvage made it a good day, however. A clay pitcher with a little nick and a crack: keeper. Two bottles from druggists in nearby communities: Rochester and New Brighton, PA. These are firsts for me, after about a dozen or more privies in the last year. A Carter's ink bottle, unfortunately broken . Another first, for me, were five clay pipe bowls; what happened to the stems, and what they were made of, I don't know. I don't know how well the pictures will turn out, but there were at least three other embossed bottles: " F Browns Ess(ence) of Jamaica Ginger PHILA, Billings Clapp & Co. Chemists, Boston and a small Brown bottle HK Milford & Co Chemists, Philadelphia. It was a very interesting dig! I was able to sift and refill the hole in less than four hours. No coins, no clay marbles, but I'll take what I got!
I've been detecting an old home site in the neighborhood where I grew up; a 90 year old man who still lives nearby was just born when the site was abandoned by his parents. When I asked him if he remembered where there might have been a privy, he described another location, closer to the house he grew up in. That area is overgrown a bit right now, and it made sense to me that there should have been one closer to the original site. Last Sunday, I was doing some detecting there and noticed the telltale depression in the ground where a privy should have been. I had my probe with me and pushed it easily into the ground almost four feet; BINGO! Today was the day I chose to dig it; it was sunny, with a high about 62. Not too hot, that's for sure. The dirt was dry and almost powder all the way down (which, in this case, was between 3-4 feet). In the pit were lots of bottles and pieces of pottery; the intact ones are shown here. Left in the hole were three or four of the old "Patented Nov 30, 1858" aqua Mason jars; unfortunately, they were all broken
. What I was able to salvage made it a good day, however. A clay pitcher with a little nick and a crack: keeper. Two bottles from druggists in nearby communities: Rochester and New Brighton, PA. These are firsts for me, after about a dozen or more privies in the last year. A Carter's ink bottle, unfortunately broken . Another first, for me, were five clay pipe bowls; what happened to the stems, and what they were made of, I don't know. I don't know how well the pictures will turn out, but there were at least three other embossed bottles: " F Browns Ess(ence) of Jamaica Ginger PHILA, Billings Clapp & Co. Chemists, Boston and a small Brown bottle HK Milford & Co Chemists, Philadelphia. It was a very interesting dig! I was able to sift and refill the hole in less than four hours. No coins, no clay marbles, but I'll take what I got!
Nice digs buddy. 
jgas
Seriously though, goodluck, stay safe, dig in pairs and you will find some great things. 
