On the research trail, trying to find who owned the belt plate I found

[dumpdigger68]

I just spent 2 hours at the historical society on my quest to see if I can pinpoint the likely owner of the belt plate I recently found. I showed them the belt plate I found and asked if they might have a list of those from Hampden, Maine thet enlisted during the civil war. They were very interested in my find and very helpful, turned out one of the men there also has a detector but said he's never found much. They have the origonal list of men from Hampden enlisted through Dec. 16 1864 and photocopied them for me, there's 289 names on the list. They also had town maps showing lots and owner's names, so now I can try to match an enlistee and family name to land where I found the plate. I'm pretty excited now that I have solid leads to work with. I got some good leads on places to detect too. The gentleman then took me upstairs and showed me the stuff from the "battle of Hampden" which was in Sept. of 1814. My jaw dropped and I had to try not to drool all over the case filled with stuff including a British musket and pistol that were recovered from the meadow after the battle. Also lots of musket balls and a few buttons and misc. items, some of which were found and donated by someone with a metal detector. I was invited to come to the next meeting in Oct. there's going to be a lecture on the war of 1812. I will definately try to attend and am thinking about joining up. I love learning history and it could be a great way to find new places to detect. Going to try bringing a camera next time so I can post some pics of the goodies they have.

 

[kilmer]

Awesome. Sounds like a great idea to me. Understanding why you find something where you do is a part of the fun of metal detecting. Hope the camera thing comes through, would love to see part of their collection.

Don
HH