Farmhouse treasures 11/6/221

The girls and I spent a little time down at the house. I focused on removing the very fragile bead board from the kitchen walls. As I was removing the boards, I noticed some writing on the back of them. Its hard to tell in the picture, but I'm pretty sure the stamp says 'H F Gilliam, Narunia VA'. The house is located in an area of Campbell County now called Naruna but I'm wondering if it used to be Narunia? I tried to do a little research but didn't come up with anything for HF Gilliam or Narunia. If anyone has any insight, please share. I love to learn the history of a property.

While I was working in the house, the girls went treasure hunting on the property. My daughter Maddie has become an expert treasure hunter since moving to our farm a few years ago. Before public dumps were available to take your garbage to, land owners would typically dump their waste somewhere on the property. It could be an area that was dug out and then filled with garbage, an outhouse or a lot of times, you can find treasures along an old creek bed. These places are commonly referred to as bottle dumps and bottle digging is actually a thing. Maddie has spent hours watching videos, learning all about where to find these dumps, what treasures are worth and even more hours spent digging in the bottle dump that she found on our property.

Some of Maddie's treasures from our property

Maddie and Faith found a few old ladders, lots of canning jars and a straight side Coke bottle from the early 1900's. To this day, that Coke bottle was probably her most exciting find. The blue mason jar pictured to the right has a patent date of 1858 embossed on the front. Maddie found that jar at the Gladys house, as well. Although we didn't get a whole lot of work done on the house, we have some really neat finds. I love to incorporate some of these treasures into the house somehow. I have some of her bottles found on our property displayed throughout our house.

We'll be keeping the bottle and jars, but you may see that ladder again. Stay tuned to find out!