Accomack ‘mystery’ artifact old tool used to dig wells
Otho W. Mears, 90, called the Eastern Shore News one day to say he knew the solution to the mystery of the artifact found in the woods near Pungoteague.
The heavy iron tool — almost as long as a man’s leg, with a ring at one end and a curve at the other — has generated a lot of speculation since Bagley Walker brought it to the News in July in an effort to determine what it was used for. Theories ranged from the serious — “something to do with the railroad?” — to the tongue-in-cheek — “Paul Bunyan’s bottle opener?”
Mears, a retired auctioneer, said the tool is a lifting iron, used in the making of water wells, and asked if he could stop by to explain how it worked.
No reporter worth her salt would turn down that offer, seeing as Mears likely has handled hundreds of vintage tools over the years in his line of work — he ran a popular auction on his property near Parksley from 1973 to 2000.
“So right in my immediate yard ... I kept it right there,” Mears said of the business.
'I know what it is': Ex-auctioneer on mystery artifact
He still lives on the property, which as of Aug. 8 has been in the family for 100 years, and sleeps in the same room where he was born.
Before opening the auction house there, Mears worked with his father, also an auctioneer, holding sales from lower Delaware all the way down to Cape Charles.
Additionally, he belongs to a local group of folks that like to restore old tractors and other farm implements and himself has a collection of around 400 farm-related items, including an entire area devoted to the butchering and meat processing that used to take place on local farms in autumn.
“A certain segment of the people ... this thing starts talking to you,” he said of the tool.
Mears said he got a chuckle from reading in the newspaper article some people’s explanations for its use, adding he recognized pretty quickly what it was — and what it wasn’t.
If it was a pulling instrument, as some said, the ring at the top would be different, he said, noting, “Anybody ought to pick that up.”
He even called Walker to confirm that the bottom of the flattened curved part showed signs of battering, which would help confirm his theory. It did.
Mears admired the workmanship that went into the tool, saying, “The blacksmith that made this thing ... he put some thought into that thing.”
Mystery artifact theories abound in Accomack
While he never saw the old open-top wells being dug himself, he liked to listen to older residents who during the course of conversations about bygone times explained the process, which was sometimes a dangerous one.
“I sat around at the old country stores and listened ... some of the old-timers used to talk about setting up a rig to do the wells, and about some accidents that would happen,” he said.
Mears arrived at the News office on a Wednesday afternoon, carrying a large cardboard box containing props he had made to illustrate his explanation.
He had put a lot of thought into the presentation.
Mysterious artifact found in woods near Pungoteague
Most notably, he had hammered out a model, about 8 inches long and made of soft iron, of the original tool. Along with pieces of pipe of various diameters and lengths, he used the model to show how the tool was used to “settle” sections of terra cotta pipe, which locals call well pots.
It was a convincing demonstration.
Mears allowed that, seeing as wells didn’t need to be dug too often, the tool could have been used for another purpose afterward — which could explain people’s recollections of such an instrument being used for some completely different task.
“You only drove a well once ... They saw their daddy grab it up” and use it for something else, like lifting a cesspool cover or digging up rutabagas.
“They didn’t throw anything away,” he said.
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