# Buried Treasure



## SKAustin (Dec 12, 2009)

One of our plans for an upcomming Halloween display was to decorate our enclosed front porch as a Witch's house. One of the key fixtures for this display was to be a bookshelf of potion bottles and jars of different ingredients and curiosities. Over the past year, my wife and I have visited several Garage sales, and I am always keeping an eye out for old bottles.










While digging a large hole in which to bury some excess stone, I happened upon a few small bottles buried about 18" deep. My 15 year old son took an interest and took over the dig. Since the immediate area is all slated to become part of our vegetable garden expansion, I allowed him to dig to his hearts content.

After 2 days, we finally gave up on digging up the yard. Within the approximately 100 square foot area that we dug, we discovered a total of 31 jars bottles and medicinal vials, all dating back to the late 1800's and early 1900's.

Several of the bottles we found have one type of marking or another, but only 8 of them have any type of labling print. The three cobalt blue bottles are all marked "BROMO-SELTZER EMERSON DRUG CO. BALTIMORE, MD", which are apparently very common and worth very little (about $3-$5).










The others, seen here, are marked with the following (right to left) DR. J.R. MILLER'S MAGNETIC BALM (on sides of bottle), HARRIS PURE FLAVORS BINGHAMTON, NY, SCOTT'S SPRING BOTTLING WORKS SCHENECTADY, NY ("S" in Schenectady is printed backwards and apparently upside-down as well), SCOTT'S SPRING BOTTLING WORKS SCHENECTADY, NY BEER (on front) THIS BOTTLE NOT TO BE SOLD (on back) A.C.W. (on bottom), and GUARANTEED FULL PINT H.HEILBRONNER & CO. WHOLESALE LIQUOR DEALERS SCHENECTADY, NY.

Anyone who may have information on any of these bottles, or on the companies named on them, please share your info. I plan to bring these all by a local bottle museum to try to gain some information on them all. Ultimately, unless there is any significant value to any of them, they will all be incorporated into the Witch's personal apothecary in this years Halloween home haunt.


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## jaege (Aug 23, 2009)

Great find! And you cannot beat that price, considering the labor was provided by your son!!


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## DarkLore (Jan 25, 2009)

Wow. I'm sending my kids to go dig up the yard right now. It took me the better part of a yard to find cheap useable bottles for my witches pantry.

I hate to do this, but I'm going to point to another forum. Check out Yubney's witch scene in his enclosed front entry. Makes me jealous I don't have a useable space like that. He made terrific use of his entry space.


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## Spooky1 (Aug 25, 2008)

That's a very cool find. Sounds like you have a budding archaeologist for a son.


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## spideranne (Jul 17, 2006)

Awesome find. You might check the local library/historical society and see if they have information about who owned the land in that time period. Maybe your house is on Haunted land.


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## RoxyBlue (Oct 6, 2008)

I think it was pretty common some generations ago for people to bury both their dead kin and their trash on their private property. My grandmother had a small trash dump hidden in the woods on her land that had probably been there for a couple generations before she was born. I remember going back there with one of my cousins who had a BB gun to shoot the glass bottles.

Anyway, very nice find and you have the added bonus of a well-tilled garden courtesy of your son


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## debbie5 (Mar 2, 2007)

I live right near Schenectady! You have probably discovered a Privy Pit...tell your son he has been excavating 150 year old POO! LOL. The National Bottle Museum is in Ballston Spa, NY and they are a bunch of AMAZING bottle nerds. They will be able to tell u every & anything. I have worked with them before as I found a similar cache on my great grandmother's farm. U can call them or send them your pic. Where in upstate NY are you SK?? I found my g'mothers cache on her old farm outside of Clifton Park. The farm was from 1830 or so, but may have been built on an even earlier foundation (1700's). Here's your link:
http://www.nationalbottlemuseum.org/

I know there were a lot of bottlers near the Erie Canalway in Schenectady, as there are some springs that used to (and still do) run out of hillsides over on the west side of town. The would manufacture & bottle the items right there & pop them onto a waiting barge. I'm sure City Historic Society nerds down in the Stockade section can help u as well.

Okay..so Henry Heilbronner came from Germany, was a Jew and one the most successful booze dealers in the area....this is interesting! I'm still looking...

antiquebottles.com seems promising....
http://www.antiquebottles.com/southeast/mar03.html

You could get in touch with this guy:
http://brucemobley.com/beerbottlelibrary/ny/schenectady/schenectady.htm


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## SKAustin (Dec 12, 2009)

Debbie, Thank you for all the info so far. I'm in Scotia. And just a bit of info on our Home. I bought the house from my parents, who purchased the house back in 1971. A few years after they bought it, they were visited by a 60 y/o lady who was born in the house. She gave them a photo of the house taken in 1911, which can be seen on my website at the bottom of the "about me" section.

According to my parents research, the house is one of the original homes built in the village of scotia. When they purchased the house, my father was shown a photo of the glen sanders mansion taken from the front porch of our house, which now lies several blocks away. If you are at all familliar with the Village, the original property lines were from mohawk ave to sacandaga road to vley rd to church st to collins st.

Apparently, back in the late 1800s, it was common practice to bury your trash. In addition to all of the Bottles, there was several other pieces of trash. Some we saved, most we threw away. Lots of broken porcelean. A few creepy broken facial pieces of Porcelean Dolls. TONS of broken glass.


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## Revenant (Mar 17, 2007)

PLEASE tell me you saved the creepy broken porcelain doll faces!


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## fick209 (Aug 31, 2009)

Wonderful find SK!


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## SKAustin (Dec 12, 2009)

Revenant said:


> PLEASE tell me you saved the creepy broken porcelain doll faces!


Unfortunantly Rev, there really wasnt any large enough pieces to use. If I had found a big enough piece, or enough pieces of one face, I would have saved them, but i really didnt have anything usable.

I was hoping to find more so that i might have had enough to glue a partial face over the top of a small skull, but no such luck.

I am considering doing some more digging, so maybe ill get more next time.


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## debbie5 (Mar 2, 2007)

Wow, SK. Now I gotta check out your place at Halloween! YAY!


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## badger (Jul 28, 2010)

That's awesome. I love the pics and descriptions...


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## trentsketch (Jul 27, 2009)

The latest Martha Stewart Living issue had a big article on bottle collecting. I recognize some of those from the photos. There was a whole bunch of info on the different styles, materials, and where to get more info. Find a copy if you get a chance.


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## debbie5 (Mar 2, 2007)

Looks like Henry Heilbronner ended up buried in Butte Montana....born Dec 2 1838, died Aug 26 1884..his spouse was Delia (this may r may not be the right guy, but he was buried in a Jewish cemetery).. In 1880 was still in Schenectady (census). I found his will reference #, but you have to go to city records to see it.I'd find more but my man deleted all of my other search engines...this is fun. I REALLY want more infor on where Scotts Springs was. I'm guessing by that gas station on lower Broadway that had the whole hillside wash it away a few years ago...


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## debbie5 (Mar 2, 2007)

Are these Henry's old items acquired in 1894? 
http://www.britishmuseum.org/resear...ch_the_collection_database.aspx&currentPage=1

In the Schenectady County Historical Society newsletter from Nov-Dec. 2007, it says a "Glass bottle from Henry Heilbronner & Co. , Importers and Wholesale Liquor Dealers , Est. 1865-1918" was donated by John Ackner to the Maybee Farm & Museum. (no pic)

Some investor & cattleman named Henry Heilbronner helped some friends in Milwaukee start a distillery business 1883-1886..not much info...is this him? A son? I suppose the will ref # I found about might say if he had a son.
http://www.sensient-tech.com/pdf/Anniv Book.pdf

http://www.fundinguniverse.com/comp...Technologies-Corporation-Company-History.html

Here is a pic of Peabody CLub Whiskey, made by Bluthenthal & Heilbronner but in Memphis Tennesee? Two Jews in TN? Wholesale only..
http://bottlesboozeandbackstories.blogspot.com/2009_09_01_archive.html


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## SKAustin (Dec 12, 2009)

Funny thing, I just found out today on the Scott's Spring Beer Bottle. Not only does the clear Scotts Spring bottle have a misprint(backwards S), but so does the brown Scott's Spring beer bottle. The beer bottle has the misspelling "SCHNECTADY" (missing E). I'm guessing thats where all the drop-outs worked back then, LoL.

Thanks again for all the info Debbie, And both you and your man are most welcome to come visit on Halloween..


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## SKAustin (Dec 12, 2009)

Thanks Trentsketch, I'll have to look into that..


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