1800's McCoy Estate Foundation Findings

I found these items yesterday in an old foundation known as the old McCoy Estate and apple orchard. There is dirt inside each room with outlying foundation of the house still standing as well (to a height of a few feet, but one has a concrete floor with little troughs, which could have been a barn.  To reach it requires a long hike of about 2 miles I'd guess, up the side of a mountain in our valley, some areas are very steep going.  Judging the looks of things, I don't believe the sight has been MDed before, although people do camp near there.  I found an older Pepsi bottle without its label, with a Nintendo Game Piece cap on it close to the foundation, just laying there.  Also, rear the path into the estate, there is a pile of rocks, which looks to be an old Indian grave or just a regular grave, with many years of moss growing on it, maybe just a pile of rocks, but the correct size to be otherwise.  Good thing the brush was bare so I could see it from the path.  I'll post pictures of this and the looks of the foundation on the next trip there, although I need to do some recovering from this one, huff, huff .  I'm posting a few pics below.  I'm not sure what the one object is, there are a few close ups of it.  My friend told me, he saw something similar to this at his great grandfather's barn, but never saw one in one piece.  He said it could be an item used to hang tools, like wheelbarrows, etc.  It was hung over a rail, or track, to move the items quickly.  And that on the back (the curved inward side), a wheel would be attached to move it on the track, the wheel would attach to the area furthest away from the ring part.  There is a rounded off bolt through the front side that is bent and is folded over touching the iron piece in the back in the correct spot for a wheel.  Also there is lettering on it as well, but it is hard to make out. My guess is B(or R)-E-A(or the letters N or R)-D-I-N-G.  Does anyone know what it may mean?  We do have a town of Reading here in Pennsylvania.  Maybe it is just to tell us where it was made, but maybe not.  The back curved area looks to be broken off because it is not straight at all there and may have had an identical piece structure on the other side.  These pieces were all found within an hour (we were afraid of dark setting in before we made it back to the truck, and it was sleeting on us the whole time we were there), all pieces are made of iron.  Thanks ahead of time for any help or oppinions on this piece.

Sorry all, I had 11 views before I realized the pictures didn't post.  These pictures were taken today, and the objects are still in the cleaning process.  If I begin to see more clarity on some of the letters that I listed that could have been something else, I'll post further info.

DAMN your sharp kid..... my guess in a barns hay loft they had/have a track that hangs off the top beam for the barn for when they harvest hay.when the barn was full they would open the top doors/shudders slid the wheel on the track out over the hay wagon to hoist the hay into the barn for stacking of the silage(alfalfa/corn/oats/rye/wheat)depending on the harvest etc in english its a pulley...

Liquigirl, Dekalb is right it is part of a Block & Tackle Used To Move Hay Bales Up Into The Loft of a Barn. trk5capt...

Looks like a good site to detect. With that heavy hardware you show still there my guess is no THers have hit the spot yet.

Hunt deep and slow.

HH

Badger

[Centre County From Its Earliest Settlement To the Year 1915 (J. Thomas Mitchell, 1915),]

1860 Centre Co. PA Census
 John M. McCOY 43 PA iron master

Is this the same estate? Iron Master would explain the nice finds ....or a possible relative.

These are some old books about your county that you might be interested in , if you are going to be hunting that area heavily


                 Centre County From Its Earliest Settlement To the Year 1915 (J. Thomas Mitchell, 1915), 119 pgs. A brief history of Centre County's settlement and growth. Complete index included.

History of the Early Settling of the Bald Eagle Valley (William E. Marks), 19 pgs. A brief history of a number of towns in Bald Eagle Valley.

Biographical Survey of Centre County, Pennsylvania (William E. Marks, 1941), 109 pgs. A brief history of Centre County, followed by biographies of some of its prominent members. Some portraits of sketch subjects are included as well.
Surnames Included:
Baird, Bartges, Bartholomew, Bauman, Benson, Bradford, Broberg, Campbell, Fisher, Forster, Fryberger, Geary, Gianopulos, Gilliland, Goheen, Gramley, Hagerty, Haines, Harkins, Harris, Hazel, Henszey, Hess, Hetzel, Holter, Homan, Hosterman, Houts, Hoy, Jodon, Johnston, Kepler, Lee, Lynn, Mamolen, Martz, Matilda, Mayes, McCoy, Meyer, Mothersbaugh, Musser, Neff, Noll, Packer, Purnell, Ratowsky, Reed, Richards, Rogers, Rowland, Royer, Schreffler, Smeltzer, Spangler, Tay, Thompson, Todd, Wagner, Wallin, Weber, Woodring

 

COOL FINDS Michelle ;

  I Lightened the pic for you a little in Microsoft Photo Editor.

                  JEFF

Thanks Gypsy, you are correct.  Although, I didn't know his line of work.  I pity the horses they had, when going back to town for supplies.

Thanks Jeff, you can see the lettering more clearly, but still no-one has given me any guesses and history on what it may mean.  All artifacts were found inside the foundation with dirt floor. 

"Thanks Jeff, you can see the lettering more clearly, but still no-one has given me any guesses and history on what it may mean.  All artifacts were found inside the foundation with dirt floor."

there were horses ,they were feed hay/grain and that is the pulley from the barn to load the barn with hay .when the beams rotted/burnt/dimantled it ended up in the foundation.im not as sharp as some of the tacks on here but what exactlly are you getting at...

Dekalb33, just wondering what the letters mean, is all.  If it is READING than the piece could have been made in Reading, PA.  Could say BENDING or BEADING as well.  Just not sure.  Would be cool to find the other piece that had been broken off as well, it is nice to dig it up though. Actually the pulley didn't need any digging at all, the chain on the other hand, was a few inches underground and tree roots had grown through the links.  The nails, well, they just don't make 'em like that anymore.

AHHHHHHHHHHH....ill see what i can find here its a large old AG town

Thought you might enjoy a photo of who owned the  foundations you are digging!!! John M McCoy

Thank you so much Gypsy, you just amaze me with your research.  By the way, enjoy your McCoy pottery, and good luck THing tomorrow.  Hope you find some more awesome stuff.

You really have a great site to hunt. Congrats on your finds. WTG GH!!  Burdie

Really cool finds. Vern

Thanks all, I have returned to the site to find a  few more nails and another unidentifiable item, only excavating a 2x2 area before thunderstorms rolled in.  I will post pictures this evening, with pictures to baffle you on the entire area.  Thanks for watching.  Maybe, I need to start a club, and donate or sell the items to the Bellefonte Historical Society before this is all said and done.  Can't wait to post later on.

Hello again all, here is a new picture for you.  Since you've already seen what the nails look like, I won't be posting them. We dug up five more of them, the smaller ones.  I'm also going to send you a picture of the area we dug this time. If you want to see a map of how it all looks, and a few pictures I've started to put here on this site, check out Today's Finds and 1800's McCoy Estate Foundation.   We think it's an old knife handle since there is still evidence of the wood that surrounded the iron piece and is held there with studs.  I appologize, the pictures again turned out dark, but it's a view of each side.  Anybody know about this one?

Ok, no respose, I beat you to it this time! It's a doorhinge.  The only reason I know that is because I dug up a bigger one and I can tell that's what the bigger one is for sure.  Does the wheel in the bottom right go to the pulley/tackle block?  And the chain too?  Anyone out there know?

maybe ,just a little advise a ruler and some back lighting from a painter light etc maybe get better details .the chain and wheel maybe are from the hay pulley the wheel may be in 2 peices and pressed together after manufacturing....

Thank you dekalb33.  I will continue to post on this site when I continue to find pieces I can't identify.  Thanks for watching my thread ;)

  Hey liquigirl,
 
  The round thing looks like a handle that would be bolted on the end of a spindle on old machines for turning it ie. old sewing machines, lathes etc...  The chainis made for lifting large things definately.  The links are designed to fold over on themselves in order to lay flat and apply max. pressure, the thing in lower left hand corner of picture is a type of "quick release" the round  link at the top is where you hook in for lifting.  If the round thing has knurls or little bumps on it then it is almost definately a handle because these would help eliminate shearing of the handle, it could be half of a two piece pulley but they aren't very popular becaise of seperation,  that's why most iron pullies are cast one piece.  Maybe this helps some.

                                                      Take care,
                                                                    fldiver

ok back to the chain could be off a old trappers trap leg hold (foxs,wolves bobcats)or body grip(muskrat,beavers,weasels) the end of it looks odd with the different sized linkage .after all they stored them in the barn maybe if a fox was raiding the chickens?

Take a look at this item on ebay.. and it just so happens that the seller is in PA.

Looks similar to me.

Angelo, I didn't even think to check e-bay.  I'm getting to that after I finish reading all my posts here on the TNet. Thank you.

fldiver, the wheel does have a notch (bump) and 4 round circle areas of the same size as the notch evenly spaced around the smaller round area of the wheel.  In circles I'm referring to the color difference from the rest of the wheel, slightly lighter, and may be areas where other notches were.  Hope this helps.

Thanks so far, you all, for all your help and suggestions, there's going to be alot of this IDing to be done at this area.  I have some more pics of last Wednesday's trip.  Any help with IDs here would be appreciated as well.  First picture, from top left and down, is either a weigh scale or the end pieces used as hooks to hold up a heavy item (like a cow for slaughtering)?  Second item an old iron lock for a gate?  Third pic is a sickle, for sure.  I was chitty chopping all the small branches off the trees overgrowing the site as soon as I found it.  Fourth pic down, are unknown items, but the left hand piece in that picture slides right into the back of the dagger object in the second picture I posted (which was IDed In Nana's thread in Today's Finds as either a sickle slide or another farm implement (such as for a plow).  The sickle is too small for this dagger to have been it's sickle slide (the pointed ends stick out from the blade on either side.  The dagger was found close to the sickle and the left hand object in the fourth pic.  All these heavy pieces were found on the eastern side of Foundation 5.  Below these is three pictures of the same shot bullet which was found inside Foundation 5!?  Who was shooting and what were they shooting at!?  I was told it's either a .45 or .54 calibur deal.  To the right top, a pic of more square nails of various sizes, a stake on the left of the row, one very large bolt (the fourth in from the left)  2 unknown at the bottome may very well be very very encrusted nails, but not sure yet, as they are still being cleaned.  Keep me updated all with any responses as to positive IDs for any of my pieces to this date.  For reference, the Sharpie is 5 and 1/2 inches

Liquigirl,

The dagger like things are sickle guards, used on sickle type mowers.  If the points are tipped up or down, then they are probably older (1940 or older), if they are straight, then they are newer than that.  They are still being used, but the modern ones are not as spindley (sp) and are shorter than the ones you found, and with straight points.  Hope this helps.

Jerry