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Clay Pipes – Historic Logging Camp

Clay pipes These clay pipes found during 1999 investigations at a historic logging camp in Oneida County, Wisconsin, come from both a geographic and temporal range. From the top are pipe stems with the labels “HENDERSON” (“MONTREAL” on the opposite site), “ODWYER BROS” (“DETROIT” on the opposite side) and “DOR” and “DORNI” (all or part of “PETER” on the opposite side). The Henderson pipe, from a Canadian manufacturer, dates to 1847–1876 (Hinshelwood 1995:389). The O’Dwyer Bros. name was not used before 1888, though the 1880 Detroit city directory lists John and Michael O’Dwyer as pipe makers (Sudbury 1979:167). The Peter Dorni pipes could trace to that manufacturer in northern France circa 1850–1880, or to the work of a Dutch imitator (Hinshelwood 1995:392). The pipes, along with amethyst-tinted glass, the presence of square nails, and the absence of wire or round nails, suggested that the site dates to the late 1880s.

Hinshelwood, Andrew
1995    Descriptive Analysis of 19th Century European Clay Pipes from the Whitefish Island Site (Cdlc-2), Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario. The Wisconsin Archeologist 76(3–4):365–398.

Sudbury, Byron
1979    Historic Clay Tobacco Pipe Makers in the United States of America. In The Archaeology of the Clay Tobacco Pipe, Volume II: The United States of America, edited by Peter Davey, pp. 151-341. BAR International Series 60. British Archaeological Reports, Oxford.