Bones, Bottles and Bears! Oh My! Adventures Along Route 11 in Virginia

Strasburg

Since finding that the old white building that I acquired in 2003 was truly an 1820 Brick Federal, the assumed of excavating has been high on my priority listing. Not as higher as was creating it habitable and comfortable of training course, but nevertheless rather darn high.

I searched for aid on the internet and via close friends, but usually came up quick. I learned there are so numerous pre-Civil War residences in this portion of Virginia that my fascination for discovering the properly and privies was not shared with the same enthusiasm. Numerous close friends provided to assist, but with conflicting schedules and chaotic lives, we in no way managed to come together. Local historians confirmed minimum fascination, educators listened to my requests for support, a friend arrived along with a metal detector only to uncover “too a lot surface area particles to inform anything,” and e-mail exchanges from privy diggers in Roanoke sat waiting for response in my e-mail Inbox. Existence took turns, points obtained chaotic, priorities transformed-but I constantly toyed with the thought of the “big find.”

Rosalie Dollars, then 93 a long time outdated, instructed me that as a kid she lived throughout the road and her pal lived in my (Eberly) residence. There was a livery stable in the back again garden, and the horses and carriages had been used to transport people to the neighborhood lodges and prepare station. She recalled that the floor floor was increased and was only reduced to the street degree in about 1931 when the property was changed into a keep with an apartment overhead.

Shortly thereafter, I satisfied a man at Strasburg Christian Church whose mother and father had been the ones who bought the constructing in 1931 from the U.S. Government. It was below a software made to transfer the nation from the Depression that allowed the construction to be modified to accommodate a organization and residing quarters in the identical building. He felt strongly that some of the modifications ended up unneeded, like taking away log beams and changing them with more modern roof timbers. He informed me that there was no fireplace in the summertime kitchen area in 1931, so it must have been bricked in lengthy prior to that.

The men at Palmer’s Garage told me they remembered the properly at the stop of our driveway that empties onto Washington Street. Now misplaced in a clump of volunteer trees and shrubs, that very same well probably held a treasure trove. Every time I passed it, my mind would dance with thoughts of hacking, pruning and excavating but alas, it was not on our residence.

When we had our split rail fence installed, the auger pulled up bricks and limestone at each single hole. How could this be? Ended up there barns? Was the driveway and alley paved? We are speaking a 200-foot run of land here. Each time one thing labored its way out of the earth, I felt far more compelled to find the privy or the nicely. But again, it had to be set on the back again burner for more critical every day pursuits – like creating a living.

In early July, I seen a three-inch hole wherever there had been some roots and a small hole just before. I failed to feel anything of it at very first, and being more involved with an individual obtaining a heel caught in it, I put 1 of my other half’s large orange safety cones about it. And there it sat for a couple of weeks until although mowing, Ron moved the cone off the lawn. I, of program, noticed this basic safety violation and moved the cone again more than to the hole.

The hole! The hole was now a bit more substantial and was obviously deeper. There was a brick following to the hole so I removed the grime just for the enjoyable of it. Wallah! Yet another brick, and one more. Plainly, I was onto one thing. So with decide on in hand, I started to expose the eastern 1-third of a circular pattern. This was exhilarating. No matter what it was had been covered for a hundred a long time. Rock difficult dirt had to be chiseled away with the mattock conclude of the pick and I was getting tired.

Ron was busy in the again half of the yard shifting piles of filth to degree the garden. Unbeknown to him, I was generating a lot more piles inside ten feet of the home. When he saw my excavation venture, the appear on his face was utter, “What the?” Of study course, in quick buy he was into it, and proposed that I wait until the early morning when the shade was on that facet of the house.

The up coming morning prior to church, I was out there again. With the full circle of bricks exposed and a hole running about two feet deep to the east, I had ultimately discovered one thing to dig. Now, I necessary help. Was this the nicely, or the cistern possibly? Ron was now locked into my project. Shovel in hand, he commenced to dig and quickly began to find remnants of objects dating back again to prior to the 1900s.

Robert has a homefurniture restoration shop subsequent door he and his spouse individual the big yellow residence across from the Aged Mill on Route 11. As he passed by, I flagged him down to display him our exciting locate. Robert’s house dates back to the 1700s and includes a glass-topped limestone lined well in the cellar and a cistern, also. This was plainly a cistern he explained. We had previously determined that it was constructed of brick and lined with cement. The upper ring of fifty percent bricks that lain in four rows had broken loose. These courses were utilized to narrow the opening as the tank alone was about six ft throughout.

Keith, a brick mason and very good family good friend, was on hand, as we continued to dig. He stated that rebuilding the higher rings “would be a piece of cake.” So, we loosened and eliminated individuals to expose the tank. Cautiously, Ron excavated layers of grime and ash. He commenced to discover previous bottles, a single from the King Cola plant in Edinburg, rusty metal objects, plate glass and bones. Bones cut in diverse lengths. Large bones-not from a store, but bones of a large animal buried in layers of ash. And then… a bear claw. A bear claw! Confident sufficient it was.

I carried our booty to the table and cleaned the good deal with a mist of h2o. A single fifty percent of a ceramic cleat utilized to individual electrical wires, aged metal cans, damaged crocks, and a few of damaged tooth brushes were among the lot. We had plainly found a treasure trove that would lead us to know much more about the Eberly’s and how they lived.

A number of a long time ago by performing analysis at the Shenandoah County Court Home and library, I found that the Eberly’s bought the land from the Funks in 1816. The residence was finished about 1820. The summer time cooking area and principal property had been joined collectively to sort a multi degree L-formed residence with guttering working in numerous directions. It entered the ground in two places, a single becoming at the driveway corner wherever we discovered this hole and 1 at the finish of the smoke house connected to the summer time kitchen area.

Numerous days later, I uncovered far more bottles, the other 50 percent of the ceramic cleat and what appears from Web searches to be the jaw bone of a modest bear. We are only about 2 feet down so, who is aware of what we will uncover?

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