Sorry Bigcypress, I thought you were saying everyone had come to that concusion and I missed it...

The point I was making about dating the area or location a particular item is found obviously helps date and explain the item, by your comment about more info. needed you concure with this...
By just saying an "Old House" doesn't help that much, "old" is just a relative term...
A 1940's house for instance to some people is considered old and to others relatively not so old...
If the house dates from the 1830's the eagles could represent popular Federal Period designs...
Of course the Eagle motiff is still used up to today but it gives us the possibility that if the house were from the 1830's that would help identify the artifacts used in that period...if not from that period we would then look at styles and designs of used in artifacts from the true era of the house...