Phase II and Phase III Archaeological Database and Inventory
18AN400 Intersection
Diagnostic Artifact Data
Features
Summary
Site 18AN400, or the Intersection Site, is a multi-component prehistoric and historic period archeological site near Hanover in Anne Arundel County. The prehistoric component dates from the Late Archaic through the Early Woodland. The historic component dates from the late 19th to mid 20th century and is related to the operation of a blacksmith and wheelwright’s shop that stood near the site location. The site is situated on a high terrace overlooking Deep Run, a tributary of the Patapsco River, in a former pasture that now is a residential yard. The vegetation at the site reflects modern landscaping. Soils at the site are primarily the sandy loams of the Patapsco series.
Site 18AN400 is located within a 100 acre tract that a Benton Cole obtained from his father, Thomas W. Cole, in 1872. The 1860 Census lists Thomas W. Cole’s occupation as “farmer” and an 1860 map depicts his house roughly 1½ miles east of the site location. No structures area depicted at the actual site. According to the 1870 census, Benton Cole (22), was an unmarried farmer who maintained his own household. His household included George L. Warfield (24), a miner, and Anna Warfield (23), who kept house. Cole may have lived on the 100 acre property he officially received from his father in 1872 (possibly in recognition of his marriage) which had occurred between 1870 and 1872. In 1876, Cole was assessed for the 100 acres and improvements worth $800, but these improvements were not itemized.
During the mid to late 1870s, Cole appeared to face personal and financial difficulties. In 1875, he obtained a $1,000 mortgage on his 100 acre parcel. On June 1st, 1877, he executed two leases for portions of his property. In a 15 year lease, he rented a house on Race Road and one acre surrounding it to Charles Reimensnyder. The lease referred to, “the house and premises in which the said Reimensnyder now resides”, which suggested Reimensnyder already resided in the house.
The second lease executed in 1877 was a 20 year lease to Lewis B. Richards for a quarter of an acre, “together with the buildings and improvements thereon”, whose description denotes a triangular parcel that includes the southwestern portion of Site 18AN400. Richards was listed in the 1880 Census as a wheelwright. This suggests that Richards’ wheelwright shop was situated at the same intersection of roads as 18AN400.
In 1882, Richards passed responsibility for the lease for the quarter acre parcel to Balthasar Bach, who was also listed in the 1880 Census as a wheelwright. The lease passed to Charles Reimensnyder in 1885. Reimensnyder was listed as a blacksmith in the 1880 Census and had been renting a house from Cole since 1877. Although Richards was living in Baltimore City and Bach was living in Howard County in 1880, the distances were not unmanageable and the three men might have worked at the shop together. The blacksmith’s shop also might have included a fourth man, 19 year old William Squires, who the 1880 Census listed as a blacksmith and a boarder in Reimensnyder’s household. Squires might have been an apprentice or journeyman under Reimensnyder.
Benton Cole died in 1883 at the age of 34. His 9-year-old daughter Annie Bell inherited the 100 acre parcel. She held the property until December 1896 when she and her husband, George See, sold the property to Barbara Reimensnyder, the wife of blacksmith Charles Reimensnyder. The property however was not listed in an 1896 assessment under the name Benton Cole, the Sees, or its owners, the Reimensnyders.
Charles Reimensnyder still was listed as a blacksmith in the 1900 Census, which suggested he had continued the operation of the blacksmith shop since taking over the lease in 1885. Barbara died in 1902, leaving her husband with three children: Henry N., Charles E., and Earnest W. In 1908, Charles Reimensnyder conveyed his wife’s estate and her land to two of their sons, Henry and Charles. He reserved for himself a portion of the property, “situated on the north side of the road leading from the Ridge Road to Hancock [meaning Hanover], formerly the Hancock [Hanover] Switch, whereupon stands a blacksmith and wheelwright shop”.
Charles E. Reimensnyder conveyed that parcel, totaling 14 acres, to his brother Henry in 1914. Shortly after Charles’ death in 1916, the 100 acre parcel was divided into two 50 acre parcels. The land containing the blacksmith shop and Cole residence was deeded from Ernest W. Reimensnyder to his brother Henry, “in consideration of $5 and a deed of exchange of even date”, that transferred the second 50 acre parcel to Ernest and his wife Dora.
Henry N. Reimensnyder continued the blacksmith and wheelwright business. During the period 1911 to 1918, Henry was assessed $50, $75, and $100, respectively for three shop buildings, as well as $25 for a lumber shed. Henry was listed as a blacksmith working at a shop in the 1920 Census and as a wheelwright at a wagon works in the 1930 census. In two assessments between 1918 and 1927, he was assessed $270 in one line item for a shop. In 1917, the 100 acre parcel was subdivided into two 50 acre parcels. Henry retained ownership of the parcel that contained the blacksmith shop and Cole residence. His brother Ernest was deeded the remaining 50 acre.
During the 1930s, Henry might have started closing down his blacksmith and wheelwright business. Shop buildings were not listed in assessments under his ownership after 1927. In a 1941 assessment, a notation with dark lines drawn through it appeared to read “lumber house”, suggesting that the building had been demolished. By the early 1940s, he began subdividing his 50 acre parcel into small lots and selling them. In 1949, Kenneth B. and Constance Falls purchased a 1.06 acre lot that included the blacksmith shop property. A 1951 assessment listed a “bungalow” as the only improvement. Most of that land was sold in 1997 to the current landowner that holds 18AN400.
Site 18AN400 was first identified in the 1970s as a Late Archaic and Woodland period short-term resource procurement camp. The site was known solely through the collection activities of the property owners who played some role in reporting the site to the State Archeologist. It was officially recorded in the Maryland Site Files in 1976.
In 1980, the site was visited during a Phase I survey for a new utility pipeline. The pipeline corridor would have cut through what was thought to be the outer edge of the site. It was reported that this area had been disturbed by previous pipeline construction, erosion, and agricultural activities. It was determined that the site would not be impacted further by the pipeline construction as long as disturbances were limited to the right-of-way (ROW) for the project. Monitoring was recommended if any work was conducted beyond the ROW. It is not known if any monitoring took place.
In the fall of 2006, Site 18AN400 was relocated during the course of a Phase I survey related to the widening of MD 295.The investigations were performed in accordance with both state and Federal guidelines related to the use of public monies. During the Phase I investigations, a total of 9 shovel test pits (STPs) were placed within the site area. STPs were placed at 10 and 20 m intervals, were 30 cm in diameter and were excavated to depths between 50 and 70 cm below the surface. Soils were screened through hardware cloth.
Six of the 9 shovel tests contained cultural materials. No cultural features were identified, but a total of 539 artifacts were recovered, and a burned cultural horizon was identified. It was thought that the burned horizon could be representative of the presence of a historic forge nearby. The Phase I assemblage consisted of 33 activity items (6 horseshoe nails and 27 metal strap fragments), 120 architectural artifacts (3 window glass fragments, 8 melted window glass fragments, 3 burned concrete fragments, 12 brick fragments, 1 wrought nail, 9 cut nails, 9 wire nails, and 75 unidentified nails), 16 kitchen-related artifacts (1 creamware, 2 whiteware, 2 Rockingham sherds, and 11 pieces of bottle glass), and 370 miscellaneous objects (4 melted glass fragments, 45 unidentified metal objects, and 321 other objects). Diagnostics supported a late 19th to 20th century period of use for the site. Based on these findings, Phase II testing was recommended.
The Phase II investigations were undertaken in late summer of 2007 on behalf of the Maryland State Highway Administration (SHA) and work was performed in accordance with state and Federal guidelines including Section 106 of the NHPA, executive Order 11593, the Archeological and Historical Preservation Act of 1974, the Archaeological Resources Protection Act of 1979, Title 36 of the Code of Federal Regulations, parts 60-66 and 800 as appropriate, and the Maryland Historic Trust Act of 1985.
Phase II work in 2007 entailed the excavation of 27 additional shovel tests and ten 1 X 1 m test units. Phase II tests were spaced at 5 m intervals across the site area. All STPs measured a minimum of 40 cm in diameter, and were excavated a minimum of 10 cm into Pleistocene soils. All soils were removed according to natural stratigraphic horizons and screened through hardware mesh. Shovel test results, including presence or absence of cultural materials, stratigraphic sequence, and location in the testing pattern were recorded on standardized recordation forms.
Ten test units were then placed across the site based on the results of the Phase I and II shovel testing. All test units were 1 X 1 m in size. Four units were placed near the center of the site to expose the potential buried A horizon identified during shovel testing. Two test units were placed to the west in an area that yielded a high quantity of metal, but that appeared to lack the buried A horizon. A single test unit was placed to the north of the central area, within the southwestern quadrant of a circular depression of unknown origin. Three test units were placed in the southern portion of the site, two of which were sited towards the southwest along the exterior and interior sides of a poured concrete foundation wall. Soils in test units were removed in 10 cm arbitrary levels within natural stratigraphy and were screened through hardware mesh. Standardized recordation forms were used to record test unit results, including the depth of excavation levels, stratigraphic sequences, the presence or absence of cultural materials, and interpretation of the excavated level. Stratigraphic data were documented using standard methods and soils nomenclature.
Cultural features identified during the Phase II site evaluation of 18AN400 were of indeterminate association and could not be definitively linked to the operation of the blacksmith shop. Three identified features were linked to the pouring of the aforementioned concrete foundation. The foundation appears to date to the early 20th century. The other feature identified was an early to mid 20th century refuse pit of unknown size and depth in the south-central portion of the site. Artifacts in the remnant cultural layer (buried A horizon) consisted predominantly of metal (over 84%) and included items related to farrier work and wagon repair. It was determined that this layer was likely laid down no earlier than 1875 and reflects use of the site area through at least the 1920s.
The Phase II fieldwork yielded 225 prehistoric and 8,167 historic artifacts. Diagnostic artifacts suggest that the prehistoric component dated from the Late Archaic and was a short-term lithic reduction locus focused on procurement of locally available cobble resources. This component of the site was poorly expressed during the Phase I survey on 2006 and was not formally identified or recommended for Phase II evaluation. The Phase II prehistoric assemblage included 11 bifaces, 2 cores, 209 pieces of debitage, and 3 pieces of fire-cracked rock. The vast majority of the lithic raw materials were quartz (195), followed by quartzite (22) and rhyolite (10).
The historic component is related to a blacksmith shop that operated near the intersection of the two roads at the site between 1877 and 1928. The shop was razed between 1928 and 1941 and by 1949 the property had been sold and a residence built near the former location of the blacksmith shop. At its height, the shop included three workshop buildings and a lumber house. The partial foundation of one later building (the concrete foundation) remains visible in the southwestern corner of the site.
The Phase II historic assemblage consisted of 4,073 activity items (3 harmonica pieces, 15 pieces of chalk, and 1,579 coal and 2,476 iron objects likely related to the forge), 1,525 architectural items (4 asphalt shingles, 300 brick fragments, 13 pieces of cement/concrete, 690 pieces of mortar, 510 window glass fragments, 8 electrical insulators), 3 clothing items (2 porcelain buttons and a piece of leather), 231 ceramic sherds (1 pearlware, 8 miscellaneous earthenware, 19 porcelain, 55 ironstone, 22 redware, 98 whiteware, 2 yelloware, 6 Rockingham, 13 miscellaneous stoneware, and 7 unidentified ceramic sherds), 22 pieces of table glass, 1,141 pieces of bottle glass, 1 glass lid liner, 7 miscellaneous kitchen items (faunal objects), and 1,164 miscellaneous items (1 piece of charcoal, 64 other glass fragments, 12 synthetic objects, 2 composite materials, 1,056 pieces of slag, and 30 non-iron metal objects).
Phase II investigation of 18AN400 indicated that although the site produced a relatively large number of cultural materials, and contained a few features, it also has been subject to post-occupation disturbances. Most of these disturbances relate to the construction and occupation of the 20th century residence on-site. The site was determined to lack integrity and is no longer considered a significant archeological resource.
In 2017 and 2018, archaeological surveys were conducted because the property was scheduled for commercial development. The goal of the Phase I study was to re-located Sites 18AN400 and l 8AN516 known to exist on the property and identify any new archeological resources present within the study area. The objective of the Phase II investigation was to more intensively examine any of the sites thought to have research value and archeological significance to Anne Arundel County.
The fieldwork consisted of a pedestrian survey, intensive shovel testing, and test unit excavation. Three dwellings, four outbuildings, several capped wells, and a block foundation were identified during the walk-over. The subsurface investigation involved the excavation of 112 shovel tests and three 3-foot test units. In total, 487 prehistoric, historic, and modern materials were recovered. The historic assemblage overwhelmingly dominated the recovery.
The prehistoric recovery is solely composed of lithic artifacts made from quartz. By broad artifact type, the collection includes debitage and non-debitage at 8 and 1, respectively. The debitage or lithic waste consists of the following types and associated quantities: primary waste (n=5), secondary waste (n=l), and fire-cracked rock (n=2). Four of these artifacts show signs of thermal alteration or the application of heat to improve the knapping quality of the stone. The lone non-debitage artifact is classified as an edge fragment to an unfinished, middle-stage biface. This collection lacks time-diagnostic materials. The occupation is, therefore, thought to be affiliated with the Late Archaic and Woodland as described in the prior investigation of the site. The overall collection of artifacts supports the following occupation activities: local quarrying of quartz cobbles, thermal alteration of material to be reduced, early and middle-stage lithic reduction, biface reduction, and manufacture of stone tools. The lithic artifacts indicate that the site is associated with a short term, transient, resource procurement camp.
The historic collection includes the following functional artifact groups and associated counts: Arms (n=l), Architecture (n=20), Domestic (n=26), Fuel (n=l), Hardware (n=l), and Miscellaneous (n=l). The sole artifact in the arms group is classified as a centerfire 30-30 Winchester rifle shell made from brass. This shell type has a post-1895 manufacturing date. The shell is likely related to hunting on the property in the nineteenth or early twentieth century when the post-1853 house was occupied. The architectural materials include the following types and associated counts: window pane glass (n= 10), brick (n=6), mortar (n= 1 ), nail (n=2), and screw (n= 1 ). The window pane glass collection consists of aqua-tinted and clear at 9 and 1, respectively. The brick collection is composed of fragments with the largest piece measuring 1/2- brick in size. The artifact classified as mortar is questionable. The nail collection consists of a spike and machine-cut type. The latter is first manufactured in the 1 790s and continues to be made today. However, this nail type is commonly found at domestic occupations dating to the nineteenth century. The screw is of the slotted type and likely dates to the twentieth century.
Shovel Testing relocated a midden feature in the southwestern comer of the study area previously identified as a blacksmith shop heap. The strategically placed and excavated test units verified and further examined this midden feature. The feature was found to contain horseshoe-related hardware, numerous other ferrous objects and scrap, coal, slag and associated waste, melted glass, and other miscellaneous artifacts associated with the blacksmith shop operation. This late nineteenth-century industrial component of Site 18AN400 was thought to be the only identified resource within the study area to have research value and archeological significance to Anne Arundel County. No further archeological work was warranted upon completing the combined Phase I/II investigation.
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