On a beautiful winter day, my wife Kelley and I set out to explore the remnants of an old sawmill that once stood on Big Brook in the mountains of Wilbraham. Built by Moses Hancock in the 1800s, this sawmill was an intriguing piece of local history we were eager to uncover. We started our journey on the old Third Road, where Moses himself had once lived. The area was lined with ancient stone walls, a testament to the early farming life of this community. Some majestic trees had survived over the centuries, likely serving as shade for those early farmers.
Hiking south along Big Brook towards the town of Hampden, we stumbled upon the ruins of an old dam. However, it wasn't the dam we were searching for. This dam lay on the border between Wilbraham and Hampden. Determined, we decided to head north, back upstream. Old maps suggested that the dam we sought was much further north, an adventure for another day.
As we enjoyed the crisp, clear, but very cold day, we began to head back. It was then that we discovered what appeared to be an old farmer's dump. While poking around, I noticed a piece of glass sticking out of the ground. It turned out to be an old bottle, upside down and surrounded by rocks. The ground was frozen solid, making it difficult to retrieve the bottle without breaking it. Carefully, I worked to free it, managing only to spin the bottle in the ground. This indicated it was likely intact and had a larger lip than the neck. Not wanting to risk damaging what appeared to be a fine specimen of an old medicine bottle, we decided to leave it and return in the spring when the frost had thawed.
A couple of months later, on a much warmer day, I returned to see if the bottle could be retrieved undamaged. To my delight, it lifted straight out of the ground, completely intact. The bottle was a beautiful example of an 1860s-era Citrate-style medicine bottle from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It was from the firm C. Ellis Son & Co., founded by Charles Ellis, the fourth President of the Philadelphia College of Pharmacy. The firm, established in 1832, had grown into a significant wholesale and drug manufacturing business. Their primary product was Citrate of Magnesia, a digestive cure that this bottle likely contained. The bottle featured an applied double collar-style lip and a cylinder-shaped body, embossed with the company name and city (PHILADA).
Our winter exploration had turned into a remarkable journey through history, and the discovery of this pristine bottle was the perfect reward for our persistence.
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