Phase II and Phase III Archaeological Database and Inventory
18AN500 Fischer
Diagnostic Artifact Data
Features
Summary
The Fischer Site (18AN500) is a late 19th - early 20th century African-American tenant house ruin located west of Parole in Anne Arundel County, Maryland. A disturbed transient hunting camp used from the Late Archaic through Late Woodland periods is also present. The site is situated on a small knoll overlooking an unnamed stream to the north, which drains into Broad Creek. The Old Chesterfield Road formerly ran by the site, but has long been abandoned. The ground around the cabin ruins slopes up slightly to the northwest, falls away sharply to the east, and falls away more gradually to the west. Soils at the site are primarily Monmouth clays.
The site was first identified in 1979 by personnel from the Maryland Geological Survey as they carried out a reconnaissance-level survey of the (then) proposed Baltimore Annapolis controlled-access freeway (I-97) corridor. The remains of a small frame building with a dry-laid ironstone foundation and a fallen brick fireplace/chimney were evident in the field. The structure appeared to be 3.66 X 4.88 m (12 X 16 ft) in size. Two small shovel tests were excavated in the vicinity of the site, primarily to examine soil stratigraphy. Two artifacts were observed and collected from the surface, a tin-glazed earthenware sherd and a fragment of slightly crazed windowpane. Based on these findings, in concert with some preliminary archival research which suggested the site might relate to a slave cabin or tenant house, Phase II testing was recommended.
Phase II testing was conducted at 18AN500 in 1982. As part of the Phase II work, extensive archival research was conducted, as well as informant interviews to place the site in its proper historical context. The site was originally a part of the plantation owned by Benjamin Lusby from sometime before 1850 until his death after 1880. The residence of Mr. Lusby, which was still standing in the 1980s, is labeled as such on an 1878 Atlas of the area, but is situated to the south and could not have been 18AN500. The 1850 Federal Census lists Lusby as a farmer, aged 52, in Anne Arundel County, who resided with his wife Elizabeth (age 48), their two children, and 3 other family members (his widowed sister-in-law and possibly a niece and nephew).
The 1860 Census states that Benjamin owned 15 slaves in two houses. By 1864, there were 19 slaves. The surnames given in the 1864 Slave Register provide the surnames Richardson, Bias, Troy, Butler, Clark, and Snowden. Since it was quite common for freed slaves to become tenants on the properties of their former masters, it was considered quite likely that the site served as the residence for one or more of these tenanted families.
The 1870 Census provides considerably more detail about the former slave households of the Lusby plantation. A Thomas Anderson (aged 45) is recorded as a farm laborer and Maria Anderson (35) is a cook. It is assumed that they were married and the three children listed after them (Riziu, Fanny, and Thomas) are their offspring. This family was probably in residence closer to the Lusby household than 18AN500 as Maria is listed as a cook. The next African-American household is the Brown family. William Brown is 65 and listed as a farm laborer, as is Anny (55), who is assumed to be his wife. Also listed with them are Thomas (36), Mary (40), Rachel (35), Maria (30), and Harriet (13). Dinah Hepburn (45) is listed as a farm laborer, apparently with 4 children: Philip (13), Alice (17), Lousie (7), and Prince Albert (3). In addition, five black children with the surname Johnson are listed, but with no adults of the same name. The children range in ages from 2 to 12 and include 1 boy and 4 girls. One final African-American individual listed with the Lusby’s is John Magruder, age 28, recorded as a farm laborer.
Many of the members of the Lusby household still lived in the area at the time of the 1880 Census. The census lists Benjamin Lusby as in good health, aged 83 and with no profession. The widowed sister of Benjamin’s wife Elizabeth, M.A. Nicholls (listed in the 1860 Census), is still a member of the household. An Isaac Nicholls is also listed. He is presumably the brother of Elizabeth and M.A. (and Benjamin Lusby’s brother-in-law) and maintained a separate household with his wife Amanda and children Lucita and Lillie. Eight separate black households are listed between Isaac Nicholls and Benjamin Lusby. The surnames include Hughes, Scott, Mathews, Blackiston, Simons, and Reed. The Simons household includes Charles, 45, listed as a laborer, and his wife Ellen, 48. Six children are listed aged 1 to 18. The only boy is Daniel Simons, age 14.
From the documentary evidence data, it is unclear which of the black families who appear in the documents were the residents of 18AN500. Benjamin Lusby owned the land from before 1850 to his death (sometime before the next available census in 1900). The occupants could have been any of the families in residence during the period. Only oral history is able to fill in the gaps somewhat.
In September of 1982, the Phase II field research team was able to interview one Bernard J. Fischer, a resident of the farm on which 18AN500 is located since 1913. Mr. Fischer moved there with his family at that time from Baltimore where his father had operated a store. Following a doctor’s advice, the elder Mr. Fischer moved from the city to the country. The farm was owned by Mr. Fisher in partnership with Cecil Brown. Mr. Brown sold Mr. Fischer his interest in the farm when the latter moved in 1913. Mr. Fischer believed that someone named “Clayton”, not Lusby, owned the land by the time his father purchased it, but leased it out to tenants. The tenant in 1913 was a Mr. Frisbee Anderson. Mr. Anderson remained around the farm for three years to help teach the Fischers agricultural techniques. Mr. Fischer’s son Alec married a Lola Nicholls and they lived on the third floor of the Fischer family house for a period of time. The relationship between Lola Nicholls and the Nicholls family associated with Benjamin Lusby is uncertain.
Mr. Fischer was able to provide some details related to the structure at 18AN500, having witnessed it standing. The house was of simple square-hewn log construction, with three ground floor and two upstairs rooms. The roof was made of riven shingles and the third room on the bottom floor was part of a small lean-to addition. The structure had a hearth-type masonry chimney and wood floors. The site was surrounded by a pole fence which enclosed both the house and an adjacent garden. Water came from a spring northeast of the site. Outward travel proceeded north and south to Crownsville Road and Old Chesterfield Roads respectively.
According to Mr. Fischer, the residents of 18AN500 during the period from 1913 until its demise were the Simons family. Daniel Simons, Sr. worked on the Fischer farm in exchange for his housing and a $5 to $6 weekly wage. Again, a Daniel Simons is mentioned in the 1880 Census. Living in the house with Mr. Simons were his wife (who’s name Mr. Fischer could not recall), Daniel Simons, Jr. (their son) and the son’s wife and 4 children. Needless to say, conditions were quite cramped within the structure.
Daniel Simons, Sr., worked on the farm performing a variety of agricultural tasks. In addition to his housing and salary, Mr. Fischer’s family provided milk every day for the Simons from their 18-head dairy herd. Water was supplied by the aforementioned spring, and firewood was obtained free from the farm. The small garden near the structure provided vegetables. Mr. Fisher could not recall if the Simons kept hogs or other livestock, but assumes some meat source was available.
The Phase II field investigations in 1982 consisted primarily of systematic shovel test pit (STP) excavations. STPs were excavated with a 15 cm diameter post-hole digger on a 3 meter grid interval established across the entire site. After identification of the major site loci, additional transects of STPs were excavated at 6 m intervals beyond the main site area to be certain that additional cultural materials did not extend further. In addition, 17 STPs at 1 m intervals were estimated 50 cm out from the extant foundation remnant to help delineate the extent of the structure and identify door and window locations. A total of 352 STPs were excavated during Phase II work in 1982. All soils were sifted through hardware cloth and all cultural materials were retained. A soil sample was retained from the top 15 cm of each STP for chemical analysis to locate additional areas of possible cultural activity.
An additional element of the Phase II research design for 18AN500 involved systematic probing around the above-grade remains of the chimney. It was hoped that additional foundation lines could be delineated. The structure appears to have had an intermittent stone footing. Material from the chimney collapse litters the area, making segregation of in situ masonry very difficult. However, general house outlines were obtained.
Consistent soil stratigraphy was found on the site comprising a 6 cm thick layer of humus above a yellow-brown clay subsoil. In one area to the south of the house a 20 cm thick layer of humus was recorded in 22 contiguous STPs. This was interpreted as a garden area. Distributional analysis of nails, window glass, brick, ceramics, and bottle glass showed a tendency to cluster around the cabin, and also a linear pattern trending to the northwest, possibly indicating the presence of a former footpath leading to Old Chesterfield Road. Soil analysis showed a high concentration of phosphates in the garden area and to the east and north of the cabin. The high phosphate concentration in the garden was attributed to intentional manuring. It was further postulated that the concentration east of the cabin was due to the disposal of organic waste, and the concentration to the north was thought to result from cattle congregating there adjacent to the fence. Potassium distribution was interpreted as representing random disposal of fireplace ash. Calcium was concentrated in the garden area suggesting that the garden was occasionally limed.
A complete artifact catalog for the materials encountered during Phase II work is not provided in the full site report. However, counts for certain diagnostic types are provided and minimal counts for other artifact types can be determined from artifact distribution maps. Historic artifacts recovered during Phase II work include 11 activity items (fragments of hurricane lamp glass), a minimum of 272 architectural artifacts (at least 125 wire and cut nails, 124 pieces of window glass, and 23 brick fragments), and 166 kitchen-related items (1 creamware sherd, 4 lead-glazed earthenware sherds, 29 whiteware sherds, a porcelain sherd, a Rockingham sherd, 6 yelloware sherds, 2 gray salt-glazed stoneware sherds, and 122 pieces of bottle glass). The diagnostic materials pointed to a date of occupation from ca. 1880 to 1920.
The major conclusions of the Phase II fieldwork at 18AN500 were that the site was highly significant because of its association with post-bellum African-Americans, its high degree of integrity (and the scarcity of such resources), and that the site should be subject to data recovery of it could not be avoided during construction of I-97. This recommendation was followed shortly by a determination by the Maryland SHPO that the site was eligible for listing on the National Register.
Based on these findings and the determination of NRHP eligibility, Phase III archeological data recovery was carried out at 18AN500 during the fall of 1984 to mitigate potential adverse effects to the site from the proposed highway construction. Preliminary work consisted of clearing the area of secondary growth, felled trees, and brush. After clearance was completed a metric grid was established on the site. As the 1982 Phase II grid could not be relocated, a new grid was oriented to the highway right-of-way (ROW) line, along the east side of the impact area. The ROW was aligned on a southeast-northwest orientation.
All archeological work was confined to the impact area, a roughly triangular area measuring approximately 65 m north-south by 21 m east-west. Within this area researchers excavated 450 square meters of soil in individual 1 X 1 m squares: the entire site area as defined during Phase II. Fifty-nine additional 1 m square test units were placed randomly across the impact area outside of the known site area to determine the location of any subsurface features and artifact concentrations. Each 1 m square unit was excavated in four quadrants to allow artifacts to be plotted at both macro-levels and micro-levels to more precisely determine their distributions.
Maps of glass, ceramics, brick, nails, and faunal remains were produced to identify artifact concentrations. These maps reveal extremely high concentrations of artifacts in the garden area and in the area immediately west of the garden, with localized artifact concentrations occurring in the slope area. The inhabitants of 18AN500 appear to have discarded their domestic refuse in the garden as fertilizer, while larger ceramic sherds suggest a deliberate dumping are on the slope.
A total of 4,102 historic artifacts were recovered at 18AN500 during the 4 weeks of excavation. The assemblage consisted of an estimated 31 activity items, 788 architectural artifacts, 24 clothing items (17 glass, 4 ceramic, and 3 metal buttons), an estimated 5 furniture items (stove parts), approximately 2,613 kitchen-related objects, 1 personal item (an 1898 cent), 18 tobacco pipe fragments, 1 arms item (a .22 rimfire cartridge), and roughly 621 miscellaneous objects. The activity items were 18 bisque doll fragments, a porcelain toy tea set fragment, at least 2 harmonica reeds, a ceramic marble, 2 lamp parts, at least 2 pieces of copper wire, a drill bit, an iron bucket handle, a horseshoe, and 2 slate pencil fragments. The architectural artifacts were 215 pieces of brick, 69 pieces of window glass, and 504 nails (mostly machine cut). The kitchen-related assemblage was made up of 956 ceramic sherds (34 porcelain, 575 whiteware, 157 ironstone, 62 miscellaneous earthenware, 101 miscellaneous stoneware, and 27 other sherds), 1,594 pieces of glass (104 pieces of table glass, 40 pieces of canning jar glass, 10 pieces of milk glass, 885 pieces of bottle glass, and 55 other vessel glass fragments), a large iron serving spoon, 2 iron colanders, at least 2 iron cooking pot fragments, approximately 5 knife fragments, at least 2 crown caps, and 51 faunal remains (35 oyster shell fragments, 5 unidentified pieces of shell, 5 pig bones, 4 artiodactyl bones, and 3 unidentified bones). Artifacts counted as miscellaneous items included 381 unidentified glass objects, 191 other metal objects, and 48 unidentified or miscellaneous modern items.
Again, the artifacts date primarily to the period from about 1880 to 1920. Most items are fairly utilitarian in character. Numerous toy fragments, including bisque doll heads, a sherd from a child’s porcelain tea set, and a ceramic marble, suggest children’s recreational activity. The recovery of 2 slate pencils hints at the inhabitants’ ability to read and write. The harmonica parts suggest how leisure time may have been spent. Even though the state of the faunal remains was poor (due to preservation), analysts were able to conclude that the inhabitants of 18AN500 depended considerably on oysters and immature pigs for food.
In addition to the historic remains related to the tenancy of the Simons and other black families at 18AN500, prehistoric remains reveal the presence of a Native American transient hunting camp dating from the Late Archaic through the Late Woodland Periods (2000 BC – 1600 AD). All artifacts were located in humus or the A-horizon, and were mixed with 19th and 20th century materials, indicating that the prehistoric component is heavily disturbed. A concentration of fire-cracked rock in association with quartz, rhyolite, and quartzite debitage, 6 bifaces, and a projectile point possibly represents a hearth that was disturbed by subsequent activity.
The prehistoric assemblage encountered during both Phase II and III work at 18AN500 consisted of 9 projectile points (1 Brewerton, 1 Holmes, 2 Vernon points, 1 Halifax point, a Calvert point, a Rossville, and 2 Madison triangles), 14 other bifaces, 9 cores, 3 unifaces, 210 flakes, 233 fragments of shatter, 3 hammerstones, 86 pieces of fire-cracked rock, 114 other lithics not identified in the Phase II report, 1 Townsend sherd, and 2 other prehistoric sherds. The vast majority of the lithic objects were made of quartz, followed by lesser amounts of quartzite, rhyolite, chert, jasper, argillite, and other materials.
The presence of fire-cracked rock, debitage, and a limited variety of tool types indicates that site activities included the procurement and processing of faunal resources, the refurbishment of existing lithic tools, and the creation of new tools. The prehistoric component had little research potential because of its disturbed nature.
The general picture gleaned from archeological work at 18AN500 appears to confirm details of the archival record (such as it is), as well as informant interviews related to rural black tenant farmers of the former Lusby plantation. The site adds to the database of information related to the lifeways of rural African-Americans in late 19th and early 20th century Anne Arundel County. After emancipation, most African-Americans in this county continued to work as laborers or tenant farmers, and occupied the same quarters as they did before. Their low economic status is reflected in the ordinary utilitarian character of the majority of artifacts recovered. Excellent archeological context makes 18AN500 important for comparison to other contemporary sites in Maryland and Virginia.
The information recovered from 18AN500 provides a useful addition to the scant data on rural domestic sites in Maryland that can be tied to African-American households. In addition, the most intact portions of the site were avoided by shifting the right-of-way for I-97 slightly to the west. Site 18AN500 should still be considered a significant archeological resource.
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