Photography in Port Tobacco

As I was sitting here today thinking about our blog and our work, I kept looking at the same things over and over. Those "things" I was looking at were the photographs. Are they interesting? Who took them? hmmm...who did take them? Some were done by us, some by visitors, newspapers, etc. But then I started to look at the older photographs, the ones from the 19th Century and early 20th Century and I thought about it some more.

Early in 2007 while still in school I worked on a museum exhibit focusing on the photography of late 19th Century techniques. This got me thinking about the ones taken of Port Tobacco during that time.

We must remember that not everyone was carrying around a cell phone with a camera on it like we do today. The equipment then was very cumbersome and a time consuming process. I looked at the Barbour map and noticed everything from hotels to a smithy to the shops that were in the town. What about a portrait studio? Surely as the county seat with so many different commercial opportunities there would have been a portrait studio, right? Not necessarily.

So who took these early photographs? Was there a portrait studio? Did one of the newspapers employ a photographer or have the equipment themselves? Was there a resident in the county or the town itself who was skilled in photography?

These are a few of the questions on the subject that would be interesting to learn about. We haven't done any research on the subject yet, but we will and we would love to know anything that anyone else knows on the subject too!

- Peter

Sharing Archaeology On The Web

One of the events that I attended at the SAA conference this week was a roundtable luncheon on sharing archaeology on the web. Our small group discussed what we were each doing, and planning to do, to help bring our projects to the public. Our moderator was Dr. Steve Black, editor of the Texas Beyond History website. One of the topics that we spent a lot of time discussing was the use of video on websites, something the Port Tobacco Archaeological Project has yet to do. There is a lot of archaeology video on the web, one example being the Archaeology Channel website, so we want to be sure we have something new to contribute before we begin that process. I think developing the wiki is more important right now but we may take video of the Archeological Society of Maryland Field Session at Port Tobacco, this June, as a first step in bringing another perspective of Port Tobacco to you.

-April

Late Night Report from Vancouver

The Society for American Archaeology conference is winding down.
It's 11pm in Vancouver and Jim and I fly back to our respective homes tomorrow.

Today, I presented a paper entitled "Memory and Identity within Late Prehistoric Cultures of the Susquehanna Valley". It summarized a portion of my dissertation research on the Engelbert Site in New York State. Here I identified an unusual mortuary ritual that can be interpreted as either a Susquehannock claim to Iroquois ancestry or to the land that the Iroquois one controlled.

Tomorrow Jim will present a paper on Late Archaic sites in the Chesapeake.

When I get home it is time to start preparing my (Archeological Society of Maryland) Spring Symposium talk about Port Tobacco. It will take place on April 12th in Annapolis.

-April

Port Tobacco Times and Sedimentation

The Abstracts from the Port Tobacco Times and Charles County Advertiser compiled by Roberta J. Wearmouth, provide some insights into the sedimentation of the Port Tobacco River. Obviously an abstract can not include all the information contained in the original but the abstracts of the Times are a very useful source until the team completes it own review of local newspapers.

One abstract entry of interest relates to a time period long before the Times started publishing. An 1873 letter to the editor states that about 130 years previously there were plans to move the county seat to Chapel Point. The new town, to be called New Edinburg, was laid out with “ample ground for wharves, for the accommodation of trade and commerce, on water then deep enough for any vessel that could go to Alexandria”. The writer attributed this planned move to the rapid filling up of the creek and the fast growing destruction of the navigation at Port Tobacco. The writer said he had seen the plan for the town about 50 years earlier “when the Clerk’s office near the center of the public square was pulled down”. I sure would like to know how he learned that river sedimentation was the reason for the proposed move!

An 1854 report by a committee of the Charles County Agriculture Society seems to indicate the river at Port Tobacco’s traditional landing at Warehouse Point was already too shallow for navigation by large boats. This report recommended two locations on the Port Tobacco River for development as public landings for shipment of produce by steamboat. The first, Deep Point, on the East side of the river is approximately 2 ½ miles below the village of Port Tobacco and 1 ½ miles below Warehouse Point. It was described as being “as high up the creek as a steamboat could successfully ply”. From there smaller vessels would be used to transfer freight to the warehouses. The other recommended site was Brent’s Landing on the West side of the river slightly downriver from Deep Point. The abstracts give no indication that the Deep Point location was developed as a steamboat landing. However they do state that by the Fall of 1857 steamboats were stopping at Chapel Point (at the mouth of the river) where wharfs and a warehouse had been erected. Apparently Chapel Point served as the Port Tobacco stop for the duration of the steamboat era.

The Brent’s landing location was developed in 1881 but it too seemed to suffer sedimentation problems, for within a year the owner asked Congress to improve navigation by dredging the mouth of the Port Tobacco Creek. The abstracts state that funds were appropriated for a preliminary study of the feasibility of dredging both the Port Tobacco Creek and another creek in Charles County. However, they do not indicate if the dredging actually occurred. The silting problem apparently was not solved because in 1883 the Times praised the skills of a Captain who was able to dock a 300 ton schooner at Brent’s Landing. The article states that not only was the schooner probably the “largest sailing vessel” ever on the river but that much smaller vessels usually had great difficulty getting into the creek safely.

The abstracts also provide a few hints about how soil erosion that caused the sedimentation of the river affected the land around Port Tobacco, but that’s a story for another day.

- Elsie

Finding Residents Through the Census

Using the US Censuses seems an obvious way of finding out who was living in the town of Port Tobacco in the 1800's. However. Charles County Census data was collected by districts and not by towns. Like most of the 1890 Census, the 1890 Maryland census data was destroyed by fire in 1921. However, the 1880 and 1870 Censuses do indicate who was living in Port Tobacco. For those years the Charles County census takers tended to skip lines in the ledger in order to group residences, and they specifically identified the people residing in the town of Port Tobacco. The Charles County census takers for prior years did no such groupings.

So how do we find the town residents before 1870?

We should be able to find out assuming

1) Census takers would ride from residence to residence collecting data, so people living near each other would appear in close proximity on the census pages.

2) Some people would continue to live in the town and would appear in consecutive censuses.

Using an on-line census database, the 1860 Census was searched for the head of each 1870 Port Tobacco residence. Some could not be found in Charles County. They may have lived outside Charles County, or else their names were not identifiable based on the census taken as writing and/or spelling. Luckily, a subset of 1860 Census pages associated with 1870 Port Tobacco residents was identified. The starting residence on the first page and the ending residence on the last page could not be definitively identified but could be bracketed by any residents who were farmers. Farmers would have needed more land than that of a town lot.

The same process works for the 1850 Census and for the 1840 Census, but it doesn't appear to help with the 1830 Census. So maybe the above assumptions don't hold for 1830. The assumptions definitely could not be used for the 1790 Charles County Census that has people listed in alphabetical order by surname.

- Carol Cowherd

More Census Data, Part 2

I decided to repeat my analysis of the 1860 census on the 1870 census data. What I found is that a similar pattern holds true.

Of the 67 surnames that appear in Port Tobacco's 1870 census, only 28 also appear in the 1880 census. That is 42% retention.

Taking it down to the level of individuals, of the 215 residents in 1870 only 41 remain in 1880. That is 20% retention. These individuals are:

H. Herber Boswell - a white male of 9 years in age in 1870 who is "at school" in 1880
Maria C. Boswell - a white female of 15 years in 1870 who is "at home" in 1880
Mary F. Boswell - a white female of 43 years in 1870, listed as "keeping house" both years
Mary F. Boswell (Jr) - a white female of 17 years in 1870, listed as "at home" in 1880
William Boswell - a white male of 48 in 1870, a merchant and farmer in 1870 and a merchant in 1880

Philip Chesley - a mulatto male porter of 42 in 1870, listed as a servant in 1880

John D. Corvall/Covall - a white male shoemaker of 43 in 1870 who continues this profession in 1880

John H Edelen - a mulatto male carpenter of 54 in 1870 and a laborer in 1880

Eliza C. Hawkins - a black female of 10 years in age in 1870

John H. Jenkins - a white male cabinetmaker of 43 years in age in 1870, who continues this profession in 1880
Lydia Jenkins - a 10 year olf white female in 1870 who becomes a teacher by 1880
Ruth Jenkins - a 3 year old white femaile in 1870 who is "at school" in 1880
Sarah E. Jenkins - a 17 year olf white female in 1870 who is "at home" in 1880

Joseph G. Lacey - a 38 year old white merchant in 1870, who continues in this profession in 1880
Joseph R. Lacey - an 11 year old white male in 1870 who becomes a store clerk in 1880

James A. Mason - a 29 year old black baker in 1870 who becomes a Barber in 1880

J Forbes Middleton - a 36 year old white male clerk who is listed as a "penman" in 1880

Mary R Owen - a 20 year old white female in 1870, listed as "keeping house" both years
T Somerset Owen - a 2 year old white male in 1870 who is "at school" in 1880
Thomas T Owen - a 23 year old white male clerk in 1870 who becomes a merchant in 1880

Samuel C Padgett - an 8 year old white male in 1870 who becomes a store clerk by 1880
William Padgett - a 48 year old white male merchant who continues in this profession in 1880

John Penn - a 1 year old black male in 1870 who is "at school" in 1880
Maria Penn - a 28 year old black female "keeping house" in 1870 and a servant in 1880

Martha A Pye - a 2 year old mulatto female in 1870 who is "at home" in 1880
Washington Pye - a 30 year old black male in 1870 who is listed as a blacksmith for both years

Adelaide Quensell/Quenzal - a 39 year old white female in 1870, listed as "keeping house" both years
Douglass Quensell/Quenzal - a 9 year old white male in 1870, and a printer in 1880
Helene Quensell/Quenzal - an 8 year old white female in 1870, "at home" in 1880
Julius Quensell/Quenzal - a 40 year old white male watchmaker in 1870 and a "watch repairer" in 1880

Amanda E. Swann - a 7 year old mulatto girl in 1870, "at home" in 1880
Jeanette Swann - a 3 year old mulatto girl in 1870, "at school" in 1880
John Swann - an 8 year old mulatto boy in 1870, "at home" in 1880
Martha Swann - a 29 year old mulatto female in 1870, listed as a school teacher in 1880

Henry Thomas - a 17 year old black male cook in 1870 and a farmer in 1880

Samuel Thompson - an 8 year old black male in 1870, no occupation listed in 1880

Jane C. Welch - a 43 year old white female, keeping house in 1870 and "at home" in 1880
William Welch - a 17 year old white male in 1870, and a printer in 1880

Anna E Wells - a 27 year old white female in 1870, "keeping house" both years

Harriet J Wells - a 9 year old white female in 1870, "at home" in 1880
Samuel O Wells - a 14 year old white male in 1870, an editor in 1880

Ann S. Wingate - a 27 year old white female in 1870, "keeping house" both years.

-April

Dr. Gustavus Richard Brown

Remember back when I discussed some of the folks who attended George Washington as he was on his death bed? We had Father Leonard Neal and Dr. James Craik, all from the Port Tobacco area. There was one other from Port Tobacco: Dr. Gustavus Richard Brown.

Brown was born in 1748 and died September 30, 1804 and is credited with not only attending to Washington, but he also built the mansion Rose Hill, which we previously discussed as being the home of Miss Olivia Floyd and that scary Blue Dog. Brown studied medicine in Edinburgh, graduating in 1768. In addition to medicine, he was elected to the legislature of Maryland and served as a judge. Additionally, he was a member of the Maryland state convention of 1788 to ratify the U. S. Constitution. He is credited with opening a hospital for the inoculation of smallpox in June of 1776.

There was some controversy surrounding the diagnosis of Washington as he lay ill. A third attending physician was Dr. Elisha Dick. Craik and Brown were certain the General suffered from quinsy, a tonsil related illness and, according to the best practices of the time, the “bled” him several times. Dr. Dick's opinion was that the symptoms suggested, not quinsy, but a violent inflammation of the membranes of the throat and he suggested a tracheotomy. As we all know, none of this worked and Washington expired. Shortly after Washington’s death, Dr. Brown wrote to Dr. Craik:

Port Tobacco, January 21, 1800
Sir:I have lately met Dr. Dick again in consultation and the high opinion that I formed of him were in conference last month, concerning the situation of our illustrious friend, has been confirmed. You remember how, by his clear reasoning and evident knowledge of the cause of the symptoms, after the examination of the General, he assured us that it was not really quinsy, which we supposed it to be, but a violent inflammation of the membranes of the throat, which it had almost closed, and which if not immediately arrested would result in death. You must remember he was averse to bleeding the General, and I have often thought that if we had acted accordingly to his suggestion, when he said, "he needs all his strength - bleeding will diminish it," and taken no more blood from him, our good friend might have been alive now. But we were governed by the best light we had, we thought we were right, and so we were justified.

It seems our good Dr. Brown was honest enough to admit his error.

Preparing for Next Year

Well, we are getting ready to launch a major field effort at Port Tobacco with the Archeological Society of Maryland, we plan to extend the field and laboratory effort through the summer, and we are looking at ways of making our findings more accessible to the public. All of this will occur over the next five months. So, naturally, it makes sense to think about a more distant future at the same time.

This week we will submit a grant application to the Maryland Historical Trust to fund more intensive research at Port Tobacco. The amount: nearly $50,000. Our chances of getting all or a significant portion of what we are asking for? I'm not sure. It is very competitive and the State's fiscal affairs are far from certain. But if successful, the grant--with funds available as early as September--would put the project on the firmest ground to date and help insure its continuity and vitality until we can secure more reliable funding.

Got paper and pen? A computer and printer? How about writing a letter of support to:

Mr. J. Rodney Little
Director, Maryland Historical Trust
Maryland Department of Planning
100 Community Place
Crownsville, MD 21032

We will ask local political leaders for their support, but a vote of confidence from our friends couldn't hurt.

Jim

More Census Data

I decided to probe a bit further into the Port Tobacco population trends I mentioned yesterday. I went through each surname in the 1860 census (pre-Civil War) to see if the same surname appeared in the 1870 census (post-Civil War). What I found is that only 40% of the surnames appeared in both.

Taking the analysis to th next level, I studied the individuals of these surnames to see if the same people were in Port Tobacco in 1860 and 1870. What I found is thatonly 15 of the over 134 residents of Port Tobacco appear in both the 1860 and 1870 censuses. These people are:

Charles A Edeline/Edelen - a white male who was 3 at the time of the 1860 census
John H Edeline/Edelen - a mulatto male who was 54 in 1860 - a carpenter then a laborer
John Jenkins - a white male, 33 year old cabinetmaker who appears in 1860, 1870, and 1880
Fenita H Jenkins - a white female, 33 who also appears all three years
Sarah E Jenkins - a white female, 9 years old in 1860, also all three years in Port Tobacco
Julius C. Middleton - a 20 year old white male clerk in 1860 and hotel keeper in 1870
Bennett Neal - a 45 year old white physician in 1860
Ann C Neal - a 39 yer old white female
William Neal - a white male, 4 years of age in 1860
Earnest Neal - a white male, 1 year old in 1860
Winfield Scott - a 10 year old white male in 1860 who is listed as a teacher in 1870
James W. Shackelford - a white male, 1 year old in 1860
Francis Toleson/Tollson - a black male, 5 years of age in 1860
William Welch - a 38 year old white male shoemaker in 1860, listed as postmaster and boot/shoemaker in 1870
William Welch (Jr) - a white male, 8 years old in 1860 who becomes a printer by 1880

Of these 15, only 4 appear in all 3 censuses.
John Jenkins
Fenita Jenkins
Sarah Jenkins
William Welch Jr.

So now I am back to the possible post-Civil War exodus of Port Tobacco that was an integral component of my hypothesis. Although the white population of Port Tobacco stayed relatively constant from 1860 to 1880, there was a significant amount of turnover in the town's population.

-April

Supporting "April's Hypothesis"?

A few weeks ago, I posted a research idea that Jim Gibb dubbed "April's Hypothesis". Since then we have obtained a wealth of information from the 1860, 1870, and 1880 census records, all compiled by one of our most dedicated volunteers.

I conducted a simple analysis of the the census data. The preliminary results show a changing population but raise some additional questions.

1860 population = 134 total, 11 Black, 11 Mulatto, 112 White
1870 population = 215 total, 45 Black, 50 Mulatto, 120 White
1880 population = 202 total, 36 Black, 49 Mulatto, 117 White

The most important question that we must ask is "Do these population changes reflect changes within a finite area or did the boundaries of the census change each year?". Another important question is "Does the increasing population of individuals identified as Black or Mulatto (mixed race) reflect migration or birth rate changes or are these individuals being identified and counted as a result of post-Civil War policy changes?". Interestingly, the average age of the population (24) does not change over the 30 years. This suggests that the birth and death rates remained stable and that migration or changes in census procedure are more likely.

It will take a lot more research to truly test my hypothesis but this census data suggests that "Whites" did not abandon Port Tobacco after the Civil War. Their population remains constant. However, the population does appear to shift from 84% White to 58% White, and with the politics of the 19th century this shift must be reflective of a social and economic shift in Port Tobacco itself.

-April

Cleaning Up the Blog

In preparation for some more exploratory work on a possible Port Tobacco Wiki, I decided it was time to clean up the blog.

In the left hand column is a list of labels. These are keywords that we select to represent each blog entry just before we hit the "post" button. Over time this list has gotten a but unruly. For example, we had one label for "Native American" another for "Native Americans" and a third for "Native American site". So, I took the time to go through all the posts and make sure every post that had the phrase "Native American" had that as a label and removed the other two similar labels. We still have labels for "Aboriginal pottery" as well as specific types of such pottery, but that makes sense to me.

With the label set cleaned up, I can now consider whether each label deserves a corresponding page in the wiki. Also, once we are ready to begin adding content to the wiki, we can click on each label to view the corresponding posts that would form the basis for each wiki entry.

Take a moment to explore our blog labels and let me know if there is any aspect of Port Tobacco that is missing a corresponding label.

I have also summarized our upcoming events through the addition of a Google calendar. The link to the calender is at the top of the left hand column, just above our spiffy new logo.

-April

Excavations at Port Tobacco

Archaeological investigations at the site of the Port Tobacco Court House was suggested at the first meeting of the Port Tobacco Court House Restoration Committe in 1966. Captain John Mathay and Mrs. Sarah Mathay led the excavations that followed. Included in the excavations were the outlining and mapping of the foundation of the circa 1819-1892 site of the courthouse.

This map was made and drawn by Captian John Mathay on May 26, 1968. The map has been sitting in the courthouse among other documents. As part of our archaeological project in Port Tobacco we have been scouring the documents at the courthouse for information. While this map is not new news to us, it is an important part of the history of archaeology at Port Tobacco.

Yesterday I digitized the map using AutoCAD so that we can use it for our work and get the original back to the courthouse.

Below is the recreation of that map. Some liberties were taken since the age of the map makes some of it a bit hard to read. The map is a plan view of the foundations of the courthouse. The main building and its two wings can be seen.

There are some curious things on the map. The curved section running from the southwest of the main building that fades off towards the middle of the main section is one of them. While it goes underneath another brick wall, there is no mention on the map or in the report written by Mrs. Mathay of what it was or what it is suspected to be. Support walls would have been necessary to support the structure (one of which can be seen just to the west of this curved section) however, this curved section is still a mystery.

Another mystery about Port Tobacco to be solved!

- Peter

PETITION OF PATRICK GRAHAM.

According to the below, it was not a good idea to go against the Resolutions of the Continental Congress:

To the Honourable the Deputies for MARYLAND, met in Convention at ANNAPOLIS:
The humble Petition of PATRICK GRAHAM, of PORT-TOBACCO, in CHARLES County, sheweth:
That some time ago he very justly incurred the displeasure and resentment of the County, and the censure of the Committee of Charles County, for a breach of the Resolves of the honourable Continental Congress, by aiding a certain John Baillie secretly to land and dispose of sundry Goods imported by him contrary to those Resolves: Your Petitioner sincerely laments his imprudence and ill conduct, and being deeply sensible of his offence, with contrition for the same, and his most solemn promise and assurance, never more to do or encourage any thing inimical to American freedom, he most humbly solicits this Convention that he may be restored to his former rights of a citizen, as he has already suffered greatly, not only in his own person, property, and reputation, but should he continue much longer in the present situation, his offence must reduce an innocent wife and four young children to beggary and ruin.
______________
We, the subscribers, being satisfied of the hearty repentance of Patrick Graham, set forth in the above Petition, do recommend him to the consideration and clemency of the honourable Convention.
T. B. Franklin,
Samucl C. Barron,
James Mudd, Jim.,
Daniel McPherson,
Joseph Marbury,
Thomas R. Cookley,
Walter McPherson,
Charles Gates,
John Luckett,
Zephaniah Turner,
Thomas Simmes,
Samuel Adams,
Marcus Latimer,
Edward Davis,
J. Parnham,
Thomas Waters,
Joseph W. Harrison,
James Waters,
Samuel Stone, Jun.,
Samuel Hanson, Jun.,
Ledstone Godfrey,
Joseph Aderton,
William Taylor,
Wm. McPherson, Jr.,
Walter Winter,
Andrew Munitwood,
William Waters,
George Swan,
Thomas Marshall,
Samuel Marshall,
Bennet Dyson,
William Davis,
Josias Smoot,
Bennet H. Clements,
Francis Shephard,
Benjamin Wood,
Charles Goodrich,
Belah Posey,
Edward Warren,
Edw. Boarman, Sen.,
Benjamin Douglass,
Richard Speake,
Raphael Boarman,
John B. Delozide,
Charles Garner,
Wm. Barton Smoot,
Ignatius Lucket,
William McConchie,
Burr Barnes,
Hezekiah Garner,
Alex. McPherson, Jr.,
Edward Sanders,
Jno. Christo. Layman,
Henry Gardner,
Henry Barnes,
James Farnandis,
Peter H. Proley,
Henry Ward,
Matthew Garner,
Henry Boarman,
Joseph Thompson,
James Seward,
Peter Davis,
Zephaniah Franklin,
Thomas Posey,
Wm. H. Smallwood,
Raphael Neale,
Edward Smoot,
David Philpot,
Jno. F. Regis Sanders,
Joseph Sims,
Walter Pye,
James Clarke,
Hy. Massey Hanson,
George Elgin,
John Sanders,
Walter Hanson,
Thomas Thornton,
Samuel Cox,
Anthony C. Gray,
Benjamin V. Posoy,
Thomas H. Powell,
Francis Posey,
Thos. Howe Red gate,
William Elgin, Sen.,
Samuel Briscoe,
Ben Carwood, Jun.,
John Stone,
Henry Chandler,
Stephen Chandler,
James Mudd,
Thomas H. Morrison,
Francis Clements,
Jonathan Sposnal,
Edw. Scott Ware,
Notley Maddocke, Sr.
John Manning,
Anthony Rowe,
Philip Webster,
Thomas McPherson,
Walter Hanson, Jun.,
Notley Maddocke, Jr.,
Robert Surrat,
William Campbell,
James Simms,
Samuel Stone,
Thomas Hanson,
Joseph Boswell,
Garrard Boarman,
G. B. Causin,
R. Bennet Boarman,
William Jones,
James Vineyard,
William Cox.
John Clements, of F.,


______________
Friday, July 28, 1775.
Met according to adjournment.
Benedict Edward Hall, John Beall Howard, Francis Holland, and Benjamin Rumsey, appeared for Harford County.
Dr. William Molleston and Benson Stainton, for Caroline County.
Nathaniel Ramsay and William Rumsey, for Cecil County.
Josias Beall, for Prince George’s County.
Alexander Somerville, for Culvert County.
Brice Thomas Beale Worthington, for Anne Arundel County.
The Petition of Patrick Graham, of Charles County, Tailor, praying a “remission of the sentence of the Committee of Charles County, and that he might be restored to the privileges of a citizen,” being read and considered: It is thereupon,
Resolved, That the said Patrick Graham be allowed to exercise his former trade of a Tailor, and that he also be permitted to buy provisions and other necessaries for the use of his family; and that the said Patrick Graham be allowed and permitted to collect and receive all just debts due to him, and that all persons be permitted to employ the said Patrick Graham as a Tailor, and to sell him provisions and other necessaries for his family; but that the said Patrick Graham be not allowed to carry on any traffick or merchandise, until it be otherwise resolved by this or some Future Convention. (No. 1.)
Convention adjourns till to-morrow morning, ten o’clock.

Our Logo Designer

My name is Alex Baird; I designed the logo which was chosen to represent the Port Tobacco Archeological Project.

The logo was created in Adobe Illustrator. After struggling with different concepts (including many fruitless attempts to draw a convincing tobacco plant), I finally decided to depict a landmark of the town - the Chimney House - in a simplified, abstract manner, and to let the project name take a more prominent role in the design.

The typefaces used are, I think, the real attraction, and for them I cannot take any credit. The words "Port Tobacco" are in Strange Newes, a beautiful font based on 17th-century typography, created by Scottish artist and type designer Feòrag NicBhrìde. The other words are done in Hypatia Sans Pro.

As for myself, I live in Toronto, Ontario with my parents and our small menagerie of pets. I'm currently studying digital publishing and graphic design at George Brown College, and I hope to someday earn a living as a freelance graphic designer. Until I get to that skill and confidence level, I am available for small projects (such as logo design) free of charge; if anyone would like to commission such a project, they may contact me at alexandrabaird(at)rogers.com.

I was quite surprised to learn that I won this logo contest, especially since the other submissions were so beautiful and so skillfully done. I wish to thank PTAP for providing this opportunity, which allowed me to practice my nascent skills, and to (in a very small way) contribute to their worthy project.

-Alex

Disturbing The Peace

After searching through photographs at home I was unable to find a picture of me in the pillory. However, my father was gracious enough to send me (and allow me to post it here as well) a picture of him in the stocks when he was a young lad at the Catskill Game Farm in upstate New York. Enjoy!

(Kenneth Quantock, mid 1950's)

Thanks Dad!!

- Peter

The Archaeology of Courthouses

For those who are interested in what other courthouses have been the subject of archaeological investigation, I offer the following project-specific websites:

The New Castle Courthouse, New Castle, Delaware

The Orange Courthouse, New South Wales

The Cahokia Courthouse, Cahokia, Illinois

The Ballston Courthouse, Ballston, New York

The Guilford Courthouse, North Carolina

If you know of any others, please send us the link!

-April

The Excavation of a Virginia Courthouse

Several years ago, I had the pleasure of meeting Dr. Brian Bates of Longwood College at an archaeology conference. Brain was presenting a poster on his excavation of "Thomas Jefferson's Lost Courthouse" in Buckingham, Virginia, and later sent me a copy of his report.

The "lost courthouse" was designed by Thomas Jefferson, but, like our original courthouse in Port Tobacco, no drawings or images of the courthouse are known to exist today. Brian and his team conducted archival and archaeological analyses in an attempt to discover what Jefferson's courthouse would have looked like, inside and out.

Below is their best guess of the courthouse exterior. While it does differ from the reconstructed Port Tobacco courthouse in overall style, it is similar in its two wings, each with its own front-facing door and window, and its main building, peaked at the center at a third floor attic.

-April

Major field effort at Port Tobacco

Newsflash! The Archeological Society of Maryland announced today that it will hold its Annual Field Session at the Clagett's Retreat site in Frederick County, May 23 through June 2. It will hold an unprecedented second session at Port Tobacco June 13 through 23.

This will be an enormous undertaking, but it will provide the opportunity to further explore the various prehistoric and historic sites that we identified as a result of last year's work, and to be an important part of Charles County's 350th anniversary celebration. We hope all of our readers will take the opportunity to join us during the field session and, we hope, during the two or three weeks leading up to the field session. Oh yeah, and try to visit the other guys at Clagett's Retreat. All of the pertinent information on that project will appear on the Society and the Maryland Historical Trust websites: http://www.marylandarcheology.org/ and http://www.marylandhistoricaltrust.net/, respectively. Port Tobacco information will appear on those sites and, of course, right here.

We will provide more details as they become available. See you in an excavation unit real soon.

Jim

PS. I think we need a campaign flag, don't you?

The County Courthouse Before Port Tobacco

One of our volunteers provided this link to a Washington Post article on the search for Charles County's first courthouse.

Thanks Elsie.

-April

Crime And Punishment

So we have talked about the courthouse, the jail and all the surrounding buildings. We have looked at plats and maps and historic pictures. We know about some of the admired and notorious people that have been a part of the history of Port Tobacco. We have delved into what life was like in Port Tobacco for people in the many centuries it has been around. We know about the first courthouse, the village green, the reconstructed courthouse, Stagg Hall, etc. I could go on about those but I won't.

Yesterday Jim had his meeting with the county commissioners and the first meeting of the Charles County Archaeological Society. Out of that county meeting I started to look back at plat records and deeds. I looked again at the 1697 plat (shown above) and was reminded of the pillory that was enacted to be put up with the courthouse and jail. This was a mandate for all the counties in the provence in the 17th Century. Knowing very little about 17th Century punishments I started to do some research. Let me just say, they found some strange (and a bit funny) ways of punishing folks back then.

The pillory is basically just a stock, wherein a person's legs, arms and head are locked up in wooden pole and board. If you've ever been to Williamsburg I'm sure you had your picture taken in one as a child, just like I did. (If I can find it, I'll post mine on here for all to have a good laugh!)

The idea for most of the lesser crimes was public embarassment so to pursuade the offender to sraighten up so to speak. My favorite has to be the "ducking stool" though. An ingenious device I must say.

This is a seat set at the end of two beams twelve or fifteen feet long that could be swung out from the bank of a pond or river. This engine of punishment was especially assigned to scolds—usually women but sometimes men—and sometimes to quarrelsome married couples tied back to back. Other candidates were slanderers, "makebayts," brawlers, "chyderers," railers, and "women of light carriage," as well as brewers of bad beer, bakers of bad bread, and unruly paupers (James A. Cox, Colonial Williamsburg website). After being swung out over the water, the offender would be dunked over and over for an undetermined (undetermined by my research that is) period of time.

We have not found any archaeological evidence of either devices in Port Tobacco but we do know they were used. In the plat above you can see in the drawing the pillory, right beneath the courthouse.

- Peter

Miss Olivia Floyd

As we have learned previously, Port Tobacco was a hotbed of activity during the Civil War. One can only imagine how certain people must have been constantly watching over their shoulders as they plotted and schemed to further their cause. We have discussed George Atzerodt and Rose Greenhow. These two found themselves under suspicion and out right accused of conspiracy and espionage.

Miss Olivia Floyd was another unlikely Confederate spy. She was an heir to the mansion of Rose Hill and was living there during the War. Her brother was a Confederate soldier who was killed in 1863. Additionally, one account states that she had broken her back as a child and was crippled for the rest of her life.

She was already a smuggler of messages headed south and would conceal them in a wooden boat model made by her brother. In the winter of 1864, a group of Confederate soldiers raided St. Alban’s, Vermont and escaped to Canada with their horses, money, and lives. They were then arrested by Canadian authorities and Union officials sought their extradition for trial on charges of being spies. Their lives depended on proving that they were commissioned officers of the Confederate Army acting on official orders. A message started south requesting the commissions of the men. It passed from Southern sympathizers, from Canada to Maryland, and eventually to Miss Floyd.

Miss Floyd had successfully concealed the important note in a pair of brass andirons in her parlor which were missed by Union soldiers. One had even propped his foot up on the very same andiron by the fire. After they had left, she put the note in her hair and carried it to the signal station at Popes Creek where it had been sent to Richmond. The result was the soldiers on trial in Canada received copies of their commissions in time to save them.
Another interesting note about Olivia Floyd is that she claims to have seen the spirit of The Blue Dog (remember last week’s blog?). She died December 8, 1905 and is buried at St. Ignatius Church at Chapel Point.

In loving remembrance

Of

ANNIE OLIVIA FLOYD

Daughter of the Late

DAVID L. & SARAH SEMMES FLOYD

July 2, 1826

Dec 8, 1905

Lab Update

So as you have already read, our day out at Port Tobacco last week didn't produce the results we were hoping for, but that doesn't mean it was devoid of information. I have just finished updating our catalog and map for the area with the information from last week. The area we were focusing on was around the Chimney House, front and back. In the front of the house we found what we would expect, 18th-century artifacts.

In the back, where we were looking for the infamous carriage shop, we were looking for mid 19th-century artifacts. And, in fact, we did find some of those artifacts, including ceramics and machine cut nails. Now, by no means does this tell us anything about the carriage shop but it does tell us that there was occupation there in the time-frame we were looking for.

Some architectural debris did come out as well: brick, nails, and mortar. While it doesn't help us date anything, it is still interesting to find them several hundred feet from the Chimney House itself.

It was nice to be out in the field at Port Tobacco last week even though it was for just a day. By now you all know the history of the town and as we have all said many times, you never know what you're going to find when you put a shovel in the ground out there. Every shovel load tells us more and more about the history of the town and its occupants.

That's all for now!

- Peter

A New Web Frontier for PTAP

As we begin our 7th month of daily blogging on Port Tobacco, it is time to start considering the next step in our web presence and the organization of the vast amounts of data we are collecting. So, I would like to begin a Port Tobacco Wiki.

I have set up a wiki account on ScribbleWiki to serve as our wiki's home while we play around with this format. Only trouble is finding the time to mine the blog for the content to add to the wiki.

If there are any blog readers who would like to help with this cause, just let us know. The beauty of a wiki is that it is a community effort.

-April

And the winner is....

Thanks to everyone who took the time to design logos and to vote in our logo contest.

We will be featuring a blog post from the designer of our winning logo in the near future.

-April

More on Carriage Wheels

Some days ago I wrote about what kinds of artifacts we might find in connection with a carriage shop, specifically cast-iron wagon boxes, also called skeins. These are bearings that were inserted into the hub and through which the axle extended. Packed in grease, they allowed horse-drawn vehicles to move smoothly.





This picture, taken by me years ago at the Museums at Stony Brook on Long Island (they have a world class collection of carriages), shows a partly disassembled carriage wheel in a shop. In the wooden box below, just to the left of the leftmost spoke, is a wagon box. Obviously, it is for a wagon wheel hub and could not possibly have fit into the small wheel hub of a carriage.



The picture to the right shows a wagon wheel with a new-fangled patent wheel. These machine-made hubs eliminated the very specialized skill necessary in turning a wooden hub on a lathe and then cutting the mortises for the spokes. Machine-made hubs and wheels made the appearance in the marketplace as early as the late 1860s and by the 1880s dominated the market. Sarven and Palmer were among the most popular types. Their introduction was part of a general de-skilling of the American workforce. When they appear on carriage, wagon, and wheelwright shops, they indicate a postbellum date for the deposit in which they are found and a craftsman who by choice or the demands of his customers is part of a larger market system through which he purchases parts for repair work rather than making new parts.

The Atzerodt shop probably will not have these artifacts unless it continued in operation after George Atzerodt's execution for his part in the Lincoln conspiracy. We know from the census work that Carol is doing that wheelwrights and blacksmiths continued to work in Port Tobacco at least into the 1880s, so we can expect to find old-style wagon boxes and new-style patent wheel hub parts in town.

Jim

Port Tobacco in the News

April once again is winging her way home after a brief sojourn in Maryland. Safe journey.

We have been very fortunate in getting excellent press coverage--both conventional and electronic--since the project began. Here are links to three new articles that deal with our work, either directly or indirectly.


Silt Buries Town, Excavation Begins - http://www.thebaynet.com/news/index.cfm/fa/viewstory/story_ID/7919
and
http://www.somdnews.com/stories/022908/indymor180530_32083.shtml
and
http://www.somdnews.com/stories/022908/indyfea180525_32082.shtml

To reiterate three previous announcements:

1. The Maryland Historical Trust annual workshop will be held this Saturday at 100 Community Place in Crownsville. It will include presentations and demonstrations. Here's the link for fuller information: http://www.marylandhistoricaltrust.net/workshop.html. There is a small registration fee.
2. The inaugural meeting of the Charles County Archaeological Society will be at the Train Station in La Plata, 7:30 to 9PM, Tuesday, March 11. Scott Lawrence will talk about cemetery research and restoration. Contact me if you have questions: JamesGGibb@comcast.net.
3. The Archeological Society of Maryland will hold it annual spring symposium at the First Presbyterian Church on Duke of Gloucester Street, Annapolis, April 12 from 9AM to 3PM. There is a small registration fee.

See you at one or more of these events.

Jim

Sometimes Shovel Testing Just Doesn't Work

Maybe we were cursed by the Blue Dog or maybe Scott put a hex on us for having fun without him, either way yesterday's fieldwork did not turn out as planned.

You may recall that our last day of fieldwork was during a wet and cold day in December. We were anxious to get to the rear yard of Chimney House where Atzerodt's carriage shop is reputed to have been located. While laying in the transects along which we were to shovel test, I thought I could pick up the faint depressions that often mark the locations of buried foundation. The crew was cold and wet but focused on the mission. The wet snow picked up and the ground became too muddy to continue and we left the field before completing our mission.

Yesterday we set out to finish what we had started. It was warm and sunny so the conditions seemed right. But it did not take us long to realize that the rear yard of the Chimney House is just too marshy for shovel testing to work. Determined, we excvated a few STPs but soon hit wet clays and sands with little soil development above them. The digging was difficult, the screening was difficult, and there just was not enough artifact content to draw any conclusions.

We stopped digging and spent a bit of time wondering why anyone would build in this marshy area. We considered the possibility that we were being too literal with the "behind the Chimney House" supposed location of the carriage shop. We came up with some alternate plans to test the area, none of which we could attempt with the equipment we had brought that day, and called it a day.

We will do some archival research to help us pin down the carriage shop location and utilize some remote sensing techniques to evaluate the potential for archaeological deposits to exist in the marshy northwest portion of Port Tobacco. We will find Atzerodt's shop, eventually.

-April

The Blue Dog

I am sad today. Very sad. Think about how you would feel if your family went to the beach for a weekend of fun and frolic and you couldn’t go. Then they return home and decide they are going on an archaeological dig at Port Tobacco on a warm March day. Again, you cannot go. I am crying right now.

Since I am so depressed right now, I thought I’d share a good ghost story! Now, understand, I was never a believer in the paranormal and certainly did not believe in ghostly apparitions, but the following tale may be grounded into some historic truth. Here is how the legend goes:

After the American Revolution, Charles Thomas Simms was returning from Port Tobacco after a night of drinking in one of the taverns to his home on Rose Hill Road with his faithful blue dog. It seems that Simms had a substantial amount of gold that he kept buried under a large rock on his property. On that fateful night, Henry Hanos decided that he would kill Simms and his dog and steal the gold. After committing the murder, Hanos reburied his ill-gotten booty near a Holly tree. When he went to recover the gold, the faithful, yet ghostly blue dog appeared, scaring Hanos away. The story says Hanos quickly became ill and died.

The legend also says that on February 8th, one can see this deceased doggy appear near the rock where the gold was originally buried. Being one that was skeptical, I decided to find this stone in the wee hours of last February 8th. Imagine my shock and horror when the dog appeared! I managed to contain my fear long enough to take the picture below:

I ran away really fast after I snapped the picture. I was scared.

Back to Port Tobacco Tomorrow

The team (minus the healing Scott) will be out at Port Tobacco on Tuesday. We are going to complete our shovel test survey of the Chimney House and Stagg Hall properties. As always, volunteers are welcome.

-April
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MAAC Conference, Part Deux

Today was the final day of the Midd