Lee, Patrick,
All we know is that the column *was not original to the house*, not likely at 120 years old.
We also know (now) that *THAT* particular column was there for 40 years.
We 'do not know' what was there before that, or for how long, if anything was there.
We 'do not know' that the small stone was original. The floor (dirt floor is still a "floor) could have settled (dirt does that over time, and we are talking about quite some time).
Thus, we 'do not know' that that column was not originally installed tight to the floor (the dirt) with no proper footing. This is not saying that the column is "original" but that the "original installation of the column" may have been tight between the floor and the beam.
There is a lot more which we 'do not know' than which we 'do know' - *I* was taking all that which we 'do not know' into consideration in my questions, because we 'do know' so little.
Some people think 'inside the box', some people think 'outside the box', I think 'What box you talking about?'
