The Old County Orphanage Privy Digby Rocco Leoni

ANOTHER "GREAT BOTTLE DIGGING STORY" FROM THE PAGES OF

ANTIQUE BOTTLE AND GLASS COLLECTOR MAGAZINE

THE MAGAZINE OF THE ANTIQUE BOTTLE COLLECTING HOBBY

It all started with a dumb question.
Tom, my digging partner, came over and asked me if I wanted to go digging.
Of course I wanted to go digging, but where? Around Juniata County, Pa., good digging sites are scarce. However, a good friend of ours said he knew of a spot that he never told anyone of ever before.
Supposedly, this was a privy that had been dug in around 1975, but it was never finished. We figured it might go down around 10 or 12 feet.It took only a few minutes to find the site, in back of an old building that was condemned. The structure was built around 1871.

I jumped into the hole first and dug down about three feet, and the only thing I had to show was a Dr. Pierce’s Anuric Tablets for Kidneys and Backache, and wished that there were a few tablets left in that bottle because my back was getting sore.
This was discouraging, so I said a few good words and let Tom go at it for a while. Tom was a real digger, and started breaking through the hard clay real fast, then hit bits of glass and broke about five bottles in the process, so we decided to take it a little easier.

After about three hours we were down around eight feet, and the bottles came fast and furious: We had about 50 assorted bottles, ranging from patent medicines to blob top beers to Mason jars, as well as a few embossed prescriptions and common medicines. Enough to keep it interesting, and Tom was sure having fun!
It was Tony’s turn down in the hole — Tony was the third member of our party — and he hit that hard clay again. This happened several times throughout the dig, and each time, we thought we were at the bottom. I wonder how many other diggers are confronted with this, and instead of continuing the dig, they end their effort and cover up the hole, not knowing what they might be leaving behind.
It was getting late in the afternoon when I jumped in; I didn’t waste any time getting into the hole to start digging, now around 10 feet deep. It was very difficult at times throwing out the dirt, so we began the five-gallon pail brigade. For you nondiggers, it’s a "bucket and rope method," hauling each bit of dirt and broken stuff up by hand.
Around 7 p.m. it was getting a little hard to see what we were digging, but we couldn’t leave and come back the next day for fear of some of our not-so-good friends coming in and finishing off the hole. So all three of us camouflaged the hole with old tree branches and whatever was around the area. We all made an oath that we would be return the next day at 6 in the morning. On the way home we all discussed that the deeper we go the older the bottles were. About this time we were not to sure if we were excavating an old well or a privy because of its perfectly circular-shaped walls. We didn’t care because bottles were popping out like gophers.
Full 1/2 FORBES JACK ROSE PURE TRUE WHISKY 6 YEARS OLD ANDREW FORBES THE PRACTICAL DISTILLER PHILADA, blob top soda, 6" W.F. DRISCOLL POTTSVILLE PA., 8", amber, JOHN WYETH & BRO PHILADELPHIA, NON-POISONOUS WON’T STAIN DEAD STUCK FOR BUGS TRADE-MARK BUG WITH NAIL THROUGH IT, GOTTLIEB MARSHALL & CO CASSEL GERMANY PHILADELPHIA, PA, amber HOWELL & KING CO UNION BREWERY PITTSTON, PA,, GUILFORD MINERAL SPRING WATER GUILFORD, VT., HENTZ’S CURATIVE BITTERS PHILADELPHIA, 8 inches, light green. Plus too many to mention. Hope the next day proves to be as good a challenge.
Around 6 a.m. we all met at the privy. Tom’s turn was next. He hopped into the hole and an hour went by. The first three feet were agonizing — pure hell. Tony and I would advise Tom on digging technology, and it took him a while to get the hang of it. As he continued down, the bottles continued to pop out in rapid succession; Tom was pulling out blob top beers, Hutchinson sodas, whiskeys, medicines, drugstore bottles from the local cities, jugs and one beautiful amber Star Kidney and Liver Bitters.
I was in Hutchinson heaven, by golly; this was my kind of a hole!
Finally, Tom was tired, so he began his climb to the top of the now 12-foot-deep privy. It was Tony’s turn to hop in. By now it was daylight and it really looked deep. The first thing he pulled out was a nice vase with a No.1 on it, but it had a little chip at the mouth. He scratched around some more and pulled out about 10 more bottles, including a nice Log Cabin Sarsaparilla and a Dr. Harter's Wild Cherry Bitters.
Tony had been down in the hole for about a half-hour and was getting tired. Tom and I were getting impatient so we started throwing dirt down on him. We were a pretty goofy bunch, so things like this happed often throughout the dig.

The old county Orphanage building built around 1871. The building was condemned in the 40’s.

Tony finally scratched slowly; and a small Warner’s Safe Nervine was unearthed. It was beautifully crude and in mint condition.
Tony was clawing on a rich vein of glass when out popped a pint, aqua, Union flask.
"Finally, an intact flask," Tony exclaimed. But this was no ordinary Union flask. This one had nice lip and a nice iron pontil! It had a Union shield clasped hands and the other side had an eagle. Tony was overjoyed!
The Dr. Harter’s Wild Cherry Bitters and the Warner’s Safe Nervine were the best finds so far. Tony didn’t really want to get out yet, but we talked him into coming out and taking a rest.
Now it was my turn down in the hole. As usual, the first thing I did was to break through the clay again into more bottles. I found three different sizes of Gargling Oils; five Hock wines of different color, and around 20 more different shapes and sizes of bottles. I started to dig only to find, at the very bottom, one small, cracked blue porcelain plate.
The hole went down 14 feet total, and by the time the dust settled we had unearthed about 250 bottles. Wow!.
Some of the bottles found were: Two case gins, five Duffy Malt Whiskies, 10 quart Hutchinson sodas from different towns, two Dr. Kilmer’s Swamp Root Kidney Liver and Bladder Cure, five Piso Company, 10 Bromo-Seltzer different sizes, many local cites drug bottles, and so many other bottles that I can’t remember. It took about four hours to fill in the hole and tidy up the area, and head home with some "keepers" this time.
A privy like this makes up for all those dry holes.
Tom, Tony and myself really enjoyed the privilege of a fun dig. While the average digger will not get rich through bottle hunting, I explain my love of the hobby by saying, "It’s quiet and peaceful and it’s just good for you. It’s not so much the value of what I find as what it’s worth to me. We worked hard finding all those bottles and we were very proud of all of them."
Yes, without a doubt, this is the best privy dig that we have ever dug in Juniata County.

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