UNIDENTIFIED DOCUMENT — UD-0001
Partial Household Account — c. 1740s–1760s
Document Description:
Fragment of a handwritten household or trade account, badly stained along the lower edge. Several names are illegible. One surviving line appears to contain the surname Schitt, although the preceding given name cannot be reliably deciphered.
Legible entries include references to:
2 sacks meal
lamp oil
shoe leather
repair to wagon wheel
feed — 3 days
one iron hinge
A notation in the margin appears to read “paid in full”, although a second hand later crossed through full.
Archive Status: UNIDENTIFIED
Probable Date: c. 1740–1760
Relationship to established family: UND
Curator’s Note: No explanation has been located for why something apparently paid in full required further attention.
UNIDENTIFIED DOCUMENT — UD-0002
Property Sketch & Boundary Notes — c. 1830s–1840s
Document Description:
Small folded sheet containing a crude property sketch showing a creek, wagon track, fence line, two structures, and an unidentified adjoining parcel.
Three corners are marked conventionally.
The fourth is identified only as:
“from the large stone to where the animal usually stands”
A second hand subsequently added:
“which one?”
Neither the property owner nor surveyor is identified. The document was found among materials associated with early Little Schitt-area property records, but no corresponding deed has yet been located.
Archive Status: UNIDENTIFIED
Probable Date: c. 1835–1845
Possible association: Early Schitt property holdings
Relationship: UND
Archive Note: Researchers have been unable to determine the animal, where it stood, or why its continued cooperation was apparently assumed.
UNIDENTIFIED CORRESPONDANCE — UC-0013
Undelivered Personal Letter — c. 1890s
Document Description:
Single-page letter lacking both salutation and signature. The surviving envelope bears only:
Little Schitt’s Crossing, Tenn.
No recipient is named.
Much of the letter concerns ordinary family matters, including weather, someone’s injured hand, an expected visitor, and a request that a borrowed tool be returned.
Near the bottom appears the sentence:
“Tell him I know what he said, and he knows perfectly well why I ain’t answering it.”
The following two lines were deliberately scratched out heavily enough to damage the paper.
The final surviving sentence reads:
“Sunday will be soon enough.”
There is no indication that the letter was ever mailed.
Archive Status: UNIDENTIFIED
Probable Date: c. 1885–1900
Author: UND
Recipient: UND
Family association: Probable, unconfirmed
Curator’s Note: Whatever happened Sunday has not been identified. Several possibilities have been proposed. None have improved the situation.
GFM-01 — HAROLD’S BELL CONTROL
A small brass livestock bell was recovered with the papers. A handwritten tag attached to the clapper reads simply, “Return to Harold before Thursday.” No Harold has been identified.
Crock: Three unidentified documents ain’t bad. Could’ve been a lot worse.
Deep: Crock, how many unidentified documents do we actually have?
Crock: Depends considerably on what you mean by have.
Deep: And by identified, apparently.
Crock: That’s why we keep the boxes closed.
Deep: That’s why you keep the boxes closed.
— Crock & Cousin Deep, Archive Notes