A Historic Context for the Archaeology of Industrial Labor in the State Of
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A Historic Context for the Archaeology of Industrial Labor in the State of Maryland Robert C. Chidester Masters of Applied Anthropology Program Department of Anthropology University of Maryland at College Park Submitted to the Maryland Historical Trust In Partial Fulfillment of a Maryland Heritage Internship Grant December 2003 Revised Version, March 2004 Abstract This report presents a historic context for industrial labor in the state of Maryland. Industrial labor is defined as the socially-governed activity of transforming nature for the purpose of the efficient processing and manufacture of commercial goods. Labor’s heritage as represented in the Maryland Inventory of Historic Properties, the Maryland Archaeological Site Records, and selected secondary sources is surveyed following the geographical and chronological guidelines presented in the Maryland Comprehensive Historic Preservation Plan (Weissman 1986). Types of industry and labor, class relations, the labor movement and the social and domestic lives of industrial laborers are all considered; additionally, industrialization in Maryland is linked to other important themes in the state’s history. An overview of the archaeology of industrial labor is given for each of Maryland’s 23 counties and Baltimore City, emphasizing important excavations. An analysis of the state of labor archaeology in Maryland is given, along with suggestions for important research themes that have been thus far unaddressed or poorly addressed by Maryland archaeologists. i Table of Contents Abstract.....................................................................................i Table of Contents......................................................................ii List of Figures...........................................................................iii Acknowledgments.....................................................................v I. Introduction............................................................................1 II. Organization of the Text.......................................................3 III. Definition of the Subject......................................................6 IV. Overview of Labor Archaeology.........................................8 V. Eastern Shore........................................................................12 VI. Western Shore.....................................................................32 VII. Piedmont............................................................................50 VIII. Western Maryland...........................................................115 IX. Analysis of Labor Archaeology in Maryland....................142 X. Bibliographies.....................................................................150 Appendix I. Eastern Shore Inventory of Archaeological and Historic (Architectural) Properties....................................196 Appendix II. Western Shore Inventory of Archaeological and Historic (Architectural) Properties....................................222 Appendix III. Piedmont Inventory of Archaeological and Historic (Architectural) Properties....................................240 Appendix IV. Western Maryland Inventory of Archaeological and Historic (Architectural) Properties....................................301 Appendix V. Weekly Accounting of Hours.............................321 Appendix VI. Public Education and Outreach Initiatives........322 ii List of Figures Page # Figure 1. Map showing the Eastern Shore Region.....................13 Figure 2. Child’s Row, Cecil County.........................................18 Figure 3. Red Lion Mill, Queen Anne’s County........................19 Figure 4. Principio Furnace Stack, Cecil County.......................22 Figure 5. Possible Slave Quarters at Principio Furnace.............22 Figure 6. Catlin Tenant House, Wicomico County....................25 Figure 7. Seafood Processing Workers’ Houses, Somerset County.........................................................................26 Figure 8. Map showing the Western Shore Region....................33 Figure 9. Anne Arundel County Grist Mills...............................35 Figure 10. Laurel Factory House, Prince George’s County.......38 Figure 11. St. Lawrence Catholic Church, Anne Arundel County.........................................................................40 Figure 12. Patuxent River Mining Company Building, Calvert County.........................................................................43 Figure 13. Mill Artifact Pattern from Site 18AN652.................45 Figure 14. Excavations inside the Laurel Factory House...........48 Figure 15. Map showing the Piedmont Region..........................51 Figure 16. Family composition at Harford Furnace...................60 Figure 17. House associated with the Avalon Ironworks, Howard and Baltimore Counties.................................63 Figure 18. Commercial district in Dundalk, Baltimore County.........................................................................75 Figure 19. Poe-Burns Duplex, Texas, Baltimore County...........78 Figure 20. Mt. Vernon Mill, Baltimore City...............................80 Figure 21. Painting of the Simpsonville Mill, Howard County.........................................................................83 Figure 22. Simsponville Stone Ruins, Howard County..............83 Figure 23. Bata Shoe Company Building, Harford County........91 Figure 24. Bata Shoe Company Workers’ Housing, Harford County.........................................................................91 Figure 25. United Steelworkers of America Union Hall, Dundalk, Baltimore County........................................93 Figure 26. Wormweed Distillery, Damascus, Montgomery County.........................................................................96 Figure 27. Ceramics from Site 18HA148...................................98 Figure 28. Artifacts from Site 18BA100....................................100 iii List of Figures (continued) Page # Figure 29. Bottles from Site 18BC80........................................104 Figure 30. Site map of 18CR221, Tannery................................110 Figure 31. Excavations at Site 18FR323...................................112 Figure 32. Map showing the Western Maryland Region...........116 Figure 33. Domestic Structure from the Antietam Village Historic District, Washington County........................118 Figure 34. Eckhart, Allegany County........................................122 Figure 35. Saltbox Miner’s House, Eckhart..............................123 Figure 36. Engle Mill Store, Accident, Garrett County.............124 Figure 37. Garrett County mills in the 1860s............................125 Figure 38. 19th-century coal towns along the Potomac River, Western Maryland......................................................129 Figure 39. Wheel Pit, Antietam Furnace Complex, Washington County....................................................133 Figure 40. Ceramic sherds from Site 18AG206........................137 Figure 41. Excavations of Site 18AG215..................................139 iv Acknowledgements I would like to take this opportunity to thank all of the people who have helped to make this project a success. The faculty of the Masters of Applied Anthropology program at the University of Maryland at College Park taught me what it means to be an applied anthropologist (and archaeologist), and for that I am grateful. Erika Martin Seibert, archaeologist for the National Register of Historic Places, helped me to develop the concept for this project. Michael Merrill and Robert Reynolds of the George Meany Center for Labor Studies in Silver Spring, Maryland and the National Capital Area AFL- CIO Retirees Club provided me with an entrée into the labor community in Maryland. Bill Barry of the Community College of Baltimore County-Dundalk drove me around to look at union halls in Dundalk and provided me with other general information on unions in the Baltimore area. Funding for this project came in the form of a Maryland Heritage IMPART grant from the Maryland Historical Trust, for which I owe MHT a great debt. Most of my research was undertaken in the MHT library in Crownsville. I thank the staff of the Trust for their hospitality and interest. I would especially like to thank Mary Louise de Sarran, Barbara Shepherd and the Jennies for working around me all summer and providing invaluable help. Charles Hall also provided much assistance. This project was an internship for the Masters of Applied Anthropology program. My internship committee consisted of Ms. Erika Martin Seibert, Dr. Paul Shackel and Dr. Mark Leone. Along with Dr. Judith Friedenberg, these folks provided me with important suggestions and critical comments on the project throughout. The final product would certainly not be what it is without their help and advice. Saul Schniderman of the Library of Congress, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Union and the Labor Heritage Foundation of Washington, D.C. has given me encouragement and advice from the standpoint of someone intimately involved with labor’s heritage. His interest in and support of my work has led to the development of an extension of the current project, to be a joint project of the Labor’s Heritage Foundation and the Center for Heritage Resource Studies of the Department of Anthropology at UMCP. Since this was meant to be a project suitable for presentation to the public, I would like to sincerely thank members of the