MA Teacher Discovers Rare Original 1792 Document in Textbooks

by copythis

A Massachusetts teacher discovers a rare Colonial-era document dated 172 -more than 200 years old, buried in a pile of outdated textbooks and dusty scraps of papers.The fourth-grade teacher was cleaning her classroom in preparation for a move when she found the document.
 
Michelle Eugenio, a fourth-grade teacher in Peabody, Massachusetts, discovered a yellowed sheet of paper only two weeks ago. The rare document, dated April 1792 and protected by plastic, appears to document payment of a debt by a Vermont man named Jonathan Bates.
 
MA Peabody Historical Society President Bill Power has verified the paper's authenticity of the 1792 piece, telling The Salem News he was thrilled with the discovery of the rare document. It's unknown as to how the 1792 paper ended up at Peabody's Center School in a textbook and protected in plastic-or how long the document has been at the grade school.
 
Jonathon Bates, to whom the 1792 document is related, served in the Continental Army in 1780 and died in 1808 at age 63, and is buried in Williamstown, Vermont.

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