Taking down the cabinets today, you can see from this photo that the uppers were just shelves with vertical wood strips that the doors hung from:

The soffits above the cabinets were constructed from 2X3's and plywood.  Materials that did not exist in the 1800's , so no tears were shed in destroying them.

The general consensus between Rob and I was that the sink was DAMN heavy!

Rob then stripped the walls down to the studs, and even removed 4 or 5 compromised studs.

Next week is Easter, so we will resume in two weeks with the rear wall reconstruct and then new floor joists.  Stay tuned.