🔎 UNIDENTIFIED Long shot

[Older The Better]

Found this in a site that appears to have an exploded Franklin type stove, I thought it was another scrap of iron / bit of stove but it has partial wording. I figured it doesn’t hurt to ask, other possible relevant info Kansas farm field, possible house, dating as early as civil war but probably closer to 1870’s or later.
Trying to put together any clue I can get because nobody knows of a structure ever being there and I can’t find any maps showing anything. If somehow someone knows what it says it could be a good clue to the age. If not I get it, not much to go on

 

Amazon Forum Fav 👍

A History of Mining on the Kenai Peninsula, Alaska - Grab it through Amazon!

[invent4hir]

Part of an old stove seems reasonable. What is the thickness? What if anything (metal or non-metal) was found nearby that supports the theory that a structure was once there?

 

[Older The Better]

1/4 inch maybe less, Square Nails, glass some thin and flat like a window pane, other pieces of bottles, ceramics, a sad iron, thimble, coins, a few buttons, broken silverware, a round stove cover, some stone debris, a possible pistol barrel. Here’s some stuff from this year, haven’t looked a lot because they just cut the beans less than a month ago.

Some melted

A larger piece of what I think is the stove

Other ceramic

Other Mystery brass

 

[Older The Better]

Here’s some of the more dateable stuff

 

[Back-of-the-boat]

What I am seeing that is positive is the letters O C K then below that NC with a possible Y. If we discount the Y as just a coincidence then the OCK and NC could possibly be a town in North Carolina. Or if we put the Y back in play it could be ----OCK FANCY need to find out what completes the OCK word.

 

[TheCannonballGuy]

The button is a yankee Cavalry officer's button. All I can tell you without a discernable backmark is that it was manufactured sometime between 1854 and 1874. That end date is due to the design of the eagle being changed in 1854 and again in 1875.

 

[Older The Better]

Here you go, the back was kinda nested in the button and can fall out.
JC Fuller Phil (. Ext?) if I remember right.

Lots of civil war vets settled in the area normally a settler could get 80 acres for 1.25$ if they showed 5 years of working and improving a claim, vets had that time reduced to 2 or 3 years.

The button, coins, and spoon could be civil war era but I try to keep in mind the useful life of such things not just when they were made, that’s why i think 1870’s is a fair guess. That’s within 10 years or so of the area opening to settlement and still follows where the dateable items cluster.

 

[Older The Better]

What I am seeing that is positive is the letters O C K then below that NC with a possible Y. If we discount the Y as just a coincidence then the OCK and NC could possibly be a town in North Carolina. Or if we put the Y back in play it could be ----OCK FANCY need to find out what completes the OCK word.

I was seeing sort of the same thing, at first I thought maybe it was O O K maybe cook but the second letter does look broken like a C my mind keeps going to rock, but it may be a longer word. I thought the second one may be fancy too.

 

[Almy]

The longer nail is the cut variety consistent with the mid to late 1800s dating.

 

[Older The Better]

Here’s what I believe is a stove, didn’t know what I was getting into when I dug the signal then curiosity took over… after they were out I couldn’t leave them in the field so I hauled them home

Maybe something like this

 

[Gare]

Some strange AND NICE FINDS

 

[TheCannonballGuy]

About the brass button-back you found:
According to the book by McGuinn & Bazelon on time-dating buttons by their backmark, J.C. Fuller was in business in Philadelphia PA as a jewelry maker and importer from 1857 to 1867. Some civil war eagle-buttons have been found with this backmark. Fuller is not known to have manufactured any buttons.

 

[Gene Mean]

About the brass button-back you found:
According to the book by McGuinn & Bazelon on time-dating buttons by their backmark, J.C. Fuller was in business in Philadelphia PA as a jewelry maker and importer from 1857 to 1867. Some civil war eagle-buttons have been found with this backmark. Fuller is not known to have manufactured any buttons.

So a rare button.👍

 

[invent4hir]

The list of artifacts you found seems consistent with an structure having been there even though none show up on the map. If you haven't already looked at a website called historic aerials, they may have some old topo maps of your area https://historicaerials.com/. With the soybeans harvested do you notice a slight depression in the area? That may be where the structure stood.

 

[Older The Better]

That’s a cool site, it only goes to 1952, there’s no sign of this structure but it does show some barns I know used to be around and there’s an interesting little circle drive looking area that I’m going to have to check out, also interesting to see the area before the quarry was dug out and before several of the ponds were made. Also shows how a few house sites were laid out might give me a better idea of where to look.

This is in the same field but it’s neither the barn or mystery structure, definitely going to have to go swing around there.

 

[invent4hir]

Glad you found the site interesting. Looking at the circle I notice several trees nearby. Definitely worth checking out.

Also are the topo maps on the website any older?

 

[Older The Better]

Might be worth its own post but I’ll put it here as a continuation. Went back out to the site and scored a nice dated coin… a great bit of supporting evidence to the age of the site.

 

[releventchair]

Multiple other brand stoves have OAK on them.
(If yours does.)

 

[Older The Better]

That reminds me I also dug what I think is a door, heavily rusted, deeply buried, mangled, it broke when I didn’t realize it curled around and i thought I could pry it free… but it looks like it may have had an sort of green lantern type pattern

These two were broken away

Then there was this little bit with maybe a similar design

Lastly another larger caliber rim fire which is a good indication of an older site. I don’t remember the dates off the top of my head now but i believe pretty much only rimfire .22’s made it into the 1900’s the pic is misleading I put the calipers just behind the rim and spun it some… that’s roughly the diameter.