Courthouse portico restoration scheduled to resume next week
Barbara S. Miller/Observer-Reporter
This side of the metal hatchet, which was not exposed to the elements, shows ornate incising.
Barbara S. Miller/Observer-Reporter
A series of metal rings are attached to metal on the back of the polished oak cane.
Barbara S. Miller/Observer-Reporter
Justin Welsh, Washington County director of buildings and grounds, grips the business end of the object from the Caldwell Building.
A $1.131 million window replacement at the courthouse received a waiver from the state, so it has been proceeding during a period of lessened activity at the courthouse.
But when the main entrance of the courthouse was closed to the public late last year, no one envisioned that it would still be fenced off six months later.
Among the many construction projects that have been “on hold” during the activity shutdown related to the communicability of the novel coronavirus, work on the portico is scheduled to resume Monday.
The space beneath the portico yielded no buried treasure, but an unusual object apparently accompanied the $400,000 purchase of the Caldwell Building, 26 S. Main St., which was completed last year by the county.
Justin Welsh, director of building and grounds for Washington County, said the find came about in the basement of the Caldwell Building, which housed a local department store beginning in 1873.
“It was just lying there against a back corner of the wall,” he said of the tool, which appears to be a combination of a hatchet and oak cane or walking stick. One side that appears to have been exposed to moisture is tarnished or oxidized, but the obverse is relatively unscathed.
Because it was close to a water pump for fire suppression, it might be related to firefighting, he speculated.
The composition of the metal is unknown. “It’s definitely ornate,” Welsh said.
An online check of similar tools yielded what is called a shepherd’s ax.
Welsh grew up on a sheep and goat farm in the Claysville area, and, as if on cue, two goats started bleating during a phone conversation Tuesday about the implement.
“We have two goats that were Easter presents for our girls,” he explained.
The South African Boer pet goats are “taking care of my nasty hillside briar patch,” Welsh said. He keeps them inside the target area with a solar-powered electrified fence.
If a shepherd needs an ax, it’s conceivable that a goatherd might, too. Bo Peep-Peep and Coco, who were munching a late lunch, didn’t weigh in on the matter beyond an occasional “ma-a-a” or “ba-a-a.”
Clay Kilgore, Washington County Historical Society executive director, is the local go-to guy when it comes to old objects that turn up serendipitously. Although he hasn’t examined it, he had an advance look at the images accompanying this article and consulted a friend he didn’t identify.
“My friend confirmed my thoughts on the ax,” Kilgore wrote. “It is called a ciupaga, or Polish walking stick, also known as a shepherd’s ax or mountaineer’s ax,” which is “an important piece in Polish culture but is also a traditional tool for many countries that border the Carpathian Mountains.
“Without actually getting to see the ax, I can’t give you a date on it. But they have been in use for hundreds of years and are still used today.”
Renovations inside the Caldwell Building are among the projects that have been part of the temporary suspension of similar activities in Pennsylvania because of the pandemic.
What might become of the find is unknown, but Welsh said he’s open to “whatever the commissioners would like to do” with it.