Phase II and Phase III Archaeological Database and Inventory
18GA303 James Drane House
Diagnostic Artifact Data
Features
Summary
In 1991, the Town of Accident, Maryland received a grant from the Maryland Historical Trust to conduct Phase I and II intensive archeological investigations as part of the stabilization and preservation efforts for the James Drane House. The project area is a well-known historic home and .75 acre property on the outskirts of the small town of Accident.
In 1778, Colonel William Lamar entered into a contract to obtain the tract of land upon which the Drane House now sits, a sale which did not finally take place until 1817. Lamar, however, took over the maintenance of the land, paying taxes on it and settling his brother-in-law, James Drane on it in 1798.
James Drane was born in 1735 in Prince George's County. In 1779, he married Priscilla Lamar and was commissioned a second lieutenant in the county militia. In 1790 Drane was listed in the first census with one child and four slaves, but soon moved west. He is included in the Allegany County tax assessment rolls in 1798 but not in the Allegany County census of 1800, suggesting that he and his family were in transit around this time. By 1801, however, they were in residence in a small timber-framed house on the Accident tract (the Drane House), where they commenced tobacco farming. With their 6 slaves, they successfully raised tobacco for several years. The James Drane household is one of several in what is now Garrett County to have attempted tobacco culture. However, it is one of the only for which we have material evidence available of what life was like for such a household. In addition, deposits at the site also contain information relating the the Richter family. The Richters were a German immigrant family who settled in the area and lived there throughout much of the nineteenth century.
Phase I survey was designed to locate activity areas and outbuildings associated with the historic structure through a series of 119 shovel test-pits and chemical testing of soil samples. Phase II testing involved 1) excavation of twelve 1.5 X 1.5 m test units to examine the nature of these activity areas and 2) excavation of an additional eight 1.5 X 1.5 m test units to answer specific research questions related to the structure of the house itself (see related cover sheet). This work was supplemented with archival and architectural examinations at all stages.
Soils encountered in the project area were primarily of the Gilpin series channery loam, but Earnest silt loams were also recorded. As stated previously, soil samples were taken throughout the project area and were submitted for chemical analysis. The location of identified activity areas was defined further when artifact distributions were compared to the results of chemical analysis. Concentrations of ceramics corresponded with areas containing relatively high concentrations of calcium, potassium, and sulfur. These chemical concentrations are associated with kitchen dumping and waste disposal.
Numerous features were identified throughout the site, including four activity areas. Activity area 1 dated from the earliest occupation of the site. Activity area 2 also dated from the Drane family occupation of the site, although at a slightly later time. Both were associated with kitchen related activities. Activity area 3 was a thin sheet scatter resulting from later activities, possibly during the occupation of the parcel by the Richter family beginning in the mid-nineteenth century. Activity Area 4 was a dense concentration of later ceramics north of the standing building. This assemblage also was overwhelmingly kitchen related; it dated later than any of the others. Although no features were found, the nature of this assemblage may associate it with the location of a bake oven.
One outbuilding was located during testing (Feature 1). It consisted of a deep kitchen midden associated with a possible siltstone foundation. This feature contained roughly 97% of the bone assemblage from the entire site. In general, bones that could be aged were under four years of age. The bones showed little evidence of food preparation techniques; few had been burned or showed signs of having been cooked. Chicken bones were the most common bird bones recovered. Wild birds included turkey, pigeon and duck. Cow, pig, sheep/goat, black bear, white-tailed deer, raccoon, woodchuck, squirrel, and several other species were represented. Pig bones constituted the largest number of the domestic animal bones, and the white-tailed deer outnumbered other wild species. From the soil sample removed from the feature for flotation, the heavy fraction contained 2 fragments of lead, 1 fragment of white bodied earthenware, 1 nail fragment, and 8 brick fragments, as well as 2 fish scales, 31 egg shell fragments, and 100 fragments of bone. There is no discussion of what materials (if any) were recovered in the light fraction and aside from some small pieces of charcoal recovered from another feature, there are no other artifacts reported as coming from the flotation samples that were taken from each feature at the site.
After completion of the Phase I/II project, as rehabilitation of the house moved forward, the City of Accident began to make preparations for the reconstruction of the now-collapsed west end gable chimney. The Maryland Historical Trust holds a historic preservation easement on the James Drane House and property and required the town to conduct further testing (supplemental Phase II) and data recovery (Phase III) of the chimney, prior to its reconstruction. This work was geared towards completely exposing the chimney foundation (first exposed during the Phase I/II work), in order to collect sufficient architectural data regarding its size, method of construction, and other construction details to assist in implementing an accurate chimney reconstruction. It was also a mitigation effort to protect existing archeological resources from the adverse effects of proposed construction. This involved re-exposure of the original 1.5 X 1.5 m test unit and excavation of a second 1.5 X 1.5 in the area of the chimney collapse.
The artifact count provided above as well as the more detailed description given below, come from the tables in the back of both reports. The counts provided in the body of the report are not used as some artifact types are not enumerated (except in the appended tables) and there are some discrepencies between these counts and those in the tables (perhaps due to cross-mend analysis). Only the Phase II testing results (both studies) and Phase III data recovery results are provided here. Counts from the Phase I shovel tests are not included.
The eight Phase II test units and single Phase III test unit that were positioned near the structure to address questions about the architectural history of the site yielded the following materials:
One hundred and twenty-two activity items were encountered. This assemblage consists of three tools or tool parts, 2 storage containers, 1 cigarette filter, 9 tin can parts, 1 piece of non-electrical wire, 1 hook, 3 stable-related items (horseshoes), 1 piece of flower pot, 100 bits of lamp glass, and part of a fence insulator. Architectural items (1029) included 703 window glass fragments, 5 pieces of architectural stone, a piece of wood, 20 bricks (2 glazed, 1 sand-tempered, 17 unspecified), 8 bits of mortar, 1 piece of plaster, 266 nails (7 rosehead, 67 machine-cut, 58 wire, 2 wrought, 132 unidentified), 1 metal bar, 2 pieces of electrical wire, 2 other electrical parts, 5 pieces of construction hardware, 6 pieces of asbestos, 8 fragments of sewer/drain tile, and 1 roof tile. There were twenty-one clothing items encountered including 17 buttons (5 bone, 5 shell, 2 porcelain, 5 synthetic), 1 metal snap, 2 iron buckles, and 1 piece of shoe leather. A total of 542 kitchen items were encountered in these areas. The kitchen ceramics included 367 sherds (2 rims). There were 27 creamware sherds, 68 pearlware sherds, 23 late porcelain sherds, 10 sherds of stoneware, 207 sherds of whiteware, 31 of redware, and 1 unidentified ceramic sherd. In addition to the ceramic assemblage 15 pieces of kitchen or table glass, 4 pieces of melted glass (mostly milkglass), 90 glass bottle fragments (11 blown-in-mold, 6 machine-made, 1 hand-turned, 1 pontil, 53 unspecified fragments), 7 pieces of metal can, 23 jar/lid parts, 50 animal bones (1 w/ cut marks), and 5 seeds or pits were excavated. Twenty-nine personal items were encountered including 1 piece of plastic jewelry, 1 container, 1 plastic comb, 1 dagger, 1 hairpin, 2 chamberpot fragments, 1 glass bead, 2 coins, and 1 pen nib. Seven tobacco-related artifacts were found (1 stem, 6 parts of pipe bowls). One rimfire rifle cartridge was the only Arms item recovered. And finally, 88 miscellaneous objects were recovered. These included 12 unidentified glass fragments, 11 biological items (mostly leather), 3 pieces of iron/steel, 1 piece of lead, 27 pieces of slag, 10 fragments of coal, 5 pieces of asphalt, 11 of stone, 2 piece of worked bone, 1 piece of carbon battery, 1 bit of plastic, 1 piece of sheet copper, 18 pieces of melted glass, and 3 unidentified items.
The 12 Phase II test units dedicated to examining the activity areas and possible outbuildings at the site yielded the following objects:
There were 43 activity items recovered. Among the activity items were 4 doll parts, 4 pieces of lamp glass, 11 fragments of non-electrical wire, 1 unidentified piece of hardware, 1 metal tool, 3 stable-related items (horseshoes and harness parts), 3 flower pots, 1 metal container, 1 piece of chain, 1 bale seal, and 13 miscellaneous objects. Two-hundred and eighty-eight architectural items were encountered, including 40 pieces of brick, 1 fragment of mortar, 3 fragments of chinking or daub, 1 architectural stone, 120 pieces of window glass, 108 nails (14 cut nails, 10 wire, 23 rosehead, and 61 unidentified), 4 nuts/bolts, 2 electrical parts, 4 pieces of shingle/tar paper, 4 sewer or drain tiles, and 1 miscellaneous architectural item. Clothing items included 24 buttons, 2 leather shoe pieces, 3 metal buckles, 1 thimble, and 1 tinkling cone. Of the 24 buttons, 3 were made of bone, 16 were copper alloys or brass, and 5 were made of an unidentified metal. The kitchen assemblage was by far the most extensive and included a total of 1585 artifacts. Ceramics account for 705 of the kitchen objects (57 rims) recovered from these units. The ceramic assemblage includes 1 sherd of early refined earthenware, 125 creamware sherds, 267 pearlware, 51 early porcelain sherds, 18 ironstone sherds, 32 domestic stoneware sherds (23 brown, 9 gray), 1 imported brown stoneware sherd, 68 whiteware sherds, 127 redware sherds, 1 slipware sherd, and 14 unidentified ceramic sherds. Other kitchen items included 5 jar/glass lid parts, 10 pieces of table/kitchen glass, 29 miscellaneous bottle fragments, 13 blown-in-mold bottle fragments, 2 machine-made bottle fragments, 1 kitchen pot, 5 utensils, 764 bone/tooth/antler fragments (mostly from Feature 1), 24 fish scales or bones, 4 pieces of turtle shell, 15 fragments of eggshell, 4 seed/nut/pit pieces, and 4 miscellaneous kitchen items. These units also yielded 8 personal items, including 1 tortoise shell comb, 3 coins, 2 pencils, 1 bead, and 1 bone lice comb. There were also 11 tobacco-related objects and 8 European Arms pieces. The former included 9 clay pipe stem pieces and 2 bowls, and the latter included 8 English gunflints. And finally, 129 miscellaneous artifacts were collected from these units. Among these were 11 unidentified pieces of glass, 63 unidentified metal objects, 5 pieces of lead, 5 unidentified bone tools, 7 leather objects, 7 stone objects, 6 wood fragments, 1 piece of plastic, 11 pieces of charcoal, and 13 coal related items (coal, slag, and cinders).
Obviously, the collections from the 1991 and 1993 projects are extensive and provide much detail on life at the Drane House and on the frontier of Western Maryland. The deposits encountered at the Drane House 1) attest to the attempt by the Drane’s to transplant their Tidewater tobacco farming culture to western Maryland. In addition, it 2) attests to the habitation of the property by the Richters and life for German immigrants in nineteenth century Maryland.
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