Bricks and coal

[julieburger]

On the old farm I have been Mding I keep finding old bricks and bits of coal. I expected this around the house but I am now finding them in the crop field. I haven't found any coins yet but there is usually bottles or zinc lids or nails, I even found overall buttons (near the house). The ones in the field have only been nails til tonight then I found a small part of an old iron stove door. Foes anyone have any ideas or experience as to why the bricks and coal?

[mtpockets]

Maybe it was an old shed of some kind that burned..
or even could've been an old Barbecue pit..

How big of a area are you finding them in?

[bigbillinsc]

if they didnt make their own soap it is probably where they dumped ashes away from the house. they wouldnt risk dumping a hot coal near tthe house to start afire. i remember as a kid toating ashes more than fifty yards from the house just to dump em.

[julieburger]

THe area is too large to be a shed. Big bill I have found the ash pits alot closer to the house these have just a few coals and then a piece of brick, it is just weird.

[julieburger]

Went out in the garden again tonight more coal more bricks and more old iron.

[Winger Ed.]

That is strange.
Farmers back then didn't have much money-- actually, nobody did.
You didn't see them waste much of anything.

There's no apparant reason bricks would be scattered around like that.
As expensive as bricks were, they got saved and probably put in a pile to be used again if a chimney, wall, or building was torn down.
If they're scattered very far, its almost as if kids were throwing them at each other*.

*
That's something like my cousins and I would do when we were kids.

Something that was done in years past was to burn any/all animals that had died of a disease.
That would explain coals out in the fields, but it wouldn't be done anywhere near the house or barn.

Buried jars of nails?
That's a head scratcher too.
You'd expect a few here and there that fell off a farm machine & got tilled under,
but not more than a couple. Unless again, its kids playing around.
To them, they may not have been just jars of nails, but Pirate Treasure!!

.

.

[julieburger]

Oh no I am sorry not a jar of nails but jars....and nails. This is pretty close to the barn, but not right beside it. The bricks are always in a hole where there is also coal. Maybe I can take a photo tomorrow. I just can't imagine if they were being thrown that there would be coal too. I am perplexed. Also the jars were near the house so I got that and the first bricks were near the house too, but now I am way out from the house. I asked my dad if there was a structure there but he said not in his lifetime.

[creekrat]

it could of been a blacksmiths shop close to the barn,are the bricks in a square like a fire box?soldiers often done this in there huts,found any barrel rings?they used barrels as chimneys dont see that going on down that way.seen it in va and colder places in winter huts.coal will drive ya nuts at times metalurgical coal..............creek

[LaRoper]

Don't forget to think about what may have been there way before the farm. A brick yard maybe?
Keep searching, you will find something that will clue you in on what was there.
LR