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House renovation reveals a hidden hilarious 136-yr-old feud between construction workers
When you renovate an old home, you never know what you're going to find. Some unexpected discoveries are a bummer (hello, asbestos) but sometimes you can get some delightful glimpses into the past. Maybe a forgotten stash of cash or an old tool or a note from a previous owner.But if you're like one lucky Plymouth family, you get the dish on a petty spat between co-workers from over a century ago.Someone on Reddit shared a photo of a framed piece of wood with handwriting on it, with the caption "136-year-old note found on a shingle when my parents renovated their house." They added that the text, which is written in beautiful penmanship, reads:"I was discharged from work on this house by McBride the Bulldog for being drunk only once, when he is drunk all the time. Carpenter Smith, Plymouth March 27, 1888.”Well, well, well. Mr. Smith had his drunken pantaloons in a twist that day, didn't he.
from FoundPaper
People wanted to get to the bottom of the shingle storyJust one sentence tells a story that people in the comments were dying to get to the bottom of. Who was this Carpenter Smith and McBride the Bulldog? What's with the nickname? Was is complementary or insulting? Was Smith really only drunk one time on the job or was he just angry at being discharged? Did I imagine someone, someday, turning over that shingle and finding his note? One thing is for sure—Smith definitely couldn't have imagined a bunch of strangers discussing his note on a Reddit thread on the internet on their computers or mobile phones. Those words wouldn't even have meant anything to him in 1888, a little over a decade after the first basic telephone was patented by Alexander Graham Bell. via GIPHYOne super sleuth did a little digging and found out who Smith and McBride may actually have been. Self-professed amateur genealogist "digginroots" shared:"McBride the Bulldog was probably Thomas C McBride, a carpenter who was listed in Hull, Plymouth, Massachusetts in the 1880 census (which is right by Nantasket) and in Nantasket in the 1900 census. He was born in Maine in 1830 and died in Boston of heart failure on 5 Jan 1911. He had a son, William, who was also a carpenter and died in 1913, and his wife Harriet died in 1885.I’m guessing Smith was James William Smith, who was born in Oak Island, Nova Scotia in 1830 and was also listed as a carpenter in Hull in the 1880 census. His father was from Scotland. He died in Hull on 24 Nov 1892 of nephritis (his love of the drink possibly being a contributing factor)."Ah, the beauty of Reddit bringing together people of various niche interests. The original poster was elated to have this unproven-but-entirely possible little history to add to the shingle's story. "I can’t wait to show this to my parents, they’re going to be thrilled," they wrote. Home renovations can be full of surprise treasuresPotentially finding hidden treasures is one of the joys of owning an old home. One couple found that their old home renovation turned up all kinds of happy surprises, from antique trinkets to cast iron stoves to beautiful four-panel doors that had been covered up by 1960s space-age stylings. via GIPHYBut even homes that aren't that old can have some delightful discoveries. Another couple was having their bathroom remodeled in 2015 when they found a photo of the previous owners hidden behind the walls along with a note, dated 1995, that read, "What's wrong with the way we did it?" HA. All of these tales are reminders that buildings tell stories. Our homes have a million stories to tell about the people who lived there, the people who built them, and the people who dreamed them into existence. What a fun gift to get a small glimpse of a bigger story written on a single shingle.
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