I wonder what happened? by Dan Gross
A few Saturdays ago I decided to go out and dig a privy pit. It was a great day for digging. Temperature was in the low 70's and there wasn't a lot of humidity. I had recently found a city that I had never dug in before and it had lots of old houses with plenty of age to them. So, I decided to go to that city and try my luck. I got there about 9:30 (I planned to be there sooner but over slept a bit). I proceeded to look for a "good" house. I tried a few but no one seemed to be home. After about 4 tries I finally found someone home. I began talking to the owner and at first I thought he was going to say no as he began to tell me "Well, the yard is so small I can't see how there can be any thing back there" After a bit more talking he agreed to let me try. Well, he was right, it was a small back yard. It was bout 12' by 25' and the garage covered the rest. But, I found 3 pits!!! Before I knew it, the owner was all excited to see what would be found and I had a place to dig. We were both happy.
Digging a pit is pretty much the same thing each time. Probe for dimensions, clear the area as needed, get out the tools, lay out the tarps, set the sod aside(if any), and then dig. This first pit was pretty much the same as the hundreds I have done in the past. A few inks, a medicine or two and a couple of beers. The contents of the first pit were not unusual. I did find a few house hold bottles, some perfumes, and even a couple of pharmacy bottles. I finished it in about 2 hours and moved on to the second pit.
Most of the time when you dig one pit and it has just a few bottles in it the other pits have similar numbers and types of items. In other words, one clean pit usually means the other pits will be clean or nearly clean. While this is not a guaranteed rule, in my experience, it is true more often than not. Since the first one only produced a dozen bottles, well, you know. However, this second pit was VERY different as it had LOTS of bottles. By the time I had reached the 18 inch level in the second pit I had almost a dozen whiskey style bottles! of various styles and sizes. On top of that they were all hand made J. The bad news was that with only two exceptions none of them were embossed L. By the time I hit the 2 ½ foot level I had well over 40 of these whiskey bottles and one or two quart blob beers. A few local pharmacy style bottles started to come out by this time. As I dug down into the pit the whiskey bottles stopped but now the blob beers started. By the time I hit the 4 foot level I had almost 40 quart blob beers. Some were aqua, some were amber, but every last one them was NOT embossed L. In addition to these finds the local pharmacy bottles had also become very numerous about the time the beers started. I had almost 50 of these small pharmacy bottles. Unfortunately, only one was embossed. By now I was beginning to wonder what happened here? The pit was loaded but the individual types of bottles seemed to be stacked together by type.
It started with the whiskeys then switched over to the beers and about the time the beers started the pharmacies started. As the beers ended the pharmacies continued for a short while and then, near the bottom, the patent medicines started. There were of course other items in the pit. These other items were more of what would be expected. Here is a list of some of the other items that popped out. Plain cathedral pickle (12 inch) and an embossed pickle, 3 intact masons and several broken ones, at the top mixed in with the whiskeys were some insulators (about 10), one hutch, and one clay jug (no embossing), 2 perfumes and a salt sampler. I even found a bunch of porcelain buttons, a clay pipe and various Other items. Although I was having fun, this pit seemed to have an unusual mixture of items. Then, near the bottom the items changed again. I found one lone broken doll head, then below that there where no more local pharmacies but this is where the patent medicines started and continued until on the very bottom, I found the one item that I think tied it all together. On the very bottom was a baby bottle. It was cracked but still in one piece.
I have often dug these pits and wondered when was the last time a person used this item I just found. How did the item come to be here and not in a trash dump. I felt I could often imagine my self living back then. Based on my experience these and other questions are often discussed when we diggers travel back in time as we head towards the bottom of a pit. Often it's just the digger taking his modern experiences and applying them to these artifacts. But, sometimes, the objects tell their own story. Not everyone may agree with me but here is the story as I see it using the order, age, and number of the items.
Sometime in the middle 1880's a young couple bought an existing house and moved in after digging a new privy pit. It was a normal house for the time period and life was good. Almost at the same time as they moved in they had there first child. They were very happy. They even bought a nice quality porcelain doll for her to play with when she got older. Things went along just fine for a while with occasional splurges for perfumes and special foods. Some of these items, when finished, found their way into the pit. Even the baby bottle that was dropped and cracked was tossed into the pit.
Then, sometime in the late 1880's the young child became ill. The parents sent for samples of some wonderful "cure all" medicines. If one seemed to work, they got the full size bottle, if it didn't seem to work they tried another one. Nothing helped for long and it began bothering the father very much. Those darn medicines were not helping! He found the situation eating at him like a worm through an apple. He would take an occasional drink to escape. Time continued and by the early 1890's the daughter was much worse. They had given up on the patent medicines by now. They learned the hard way these were all just snake oil. They were now using the local pharmacy exclusively as these local remedies seem to provide at least some relief. Also, by this time the father had developed a real drinking problem. He would very often go to the local saloon and drink, then, taking a bottle with him, he headed home making one last stop in the privy to take care of business and then toss the empty bottle into the pit. This was his only escape from his problems.
By the middle to late 1890s the medicines from the local pharmacy had stopped showing up in the pit. A broken doll had been tossed in the pit one night. The daughter was gone. The father became very depressed. His drinking got worse. He had switched over to whiskey to help him forget. About this time the house was updated to modern wiring. This is about the time the old insulators were tossed into the pit. This is were the pit stopped.
Is this what happened? No one can know for sure. But I still think some pits tell a story more than others.
I wonder what really happened?
