Augustine Creek North and South Sites (7Nc-G-144 and 7Nc- G-145)
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THE ORDINARY AND THE POOR IN EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY DELAWARE EXCAVATIONS AT THE AUGUSTINE CREEK NORTH AND SOUTH SITES (7NC-G-144 AND 7NC- G-145) By John Bedell, Ingrid Wuebber, Meta Janowitz, Marie-Lorraine Pipes, and Charles H. LeeDecker THE CULTURAL RESOURCE GROUP LOUIS BERGER & ASSOCIATES, INC. East Orange, New Jersey Delaware Department of Transportation Series No. 159 Eugene E. Abbott Director of Planning 2001 Delaware U.S. Department of Department of Transportation Transportation Federal Highway Administration THE ORDINARY AND THE POOR IN EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY DELAWARE: EXCAVATIONS AT THE AUGUSTINE CREEK NORTH AND SOUTH SITES (7NC-G-144 AND 7NC-G-145) DELDOT PROJECT 91-110-15DELDOT ARCHAEOLOGY SERIES NO. 159 FHWA FEDERAL AID PROJECT F-NH-1003(14) By John Bedell, Ingrid Wuebber, Meta Janowitz, Marie-Lorraine Pipes, and Charles H. LeeDecker The Cultural Resource Group LOUIS BERGER & ASSOCIATES, INC. 100 Halsted Street East Orange, New Jersey 07019 Submitted To U.S. DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION Federal Highway Administration and DELAWARE DEPARTMENT OF STATE Division of Historical and Cultural Affairs Bureau of Archaeology and Historic Preservation Prepared For DELAWARE DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION Division of Highways Location and Environmental Studies Office u Eugene E. Abbott Director of Planning 2001 Doc. Con. No. ABSTRACT Most of the people who lived in Delaware 250 years ago have long been forgotten, and we know almost nothing about their lives. A few of the rich and famous are remembered for their public acts or the great houses they built, but the ordinary men and women who worked the land and raised their families in obscurity have faded from our consciousness. The construction of State Highway 1 across Augustine Creek in New Castle County has brought the lives of several ordinary people back from oblivion. On behalf of the Delaware Department of Transportation (DelDOT), archaeologists from the Cultural Resource Group of Louis Berger & Associates, Inc. (Berger), have conducted excavations at archaeological sites on both banks of Augustine Creek in New Castle County. The Augustine Creek North Site was a small tenant farm occupied between about 1750 and 1810. Most of this site was outside the final highway right-of-way, so only part of it was excavated; but through this partial excavation, along with what has been revealed about the site through earlier testing and documentary research, we have still learned much about how these humble people probably lived. The Augustine Creek South Site was a farm established by Samuel and Henrietta Mahoe in the 1720s. Samuel died in 1749, but Henrietta continued to live at the site (with her second husband after 1755) until the site was abandoned around 1760. At this site the archaeologists found remains of a house and other buildings, thousands of artifacts, and evidence of cloth manufacture. By combining the archaeology of these two sites with extensive documentary research, especially in the probate inventories and the records of the Orphans’ Court, it has been possible to assemble a picture of what the lives of ordinary Delawareans were like in the 1700s: the houses they lived in, the farms they built, the objects they made and owned, and the foods they ate. Both sites were also occupied, on occasion, in prehistoric times, and these people also left traces of their way of life. i ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The Cultural Resource Group of Louis Berger & Associates, Inc., wishes to express thanks to the many people who provided guidance, advice, and assistance at various stages of the project. The Delaware State Historic Preservation Office provided an important oversight role and responded quickly to all requests for consultation and guidance. We wish especially to thank Daniel R. Griffith, Director and State Historic Preservation Officer; Gwen Davis and Alice Guerrant, Archaeologists; and Joan N. Larrivee, Deputy State Historic Preservation Officer. Important assistance was also provided by Charles Fithian, Curator of the Delaware State Museum, and the staffs of the Delaware Bureau of Archives and Records at the Hall of Records in Dover and the Library of Congress in Washington. We were greatly assisted by Bernard Herman and Rebecca Siders, of the University of Delaware Center for Historic Architecture and Design, who allowed us to use a great body of research material they had assembled. Many people at the Delaware Department of Transportation provided important assistance, including Kevin Cunningham, Archaeologist; Ann Canby, Secretary; Raymond Harbeson, Chief Engineer; Eugene Abbott, Director, Planning; Joseph T. Wutka, Jr., Assistant Director, Planning; Therese M. Fulmer, Manager, Environmental Studies; Loretta Brisbane, Secretary; Anna May Decker, Project Scheduling and Support; Tim O’Brien, DOT Photographer; Dave DuPlessis, Project Engineer; and Danny Skeens and Ira White, Property Management. Production help came from the Division of Support Operations, including Bill Yerkes, Graphics and Printing Manager; Kate David, Graphics Specialist III; Robert J. Zullo, Graphics Specialist II; Justina Brewington, Photo Reproduction Technician; Jim Sylvester, Printer III; and Ed Wilkinson, Printer III. We also wish to thank Tommy Beatty, Divis ion Administrator, and Robert Kleinburd, Environmental Officer, both of the Federal Highway Administration, and Foster Hoffman of Century Engineering. We wish to thank the members of the press who helped us publicize our work at the site, especially Phil Milford of the Wilmington News Journal. The Cultural Resource Group of Berger had direct responsibility for the study. The Berger staff was under the overall direction of John Hotopp, Group Vice President. Charles H. LeeDecker served as Project Manager. John Bedell was the Principal Investigator. Historical research was carried out by Ingrid Wuebber, Eric Griffitts, and John Bedell. Robert Jacoby and Earl Proper served as Field Supervisors during the evaluations of these sites, and Rick Vernay during the excavations. The field crew consisted of Lisa Adams, Wyn Bedall, Bruce Bourcy, Theresa Brannon, Joelle Browning, Andrea Denight, Heather Fener, Rowan Flad, Amy Freyburger, Alex Gall, David Gilmour, Keith Googins, Kimberly Pokorosky, Christy Roper, Laurie Rudder, Robert Shaw, Catherine Skocik, James Skocik, Paul Stansfield, Jane Taylor, Douglas Tilley, Caroline Van Dyke, and Lee Weber. Laboratory supervision was provided by Sharla Azizi. Analysis of the artifacts was carried out by Meta Janowitz, Mallory Gordon, Gerard Scharfenberger, and Byron Simmons. ii TABLE OF CONTENTS (please note this table of contents is accurate when all plates, figures and tables are in place) CHAPTER PAGE Abstract i Acknowledgments ii List of Figures v List of Tables viii List of Plates x I INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................ 1 A. By the Banks of Augustine Creek ................................................................... 1 B. History in the Ground .................................................................................... 5 C. The Sites ....................................................................................................... 6 D. Who Was Ordinary? Who Was Poor? ............................................................ 12 E. Before the Europeans ..................................................................................... 18 II FARMS ............................................................................................................... 21 A. Farms, Landscape, and Culture ...................................................................... 21 B. Archaeology at Augustine Creek South........................................................... 22 C. Archaeology at Augustine Creek North........................................................... 35 D. Other Delaware Sites ..................................................................................... 40 E. Farms in the Records ..................................................................................... 46 F. Summary ...................................................................................................... 50 III HOUSES .............................................................................................................. 51 A. Housing and Culture ...................................................................................... 51 B. Records ......................................................................................................... 52 C. Archaeology.................................................................................................. 55 D. Housing in Eighteenth-Century Delaware........................................................ 65 IV THINGS............................................................................................................... 66 A. People and Artifacts....................................................................................... 66 B. Status and Material Goods .............................................................................. 66 C. Probate Inventories ........................................................................................ 67 D. Archaeology at Augustine Creek North........................................................... 75 E. Archaeology at Augustine Creek South........................................................... 82 F. Archaeology and Material Life ....................................................................... 95