Trivial Trivia - taking trivia to new levels

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(11-29-2014 07:50 AM)Eva Elisabeth Wrote:  

(11-28-2014 09:47 AM)Gene C Wrote:  Looks like the stove in the Lincoln's Springfield home.

Yes, and Wiki uses this photo of Mary's stove as a representative example of a 19century wood burning stove:
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wood-burning_stove

That stove is very similar to the one in the kitchen at Surratt House. When restoring the kitchen wing, we were faced with the dilemma of installing a cooking fireplace or a new-fangled stove. Surratt House was built in 1852, just at the time where cooking changed from fireplace to stove.

Back to the drawing boards and the archaeological digs. We found reference to repairs being made to a cook stove (thanks to the tavern records having been confiscated by the government in 1865 and now residing in the National Archives). Further investigation of the archaeological digs around the foundation, we found a good portion of the hearth with dimensions that indicated too little space for hearth cooking. Problem solved.

I am not a believer in mediums, but I must tell this tale. While we were still trying to find the hearth, we had an unannounced visit from a professed medium. We later learned that she had done work for the government on the matter of ghosts. After her tour, she announced to me that Surratt House has no ghosts - just bad feelings and emotions. That soothed my worried soul.

As I walked out the door and around the grounds with her, however, she asked what the digs were for and I explained that we were raising funds to rebuild the kitchen wing. I made a comment about trying to find the chimney or hearth foundations, and she pointed to a certain spot and told me to tell the archaeologists to try there. Several days later, she was proved correct. I'm still stubborn enough, however, to think that she made a logical guess seeing the dimensions of the builder's trench that had already been unearthed.