Tom (IL) Gillette

Whenever I discover a new privy to dig, I get excited about all the items that could be waiting for me down below. "How old is it going to be?" "Will it have quality bottles?" "Will they be whole or broken?" "What kinds of unique items will I find?" These are just a few questions that are racing through my mind as I prepare for the dig. This particular one was no exception.

This house site was located on top of a large hill overlooking a vast creek bottom. The only evidence of its existence now, was the stone foundation cellar hole. There is a well and cistern close by that had no protective covering over them. They were both potential death traps if someone was to stumble in. A remnant of an old tractor sat close by with wheels buried 8" or so into the ground. I had detected this site off and on for several years, and found some interesting items that helped determine how long this house was occupied. A metal toy cap gun from the 1950s, a silver 1964 quarter, parts of a pocket watch with patent dates of 1880 on them, and a 1865 two cent coin are a few of them. My anticipation runs high, when the site goes back to the "pontil era," meaning that the bottles were blown freehanded or in molds. The evidence of these types of bottles is found by examining the bottom and finding a rough round mark of glass where the pontil rod was snapped off. The pontil rod was attached to the bottom of the bottle to hold it, while the top was being applied.

I discovered this spot by probing. I was "feeling" for an easier resistance from the probe, when it was pushed into the ground. The undisturbed surrounding ground will have a firm "feel" when the probe is pushed into it. Sometimes I would hit or "clink" onto glass down below the debris layer. Other times it was just an easier push with the probe. One problem with this one was, it had a large stump just to one side with big roots branching out over the top of the hole as if to form a barrier to keep me out. Once the trees take root at these spots, they grow big and fast because of the rich soil the privy holds. After probing the dimensions of the hole, I started down. It was hard getting through the roots, being careful not to break anything that could be under them. There were large foundation stones scattered around as I worked my way down in the dark moist dirt. I started to notice a stone wall with squared off corners defining the perimeter of the hole. This made the hole easy to follow while digging. The deeper I got, the drier the soil became. More items were beginning to show such as broken bottle glass and china. The ground became hard and compact and was difficult to dig carefully. I could see now, that this privy was in a good time period by the evidence of the dark green and brown glass I was finding. The pieces looked black until they were held up to the sun. They also had many small air bubbles mixed in the glass . I was also seeing pontil scars on the bottoms of broken bottles.

At about the 4' level, I encountered my first whole bottle. I exposed the bottom of the bottle first, revealing the pontil scar. I took extra precautions in digging it out in the hard dry dirt for fear of chipping, nicking, or damaging it in any way. It was my oldest one to date. It was 5&1/4" tall and embossed with the words: OSGOOD'S INDIA CHOLAGOGUE - NEW YORK . It was in great condition and turned out to be the only whole bottle in this hole. With a name like that, I had no clue what it was used for. A buddy of mine gave me some information he found from a medical dictionary. It gave a definition for cholagogue as "an agent that stimulates the flow of bile to the duodenum." The definition of duodenum is: "the beginning portion of the small intestine." This helped me to determine the problem the person must have been having health wise.

As I reached the 5' level, I came into all kinds of broken china and glass. They were interlocked with other pieces, and hard to separate without causing further breakage. I sorted the fragments into different groups, by color and style. All plates, cups, saucers, and pitcher pieces were kept in separate piles outside the hole. All the time I was uncovering these items, I kept wondering why so much was broken and discarded at one time. Did the china cabinet somehow fall over? Were the kids roughhousing and knock into the table that was set for dinner? I reached bottom at the 6' level. Now came time to pack up everything salvageable to bring home and try to piece together.

I wish I had taken a picture of my basement floor when I laid out everything in groups. Piles of china were sorted according to it's pattern and color. My kids helped with this, and thoroughly enjoyed this "puzzle game." We made several trips back to the site to try and find some pieces we needed to complete a plate, pitcher, cup, etc. When we collected all the pieces to an item, they were washed and placed in a pile to be glued together. I saved many of these items because of the interesting colors and patterns they had. They represented a style and taste from the owner who lived at that time. The blue feathered edge plate and platter shown in the picture below are special to me. They are examples of china that I have only been able to find pieces of on many sites I have detected. I will continue to collect as many different samples of these relics as space permits at home.

The following pictures show some of the items that were salvaged. Others were divided up with my digging buddy, and with a local historian who is currently writing a book on the history of this area where these items were found.