Central Female Institute - A Female College Experience in 19th Century Mississippi

Donna - I'd love to see those. My father and my grandfather used to collect all kinds of glass insulators. I remember going with them out to the country to try to find them.
By the way, in my article I called it a "conductor". It's actually an "insulator". Sorry about the confusion.
I love those things myself. My oldest insulator dates to the 1850's but it is in several pieces. Heavy equipment got to it. If I find one, I pick it up. I love the ones with patent dates because it takes the guess-work out of the age.
 
I went back out to the site this afternoon after our storms yesterday.
The site prep is in full swing. They have dug several large pits on the property and used the dirt to build up other areas needing to be elevated.

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I was surprised to see this feature exposed. Not sure what it is but the heavy equipment excavator tore into this subterranian brick layer that's at least 2 layers thick. It extends down 6 feet at least. Is this the remains of an old cistern? Maybe a cellar structure?
The bricks are VERY old, I'm sure dating to the original 1852 construction of the college buildings. I believe this to be true because the bricks are large and appear to be made on site with local clay and lots of sand. So much sand was used in the construction of the bricks that as I was trying to pull a brick out of the wall, it broke in two in my hands.

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Here's the bottom of the pit. It looks like a beach - there's so much sand in this strata layer.

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I did find a few relics around the site.
An old door key, a clay marble, a blue bottle and a decorative hinge to a trunk.
 
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