Danville man will hunt for artifacts

By Karen Blackledge
The Daily Item

July 19, 2008 08:06 am

— DANVILLE — Robert Lee has unearthed a child’s porcelain dentures, early breast pumps and beer and ale bottles from what may appear to be unlikely places — outhouses.
But these outhouse sites became historical custodians of all sorts of things people of that day tossed away.
Lee, formerly of Danville and now of Millville, will conduct his first public dig during Danville’s Iron Heritage Festival from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. today behind Hometown Abstract at 223 Mill St.
Saying this is a passion of his where he doesn’t sell the artifacts, Lee got started slightly more than three years ago thinking digs would be an ideal way to recover pottery pieces for his wood-fire pottery and re-enactments. He started making pottery while at Danville High School and continued his studies at Kutztown University. He does a pottery demonstration every year at Warrior Run Heritage Days.
The building restorer-remodeler did his first outhouse dig behind apartment houses he owns in Bloomsburg. From there he knocked on people’s doors asking them if he could dig where outhouses sat.
He has done 40 to 50 digs in Danville and more than 150 digs in Bloomsburg.
His most precious find is a denture plate worn by an 8-year-old child in the 1850s. The two front teeth are mounted on a hard rubber bridging. His dentist X-rayed it and found the teeth are probably held by gold pins, showing the family had money and an artisan produced the teeth “that look just your teeth,” he said.
He displayed the denture plate and numerous other items he has uncovered during last year’s Bloomsburg Fair. The 53-year-old will be back this year for the third year at the fair.
Lee has also found lice combs, marbles, inkwells, toothbrushes, plates, breast pumps from the 1870s and 1880s and 10 to 12 bottles from Danville breweries. Lee found a C. Matchin bottle from Danville that likely held ale and a A. Schroth bottle from Danville’s 1850s for ale or beer.
He has unearthed intact pieces of redware pottery as well as ink containers from the 1880s to 1890s and a pitcher from the 1870s.
“Every dig is a chronological time-line. There could have been two to three pits on a property with each lasting 10 to 20 years. The sad ones are where they dug them out and put a new pit on top and the old artifacts are gone,” he said.
At a Lower Mulberry Street property, he found an intact piece of fireproof crockery just three feet from the surface. He uncovered a whole redware plate from another dig along Ferry Street.
He has also discovered a 1866 suspender buckle, a commemorative Revolutionary War belt buckle probably from 1876 and a ball for skeet shooting made of a round globe of glass.
When he proposes to test for an outhouse site, he gets permission from the property owner. He photographs pieces he finds and tries to keep ones that are different from the boxes of stuff he has at home. “I always give something to the owner,” he said, although some owners don’t want anything.
He starts out shoveling and might use a digging bar. From there he picks up a scraper, screwdriver and a short shovel to finish a dig that usually extends 8 to 10 feet down.
Afterward, Lee restores the property to its original condition for up to a year, giving the ground time to resettle.
He expects to continue his hobby in Danville for the next five or six years since he has digs planned down the street behind Century 21, Kiddie Korner, Stoneware and the potential behind the Montgomery House Museum he said “is a gold mine opportunity.” Danville is named for Daniel Montgomery.
nE-mail comments to kblackledge@dailyitem.com.

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