1850-1920 Texas Frontier Site in Dripping Springs, TX.

Material evidence ranges in date from the mid 19th century to the late 1920’s. The site is open to the public as a restaurant, bar, and distillery. Visit Treat Oak Distilling to learn more.

This is the distinguishing piece of the Howe sewing machine found at the Ghost Hill homesite. Howe is known as the inventor of the modern sewing machine and famous for suing Singer for stealing his design and winning. This machine traveled from New York to the Texas frontier to help mend clothes. Several other clothing items were discovered nearby.
This Howe sewing machine arm was later found excavating a section of collapsed stone fence where items were discarded in the late 1920s or early 1930s. This piece was found under a heap of other large iron objects that were removed from the homesite.

The location of material evidence suggests that the original homestead was built in the mid-late 19th century and burned down, or was otherwise destroyed in the late 1920’s.

The primary evidence for the destruction of the homestead is the displacement of items, specifically pieces of a mid 19th century Elias Howe sewing machine–most of the pieces of the machine were found together at the home site, whereas a large component of the sewing machine was found in an apparent trash pit buried under a rock fence approximately 50 meters from the home site. The trash pit only contained large items that would have been more easily located in the the debris of the burned home before being moved to the rock fence.

For more information about the site, check out Historic Ghost Hill Ranch

 

The Ghost Hill Collection

The collection will be updated as more photos are processed and information made available.

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