Need some advice

[AntiqueMeds]

Sometimes they had a small attached one story summer kitchen that gets replaced when they add the addition (if there wasnt an actual detached kitchen)

Privy is probably not going to be on the road side. Also privy worked best down wind when possible.

 

[MichaelFla]

If you look at the picture of the back of the house, you can see an extension beside the porch (notice my measurement line goes past it to the main house). This is where they added the attached kitchen, between 1900 and 1910.

The owner of the house is a wealth of information, and I asked as many questions as I could think of.

 

[Exactly_vague]

From inside the house, stand in the back door and look around. Imagine that you have to go and you have to go NOW. Walk to how ever far away you think can make it with out going in your pants and start digging.

 

[Penn Digger]

ORIGINAL: Exactly_vague

From inside the house, stand in the back door and look around. Imagine that you have to go and you have to go NOW. Walk to how ever far away you think can make it with out going in your pants and start digging.

Interesting logic. LOL

PD

 

[surfaceone]

Hey Michael,

What is the topography of the ground? Any drop offs in grade? I'll agree with my esteemed colleague, mr.fred, about the slave quarters. Do you have a screen and the luxury of time to dig real carefully?

I'd also scope out the area of the spring house real well. Was it at the same elevation?

How many family guys in the cemetery? The cemetery enthusiasts would like pictures, please.

Might there be any paved pathways radiating out from back or side doors?

Gotta be a dump or dumps in the vicinity. Six generations worth.

 

[Bixel]

From inside the house, stand in the back door and look around. Imagine that you have to go and you have to go NOW. Walk to how ever far away you think can make it with out going in your pants and start digging.

I dont use that EXACT logic, but I do stand in the back door and look out and say to myself "where is the first place you would put a privy?". Different yards have different layouts, and sometimes a place that looks like the "natural" choice in one yard, is way different than another yard. You just have to decide what seems like it works.

What can I say other than my logic has worked for me in the past.

 

[MichaelFla]

The topography of the area is relatively flat. The road is maybe 15 - 20 ft below the level of the house, and the yard is a slow slope. the back yard, leading into the farm land, is generally within 10 ft of level of most of the visible land. They had a farm, with hands who ran it. As I said earlier, the back yard abuts the roughly 1500 acre original farm land.

I had no idea there were tombstone enthusiasts on here. The owner of the land is in the process of restoring the tombstones, and has transcriptions of most of them. I think the oldest dates back to 1813, if I remember correctly. Five generations are buried there, plus a few who married in to the family. I would say there were roughly 50-60 graves.
But in this area, graveyards grow like weeds. There is even one in front of the local drug store, and all throughout the woods around me. A tombstone enthusiast would have a field day here.

Oddly enough, I could follow that map and it puts me roughly where I think the privies probably were. Leave the back door, go to the tree, around the doctor's office, down along the road, cross it to the spring house, then back up and 'X' is probably where the privy is.

I'm sure, as long as the guy is there working the cemetery, I could probably dig and sift through the slave quarters area. What would I be looking for there?

I will go back on Monday and do a better survey. Maybe I can find a low lying area that might seem more like a dumping area. The owner says the only low area is the spring, but there are no creeks. Not sure where the spring feeds out to if that's the case. If it was large enough to feed a small town it can't be a small spring.

Thank you all for your wonderful ideas. I'm getting very excited about digging there!

 

[andy volkerts]

[]There will be privies behind or next the slave quarters also, but the bottles might not be as good as what would have come from the main house. Also in considering where a dump might be, they wouldnt have wantedto haul the stuff too far, and what might have been a low spot in 1850 might now be full of dump stuff and leveled off with fill on top. Alot of the old farmers did that.

 

[twowheelfan]

my money would be on the tree. in my (not THAT much) experience, trees love to sink their roots into rock or stone lined ashy compost deposits. i would also get a couple of metal detector buddies to help "grid" out the property. slave quarters, spring house, all of the back. also there most likely several privy pits. they didn't need to dip. they had plenty of room to re-dig every ten years or so. has to be more than one there.
man that looks like a fun spot. wish i was there! please keep us updated!

 

[blade]

My guess would be.