While some people read about history, Ted Davi prefers to hold it. He has been sifting through soil in Ligonier Township to touch a real piece of the past.
A few miles from the Diamond in Ligonier, just off Route 711 north, sits the 1780s home of James Pollock, an 18th-century attorney, jurist and military leader in Westmoreland County.
Since June, Davi and several associates have been scraping and digging on three acres at the Pollock homestead to search for clues to the everyday life of Pollock and his family.
Davi's archaeological dig has the support of the current property owners, Steve and Tracy Pelesky. The Pelesky home and grounds on Robb Road will be part of the Westmoreland County Historical Society's annual Historic House Tour to be held on Sept. 25.
Participants will have the opportunity to try their hand at archaeological research when they visit the Pollock House and gently shovel away two centuries of soil, Davi said.
They just might uncover something that stirs an interest in lives already lived, according to Davi, 73, a New York City native and an economic development specialist who has lived in Greensburg for 13 years.
Davi traces his interest in amateur archaeology to his wife's ancestral estate in Groton, Conn. Joan Davi is descended from the Puritans who sailed with John Winthrop to the New World in 1620. The family homestead in Groton was built soon afterward by patriarch James Avery. The so-called Hive of the Averys was destroyed by fire in 1894. Ted and Joan Davi began digging in the 1990s.
While that project goes forward, Davi has turned his attention to the Pollock House and the secrets that could be awaiting discovery.
Archaeology permits the people of one epoch to hold in their hands the heirlooms, objects and handiwork of another. What appeals to Davi is "the reality of it all."
So far, the returns have been meager: two 18th-century nails and a half-dozen shards of pottery.
"It's a start. We hope to find more," Davi said.
Davi's team, which includes Scott Mason of Greensburg, began digging in the vicinity where it is believed a log cabin, burned to the ground by Indians or another frontier enemy, once stood.
Davi said his ultimate goal is to pinpoint the location of the Pollock family outhouse.
"The outhouse was America's original landfill," he explained.
Discards might include cooking utensils, playthings and household products like clocks or brassware.
Whatever he finds will hopefully be useful in piecing together a sense of what daily life was like for Pollock, a member of the state legislature and a Revolutionary War militia leader who was on friendly terms with Arthur St. Clair, a county resident and Revolutionary War brigadier general who served under George Washington.
"Whatever Mr. Davi finds is fine with us," said Tracy Pelesky, who moved with her husband into the Pollock House in 2005, after purchasing the 13-room residence from Charles Fagan of Ligonier.
"We have no idea what is around here," Pelesky added. Any unearthed artifacts eventually will be put on display in the Ligonier Valley Library, she said.
She said her husband, a stonemason, eventually wants to remove the stucco added to the mansion in more recent years in order to expose the home's original fieldstone. But the arrivals of 2-year-old Cole and 10-month-old Connor have placed those plans on hold, she said.
Pelesky noted Davi and his three-member team are meticulously neat. Their digs are repaired before they leave for the day. "We don't even know they're out there," Pelesky said.
Author: Richard Robbins | Source: Pittsburgh Tribune Review [September 07, 2010]