All the lots on the east side of Centennial Lane were farmed in some sort of row crop by then, as were the eastern portions of the lots on the west side of the street. For the most part, our research indicates that most of the now-wooded portions of the lots on the west side of Centennial Lane were never built on or farmed. Prior to European settlement, this neighborhood was largely black oak barren and wet prairie. The wet prairie (now the western portion of the western lots) may have been too soggy to farm in the 1800s, especially considering the savannah-like black oak barrens were so fertile.
We live on the west side. In the process of transplanting a small tree in the unwooded part of the property, we unearthed a horseshoe at a depth of about one foot, an indication it had been plowed under at some point. Despite being buried for decades, it was totally encrusted in a thick layer of rust. After a 3-day soak in vinegar and some scrubbing, a good deal of rust had been removed. This is the "inside" of the shoe (the part against the horse's hoof) showing some bare metal.
Another day and some more elbow grease, and the nail holes were open, and a remaining hand-wrought nail was exposed.
At this point the shoe was giving away clues to its age. The iron has a distinct wood-grain look. Wrought iron was made from iron ore mixed with silica (sand). The silica when heated turns into glass. Upon removal from the forge, the mixture was hammered (wrought) into bars and returned to the furnace. How many times this was done depended on the quality of iron desired. As these old wrought iron pieces rust, the rust consumes the iron, but not the glass, leaving behind a layers of iron protected by layers of glass. This strand-like effect indicates a piece of forged wrought iron.
While hand-wrought or wrought iron cut nails are old, the one in this shoe is too far gone to really see how it was shaped or constructed. Likewise, one can't tell if the nail holes were cut or punched.
A precise age, of course, is impossible to determine. The earliest surveys here (by Europeans likely to have shoed horses, at any rate) were done around 1819. The first blacksmith in Washtenaw County was John Kelly near Ypsilanti in 1825. The earliest blacksmith closest to here was Reid Gillett, in Saline, who set up shop in 1831. Perhaps these facts indicate that it is no older than 190 years or so. By 1860, the county had 21 blacksmiths. This was also the time when many implements once made by blacksmiths started to be manufactured in factories.
It takes awhile to lose as much iron to rust as this horseshoe has lost. While some loss may have been attributable to wear, look at the variation in the thickness of the shoe.
I would guess this shoe is from the mid- to late 1800s, and am reasonably sure it is at least 100 years old. If only it could talk.
