Went Back to the 19th Century Fairgrounds

[Pocket Spill]

On Sunday, I made it back to the 19th century fairgrounds location I was at last weekend. Decided to hunt the part that is a cornfield since the corn is starting to get higher and within another week it will be too high to hunt effectively between the rows. The area that I hunted was supposedly the infield of the ½ mile track that used to be located at the fairgrounds back in the 1870s to about 1910. In this area there were a lot of vendor booths and stands that featured food and carnival games. The area is loaded with iron, especially square nails. This area was heavily hunted in the 1970s and 1980s but I don’t think that much in the last 10 years do to change in ownership.

I only managed to get one crusty 1891 Indian that was pretty chewed up from the past 50 years of fertilizer but I did locate one of my more interesting non coin/jewelry finds this year. It is some kind of token or charm that may have been a macabre carnival prize. On one side is stamped “Jack the Ripper” and the year “1890”. On the other side is what I assume to be the manufacturer. Appears to be “O. Brown and “Daggets? or Baggets? ILL”. Most have been some type of item trying to capitalize on the worldwide attention on Jack the Ripper whose murders had occurred a few years earlier in 1888. Another thought is that it could have been a dog tag with the name of the dog as Jack the Ripper and the owner’s name on the back. Anybody have any other guesses?

 

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[Lowbatts]

Daggetts, Ilinois is somewhere out that way, maybe between Hanover and Savannah. I know it's along the palisades. So I'd favor your second thought on that, with the hometown name either being from the original spelling or a typo in the tag mfr. The critter it was on could have been a prize rooster, for that matter.

Hit the JoDavies genweb site and look around for it.

Either way, you know how crops tunr things up year in and year out. Next there could be anything there. Sounds like an awesome site!

 

[kimsdad]

Cool finds, Patrick!!!

I agree with Tim - looks like an animal tag to me.

That place is going to be fun to hit again when the ground it turned over!

 

[mikewaz]

Cool find!
I would love to see what critter wore that tag. I'd bet rooster too.
Mike

 

[twistidd]

Wow, that is a very cool tag! I don't usually get too excited about relics, but that's something that would get me going. Nice hunt!

Joe

 

[dirtyJohn]

Nice finds. I like the tag. I'll bet it's a dog tag. Lots of dog fighting going on back then. I located a fairgrounds dating from the 1840's that I plan on hunting sometime this year but it pretty residential now with a few small patches of woods. I hope there' still a few goodies hiding there.
HH
John

 

[DPBOB]

Sorry I missed this thread...

I think it might be a dog tag too. Home made possibly

Wow crusty IH ,but a keeper....

 

[litefire56]

Daggetts, Ilinois is somewhere out that way, maybe between Hanover and Savannah. I know it's along the palisades. So I'd favor your second thought on that, with the hometown name either being from the original spelling or a typo in the tag mfr. The critter it was on could have been a prize rooster, for that matter.

Hit the JoDavies genweb site and look around for it.

Either way, you know how crops tunr things up year in and year out. Next there could be anything there. Sounds like an awesome site!

Yep. Daggett Station is shown on this map, straight south of Mt. Carroll. Long gone,,, but it looks like a good place to swing a coil.
Cool tag Patrick!

http://www.historicmapworks.com/Map...++Mount+Carroll/Carroll+County+1908/Illinois/