Another Farm House - Another Large Cent!

[ANTIQUARIAN]

I've been driving past this house which is 'now' located inside the town of Markham, Ontario for the past 20+ years. I say 'now' because 20 years ago this house was out-in-the-country, today it's almost totally surrounded by new home developments!

I have a feeling the owners were probably 'holding out' for the right price before agreeing to sell the property. I remember seeing a family living here at least three years ago, so the house hasn't been empty for more than a couple of years.

Funny enough, my first decent find of the day was the 1902 Canada Cent, followed by the 1938 CDN Penny and then the brass toe-tap. The small lead piece is interesting as there are some letters stamped into it. I got a little excited when I first found it thinking it might be a lead seal from the agricultural market, more like is it's probably a seal from the electrical meter.

History - Town of Markham, Ontario

When Upper and Lower Canada were established in 1791, Colonel John Graves Simcoe was appointed the first Lieutenant-Governor of Upper Canada. Simcoe named the township of Markham, north of the Town of York (now Toronto), after his friend William Markham, the Archbishop of York.

In 1794, William Berczy led 75 German families from New York State to Markham Township, an area known as German Mills today. Each family was granted 200 acres. Because of hardships, many returned to York and Niagara and the area became a ghost town. In 1797, because of the revolution in France in 1789, many nobility fled the country and set off for Canada to take advantage of free land grants in Upper Canada. They were totally unprepared for survival under such crude conditions and most of them returned to their homeland. From 1803 to 1812, the largest group of settlers were Pennsylvania Germans, most of whom were Mennonites. These highly skilled craftsmen and knowledgeable farmers had the best chance for survival because they had already survived harsh conditions in Pennsylvania. Prior to 1825, the community is referred to as Ressorville. From 1830 on, many Irish, Scottish and English emigrated to Upper Canada to escape the famine and overpopulation of their homeland.

In 1976, Markham's population was approximately 56,000. Since that time, the population has more than quadrupled. Explosive growth in new subdivisions has led to a jump in population since the 1980s. To-date, much of Markham's farmland has disappeared.


Thanks for looking,
Dave

 

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[granthansen]

That place looks awesome. Great finds, and great story with it. Thanks!

 

[wvwildman]

nice finds congrats HH

 

[pepperj]

Great to see you stopped at the house, looks very familiar for sure, and you're so right on how the city has grown up around the place.
Nice going on the LC, and the small stamped lead piece might be a lead seal as there's 3 letters and the R=railway.

 

[Argentium]

Very nice photos ! I love the King Edward VII ! I really hope you have continued access to this wonderful property - you may well find
coinage of Queen Victoria ! excellent history you've provided !!!

 

[vpnavy]

Great photo's, history and finds ANTIQUARIAN.

 

[cjon455]

awesome finds!, u just keep nailing the good finds w/ the atpro so it further convinces me to get mine!!

 

[ANTIQUARIAN]

That place looks awesome. Great finds, and great story with it. Thanks!

Very cool avatar Grant!
Thanks for posting man!
Dave

nice finds congrats HH

Thank you sir!

Great to see you stopped at the house, looks very familiar for sure, and you're so right on how the city has grown up around the place.
Nice going on the LC, and the small stamped lead piece might be a lead seal as there's 3 letters and the R=railway.

If you know this area J, you sure wouldn't recognize it now! All that beautiful farmland is now filled with 'monster size' homes. Remember the Marham/Stouffville Hospital used to be out in the country, well not anymore!

I'll be in your area later today and if the weather holds I hope to get in some detecting!
Dave

Very nice photos ! I love the King Edward VII ! I really hope you have continued access to this wonderful property - you may well find coinage of Queen Victoria ! excellent history you've provided !!!

Thank you very much for your words of support Argentium!
Unfortunately, this home along with many others in this area will most certainly be demolished. Don't get me wrong, I'm not against progress, I'm just frustrated that today's society has so little interest in preserving or at least trying to move these beautiful old homes.

Best of luck to you my friend,
Dave

Great photo's, history and finds ANTIQUARIAN.

Thanks for posting and for your kind words sir!

 

[ANTIQUARIAN]

awesome finds!, u just keep nailing the good finds w/ the atpro so it further convinces me to get mine!!

I started detecting with the Ace 350 three years ago and quickly realized that I needed more information coming out of the ground. I knew the program the AT Pro used was similar to the ACE, so I knew the 'learning curve' would be relatively easy. I was also looking at the Minelab X-Terra 705, as the reviews for this unit were also very good. After I bought the AT Pro I was in Dallas for a week on business and paid a visit to Garrett's facility in Garland. After meeting with Sue Wilson in Customer service there I knew that I'd made the right decision!

Best of luck to you my friend,
Dave

 

[CMDiamonddawg]

Interesting history , those early settlers experienced the worst of hardships . Imho , most people today would not survive if they were thrown back in time and had to fend off the land . Nice old relics and large copper , as usual , your highly developed digging skills are proving to all ,

" if it's out there you'll find it ." That place should have a few keeper still hiding . HH

 

[Steve in PA]

Looks like a good place to dig Dave and you proved it by your finds!

 

[Zodiacdiverdave]

Great post as always, and some good finds as well. Boy your coins come out looking good and I just know there has to be some silver in that yard, keep looking.
ZDD

 

[huntsman53]

Nice finds and great story! I would bet that home has a lot of history and wonder if it has a cellar or root cellar that may contain more hidden treasures. I wonder why that the home has not gotten a Historical designation or don't they do that in Ontario!!?? Good luck on your next MD'ing trip there!


Frank

 

[ANTIQUARIAN]

Interesting history , those early settlers experienced the worst of hardships . Imho , most people today would not survive if they were thrown back in time and had to fend off the land . Nice old relics and large copper , as usual , your highly developed digging skills are proving to all ,

" if it's out there you'll find it ." That place should have a few keeper still hiding . HH

Thanks very much for your kind word CMD!
I feel there has to be more to find on this property, as I pretty much covered the front and side yards while I was there. I can tell the backyard was well maintained at one time, but it's now heavily overgrown. Maybe if the house is still standing next spring I can hit the back after the snow melts!

Thanks again for your post,
Dave

Looks like a good place to dig Dave and you proved it by your finds!

Thanks very much Steve!
The front yard was actually 'pretty quiet' and had very few decent signals. I honestly thought there would've been more to find.

Dave

Great post as always, and some good finds as well. Boy your coins come out looking good and I just know there has to be some silver in that yard, keep looking.
ZDD

The old coppers here in Ontario don't always come out looking this nice, as you well know Dave! The soil in Eastern Ontario seems to be the worst for some reason, maybe it has something to do with the amount of limestone in the area.

Best of luck to you my friend,
Dave

Nice finds and great story! I would bet that home has a lot of history and wonder if it has a cellar or root cellar that may contain more hidden treasures. I wonder why that the home has not gotten a Historical designation or don't they do that in Ontario!!?? Good luck on your next MD'ing trip there!

Frank

As you could see in the picture the house dates to 1875, that's almost 140 years of history in the ground! As I mentioned to Steve, "the front yard had very few decent signals and I honestly thought there would've been more to find here". As far as getting the house a Historical Designation, the town this house sits in has probably one of the strongest Heritage Committees in the province! They even have a special neighborhood set aside where 'heritage designated homes' are moved for preservation.

Here's a link to the Markham Heritage Site if you're interested in seeing how deadly serious this town is about preserving their history!

Town of Markham: Heritage Conservation - Markham Museum

Thanks for your post Frank,
Dave