Tejaas
Hero Member
- Sep 8, 2012
- 826
- 1,019
- Detector(s) used
- Garrett AT PRO ~ Propointer ~ Modified Lesche ~ Predator Little Eagle ~ Royal Picks ~ Marshalltown Trowels ~ Sift Tables/Screens
- Primary Interest:
- Relic Hunting
Its been a good while since I've posted, so here is a summarized update.
I finally made time to go through my "rural iron" pile and run some select pieces through the electrolysis tank.
I understand that most of these finds are probably not too exciting to most - but my family has been on the same piece of property since the republic days of Texas... Meaning that every relic you see below was used by my ancestors. That kind of provenance doesn't make it easy deciding what goes in the trash and what gets kept!
With two exceptions, everything here falls between 1870-1920.
This trap (a Victor #2) is one of several i have recovered out here. Age can only be speculated at best by guessing, as they spanned SEVERAL decades of widespread use to say the least... I'd wager this one is probably circa the 1920s, as I've been told that my great-grandfather was the last person in my family to actively trap and take pelts to market.
Here is a license plate fragment i found... I'm actively going through the family records to try to find out what make/model it was once attached to. It was surprisingly easy to date, apparently 1929 was the only year that "Front" was to the left and "Texas" was stamped on the bottom edge.
Here is my favorite (iron) find since i last posted here on TNET... And it wasn't even with a detector. We had a violent storm a while back and lost a couple dozen cords worth of some old-growth trees. One of the downed trees was a BlackJack Oak, which down here in our parts grow -extremely- slow. Upon further inspection, i discovered why this particular limb sheared where it did:
Apparently, all those years ago someone threw a shoe and hooked it into the crotch of an oak sapling.... Over time it became encapsulated and rotted the center of the limb out. The spot it was discovered at sits atop a rocky 200' bluff that features a good water source lying down below. This area was never worked or planted, and in fact at various times throughout the 1870s and 1880s elements of the 9th and 10th US Cavalry (the original "Buffalo Soldiers") utilized the area by agreement with my descendants as an occasional overwatch/bivouac site in an effort to thwart uprisings by hostile indians. I believe that if the shoe did belong to one of my ancestors, it would have been taken along with them for rework/reuse. This limb section, finally dried and debarked, now sits atop one of my bookcases in the house.
This next item may also be associated with a cavalry trooper, as it was also found atop the same bluff... Within 150 yards of the "horseshoe limb". Again, this site was never worked or homesteaded on... It was just a lonely, steep hilltop located deep in the heart of a sprawling land grant. This is a straight razor - minus brass pivot pin and horn scales - that bears a makers mark of "A. Leon / 190 Solly St / Sheffield". My research shows that Abraham Leon was only listed as a bladesmith at 190 Solly Street in Sheffield, England from 1871-1880.
Thats all for now, but as i clean up more of the relics i will post updates.
~Tejaas~
I finally made time to go through my "rural iron" pile and run some select pieces through the electrolysis tank.
I understand that most of these finds are probably not too exciting to most - but my family has been on the same piece of property since the republic days of Texas... Meaning that every relic you see below was used by my ancestors. That kind of provenance doesn't make it easy deciding what goes in the trash and what gets kept!
With two exceptions, everything here falls between 1870-1920.
This trap (a Victor #2) is one of several i have recovered out here. Age can only be speculated at best by guessing, as they spanned SEVERAL decades of widespread use to say the least... I'd wager this one is probably circa the 1920s, as I've been told that my great-grandfather was the last person in my family to actively trap and take pelts to market.
Here is a license plate fragment i found... I'm actively going through the family records to try to find out what make/model it was once attached to. It was surprisingly easy to date, apparently 1929 was the only year that "Front" was to the left and "Texas" was stamped on the bottom edge.
Here is my favorite (iron) find since i last posted here on TNET... And it wasn't even with a detector. We had a violent storm a while back and lost a couple dozen cords worth of some old-growth trees. One of the downed trees was a BlackJack Oak, which down here in our parts grow -extremely- slow. Upon further inspection, i discovered why this particular limb sheared where it did:
Apparently, all those years ago someone threw a shoe and hooked it into the crotch of an oak sapling.... Over time it became encapsulated and rotted the center of the limb out. The spot it was discovered at sits atop a rocky 200' bluff that features a good water source lying down below. This area was never worked or planted, and in fact at various times throughout the 1870s and 1880s elements of the 9th and 10th US Cavalry (the original "Buffalo Soldiers") utilized the area by agreement with my descendants as an occasional overwatch/bivouac site in an effort to thwart uprisings by hostile indians. I believe that if the shoe did belong to one of my ancestors, it would have been taken along with them for rework/reuse. This limb section, finally dried and debarked, now sits atop one of my bookcases in the house.
This next item may also be associated with a cavalry trooper, as it was also found atop the same bluff... Within 150 yards of the "horseshoe limb". Again, this site was never worked or homesteaded on... It was just a lonely, steep hilltop located deep in the heart of a sprawling land grant. This is a straight razor - minus brass pivot pin and horn scales - that bears a makers mark of "A. Leon / 190 Solly St / Sheffield". My research shows that Abraham Leon was only listed as a bladesmith at 190 Solly Street in Sheffield, England from 1871-1880.
Thats all for now, but as i clean up more of the relics i will post updates.
~Tejaas~
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On the contrary it's "history-come-alive" ! I have noticed, when guests are looking at my home museum trays, that their attention (the "ooohs" and "ahhhs") tend to be towards the odd-ball stuff like skeleton keys, spurs, rowels, old fork, etc.... And their gaze will pass right over gold coins, silver dollars, etc.... Doh ! So unless a person is distinctly a numistatist, it's actually this odd-ball homestead type stuff that bodes well for museum type displays. 
