1870s Hand Dug Well Restoration or How to Build a Magical Time Machine

Along with myself... my brother and two first cousins are the fifth generation to own the farm in the Ohio River Valley area of northern West Virginia. For all four of us the farm has been an integral part of our lives loaded with memories of family, friends, good food, and good times. In the late 1970s my cousins' families started a tradition that they called "Farm Week" which occured in late July/early August. It is a tradition that still continues to this day. They would spend a week staying out at the farm in the farm house. I'm a bit older than my cousins so at the time Farm Week began I was off to college, and then getting a job, and starting my life as an adult so I had not been a part of that tradition until recently. Though... I still have never spent a night in the old farm house. Ha, I've grown soft in my old age. My days of roughing it have long since passed. Staying in the farm house has its charm (I guess) but it is barely a notch up from camping in my opinion. No air conditioning, one bathroom, bats, bugs, and assorted critters is not my cup of tea. So I stay at our modern house we have in the nearby town.

One of the (many) challenges of staying out at the farm is the somewhat limited water supply. There is a modern well that is 70 feet deep and it has a pump in it to supply the house with water. For the most part it does a fine job but when there are a dozen or so people staying out there with a high level of water usage then there have been times that the well will run dry. It doesn't take long for it to recover but it is somewhat of an inconvenience nonetheless.

So this summer my brother and I decided we would take on a project to alleviate the water problem. Our original idea was to use a number of food grade 55 gallon plastic drums as a cistern. The plan was to have the cistern full before eveyone arrived. That way they would have a few hundred gallons backup capacity if the well ever ran dry. But along the way... the plan changed... and it evolved. And while we did manage to provide the capability to supplement the existing water supply... we ended up accomplishing something totally unexpected. This is that story...

As I said in the introduction... the original idea was to use food grade 55 gallon plastic drums to make a backup cistern. In the first picture I have the drums loaded in the back of my truck here in Texas ready for the long drive to West Virginia. I had also purchased a bunch of fittings, check valves, a pump relay, transformer, and lots of other stuff. When the plan changed I ended up giving the barrels and fittings away to another one of my cousins to use at his nearby farm.

The materials for our new well house came from various sources. Menard's is my new favorite big box hardware store. Wow, it's huge and they have lots of great stuff... especially cedar lumber. We chose cedar since it is light, easy to work with, and is naturally bug and rot resistant. We used a pile of 2x4s, a few 2x6s, dozens of 2x2 spindles, 1x6 deck boards, a couple sheets of 1/2 inch 4x8 OSB, and a few 4x4s for the structure. The foundation consisted of six 80 pound bags of Quikrete and 4 galvanized post brackets. So we have almost a quarter ton of concrete holding down the well house. It's not going anywhere! The metal roof panels were also from Menards. Dang... I'm really bummed that they don't have any Texas locations! I love that place.

There were also a couple trips to Home Depot, many trips to the local Ace Hardware, and my favorite (picture 3) was the Farmers Exchange in the little town where our house is. It has been there forever and I remember going there with my grandfather when I was little.

Lots of miscellaneous stuff... deck screws, roof screws, barn and fence paint, brushes, rollers, angle brackets, metal rings, chain, lock hasp, chain connector links, plasic coated cable, eye bolts, eye hooks, gate handle, a bucket, a large bell, and more. I didn't keep too close of a track but I think we spent around $2500. Total labor was somewhere in the range of a couple hundred hours.

The back porch of the farm house was our work shop. There's a harvest table that came from the local Methodist church that we used as our work bench. For the most part the only tools we used were a miter saw, tape measure, level, drill, and circular saw. I did borrow a small table saw as well but we only had to rip a few pieces.

We used the original windlass and pulley that was in the 1930s well house... more on that later.

The farm has belonged to our family since 1889 when my great great grandfather purchased it. In the first picture (taken around 1947) he is the fellow in the upper right corner of the frame. He sold it to my great grandfather (standing next to him) who then gave it to my grandfather seated directly in front of him. It was then willed to my father and his sister. My father is in the striped shirt in the front row and my aunt is to the right of him in the picture. And now I, along with my brother and two cousins, own it.

Grandma Bessie will be mentioned a couple times in my story... she is my great grandmother and is seated directly behind my dad and aunt in the first picture. The second picture was taken in 1905. Grandma Bessie is only 15 years old there... she's the one on the far right.

The next series of photos show a shot of the farm from the top of the ridge, several shots of the barn and the farm house (built in the 1870s), and then you get to a shot of the living room with all of the pictures of family history hanging on the walls. The rest are from various times we were at the farm. Ha! Good food is always a big part of the farm experience. Family and friends are always welcome!

Sometime in the mid 1970s my grandfather took down the original well house. It had deteriorated to the point of not being functional anymore and he needed to build something around the open well to make it safe. The result was the first picture. It was a small cinder block well house with a tin roof. A submersible pump was added and the farm house was upgraded with running water and a bathroom. Ugh, the well house is ugly and we've always hated it! But it was quite a fortress and it did its job. There was a small opening on one side where you would reach in and turn on a valve to send water to the house. My brother and I hated turning on that valve! We just knew something was going to sting or bite when we reached in there (but it never did). We've always wanted to get rid of the cinder block structure and on a spur of the moment whim we decided to go ahead with that. As a side note... at the time the original well house was taken down my aunt insisted that my grandfather keep the pulley and windlass. Thank goodness she did since we ended up reusing these.

We lifted the lid and I took a picture inside (picture 2). You can see the pipe and electrical cable for the pump that was installed at one time. The original opening of the well was covered with some window screen and some other material that had rotted. At one point my grandfather had a modern deeper well dug and that is the new water supply for the house. So the old ugly cinder block well house sat for years as a relic from the past.

We took the lid off of the cinder blocks and used a big sledge to knock it all down... which was actually kind of fun. The not fun part was moving the rubble into the barn! We then took off the covering of the well. For the first time in over 50 years the well saw the light of day. I remember as a kid looking down into the well and it was really scary! Ha... it's still scary! Hand dug in the late 1870s and lined with stone. We took some string, tied a rock to it for a weight, and lowered down to mark the water level and total depth. Wow... the water level is 30 feet from the surface and the bottom of the well is another 20 feet down. We marvelled at the thought that this was hand dug around 150 years ago and could not figure out how it was accomplished. It is totally lined with stone for the entire depth.

We temporarily covered up the opening and piled some cinder blocks on top to make it safe. A lot of dirt and debris had accumulated on the concrete slab so I took a pressure washer and blasted it all off. That was when we were in for our first surprise. There was a name and date that had been drawn in the wet cement when it was poured. It turned out to be my grandfather's brother. EG Wince... Sept 16... 1932. Wow! What a neat discovery. My grandfather would have been 22 at the time. We wondered why his name wasn't there so we looked up what day September 16th was in 1932. It was a Friday. Since he was a school teacher we figured he must have been teaching class that day and his brother had poured the foundation for the family. They built the original well house (last 2 pictures) on top of the concrete foundation. The first shot is not a great picture to begin with but if you look closely you can see the pulley and windlass. I love the second picture... that's my grandfather and his dad (my great grandfather). I'm not sure what was done before they put in the well house. Maybe drew water up with a rope and a bucket by hand?

One thing that I could not help but do... I knelt down and traced all of the letters and numbers in the concrete with my finger. It was just so compelling.

We were proceeding with the original plan. I had taken a few of the 55 gallon drums to the farm and put them in the basement as sort of a "fit check" to see where it was best to place them. As we were considering the new arrangement my brother and I were thinking about the old well. We were kind of fascinated with it and since it was so deep we were curious how much water it held. Considering that the water column was 20 feet deep and given the diameter of the well we estimated that there were several hundred gallons of water in it! Hmmm.... here we already have a large back up supply of water that refills automatically... what if we put the old well back into operation instead of making a cistern? So the plan changed. Let's build a new well house and we'll incorporate as much of the old stuff as we can. Phase 1 will be to build the structure and in the second phase we'll add a new pump and connect it into the existing house water system.

Step 1... build a solid foundation to start with. We wanted to preserve the original concrete slab so we dug footings at the corners. We found that we couldn't go very deep until we hit the stones that lined the well. Ha... we then found out that these stones extended WAY out further than we would have ever imagined. We wanted to mark off the area to caution people and keep it safe while we were working. You can see how far out we had to go with the T posts to get beyond the stones!

So we poured new footings and installed metal post brackets. This had to be done in two steps because somebody (me) had under estimated the amount of concrete required and we had to go buy a couple more bags to finish the job.

In the last couple pictures we set the windlass in place to start working on ideas for how we were going to install it later.

Phase 1 and phase 2 sketches were created (I missed having my computer with AutoCAD loaded) and in the second picture we have a very happy Sawdust Willy who is excited to start cutting wood. Cuz digging holes and pouring concrete is not much fun! For the most part it is simple stick frame construction... not much to it. We'd build up panels one section at a time, set them in place, and brace it. Once everything was tied together we removed the bracing. Parts that we thought would get more exposure were prepainted. This took a LOT of extra time but I think it was worth it and I'm glad we did it. The "wall" panels were built from 2x4s and 4x4s. The floor joists were 2x6s. 3 inch coated deck screws hold everything together. Standard spacing for this type of construction is 16 inches but as it worked out we used closer spacing. Prepainted OSB panels lined the opening to the well.

We had been working on the well project for a little over a week and needed a break. My brother flew home to Texas and my wife flew in for a visit with me. We drove down to the south eastern part of the state to Cass, West Virginia to ride the old steam engine train. The tour we took was to the top of Bald Knob (elevation 4700 feet). We had a great time! So relaxing and beautiful. If you are ever in that area I'd highly recommend it. Here's the link... Cass Scenic Railroad.

OK... play time over... back to work. Foundation is done. Initial framing is done. Let's build some trusses and get a roof over our heads.

We used what is called a king post truss. Very simple and easy to build. Standard spacing for roof trusses is 24 inches and we went with that. Again we prepainted everything prior to assembly. Instead of using OSB for roof decking we went with just stringers (using 1x4s) to keep everything light. The trusses are held together using screws and construction adhesive. OSB panels were cut to act as doublers and reinforce the joints.

There are a number of different roof pitches on the farm house... the goal for the well house was for it to match the house as much as possible and we picked the roof pitch that was over the kitchen section of the house for our well house roof.

We were able to get by with only three eight foot roof panels that we cut in half. They didn't go all the way to the apex of the roof but that was ok since the roof cap was wide enough to cover the rest of it. Special metal roof screws were used to install the panels. They are self tapping and have a rubber washer on them to help seal out the rain.

Looking at the last few pictures... I think we're doing a good job of matching the house.

Again... nothing magical here (that happens later). OSB subfloor, 1x6 cedar deck boards, and 1-5/8 inch coated deck screws. We cut the old plumbing to length and fed that along with the power line through a hole in the OSB in preparation for phase 2 of the project (next year). FYI... the wiring is not connected to anything so there's no power at the end of it.

Happy with the results! This thing is really sturdy... I think you could park a tractor on it!

The railing has two functions... decorative and safety. The idea was to allow access to the well yet offer a high level of security such that accidents are unlikely. We wanted the next generation of kids to still be able to look down into the well with wonder as we did when we were little. And we also wanted the railing to add a decorative element. I think we accomplished both. The top rail is a cedar 2x4 and we ripped another 2x4 in half for the bottom rail. The spindles are cedar 2x2s. Cedar 4x4s were used for the intermediate posts supporting the interior railing.

So that's about it for the major structure. Couldn't resist getting our pictures taken standing in the new well house!

As I mentioned earlier... we used the original windlass and pulley from the 1930s well house that my aunt rescued. They have been sitting upstairs in the farm house for the past 50 years. I need to point something out with the windlass in the first picture... take a look at the left side. The surface is a different color and it is smooth compared to the rest of it. The bucket and cable on the original well house were heavy. When the hook restraint was removed the weight would unwind the cable ever faster and the handle would turn wildly if you didn't slow it down. That smooth area is where Grandma Bessie would place her hand to slow it down. It has become smooth over time with decades of her doing that. It's time to bring that part of the well back to life. The section of rod that was opposite the handle was lost so we bought a small section of pipe to replace it (second picture). Eventually we used construction adhesive to glue it in place. The third pic is the pulley. They must have had a blacksmith bend that huge bolt into a hook to hang it in the well house.

We used a plumb bob to center (mostly) the pulley over the well opening. A large eye bolt is installed into a 2x6 that is screwed to a couple of the roof trusses. There's a washer and nut on the other side of the 2x6 securing the eye bolt. At this point we decided to install the hatch cover. We had a piece of OSB covering the well opening so we didn't accidentally drop anything down there. The OSB wasn't strong enough to hold a person and it was kind of unsettling to work around that 50 foot well hole so we decided to install a very heavy and sturdy hatch. I added a locking hasp for additional safety/security measures for when we were gone.

At last we installed the windlass. U bolts hold it in place and the pipes ride on the little metal bar that comes with the U bolts to avoid wear and tear on the supporting wooden pieces. Washers and nylon lock nuts complete the assembly for the U bolts.

We bought a stainless steel 2 gallon bucket on Amazon. It is seamless and very light... and really shiny! My brother came up with a strategy using a cable clamp to keep the bucket from sliding side to side. The pulley is set into place and a length of coated steel cable connects everything together. We also used the old hook restraint but I got rid of the rusty wire and replaced it with some new chain. The well is now functional! But hang on... just a little more work to do.

It was a bit of a large leap to get into the well house so we decided that steps were a necessity. The stones for the steps were originally foundation stones for the front porch of the farm house. When the porch needed repair we used pressure treated lumber for the supports and the stones were pushed aside later to be used as benches around the fire pit. We figured they'd make a great staircase for the well house. Which they did... but dang it... they were hard to move around since they were so freakin' heavy. I had to make a little sled and drag the whole contraption with the truck just to move them into place. I give my brother all the credit on this installation. The steps were dead level and rock (ha) solid.

With the construction of the well house completed it was time for several finishing touches. Our cousin arrived just in time to help with all of the touch up painting. She had driven up from Chattanooga. In the second picture it looks we've put her in time out but she's too happy to really be in time out.

The original well house had a tin cup that hung it it. I remember when I was a kid my grandfather would lower the bucket into the well to get some water for us to drink. He would put his hand on the windlass just like Grandma Bessie (his mother) did. We would dip the tin cup in the bucket to get a drink of well water. I still remember how cold and clean and clear it was. I always thought it tasted amazing. I decided that we also needed a tin cup to commemorate those memories.

The bell was an impulse buy. We also got it on Amazon. Why? I dunno... it just seemed fun. Something that the kids will love and annoy the adults with (he says with an evil grin).

And finally we added a handle for a little additional support when stepping up into the well house.

That's our farm neighbor in that third to the last picture. I've know him my whole life. His family and ours have been friends for many generations. Jim is his name. He stopped by when we were finished to see the new well house. A no-nonsense extremely practical fellow. After assessing our work he said... "Nice carpentry. The fellow that did this knew what he was doing". I don't believe I've ever received a greater compliment.

Update: 7/31/2024 - Last two pics... The kids added their own special touch with some tastefully arranged flat stones. Very nice!

I'm getting a little ahead of myself because I put the first bucket full of water to be drawn up in a long time in the next step. But I wanted to highlight the water first.

In the first picture is that first bucket. In second picture you can see the condensation on the bucket telling you that the water inside is really cold. I wish we had a thermometer to see how cold but that will have to wait for another day.

We dipped a clear measuring glass into the water and set it down to see just how clear the water was. Moisture immediately condensed on the outside of this container as well. I took a couple of pictures with different backgrounds. Wow... super clear, clean, no odor, and no sediment. We did test it with a home test kit and it came back negative for bacteria. We'll get it professionally tested later.

Here's where the magic happened...

My brother had the honor of drawing up the first bucket from the well in over 50 years. Ha, it's silly but I was so excited. Memories of years gone by came flooding back. Then it was my turn. The third pic is a very proud and shirtless (sorry, it was hot that day) Sawdust Willy. It is hard to explain but I was transported back in time as I watched the bucket slowly decend into the well and then cranked it back up. It wasn't water in that bucket... it was magic.

The next two pictures are when our aunt arrived from Pittsburg and it was her turn at the well. The first thing she did was place her hand on the windlass as she had seen Grandma Bessie do so many times in the past. "I hope I can do this without crying", she said. My brother is looking on as she cranks up her bucket of water. Ha, she's just beaming.

And finally our cousin takes her turn. The joy everyone is experiencing is unmistakable.

That's when it occurred to me. We had set out to build a well house but we ended up accomplishing so much more. We created a time machine... a link to the past... a connection to those who had come before us.

I call it The Fellowship of the Well (apologies to Tolkien). It is a new rite of passage at the farm now. Step up, draw a bucket of water from the well, ring the bell, and summon the past.

SW

Pictures of the family experiencing the new well house...