Just to clarify: The chunk of wood photographed with the yellow background is an 2 1/2 foot section of a much longer, octagonally carved, wooden pipe with an approx. diameter of 24″, with a hollow core carved to about 6″ in diameter. We have two chunks like this, one from the bottom of the well had holes to draw water in.

The wodden contraption below that (in my hands) is a part of a chain of similar contraptions, each about 18-20″ long, with stoppers and valves at each end made of forged iron and possibly India rubber. This chain was drawn up the well, the valves opening and closing so as to draw water up the wooden pipe.

We’ve not been able to find other examples of well parts like this, from the first half of the 19th century. They were so well-preserved because they were not exposed to air, way down there in the muck.

Once exposed, when the excavators dug the thing up, it began to decompose quite rapidly. It is slowly crumbling.

I would love for anybody who wants to see it to come by the Historical Society. Maybe there’s an archeologist out there with a background in hydraulic engineering that can figure it out.

Dr. Day, Director ACHS