Phase II and Phase III Archaeological Database and Inventory
18FR989 Brengle
Diagnostic Artifact Data
Features
Summary
The Brengle Site (18FR989), also known as Hoke Grove, is the site of a 19th to early 20th century farm complex, blacksmith’s shop, and lime kiln south of the City of Frederick, in Frederick County. The site is situated on an upland flat at the southeastern edge of the Frederick Valley. In historic and in modern times, much of the area has been used as a quarry and, thus, the surrounding landscape is significantly altered from its natural state. What native soils remain are primarily Buckeystown loams.
The property where the Brengle Site is located was originally surveyed as “Locust Levell”, a 3,180 acre parcel patented to Daniel Dulany in 1750. In 1799, Lawrence Brengle purchased several smaller parcels of Locust Levell from Benjamin Dulany and William Cook, trustees for the estate of Daniel Dulany. However, Lawrence Brengle died before the land was conveyed. In 1801, Lawrence’s son, Jacob Brengle, received his father’s 280 acre parcel, which was named “Resurvey on Locust Level”.
Jacob and Amelia Brengle settled on the parcel by 1801 and began a lime burning business on a separate property located south of their farm. According to an entry in one Jacob Englebrecht’s diary in December of 1833. In it, Mr. Englebrecht mentions the death of 74 year old Adam Schiewel, a German immigrant who had served as lime burner for Jacob Brengle for about 25 years. The diary entry goes on to state, “[Mr. Schiewel] was certainly the best lime burner in the United States, because the lime from this county is considered better than any other in the U.S. & Mr. Brengle has the best in the county”. If Jacob Brengle’s lime burning operation had been in operation for at least 25 years in 1833, it may be inferred that the business had begun no later than 1808.
Jacob Brengle died in 1836 and his son, Alfred Fleener Brengle, inherited the property, including the adjacent limestone quarry, lime kilns, and the Brengle home which comprised part of what came to be known as the Hoke Grove Lime Kiln property.
Alfred Brengle married his cousin, Louisa Brengle, on May 16, 1832. According to the 1850 Federal Census, Alfred Brengle was working as a commission merchant, and he and Louisa are listed as having 7 children. When the census taker came in 1860, Alfred Brengle’s occupation was recorded as “lime burner”, and only four children were in the household. The Brengles owned $10,000 in real estate and $2,400 in personal property. Along with the Brengle family, the census also recorded one male resident of the household, an 11 year old boy named Edward Brown, who was designated as “black”. The 1860 Census also records two slaves belonging to Alfred Brengle: an unnamed 21 year old black female, and an 11 month old mulatto boy.
An 1858 map of Frederick County shows a property marked “A. Brengle” in the approximate site location, and an 1873 map shows the same property marked “Mrs. Brengle”.
Other than the Census, there are scant historical records pertaining to the Brengles during the first part of the 19th century. Fortunately, Jacob Englebrecht recorded a few more entries some anecdotal information. On the morning of April 7th, 1854, Mr. Englebrecht recorded that, “[t]he smoke house on back building of Mr. Alfred F. Brengle (Major Peter Mantz old residence). Caught fire from an ash barrel – loss not much. Insured in Baltimore”. Major Mantz was Louisa Brengle’s grandfather, and it is possible that the family had a residence on or near the larger Brengle limestone quarry property.
On October 23rd of 1864, Englebrecht records that a large stone barn owned by a Mr. Delashmutt, but built by Alfred Brengle several years prior was burnt down. He states that, “a black boy of his [Brengle’s] is accused of setting it on fire – insured in the Mutual Insurance office of our County for $3000”. This barn is described as being about a mile east of the City of Frederick near the B&O Railroad. Given the information from the census records, it is possible the “black boy” described by Englebrecht is Edward Brown, the boy who lived with the Brengles in 1860.
During the Civil War, the Brengle family was staunchly pro-Union and several members of the family served in the Union army. In April of 1861, the Brengle Home Guard of Frederick City was formed. The unit was headed by Major Richard Potts and Captain Alfred F. Brengle. Englebrecht records in his diary on April 26th, 1861 that the guard unit was over 200 strong and that they had turned out that morning and traveled to “the Barracks” where they were, “…reviewed by Major General Anthony Kimmel, after which the Company received Muskets from the Barracks Armory”.
Shortly thereafter, Alfred Brengle was captured by the Confederate Army after bringing Sanitary Commission supplies to an army surgeon garrisoned in Harper’s Ferry. The US Army’s Chief Inspector, L.H. Steiner made a note of the incident, which was later entered into the records of the US Sanitary Commission. The record states that Brengle was driving the mule team that carried the supplies on its return trip when he was seized by a cavalry unit. His team and wagons were confiscated, and Brengle was sent to Richmond as a prisoner of war.
Alfred Brengle was confined at Castle Thunder, a former tobacco warehouse that had been converted into a prison to hold civilian prisoners of war. It is unclear how long Brengle was held prisoner, but negotiations were begun to secure his release in 1863. In that year, Major General Benjamin F. Butler, sent a letter to the Honorable Robert Ould, Commissioner of Exchange in Richmond stating, “The agents of the Sanitary Commission claim that a Mr. Alfred F. Brengle, now confined at Castle Thunder near Richmond, was employed in the Sanitary Commission at the time of his arrest, was entirely non-combatant, and ought therefore to be exchanged”. This description seems to be entirely at odds with Alfred’s involvement with the Brengle Home Guards. Butler offered to seek out and exchange a Mr. Thatcher (also described as non-combatant), supposedly held by the Union. On October 2nd, 1863, Robert Ould sent his reply stating, “Brengle did not belong to the Sanitary Commission. He was arrested upon his return from a difficult and hazardous military enterprise, for which he was especially employed and paid. If you can bring him within the rule established as to members of the Sanitary Commission, I will release him”.
Negotiations must have been successful, because on February 11th, 1864, Brengle had arrived in Baltimore”. After his harrowing experience as a prisoner of war, Alfred Brengle returned to his farm in Frederick, only to die in an accident 16 months later. The Adams Sentinel newspaper carried his obituary on June 6th, 1865. It states that “Alfred F. Brengle, a respectable citizen of Frederick, Maryland, was killed on Tuesday, from the kick of a horse”. Louisa Brengle remained in the home she had shared with Alfred. Although much of their land had been mortgaged or sold, Louisa retained a dower portion of their real estate: a 2 rood (1/2 acre) parcel where her home and several outbuildings were located.
In 1870, the census recorded Louisa as a widow (aged 62), keeping house. Her unmarried daughter, Laura Brengle, aged 27, is described as “At Home”. Charles Brengle, 21, is the manager of their farm. Lucy Jones, a 10 year old mulatto female is working as a domestic servant and Alexander Brown, a 35 year old black man, is described as a farm hand on the property. John B. Albaugh, aged 11, is described as “white” and has no occupation listed.
In the 1880 Census, Louisa Brengle, was listed as head of house living with her 38 year old daughter, Laura, and John Albaugh. John, now 20 years old, was working as a laborer. In 1876, Louisa deeded the small home farm parcel to her daughter Laura Brengle. Louisa Brengle died in 1888, but Laura Brengle and John Albaugh remained in the house until 1909, when Laura Brengle died. In the 1900 Census, Laura Brengle was described as the head of household, but no occupation was listed. John Albaugh is described in the census as her “adopted brother” and was working as a lime burner.
Laura Brengle left the property to her sister, Henrietta Kemp, in her will, and in August of 1909, John Albaugh purchased the property from Kemp for $250.00. A few months later, he sold the property to Leslie Stine for $5.00, as well as other “good and valuable considerations”. The Stines sold the property to Edwin C. Markell in 1915. Edwin C. Markell, who, according to the census was a bank cashier, sodl the property to Daisy and Harry Winpigler in 1917. Harry Winpigler was employed at the M.J. Grove Lime Company at the time. The Winpiglers sold the property to William and Josephine Warfield in 1920. William Warfield was employed as a machinist for the Lime Company. In 1923, the Warfields sold the property to the M.J. Grove Lime Company.
According to the 1930 Federal Census, James Grove, Sr., manager of the M.J. Grove Lime Company, lived in the house with his wife, Anna, their three sons, and two servants. Although no records exist regarding the occupants of the house and grounds between 1930 and modern times, members of the Grove family recall that the house was occupied by various Groves until 1958. When the Grove Lime Company was sold to Flintkote in 1960, the house was rented out to employees of the new company until the 1990s. From about 1996, the house stood unoccupied.
In 1939, the landscape was dramatically altered north of the house, in the area where Site 18FR989 was initially identified. According to Mr. Bernard Grove, cartloads of burned trash, fly ash, and bottom ash from the lime kilns was brought to this location and dumped to level the terrain. This filling activity resulted in a huge deposit of ashy fill in an area that was once steeply downslope from the house and other outbuildings. The purpose was to create a level area for a block concrete plant that was in operation between 1939 and 1946.
In 1955, the Frederick Bypass (later I-70) was built through the northern part of the property. As-built plans for the highway construction show several structures, a garden, and an orchard. When the highway was being built, a small stream that once ran along the modern course of I-70 was filled in and the highway was elevated. More soil was dumped across the northern portion of the site during this highway work. The filling associated with the construction of the concrete plant and I-70 accounts for the fact that the landscape north of the Brengle house is now more or less level. During the Brengle occupation, the terrain dropped off steeply just north of the house, and a stream once flowed there.
The site was first identified in 1998 during the course of a Phase I survey of the Hoke Grove Limestone Company Property, portions of which were within the right-of-way for (then) planned improvements to I-70 by the Maryland State Highway Administration (SHA). All work was carried out in accordance with Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966, and pursuant to the Maryland Historical Trust Act of 1985 (as amended), State Finance and Procurement Article §§ 5A-325 and 5A-326.
The Phase I work at the Brengle site that lead to the identification of the site was a series of 21 shovel test pits excavated at 5 m intervals in the northern part of the site. The shovel test profiles were similar in most of the highway project area except where significant disturbance cut deeply into the landscape. Shovel test pits excavated during this survey identified no historic artifacts and the investigators interpreted soils as intact, with a thin layer of topsoil and deep subsoil. No site number was assigned at that time, due to the apparent dearth of artifacts (2 fragments of colored plastic, 1 piece of barbed wire, & 1 piece of modern bottle glass), especially those related to the standing structures on the Hoke/Gove Lime Kiln property.
In 2008 and 2009, SHA project plans for a retaining wall and ditch (with subsequent landscaping) indicated that impacts would extend slightly further into the Hoke Grove Lime Kiln Property. SHA staff conducted supplementary shovel testing in late 2008 and early 2009, and identified intact archeological deposits below depths excavated in 1998. The SHA project entailed the excavation of two transects of shovel test pits (10 m apart), with a total of 19 STPs excavated at the site. The STPs showed that what had previously been interpreted as intact subsoil was actually a thick layer of fill, increasing in depth to the west. Most STPs had to be excavated to a depth of around 1 m to reach sterile sand. The fill layer had effectively buried and preserved 19th century deposits across the site. In addition, STPs revealed a deep deposit of slag and burned debris, which may be associated with a purported blacksmith’s shop, or which could be byproducts of a lime kiln. A single 1 X 1 m test unit was excavated, which revealed deep deposits of late 19th and early 20th century materials. These deposits were interpreted to be remnants of a deep midden feature and contribute to the understanding of the site's period of occupation and use.
Artifacts recovered during late 2008 and early 2009 included wire nails, flat glass, container glass, fence staples, a magnet, stoneware, soft-paste porcelain, animal bone, oyster shells, brick, and mortar. These items are not included in the tally of artifact types above.
Between March 23rd and April 13th of 2009, SHA conducted additional Phase I/II testing at 18FR989 related to the ongoing work on I-70. The testing in 2009 included additional shovel tests and three more test units.
Three transects of STPs were excavated during the 2009 Phase I/II project. A total of 40 STPs were excavated at 5 m intervals in three transects spaced 10 m apart. Shovel test measured 40 cm in diameter and were generally excavated 10 cm into sterile subsoil. All soils were removed according to natural stratigraphic horizons and screened through hardware mesh. Shovel test results, including presence or absence of cultural materials and features, stratigraphic sequences, and location of each test within the testing pattern were recorded on standardized recordation forms. All STPs were refilled upon documentation.
Shovel testing began near a small wooden shed in the northeast corner of the property near a driveway, and progressing toward the west. The first four STPs could only be excavated to a depth of about 40 cm due to the presence of dense tree roots. The other STPs could be excavated deeper and were able to penetrate below the thick layers of fill identified previously.
A 1 X 1 m test unit was excavated between two STPs to better ascertain the nature of a buried A horizon identified there. A 1 X 2 m test unit was excavated in the vicinity of an apparent feature identified in another STP. And a third test unit (1 X 1 m) was excavated where a concentration of early 19th century materials was encountered. The 1 X 1 m unit in the vicinity of the buried A horizon revealed a large piece of limestone beneath the fill layer. Only the southeastern quadrant of the unit could be fully excavated. Notwithstanding the obstruction, numerous artifacts were recovered from the unit. The 1 X 2 m unit was excavated to maximum depth of 1.2 m below ground surface, and revealed a stone wall that had been buried during multiple dumping episodes during the early 20th century. This was initially thought to be a filled-in cellar, but further excavation would be required to fully expose and properly interpret this feature. The third unit was excavated to a depth of 80 cm below the surface and did produce a significant number of artifacts. Based on these findings, Phase III data recovery was carried out in July and August of 2010.
Five shovel tests were excavated along a single transect at 5m intervals along the northern edge of a parking area to supplement the already voluminous STP data. Following this, a total of 27 test units were excavated in a grassy open space or yard area located northwest of the vacant tenant house and outbuildings. Of these, 23 measured 1 X 1 m, one measured 0.86 X 1.7 m, and one measured 45 X 45 cm. The remaining three 1 X 1 m test units were placed in the west-central portion of the site to investigate potential buried historic surfaces also identified during the 2009 investigation. Finally, a Gradall was used on three occasions to remove 20th century fill materials and expand the excavation area to permit safe access to the work area, and on a fourth occasion to remove modern fill materials overlying a buried historic surface in one portion of the site.
Test unit excavation preceded in 10 cm arbitrary levels within natural stratigraphy. With the exception of soils identified as 20th century fill material, all excavated soil was screened through 0.635 cm (0.25 in) or 0.16 cm (.0625 in) hardware mesh. The placement of the units was guided by the Phase II fieldwork that took place in 2009. During that earlier excavation, a deep (approximately 1.524 m) deposit of coal and ash-filled soil was discovered adjacent to a buried stone wall. This feature was initially thought to be the wall of a cellar that had been filled in, but as the Phase III excavations continued, it became clear that in fact, the stone wall was one side of an intact stone structure which once stood above ground. The majority of the excavation focused on this building, although several units were placed in other locations of the site in order to provide a broad sample of the entire site
During the Phase III testing, 11,695 historic artifacts were recovered from feature and non-feature contexts. Although a majority of the artifacts (9,916 or 84.8%) were recovered from non-feature contexts, three historic features were identified: 4-10, 7-01, and 15-01. Feature contexts yielded 1,779 artifacts and were defined as cultural deposits directly associated with the construction, use, or abandonment of those features.
Feature 4-01 was a stone structure of unknown function. Associated contexts were a builder’s trench and soil within the interior of the feature. Feature 7-01 was an iron water line. Associated contexts were the installation trench for the utility line. Feature 15-01 was a stone L-shaped addition onto the northern side of Feature 4-01. Contexts associated with this feature were a builder’s trench, soil behind a temporary wall within the structure, and soil within the interior of the feature that appeared to be the working surface. Based on the Phase III testing, the entirety of the Brengle site within SHA right-of-way had been significantly disturbed as a result of repeated episodes of construction and demolition, and particularly as a result of dumping on a massive scale to level terrain that was once deeply cut by a small stream channel. Intact historic living surfaces were identified in a few small areas, but these soils yielded only a handful of artifacts that offered little information about the site and its past residents.
The overwhelming majority of artifacts recovered at the site during the 2009 and 2010 field projects were related to a series of major fill episodes that occurred circa 1939 in advance of construction of the Grove Block Concrete Plant (see above). This fill deposit dramatically altered the landscape of the site, which once dropped off in a steep slope north of the house and outbuildings. At the base of this slope, the mysterious building known as Feature 4-01 once stood above-ground. The few artifacts that predate the 1930s fill event were common 19th century domestic items that had no clear relationship to Feature 4-01. These artifacts were most likely discarded during the occupation of the site, but do not shed any light on the function of the structure.
The assemblage from the 2009-2010 SHA projects consisted of a large iron plow tine, fence staples (at least 2), 2 handmade brick fragments, 4 other brick fragments, several nails (estimated at 20 in the table above), 1,244 ceramic objects (counted in the table above as sherds, but including other objects), 2 pieces of probable table glass, 1 machine-made/hand –finished glass bottle, a strainer, 1,390 floral or faunal remains (counted in the table above as miscellaneous kitchen items), an 1891 Indian Head penny, at least 1 clay pipe stem, 4,290 other pieces of glass (including lamp glass, bottles, toy marbles, etc.), at least 4,711 pieces of metal (including some additional nails, gun cartridges, lamp parts, pins, etc.), 92 composite items, and 42 synthetic artifacts.
Portions of the site outside SHA’s right-of-way, particularly in the immediate vicinity of the Brengle house and outbuildings, may yet contain intact archeological deposits, since the ground in those areas has been subject to significantly less modification. MHT determined that the site was eligible for listing in the NRHP in May of 2009. The house and all remaining outbuildings were demolished by the property owner in July of 2010. The status of that demolition activity’s impact on the site’s archeological deposits is not currently known.
|
