Friday, November 30, 2007

Treasures Within Our Walls






I live in an old house that was built in 1869. This summer we had the front porch renovated. Working on the joists our contractor had to remove an outside wall leading to the floor of one of the bedrooms. To their amazement, there inside the wall under the floorboards were old love letters dated from 1876 to 1878, tin type photos (one in civil war uniform) and a button or cuff link, it is hard to tell which it is. We will never know why they were hidden but we know for a fact that our house was built and occupied by one of the earlier mayors of our town. The builder/owner married a very young girl from Ireland. We also learned that she had a sister who lived with them as servant. I guess we have to do more digging ...

What are we going to do with these treasures? We don't know yet but right now they are being tucked away (again) only this time they are not in a dark and gloomy place.

The top photo is an envelope with a postage stamped 1879.
The middle is just a few of the love letters.
The bottom is a close up of the tin type photos and either a button or cuff link.

15 comments:

Mari said...

If they were hidden under the floor boards there must've been something going on. And who might the letter be from and to whom? Something happened during those day, and that's a mystery you have to unfold. Hah, more sleuthing for you to do.

Nance said...

You got that right, mari... they were not hidden for nothing... probably a hanky panky? lol who knows? the names were of the sister and her boyfriend maybe? she was 21 and he was 16 but she later married a different guy.
now i can't wait to have the original rooms renovated!

ev said...

wow!amazing nance!i feel like i wanna know the antique love story behind those love letters..nakaka curious naman yan.

Nance said...

sure is, ev! since those letters are over 100 yrs old they are hard to read. when me and hubby have more time, we will really look into them and try to decipher the handwriting, it's like calligraphy style :)

Utah Mommy said...

Sure my pleasure! If you can add my other sites too then that would be deeply appreciated by me. Here's the link http://sweet-darlene.blogspot.com http://situlas.com and the third is http://sweethatskie.bravejournal.com. Thank you nance for the warm approached! Will add you later today for sure. Thanks again and have a good day!

Nance said...

you're added, darlene! welcome to my blog and pls come back.

Anonymous said...

nance, this is pretty exciting and becoming very interesting. the person kept it there for a taboo reason, who knows. please update us, ms detective.

nini

Nance said...

i sure will, nini.
actually we found more than the love letters and photos but i can't discuss it online. will talk more about it after things are confirmed.

Unknown said...

really Nance?1869??

i dont know why I have goosebumps all over me right now..

gee,thats so strange,but pretty awesome,right?

can i ask you a question?is there any ghosts?well,i do beleive that ghosts are everywhere,its the matter of seeing them or not right?

take care always dear!
ghee

Nance said...

we believe our house is haunted, ghee. we've heard a lot of strange sounds over our 21 yrs of living in this house ... i think they are friendly ghosts though. :)

enjoy ur day!

Unknown said...

I knew it,Nance! buti na lang theyre friendly :)


Happy weekend!
hugs,
ghee

Ann said...

1869? Buti buo pa rin yan? Nababasa pa ba?

war21x3b said...

This is a very bad history when people have to hide their love letters.

Nance said...

war21 ... that's for sure, something was going on. thanks for your visit.

Vk-mahalkaayo said...

1869???
naku antik na pala yon bahay nyo?
mga antik or old houses here, kahit private, hindi pinag-iba ang designed or can renovated pero the same style lang rin.
naku, mahal yan, antic.
ghost-sa bisaya sabi namin, NOT LIKE OURS!!!...lol
takot ako noon, pagsabi nila na may NLO sa amin bahay or doon or dito....lol.....jokes only.

baka yon letters nakita mo, baka my story yon, bakit they kept it ano?
Meron love story or story....siguro nice story nila...hmhmm

about the stamps, 1879 dated, ay antic din, lahat na antic are precious....hindi ba?

thanks for sharing, Nance....