Month: July 2019

image_pdfimage_print

1691 Dated Powder Horn – a connection with your 6th grade history class

Here is a real piece of that period’s American history. This powder horn belonged to John Snyder from the Snyder family of New York. He carved his name, as well as the year 1691 into this horn, and scratched numerous designs and cross-hatching. It is difficult to see in the photos, and much of it is too worn to determine what it says or represents. The year is most likely a reference to involvement in the Jacob Leisler revolt and execution in 1691. Fortunately for our eyes’ sake, there actually exists an 1880 drawing showing the scrimshawing on this powder horn:

The wildest and most dangerous place visited by Frederic Remington, in his own words

Contrasted from his familiar Western cowboys, who rode horned saddles and used saddle ropes, lariats and lassos, to handle Longhorn cattle on grassy plains and brush country, the Florida cow hunters rode hornless McClellan Army-surplus saddles, didn’t use saddle ropes, used cur-dogs to drive cattle into log pens for handling much smaller cattle grazing on a flat and sandy landscape, with miles of straight pine timber with scrub palmettos and tough wiregrass on an unfenced open range.

Seminole War Army Boot found in the mud in Florida

This is a 1830’s military ankle boot, found at the site of the Battle of Camp Izard from the Second Seminole War in Florida. It was remarkably well preserved in the muck. This location is very close to my family ranch where I spent much of my childhood. My great great grandfather served in this war, which has almost been forgotten, which led to him getting a pension from the US Government, despite later fighting 4 years as a confederate in the Civil War. 

The bloody history of the Graham Cabin

This impressive log cabin was built 1770-1772 by Col. James Graham. It was the site of a bloody attack in 1777. This special structure is one of the few other surviving frontier blockhouses of the 18th century Virginia frontier, all of which lie within a fairly small radius of the Greenbrier Valley: the Graham Cabin, Byrnside’s Fort, and the Estill Blockhouse (the latter two being in modern day Monroe County on Indian Creek). The Graham cabin is on the Greenbrier River.

Virginia Musket used at the battle of Point Pleasant in 1774

This is likely a frontier-made musket, using a combination of gunsmith made and recycled parts, probably for use in the French and Indian War. It is made with iron mountings and is a hefty .75 caliber. This is the kind of plain, inexpensive, unromantic, and unembellished, work horse of a long gun which was probably the most common on the frontier – where most people were poor, but enterprising.

Long Lost Recipe Books from Old Sweet Springs – try some “Brandy Peaches”

Included among her recipes are medical and pharmaceutical recipes, for things like arsenic, nitrous gas, and phosphate of potash. I believe these books originally belonged to her father, Gov. John Floyd, who is buried on the property. He was a doctor and served as a surgeon on the Revolutionary War. Some of the beautiful handwriting appears to be much, much older. These were probably carried with him during his service, and was later given to his daughter. Or perhaps she just kept them when he died on the property during a visit in 1837.