Fort Brewerton & Oliver Stevens Blockhouse Museum

01/06/2024

Museum Monday’s Mystery was a fragment of the stem of an 18th-century folded foot stemware wine glass. I am curating the box of excavated items from 1966 over the winter. It was never properly photographed ,documented, or even cleaned, since it was excavated almost 60 years ago. This stemware fragment was one of the first things I noticed that might be related to the artifacts from our excavations over the last few years. We have found several small stemware fragments recently. First, I wanted to see if it could be matched up to fragments in the display case upstairs in the museum. Sure enough, its the top half of the stem of one of these glasses, the bottom half being on display. After connecting them together, I wanted to see if any of the bottom parts of the folded foot fragments we recently found fit. It turns out they did fit with two fragments. This gives us a much better idea of what the bottom part of the glass looked like. Now, if we can only get those top pieces sorted out. Perhaps as I go through the box of 1966 artifacts, I will find more pieces of the puzzle. And I’m sure we will find a few more mysteries to research together.

01/06/2024

We appreciate all the ideas you have been sharing, especially the generous offer to start a funding campaign to buy a new trailer. We will be coming up with a plan soon so please keep checking. Ideally we'd like a generous offer of another trailer. We know we need to secure it. Any ideas? Keep saving your bottles because it really does help us over the winter!

01/05/2024

We are blown away at the number of times that the stolen trailer post has been shared. Thank you for your concern and support! The police are still actively pursuing this. In the meantime we need to find an easy way for you all to continue to donate your bottles to our cause. Does anyone have another trailor or something similar that we could use temporarily? Ideas are welcomed!

01/03/2024

Welcome to the new year everyone! Here is Today’s Mystery! Guess the excavated item fragment from the Museum collections. Comment below what you think it is part of. I will post the answer on Friday!

12/31/2023

Our trailer has been STOLEN! Please contact the Central Square Police if you see it! Lic # BH-59895

12/30/2023

Wishing you health & happiness!

12/26/2023

No new Mystery this week. Hope everyone enjoyed Christmas time. I thought I would revisit an old mystery as I found something new out about it. The toy stove we posted as a mystery item was actually a Christmas present as the records read “Mrs. Barclay March 16, 1970. Purchased as a toy for Christmas, 1906 at W**d’s in Buffalo, New York.”
What is W**d’s? It likely refers to W**d and Company. It was a hardware store in Buffalo, New York that closed in 1963.

https://archive.org/details/FromOxCartToAeroplaneW**dCoHistory18181918/page/n43/mode/2up

Have a safe New Year’s where I will bring you new mysteries from our collections.

12/25/2023

Wishing our members and community a warm and happy holiday.

12/22/2023

Museum Monday’s Mystery was a box of Stratton's educational building blocks. Patented in 1896, they are a wooden toy set using tongue and groove to connect the blocks together in different ways, enabling kids to make different projects with the included instructions. Much like modern day Legos, a child could use even use their imagination to make other things.
Donated in 1970 by Mr. and Mrs. C Timm, they are listed as belonging to Mr. Tim’s father from Syracuse.
I can imagine many of these sitting under Christmas trees around the turn of the 20th century.

12/18/2023

Today’s Mystery! Guess the item from the Museum collections. Comment below what you think it is. I will post the answer on Friday!

12/16/2023

Mrs. Nancy Stevens (Grace Einhart) reading The Christmas Mouse to our visitors.

12/16/2023

Making rag Christmas trees.

12/16/2023

Join us for our Christmas Open House! 12-4pm today! Mrs. Oliver Stevens is reading Christmas stories and St. Nick is here too

12/16/2023

Museum Monday’s Mystery were 3 muskrat hide stretchers made from wood. After skinning a muskrat the hide is stretched over one of these wooden forms and allowed to dry over a few days. The holes from the pins that hold the hide on while it dries are still visible on the boards and show you how long some of the hides were.

You can watch an example of this process here

!!!Warning this is part of the process of skinning a live animal and is graphic!!!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GXA8QcLFF4Y

These stretchers are unmarked and I could not find any record of who donated them.

12/15/2023

Last minute gift ideas!

Pick up between 12-4pm. Saturday during our Open House!

Fort Brewerton t-shirt Youth-3X $17

Mug $5

12/11/2023

Today’s Mystery! Guess the item from the Museum collections. Comment below what you think it is. I will post the answer on Friday! There are 3 of them in this picture.

12/08/2023

Museum Monday’s Mystery was the lid to a Millville Atmospheric Fruit Jar. This would have been held in place by a cast-iron yoke clamp and thumbscrew closure device. This was likely the more common second production style due to the flatness of the lid top. Early models would have had a rounded top and yolk clamp as seen in the patent image and are rare. This style jar was in use from 1861 to 1880.
More information here

https://fohbcvirtualmuseum.org/galleries/jars/millville-atmospheric-fruit-jar/

The lid was excavated from a shovel test pit on the west side of the Fort Brewerton earthworks in the moat. It was found about a foot down amongst other turn of the century glass debris.
The west side of the moat was used as a town dump in the 1800s and is still full of old trash. We currently have plans to sift through this debris and see what other artifacts can be discovered starting next year

12/01/2023

Museum Monday’s Mystery was a bone button. This style of bone button was typically used in underwear in the 18th century. It may have been covered by cloth or thread originally. It was excavated from Unit 2 on the east side of the fireplace hearth feature in Blockhouse # 4 in 2022.
Bone buttons could be made in the field to replace other buttons, normally lost with wear and tear. The remains of this button manufacturing process have been found at other forts, such as Fort Stanwix.
Read more about it here:

https://www.nps.gov/articles/000/bone-buttons-manufacturing-tool.htm

11/28/2023

This is a great place to do some gift shopping! You will support these crafters and artists and the Brewerton Center of the Arts.

Fa La La!
Saturday, December 2 @ BCA! Come and support our local creatives.

11/27/2023

Today’s Mystery! Guess the excavated item from the Museum collections. Comment below what you think it is. I will post the answer on Friday!

11/25/2023

Museum Monday’s Mystery was a knuckle bone. The term "knuckle bone" designates the astragalus, a small bone found within the tarsal joint of hooved animals. At this size, it appears to be from a sheep or goat.
Because this bone would land on 4 different sides randomly when rolled, it has been used since ancient times is a primitive dice in games like the ancient Egyptian Senet and the Roman Tali, and Tesserae. They have also been called scatter jacks, snobs, dibs, fivestones, jacks, or jackstones.

https://www.getty.edu/education/college/ancient_rome_at_home/pdf/tali_tesserae_game.pdf

The context this bone was found in was with other faunal remains, some burned, 15-22 cm down. It was excavated this summer from Unit 5, on the north side of the fireplace hearth of Blockhouse number 4, inside the earthworks of Fort Brewerton. The bone is damaged, but does not appear to have any wear associated with dice rolling. I think it’s the remains of food. I believe for gambling, the British soldiers here had access to better materials to make dice. Last year a musket ball was excavated from Unit 2 , on the east side of the fireplace hearth of Blockhouse number 4.
Three of its sides have been flattened in what appears to be an attempt to make it into a six sided die. It was lost or discarded before it was finished, likely falling between the floorboards.

Further reading on knuckle bones in archaeology

https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Andreea-Terna/publication/312593219_The_Archaeology_of_Games_Playing_with_Knucklebones_in_the_Early_Chalcolithic_of_the_Balkans/links/5a6070790f7e9bfbc3f75213/The-Archaeology-of-Games-Playing-with-Knucklebones-in-the-Early-Chalcolithic-of-the-Balkans.pdf?origin=publication_detail

11/18/2023

Let the crating begin!

11/17/2023

Museum Monday’s Mystery was an antique spur pistol. It is from the estate of Gertrude Pechin. Miss Pechin carried this pistol when delivering mail. It’s a 5 shot single action revolver, with a spur trigger and a solid frame. It’s chambered in .32 short rim fire.
Manufactured at the Rome Revolver and Novelty Works in Rome New York from 1870 to 1888, this revolver is not a quality piece.
This is because in 1870, the year Rollin White’s patent for the bored-through cylinder (no. 12648, 1855 to 1870) expired, and anyone could manufacture a breech-loading cartridge revolver. Smith and Wesson, owners of this patent, had been manufacturing breech-loading cartridge revolvers since the 1850’s, and several unauthorized makers tried to produce revolvers using the same design.

https://storage.googleapis.com/wzukusers/user-34484549/documents/cea313e966624366a73c31f18b8dfc26/Newsletter%20V3%20No9.pdf

It was a race to the bottom of price and quality as the guns were offered for less than 2 dollars in catalogs such as Sears and Roebuck. They were so poorly made that gun collector and author Duncan McConnel coined their nickname “suicide specials” in 1948. Most lacked serial numbers, had sloppy fitting parts and are unsafe to use today. Rome Novelty Works pistols are noted as being particularly poor quality.

This pistol was donated in 1972 by Mrs. Hazel Diehl.

11/11/2023

Here are examples of the kids holiday crafts offered in Nov. 18th 12:30-3:30. $5 donation per child to make several crafts.

11/11/2023

Attached is a flyer for the December 5 public meeting for the Hastings Waterfront Revitalization Plan. The meeting will be at 7:30 pm at the Caughdenoy Fire Station behind the Red Onion.
The survey response date has been extended to Nov 17. Responses are needed from anyone using the Hastings side of the river. Please be specific about where and what you would like to see. Thanks!

11/11/2023

Museum Monday’s Mystery was J. Elet Milton’s Victorian printed bib. He was born the 12th of May 1881 , probably used the bib from 1882 to 1886, and died on the 2nd of Dec 1968.
He built boats here in Brewerton with his father Thomas till retiring in 1932. Elet loved local history and amassed a trove of data on it. Much of that now rests in the museum he helped pave the way for. In his day he enjoyed answering people’s (and his own) questions about our local past. It’s our hope that what he left behind can continue to do so into the future.

11/03/2023

Museum Monday’s Mystery was the antique oxen yoke used by the Plaisted family when they came to Brewerton and settled on Caughdenoy Rd in the early 1800s.
It is a sliding neck yoke. The slide yolk was developed in New England and was used in winter or for work on roads to offer the oxen a degree of flexibility in finding good footing.

http://taws.org/TAWS04-Conroy-040419-A4-all.pdf

What was this journey like?
Here is an example from Mexico Mother of Towns.

Page 161

“Calvin Tiffany was already married to Abigail Walker of Ashford Connecticut, and when he returned home with a favorable report of land in Mexico on lot 35 for which he had made a bargain with Jonathan Parkhurst. Phineas Davis and Sally Smith were married at Cromwell Connecticut by Gersham Bulkley on September 16, 1798. Throughout the fall and early winter the two young couples prepared for their migration. At this point listen to Sally Smith Davis as she tells their story: "Mr. Calvin Tiffany, his wife, and one child, Rufus, myself and husband started from Hartford Connecticut the last week in January 1799 to come to this country. We arrived in Mexico February 21, 1799. We were about three weeks on the journey. We had one ox sled with two yoke of oxen, to come with. Our load consisted of two beds and bedding with some few things to keep house with and provisions enough to last for some time. We had a cover for our sled made of sheets sewed together made fast to hoops bent over the sled. Our friends brought us out the first day ten miles from Hartford with a horse sleigh where we stopped for the first night of our journey. "Enoch Davis, brother to Phineas, was hired to drive the team and to work for one year. We all got on board the ox-sled the next morning and came along at the rate of about fifteen miles per day until we arrived at Albany, without any serious accident. Our sled capsized once near Schoharie but no harm was done. We crossed the Hudson river at Albany on a scow and came along on our journey past the Little Falls where we stayed over night. There was one Tavern and three or four dwellings at that place. We then came from there to Ft. Schuyler [Utica] where there was another small settlement of a few houses. We came on through Whitestown where we stayed over night. There were considerable many more people settled at Whitestown than at Utica. The next place was Fort Stanwix, now Rome. There was at that time a United States Arsenal kept there. We saw the guard standing on duty. From Rome we came to Rotterdam where there was a grist mill and a saw mill built by Mr. Scriba owner of the land. There might have been eight or ten houses at the time at Rotterdam. From there we came five miles to Gilbert's Tavern and stayed over night. From there we came to Rose's Tavern about a mile from what is now called Colosse. This was the 21st day of February 1799. through It began to snow and came so deep that it made it hard getting along. We started the 22nd in the morning when the snow was about two feet deep and yet snowing and after a hard day's work wallowing through the snow made about three miles and stopped at Capt. Hamilton's who lived where Lewis Sampson now lives. The 23rd we started again and now had only three miles to go to get through where we were to stop. Yet the snow was near three feet deep and a hard time we had to wallow through it, yet with great exertions we did succeed in getting through to where Richard Hamilton now lives which was our journey's end."

This oxen yoke was donated by Jean Plaisted in 1992

10/28/2023

Museum Monday’s Mystery was a Savage 1861 Navy Model 36 caliber percussion revolver made by the Savage Revolving Fi****ms Company. It is the final version on the self cocking “Figure-8” design of JS North. Their first official US Military contract was on October 16, 1861. Although 1,126 were delivered to the Navy during the American Civil War, the term navy refers to the caliber of .36. Approximately 20,000 were made and the US Ordnance Department took delivery of 11,384 . They were sold for $20.00 per gun. The remaining 8,500 were sold to civilians. These guns sold for as high as $3.45 and as low as $.35.
Its serial number can be seen under the barrel (you have to remove the ram rod assembly, 1 screw removed). And under the right grip(1 screw removed). It is difficult to read, but our records say it’s 686. It’s faint, but the inside of the wood grip has 686 written in pencil from all those years ago.
This firearm is was donated in 1985 by Linn moss.

10/25/2023

The City of Syracuse proclaimed October 25, 2023 Sharon BuMann Day. Sharon was honored for the sculptures she has created throughout her life, many of which depict events in Syracuse’s history. Family and friends shared the beautiful fall afternoon in Clinton Square. The Jerry Rescue Monument is one of her works.

10/24/2023

If you wondering how to show your appreciation for all Sharon has done and also celebrate the honor she is receiving from the City of Syracuse. ❤️

GoFundMe,

On December 20th Sharon suffered a devastating stroke which left her with very limited sp… Amy Eustace needs your support for Sharon BuMann's Stroke Recovery

10/24/2023

The City of Syracuse will honor Sharon on Wednesday, October 25th @ 3:15 in front of the Jerry Rescue on Clinton Street!

If you wondering how to show your appreciation to all Sharon has done you can still make a donation.

GoFundMe, https://gofund.me/b2370fa6

Please join Syracuse Deputy Mayor Sharon Owens at the Jerry Rescue Monument in Clinton Square, at 3:15 p.m. to honor Sharon BuMann.