My Collection About 1960

[jpevahouse]

This old photo which my brother recently digitized is of an exhibit our club organized for the Perry County Tennessee County Fair. Our club was called "The Perry County Geographic Society". We studied history, collected fossils and Indian relics. This exhibit shows some of the Indian relics my brother and I found around various sites in Perry County starting in the mid 1950s. There are some fossils included but unfortunately not visible in the photo.

The old musket hanging on the back is a Tower Confederate musket from the Civil War. The skull was found by a classmate along the road and partly damaged. Not too old, some unfortunate guy who got on the wrong side of a bullet I suppose.

I was 14 or 15 when this photo was taken.

Edited September 28, 2014 by jpevahouse

[caldigger]

You kids found some neat stuff "back in the day". Was the musket found out in the field or indoors?

[jpevahouse]

My brother and I saw the Tower musket and a Springfield for sale in the window of the hardware store at Linden, TN. They weren't much but we didn't have much to spend. We saved and bought the Tower which had the stock shortened. A lot of people in Tennessee, like my great grandfather, used those old guns long after the Civil War and it was popular to cut down the stock. During the late 1960s I traded the Tower for two Indian pots. Don't know who got the better deal.

We fired the Tower once. It had been left loaded and lucky the barrel didn't expode. We were lucky.

We also admired two great pieces of Mississippian Indian pottery in a store Decataur County, TN. found along the Tennessee River One was a frog effigy, the other a larger pot with painted design still visible. Again, we probably made the wrong decision buying the painted pot and leaving the effigy because it cost about 10.00 more. That's all water under the bridge now, as they say.

You kids found some neat stuff "back in the day". Was the musket found out in the field or indoors?

Edited September 28, 2014 by jpevahouse

[Auspex]

I can smell the 'lacquer' on that old polaroid...

[squali]

Cool stuff. I think I see a reconstruction on the skull.

Is that a clay cap he's wearing? Thanks for posting this.

It brings back memories of the small local native American museums

of my youth.

[Plantguy]

Very neat display! Do you recall what kinds of fossils you had? Do you still have them? Were the ledgers/books yours as well? Looks like the ledger label dates say 1880's and 1890's...do you recall what they were from--I cant make the writing out?

Thanks for showing us......the wife and I were out antiquing (just looking--too broke to buy) this past weekend and saw alot of really neat similar collectible stuff....even had a treat to see some Mazon Creek Calamites plant fossils and quite a few indian artifacts as well...

Regards, Chris

[jpevahouse]

We found the ledger books hidden in the wall of an abandoned house out in the country. They were from the old Dean and Black merchantile store at Linden TN during the 1880s recording their daily sales. There were also old advertisements on letterhead receipts for goods bought. My ancestors names were frequently recorded buying their monthly rations. Perry County sits on a massive strata of Ordovician limestone. We found crinoids, coral, trilobites, brachiopods and other types of early marine life.

For the Civil War centenial in 1961 we rented a school bus and the club went to Nashville to see an early Civil War re-enactment of the battle of Nashville. We did other things like a professional style excavation on an Indian site along the Tennessee River, some camping trips and cave exploring.

Very neat display! Do you recall what kinds of fossils you had? Do you still have them? Were the ledgers/books yours as well? Looks like the ledger label dates say 1880's and 1890's...do you recall what they were from--I cant make the writing out?

Thanks for showing us......the wife and I were out antiquing (just looking--too broke to buy) this past weekend and saw alot of really neat similar collectible stuff....even had a treat to see some Mazon Creek Calamites plant fossils and quite a few indian artifacts as well...

Regards, Chris

Edited September 29, 2014 by jpevahouse

[jpevahouse]

My uncle drove a road gratter for the county. He was gratting the side of the rode and the skull came rolling down the bank. When he picked it up it was complete. Somehow a kid I knew in grade school who lived near the site ended up with the skull. For some unknown reason he smashed the face off (or his little brother). Later, when I found out he had the skull he brought it to school and gave it to me. My brother now has the skull. I was always so annoyed by the kid breaking the face so I repaired it with plaster.

Years later my brother and I went to the site to see if there were any other bones. To add to the mystery we found a pile of rocks on the top of the hill near where my uncle said he found the skull. Under the pile of rocks were human bone fragments and human teeth caps, very old, too old to match the skull. I've always assumed they were Indian bones.

Cool stuff. I think I see a reconstruction on the skull.
Is that a clay cap he's wearing? Thanks for posting this.
It brings back memories of the small local native American museums
of my youth.

Edited September 29, 2014 by jpevahouse

[Plantguy]

Thanks for all the details--wonderful to hear about the ties to the family and some of the things you did while growing up. What a treasure trove that picture is! Wow! Regards, Chris