Mystery House Journal

[robertk]

Just about the time I got my new Deus II, I was looking at an old map of my neighborhood and discovered that in 1940, there was a house sitting in what is now my front yard. This surprised me greatly, so I started hunting old photos and found a 1955 aerial photo, with no trace of the house. So it was there sometime before 1940 to get "on the map", but was completely vanished by 1955.

So I worked out the distances from the old map and got a good guess to where the house was, and started hunting. I quickly discovered that my entire front yard is littered with iron.

I don't know when the house was built, but I'm assuming mid to late 1800's. So far I haven't found anything with a date on it, but what little I have found seems to back up those dates.

So I'm starting this thread to post interesting things, mostly for feedback as I try to understand the history of those who were here before I was. Here's some of the stuff I've found so far. Any comments on what they are, or what they are used for, are welcome.

This was identified (thanks to this board!) as a suspender adjuster, pre-1920.


And this one is part of a victorian bed rail attachment.


This one is a spoon, obviously. Silver plated, well worn. I haven't found an exact match on the pattern and I can't quite read the maker's mark, but the stuff I find that's close is in the early 1880's. Interestingly, I found this standing vertically in the ground, big end down. It took some digging to extract it.



I've also found a few shotgun shell end caps. At first I ignored these thinking they were just trash from a careless modern hunter, but after investigating, these are from around 1900 (Union Metal Cartridge Company, "New Club" style, produced between 1891 and 1911).


And some iron stuff...



I've found several of those square nuts. They look like they might be blacksmith-made because while the hole diameter is pretty consistent, the size and thickness of the nut itself varies quite a bit. And that thing that looks like a telegraph insulator is a mystery -- iron wouldn't make a very good insulator.

Then there's this partial plate -- quarter inch thick and heavy. Maybe a stove part?



And then there's this thing.

It's about 8" diameter, about an inch thick, with a 1/4" "rim" around one side, totally flat on the other. And it's heavy -- weighing exactly 2 kilograms (4.4 lbs) in its current state. No obvious handle or anything to indicate use.

So there's what I know so far. I will post more as I discover it...

 

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[releventchair]

Left side of picture and near the backside ..
But no , no match.

 

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[robertk]

Left side of picture and near the backside ..
But no , no match.
View attachment 2167204

But it does illustrate the concept, and I think that's what it was for. Just don't know on what. Too bad it doesn't have any markings on it (part number, manufacturer name, or anything like that).

 

[releventchair]

But it does illustrate the concept, and I think that's what it was for. Just don't know on what. Too bad it doesn't have any markings on it (part number, manufacturer name, or anything like that).

Maybe down the road more will be added to the puzzle.
Or not!
All part of the fun.

 

[LauraLou56]

Yesterday I got a decent signal that wound up being too deep and too big to dig at the time, so I vowed to come back to that spot today and dig up whatever it was, junk or not. It was about eight or ten inches down to what looked like the rim of a pan or something. So I dug. And dug. And dug some more. The more I dug, the more I saw that it wasn't a pan, but maybe a bucket, upside down.

View attachment 2087823

That photo is deceptive -- it took me a good hour and a half to get to that point. As I dug, I began to encounter some good sized rocks. They were very tightly wedged and I had to remove them one at a time. There were way more rocks than I'd expect, since the ground isn't that rocky. But I began noticing that the rocks were more or less in layers, and only around the "bucket", not on top of it. I began to think this might be a capped well.

After even more digging than what the photo shows, and lots of tedious rock removal, I got to the bottom rim of the "bucket" and was able to pull it up. It turns out it wasn't a bucket at all, but a section of iron pipe that the end had been rusted and flattened a bit, with dirt filling it in to make it look like a bucket. Underneath the pipe was a round stone, which was nearly a perfect match to the diameter of the pipe, fitting just inside it. Here is the stone, the pipe, and my size 12 foot for reference.

View attachment 2087821

I'm still thinking that looks like a well cap, but there was no more pipe under it, and no hole going down. I did dig down beneath it a little more, and there were no rocks directly below it, just dirt. So I'm guessing if there ever was a well there, they filled it with dirt, then capped it, and then Mother Nature glued it all back together.

I also found one old red clay brick among the stones, which was interesting.

I did run my coil and pinpointer all over the hole and the dirt, and there was nothing else there but some square nails. However, I did have a nice surprise pop out of one side of the hole.

View attachment 2087822

It's too bad that it has a chip out of the rim, but it's still a cool old bottle. No idea of the contents or vintage, but judging from everything I've found so far, it's gotta be pretty old. A neat surprise after all that digging.

I left the pipe and "capstone" where I found them -- I think we may erect one of those decorative "wishing well" things on that spot. It seems fitting.

I also noticed a slightly depressed area in the ground in what would probably have been the edge of the back yard. Trash pit, maybe? I haven't detected over that area yet, but it's on my list.

Awesome to find the bottle in such good condition with only a chip! What a great mystery...I'm reading through this all with one question...what happened to the house? 😊

 

[LauraLou56]

OK now I'm convinced the depression is a cellar hole. Still could be something else, I guess, but there are a few reasons I'm thinking that. I read an article or blog or something the other day about cellar holes and it said they are often a square depression that will be surrounded by lots of iron nails. That's definitely true in my case -- the depression is eight to ten feet square, and I've pulled a bunch of nails out around the edges, but none in the middle (yet?).

But what really convinced me is a find last night. Still just rusty old iron, but it's of the interesting sort. Here it is, just out of the ground:

View attachment 2090951

Unless I'm mistaken, that's part of a cast iron wood cookstove. That part sits between the circular "burners" on the top of the stove.

This was recovered from the depression, about a foot and a half down. I'm kinda surprised I picked it up that deep, honestly, but it was a strong and solid signal, with a VDI of 68. Much like the possible ash door I recovered the other night, this was under a bunch of rocks that were wedged in and I had to remove one at a time to get down to it. Lots of air space under the rocks, and seemed to be more so the deeper I went.

But here's the fun part, and the reason I think it must be a cellar hole, and the reason that now even my wife says "dig it up". I think the rest of the stove may be down there too. When I pulled this part out, I re-checked the hole. Same strong signal still present. I checked the hole again with the pinpointer, and I get tone at the sides, where the edges of this was. I cleared a couple more rocks, and I can see a metal edge, rounded in the opposite direction, in the same plane that this was laying. And there's a larger metal bulge beneath that. I can't see enough of it yet to say whether it's the rest of the stove or just some random iron thing, but the orientation and proximity make me think the two pieces are related.

So now I have a larger project, digging slow and careful and removing what is probably a large pile of rocks, just to see what's at the bottom of this hole. I ran out of daylight yesterday, but this will be my "little bit at a time" project for the next few days.

This also makes me think "house" more than "barn". Who puts a cellar at the barn? (Or an outhouse either, for that matter, if I'm wrong about it being a cellar.). I was thinking about all the horse related finds and how that made me want to think "barn", but that's only because of my modern perspective. Back in those days, they used horses like we use cars, so having horse stuff near the house doesn't really seem like it would be unusual.

I'm thinking if it was a house, it must predate the businessman who I found used to own this place. He moved here in 1907, but the house he had is now on the neighbor's property. And the artifacts I've found so far date earlier than that, more like late 1800's. So I guess I have to dig back to whoever owned it before that. Fun stuff.

The mystery deepens as the digging continues....

House with a carriage house attached? Love this journal!

 

[LauraLou56]

Remember that piece of leather I found on Monday that looked like part of a shoe? Well, it was. I found the rest of it last night under a big rock. I managed to get it out mostly intact, but it started falling apart the more I moved it. (I'm beginning to appreciate how tedious archaeology must be). Here it is last night's part just out of the ground, then reunited with the piece from Monday.

View attachment 2098670 View attachment 2098671

It's fairly small and narrow. I'm guessing it was a woman's shoe. The sole is multiple layers of leather stacked and sewn together, and the top was a single layer of leather. Perhaps this is one of the shoes that was polished from the Bixby bottle that I found the bottom of. I am really amazed that it survived over a century in the ground. Bixby's must have been some powerful stuff.

Wow! The plot thickens...

 

[robertk]

.I'm reading through this all with one question...what happened to the house? 😊

That's a good question and one that I've asked myself as well. It's really quite a puzzle. Based on things I've found, this house had to have been in use since at least 1897 (found a local dog tax tag with that date). But I know the property sold in 1907, and the owner at that time built another house (which is still standing and now on the neighboring property). But the mystery house was still standing and on the map as late as 1940.

Given the large number of square nails, I'm thinking maybe it burned and was then bulldozed. The nails are mostly concentrated in an area kinda between the well and the cellar, though some are scattered further out.

One of these days I'm going to go to the county courthouse and see if I can trace the ownership back into the 1800's. If I had some names to add to the research I might figure out some more things.

 

[robertk]

I did a tiny bit of detecting the other day while planting trees (wouldn't want to plant on top of a pot of gold, you know), but didn't find much. Just a big spike square nail, a random bit of lead, a paper shotshell (has a primer, but no brass, just paper), and a small metal button. I'm not sure of the age of either, but the button has a nice patina that makes it look like it has been in the ground for a while. I'm not really sure why the photos look white or gray -- the button is a pinkish red coppery color in person, with a whitish patina. TID of 86 on the Deus II. Hard to see in the photo but there's a "boat-shaped" cut where the two holes are, so when sewn on, the thread would have been slightly below the surface of the button.


Would have liked to do more detecting, but the ground is hard as concrete. We haven't had a drop of rain in a month. (Literally -- last rainfall was 28 days ago.)

 

[robertk]

We finally got a bunch of rain last week to end the dry spell and loosen up the ground a bit, so I did some digging. Not much to report, but here's what came out of the ground. A spike square nail, a random iron bit, some bent nails, a bullet, some odd lead and cast iron bits, and a piece of a horse bridle.


The thing in the lower left must have been part of something decorative -- it has a floral design on it and is somewhat cup shaped. Maybe part of a lamp holder?


The bullet is an odd one. It appears to be an unfired .32 caliber bullet (actual diameter is 0.315). Round nose and concave base. The white patina tells me it has been in the ground a while, but otherwise I'm not sure of the age or what type of round it came from. Anyone have a guess?

 

[robertk]

I managed to get out for an hour in this unusually nice weather (60 degrees (F) and sunny in the middle of December). Found the usual weird iron bits...

I'm guessing part of a leaf spring, a bolt and nut, part of a railroad spike or harrow tooth, a little caster wheel, a curly bit, an unidentifiable shell casing, a tiny piece of dead, and a cast iron whatsit.

But I also got a nice surprise... I got a nice solid but "small" signal that definitely did not sound like iron. I dug, and out popped this crusty thing:



If you've got good eyes, you can probably already tell what it is, but I had to soak it a bit to get some mud off to get to this level:


Now I could see enough that it was clearly an Indian head penny. The front was still completely obscured, though, so no clue of the date. So I soaked it some more and then took a few careful passes with my Andre's pencils. I've still got it soaking some more, but here it is so far:



Yay!! My first coin from the mystery house, and it's right in the date range of the other things I've been finding there. I know, it's just a penny, and not even particularly rare or valuable. But it's still a really cool find to me, and makes me want to keep going and see if it has any friends!

 

[pepperj]

Congrats on your first IH penny.
It's finally an ice breaker, and hopefully another one will come sooner than later.
Was it in an area already detected?

 

[ToddsPoint]

That’s a rare find where I live. All the old farms I hunt are not mystery houses. I’d call them poor houses! I think iron was their only precious metal.😩

 

[robertk]

Was it in an area already detected?

I'm going to say "maybe". There is a grove of silver maple trees and scrub brush at the front of the yard that I have always thought was where the actual house probably was (it's common to see patches of brush and trees in fields around here, and often that's where a structure was previously). There are no visible foundation stones or anything, but the ground is pretty uneven and just "feels" like the house was there, if that makes sense. Anyway, I've been over that area before, but the changing vegetation over the different seasons makes it hard to be really thorough in there. So on the one hand, I think I've been over that area before, but on the other hand, the signal was so clear, there's no way I would have missed it if I'd had my coil over it before.

I think iron was their only precious metal.😩

Oh this one is like that too. I've got buckets and bins full of various iron bits I've pulled out of it, and there's still a LOT more in the ground.

 

[robertk]

I've managed to get out a couple more times and really scoured the area where I found the penny. Unfortunately, no more coins. But I did find a few more interesting things. Several iron bits like ones I've found before (spikes, a bed railing fixture, a couple of strap ends, various sizes of square nails, and some small horseshoes). I also found these two things, which other TreasureNet folks have identified for me (because I had no clue).

First, a double-wick whale oil lamp burner plate:


And then a radiator cap from an old car. It came out of the ground in pieces (already broken, I didn't break it digging) so I taped and glued it back enough for a photo:


There were a lot of cars that used similar style caps in the 1910-1920 era, so I don't know what it came off of. Here's a 1915 Ford that looks similar to what it may have once looked like:


I also finally spent some time at the local recorder's office, going through musty old deed books to track the history of the land. All the stuff I'm finding is from the early 1890s up to about 1910. Well I found who owned it during that time period, and searching based on that name has been interesting. Turns out that during that time, this land was an apple orchard. Several thousand apple trees were planted here, so the whole place has potential for stuff to have been dropped pretty much anywhere. The guy who owned it was apparently a jeweler and clockmaker. (And apparently he was pretty careful about not dropping any coins or jewelry.). When he sold it, it was bought by a local merchant who built another house on what is now the neighbor's property. But whether he used the existing house here or not, I don't know. Most of the stuff I find is from the "apple tree era", so I'm guessing not.

I don't know if there was a house here before that, or who owned it, because that's as far back as the deeds go here. I have to go to neighboring counties to check back any further. And since I haven't found anything older than about 1890, that lines up nicely without needing neighboring counties right now.

 

[robertk]

It has been too cold, too frozen, or too wet to get out and do much hunting here lately. So instead I got inspired to do a partial restoration on the old coffee grinder I got to match the parts I had dug in the mystery house yard. At different times, I found the handle with the grinding burr still attached, and the bottom strap that would have held the burr down. After getting an ID on what it was, I thought it would be cool to get the antique coffee grinder that @ARC found as a match. Here's the dug handle and burr next to the new-to-me antique grinder when I first got it.

The antique one still worked and ground coffee just fine, but it made the coffee taste like it had been kept in an old steamer trunk. So I decided to partially restore the thing.

First I took it all apart, which was actually really easy. Just unscrew the two grinder adjusting knobs, remove two screws from the bowl, remove one tiny square nail, then rotate the burr mechanism slightly and it falls right out. The handle just unscrews, and the bottom of the wood box comes off with your small screws. Here's the whole thing disassembled, as well as closer views of the grinding burrs. Click to enlarge.


Looks like an old rusty mess. The burr mechanism is just bare iron, but I could see the bow was actually painted black, as was the handle. I decided I wanted to keep the "old" look, so left the handle as it was, as well as the wood. But I hit the grinder parts with the sandblaster. Once again, click to enlarge.


But of course the sandblasting made them turn gray and dull-looking. So I treated the grinding parts like cast iron cookware (which they basically are), and seasoned them with an oil bath and an hour in a hot oven.


Then I went ahead and painted the bowl back to black, which actually looks perfect on the rough surface.


Then it was just a matter of putting it all back together. Like I said, I left the wood as it was (other than giving it a good day of sunbathing followed by a bath in vinegar and cheap vodka). So here's the result:

And the good news is, it grinds a fine bean, and it tastes .... like coffee!

 

[ARC]

Hey i think i solved that one long time ago... ... Did i not ?

 

[ARC]

I yes... i just saw you mention me....

As you were :P

 

[releventchair]

Coffee!!

Great job.

 

[robertk]

Coffee!!

Great job.

Thanks!

 

[Limitool]

You did a good job sir... Looks great. And glad it works also....!