Galveston Dig

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nhpharm

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Went out last Sunday and probed out a nice crunchy spot. First 3' or so was 1950's stuff and I was a little discouraged, but I kept at it and about 4' down I hit the top of a huge barrel privy. Ended up being roughly 4' in diameter and 10' deep at the bottom. Water table was at about 7', so I had to stop bailing at that point and shovel into a bucket while standing in water over my waist. Nonetheless, there was a lot of glass but a lot of it was broken. Privy dated from roughly 1860-1870 and had some interesting stuff...a few peppersauces, a Hostetters, a Donnaud's Remedy for Baldness from New Orleans, an Elixir De Guillie, a Worcestershire sauce knockoff embossed just "W.O.M. & Co.", and a beautiful olive green umbrella ink with a burst lip...seemed very unusual for an American bottle but I've seen a few aqua ones in the past that were the same way. No intact Galveston bottles and plenty of heartbreakers but still always super fun to dig in a privy this old.
 

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Jimmy Langford

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Went out last Sunday and probed out a nice crunchy spot. First 3' or so was 1950's stuff and I was a little discouraged, but I kept at it and about 4' down I hit the top of a huge barrel privy. Ended up being roughly 4' in diameter and 10' deep at the bottom. Water table was at about 7', so I had to stop bailing at that point and shovel into a bucket while standing in water over my waist. Nonetheless, there was a lot of glass but a lot of it was broken. Privy dated from roughly 1860-1870 and had some interesting stuff...a few peppersauces, a Hostetters, a Donnaud's Remedy for Baldness from New Orleans, an Elixir De Guillie, a Worcestershire sauce knockoff embossed just "W.O.M. & Co.", and a beautiful olive green umbrella ink with a burst lip...seemed very unusual for an American bottle but I've seen a few aqua ones in the past that were the same way. No intact Galveston bottles and plenty of heartbreakers but still always super fun to dig in a privy this old.
WOW! That Civil War era cathedral pepper sauce !!! That toothpaste jar was imported from England to Galveston. Probably boarded the ship at Liverpool. If your not aware, the White Star Line was founded in Liverpool by Bruce Ismay. The Titanic, which was part of the White Star Line, was a Liverpool registered ship and bared the name Liverpool on her stern.
PS- Galveston, being such a historical city it is, you may want to donate or sell some things to a museum. Maybe even the local Rosenberg Library museum.
F7755A8C-ECA6-460E-8B18-4057F47998DD.jpeg

4E1BD9E7-28EB-4C98-B8CA-05DA3412A130.jpeg

05B5C12D-F7F0-44CC-B71F-AD33CB24184B.jpeg

R.M.S. Titanic at Queenstown
April 11, 1912

Her finial stop until her fateful maiden
voyage to New York.

74B689D8-D5AB-4394-ADCF-BAB3626E2517.jpeg

FA488F07-A1E5-4ECD-8D92-52B818AB5869.jpeg

A4264336-EF45-44AB-AB0B-765FF9E31A4A.jpeg

Stern sinking
James Cameron’s
1997
“Titanic”​
 
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nhpharm

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Been a bit since I last posted, so here goes. Went out Sunday and probed out a promising spot...unfortunately it was a 1950's trash pit full of liquor bottles. Continued to probe and found an area under a cement slab that felt interesting, though definitely not a slam dunk. Broke up the cement and found a 6' x 3' x 5' privy full to 2" off the bottom with cinders. The last 2" was paved with bottles though. Privy appears to date from 1900-1905 or so. I ended up with 4 hutch sodas (some rare ones at that), 3 crown tops (two sodas and a beer) with one of the crown being very rare, and some other odds and ends such as a pewter whistle, some Gray's Medicine Co. bottles (contained Catarrh Cure with cocaine). The striking thing about the privy was that there were over 200 (I counted 205 intact) little clear glass slicks about 2" tall and 3/4" in diameter. I suspect those were "catarrh cure" as well and someone was an addict. There were also about a dozen amber gauze jars in the privy. After I filled in the privy, I probed around a bit more and dug a few small holes; one ended up having another hutch soda in it as well as an absinthe bottle. All around a fun day...very rare for me to find 5 hutch sodas in one day and a couple real rare ones to boot!
 

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UncleBruce

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Ask and you shall receive! Went out in today's mail and I hope you enjoy. It's one of the earliest of the "Texas Splits" bottles with the tooled lip.
Thanks. I will treasure it. Very kind of you. Are you sure there is nothing I can offer in return? I don't know why, but I do adore these embossed beers.
 

nhpharm

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Went out last Sunday and dug 4 trash pits. The first turned up nothing except a sealed absinthe bottle. The second pit was loaded...so loaded most everything was broken. I did come up with a Columbo Peptic Bitters and a rare Galveston hitch with some lift damage as well as a broken Coca-Cola stopper. The third pit was much earlier and had just a F.G. Wells & Co. bottle in it (I believe they were a medicine company in New York). The last pit was a complete dud. Starting to get hot here in Texas!
 

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