How many times have you been moving or cleaning out a garage when you stumble across something you’d thought you’d lost years earlier? Well teacher Michelle Eugenio was in the process of moving her fourth grade classroom when she stumbled across a document dating back to April 1792 under a stack of old text books. Now that’s quite a find!
Nobody knows how the document ended up in or how long it has been in Michelle’s classroom at Peabody Center School (in Peabody, MA) but it has been authenticated and it is confirmed to be from Colonial times. Peabody Historical Society President Bill Power verified the paper’s authenticity and was thrilled when the discovery was authentic. The document seems to be the payment of a debt by a Vermont man named Jonathan Bates who served in the Continental Army in 1780 and died in 1808 at age 63. He’s buried in Williamstown, Vt.
I live in California so we really can’t stumble across this sort of history but I wish we could because this a cool thing. I’m glad a teacher found the document and the sort of fascination and hands on experience the students will get from it will be priceless.
So the next time you see a stack of “trash” and are getting ready to throw it away, do a double check because you never know what sort of history you could discover.
