By David Rogers. BLOWING ROCK, N.C. — What started out as a backyard project borne of aggravation quickly turned into an exciting adventure through Blowing Rock history, up on Green Hill Circle.
Debra Brenner was perplexed, even a little annoyed that a utility company had whacked off a wall of rhododendron on the edge of her family’s property. Previously, the big bushes served as a natural blind, providing a measure of privacy for her, her husband and any guests using a hot tub in the fenced yard. The foliage had all but screened them off from the outside world, creating an atmosphere of seclusion.
Of course, she understood the need for the utility company to clear an area around its equipment, whether power poles or transformers. Even the guy wires that help keep everything upright in the strong winds that can whistle through the trees atop the mountain needed to have a clear area around them. Still, the Brenners had enjoyed that measure of privacy.
“My mother taught me to always try making lemonade out of the lemons life sometimes throws at you,” Brenner said in telling her story to Blowing Rock News. “So I went out back with buckets of seed to scatter around in the upturned dirt, hoping for some wildflowers to help replace the rhododendron.”
This is where you can start calling Brenner, “Lucky” instead of a victim of circumstance.
Standing tall in the side yard of their lot is a large beech tree, its trunk and roots now starkly exposed where there was once a lovely stand of rhododendron. As she flung some seed over the beech tree roots, what she thought was a bottle cap beneath one of the roots caught her eye.
As Brenner reached down to pick it up — a bottle cap doesn’t belong in her new garden, after all — she saw elaborate etchings on a gold surface. Instantly, she knew this was not a bottle cap but something probably old and special.
“As I picked it up, I identified it pretty quickly as an old pocket watch,” said Brenner. “And I was really struck by the weight of it. I could not tell how old the watch might be because I was too nervous to even try opening it.”
Laughing, Brenner said, “I cradled this watch in my hands, not really knowing what I had found or what to do with it. I was in shock and disbelief. I started calling for my neighbor right across the street, Mark Gilleskie. I had seen him outside a couple of minutes earlier, but he had disappeared, at least for the moment. I kept calling for him and eventually he appeared. I showed him what I had found and took him to the site by the beech tree, where it had been in the dirt. He immediately scurried to their garden shed and came back with a shovel — and just as quickly started digging in hopes of finding more buried treasure!”
Embracing history
There was no more treasure to be found but Brenner soon took her new find to a friend, Charlie Travis, the owner of Village Jewelers on King Street in Boone. With the meticulous care that only a practiced jeweler knows, Travis opened the watch for the first time in perhaps one hundred years. On the face of it, one of the hands had rusted off, but when Travis opened the second door, he and Brenner were excited to find the watch case manufacturer’s paper label in perfect condition!
“There were some unusual bits of information, names, on the watch face that provided a few leads as to its origins,” said Brenner. “One that stuck out was ‘John Hancock.’ Another was ‘Canton, Ohio.’ We identified the manufacturer of the watch movements as the Hampden Watch Company. Then Charlie found the serial number and cleaned it up.”
Armed with the name of the manufacturer, Hampden Watch Company, Brenner began to learn more, at least about the when and where of its making. How Hampden and the Dueber Watch Case Co. became one and the same is an interesting story unto itself, full of corporate intrigue, backhanded business dealings, espionage, and even a link to Soviet watch making in Russia. CLICK HERE FOR THAT STORY
With the serial number found by Travis, Brenner learned that her found watch was manufactured in 1899, which by then was the combined company of Dueber, a watch case manufacturer, and Hampden, who manufactured the watch movements. The combined company had moved to Canton, Ohio in 1888.
Brenner’s watch was identified as a “John Hancock” model, “Grade 3,” manufactured in Canton, Ohio, where the combined company had relocated in 1888. She also learned that the watch case is 14-carat, gold-filled, with 21 jewels among the watch movements.
The Rest of the Story?
Okay, Brenner thought, we know a little bit about the age and origins of the watch, but there is another story to tell: how did the watch end up in their yard on Green Hill Circle?
The most plausible explanation, she decided, is also the most romantic.
Brenner heard stories about the Blowing Rock Charity Horse Show’s origins, which began in 1923 “… on Green Hill Road, up the mountain from the Green Park Inn.” According to various historical accounts, the early horse show was as much an equine fashion show but featuring various games, including what was described as a “race” from the top of what we know today as Green Hill Circle down to the Green Park Inn.
“I think this watch was lost by one of those race or games participants or perhaps a spectator,” said Brenner. “Certainly, the dates match up. A well-dressed gentleman in the early 1900s is likely to have owned a pocket watch, whether gold plated or gold filled. Caught up in the excitement of the day and the race or games, it is not out of the realm of possibility that it fell out of the man’s pocket. And remember, there was no development up here back then. It was covered with wild, native vegetation. He may not have noticed until all the way back down to the Green Park Inn at the race finish. More than likely he and his friends searched but were unable to locate it. There’s a lot of ground to cover between the top of Green Hill and the Green Park Inn.”
There could, of course, be other theories as to how an old gold pocket watch happened to be buried underneath the large root of a 100-year old beech tree, but this is Debra Brenner’s story and she is sticking with it.
I finally got to hear ” the rest of the story” as Paul Harvey used to say.
As Debbie’s house keeper Debbie shared with me her find. I knew it had to be something quite valuable and a special story behind it. I was amazed at the condition of the pocket watch considering it had laid out in all kinds of weather for maybe a century. I know of no one more worthy of a this special treasure than Debbie Brenner!!