Galveston Dig

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nhpharm

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Had an opportunity to go out Wednesday and brought my oldest son and my 5-year old daughter. It was absolutely beautiful out. Ended up digging a total of 5 holes; started one for my son (he pulled out a Young American Liniment bottle and a nice 1870's ketchup bottle) and 4 myself. Unfortunately only one of the holes I dug turned up anything...managed to find a Galveston pharmacy bottle (cracked) and the prize of the day...a nice Lone Star Bottling bottle...the FFF stands for Frederick F. Fischer who had a bottling works in Galveston and one in Alvin, Texas before he lost it all to gambling and womanizing. His bottles are tough to find and this was an example my son did not yet have in his collection so he was very excited. Looking at my records, the last Fischer bottle I had found was in 2016. I also dug the wooden carved pipe bowl shown; it is cracked across the bowl and I'm not sure how it is going to dry but hopefully it will stay together at least. Wood artifacts are so hard to preserve. I hope everyone has a Happy Holidays!
 

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CanadianBottles

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Great finds, I love the pipe bowl! Hopefully you're able to preserve it. I've never seen anyone find one like that before. I've only found the clay ones.
 

webe142

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I was able to work in a bonus holiday dig, and it turned into a special day. It included a rare Galveston blob, an intact Cathedral Pickle jar, and several other gems.
 

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nhpharm

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A special dig there for sure. I'm green with envy haha!
 

boxesofbottles

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On Sunday I went out with my son and did quite a lot of probing until I found a promising spot. Dug down and found a wooden frame and figured privy, but there was no wood below the first board. Excavated down a ways and noticed that the soil was peeling away from the "walls" in a square...it was indeed a privy but the wood had either rotted away or had been removed at some point. There were a fair number of bottles in it, including a case gin, a few Galveston pharmacy bottles, and a nice and quite scarce Galveston hutch soda that made my day. Found a second privy next to the first, but it had a floor, which usually means it was heavily dipped...and indeed it was. Just a few junk bottles in that one. A good day nonetheless. Pardon my finger haha.
01-05-2022
I enrolled as a member because I need to pass on to someone interested in old "dug" bottles the three medium size boxes of bottles that I inherited from my father as the remaining results of his digging around old homesites and farms in SE Louisiana (1960's-70's) and Central Alabama (1980's-90's). Hence my user-name.

Bottles were just a sideline to his other found items, and none of my generation know/knew much about bottles, but they were not thrown out when the Montgomery house was cleared, but I know that some of the "pretty" ones were taken by family members. Most remaining look like medicine bottles.

I think you are in the Galveston / Houston area, (I am in Cypress) and I would happily meet someplace to pass on the boxes to you or someone who can knowledgeably analyze and use them. And no wet, cold weather digging required!
boxesofbottles
 

nhpharm

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I'm right over in Spring so not far away at all. I'll shoot you a private message.
 

webe142

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Here are the finds from my last two outings. I've really been enjoying this spot. There are three distinct trash layers on top of each other, and I can find anything from blobs to square cokes and anything in between.

I think my favorite is the little Laplace New Orleans bottle, found in the oldest layer amongst a lot of oysters.

The embossed food is also a first for me. C J FELL & BRO
PHILA
 

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nhpharm

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Been a little while since I posted...had a couple digs but they didn't pan out. Nonetheless, went out this past Sunday and got into a hole I had probed a few weeks ago. Turned out to be a privy...about 5' x 3' x 6' or so. Dug it out but it was pretty sparse...the most interesting thing was a somewhat damaged CD 105 insulator, which was a bit of a surprise. Before I filled in the hole, I poked around to the sides and found that there was a small trash pit wrapped around one side of the privy. Started digging it out and the bottles started coming out pretty quickly...mostly English applied crown top split beer bottles and slick flasks, but there were two hutch sodas (both damaged, though one was an upgrade for me) and a couple crown tops (also with some damage) as well as a nice embossed case gin. However, the real prize was this green seltzer bottle...when I pulled it out I expected it to be clear and all cracked up, but it was green and looked pretty good. Thought for sure it could not be from Galveston, but it was...and not only from Galveston, but from Coca Cola in Galveston. H.C. Milligan was apparently from Nashville and opened the Galveston Coca Cola Bottling Works in August of 1907-Galveston didn't have Coca Cola prior to that. It doesn't appear he was around for more than a few months, so likely this was from the first run of seltzer bottles made for the bottling works. So far as I am aware, there are no other known examples of this seltzer. Absolutely over the moon over this...a bit of haze and some scratches but no cracks or big fisheyes which is a big surprise. This made up for the past rough digs for sure!
 

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HouTxSoda

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Incredible seltzer,congrats on that beauty.
Has anyone ever seen a Buck Brand from Galveston?
 

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