Novice Metal Detector needing help identifying/confirming two items

[acsok9cop]

Hello Everyone, I found these two pieces in a creek where my small town was first established in the late 1700s. I found the little bracket first and then the bolt a week or so later, but not more than a foot from where I found the bracket.
The best I can figure is that these were attached to either a horse-drawn carriage or a horse-drawn planter.
If anyone can help me with this, I'd greatly appreciate it. If it's indeed what I think it is, could I get a possible time frame? This has the potential to be a huge discovery for my town.
My email information is, [email protected]

 

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[Tony in SC]

Welcome to Tnet. The first piece is just random iron. The second is just as you called it, iron square head bolt with threads. Most all early bolts were square heads. Used widely in early farm equiptment and many other things. By the condition of your bolt I would say late 1800's probably early 1900's.

 

[Anduril]

Square head, or hex head?
Hard to tell from the photo. (Not that it really matters, most likely).

 

[acsok9cop]

Hello, I greatly appreciate your help. After a little more digging we've unearthed several pieces of cast iron, one with some sort of pattern on it. My first thought was that it was a piece of an old wood-burning stove. The dates of the items we've already found match the timeline for when Liberty Springs was just founded. Stand by and I'll show you a few more pieces that we found today, but I'll post them in another message thread.