CHAPTER 3H: SUMMARY AND
SUGGESTIONS FROM THE 2004 and 2005 SEASONS
The original archeological survey in 2002 and 2003 (Gwaltney 2004) and
the geophysical surveys in 2004 and 2005 (Hargrave 2004) helped guide
the archaeological strategies in both field seasons. Concentrations of
artifacts in the blocks along the northern portion of Broad Way (north
of Main Street) and at the intersection of Broad Way and Main Street
provide some clues about where people settled in New Philadelphia. Most
of the town’s residential occupations occurred along this corridor.
According to the census data for Pike County, there is a significant
change in the number of occupants per dwelling from the early to late
nineteenth century. From 1850 through 1890 the average number of persons
per dwelling dropped by one person, from 5.97 to 4.78, and the mean
family size decreased from 5.89 to 4.68 (Smith and Bonath 1982: 79–80).
The change in the average size per household occurred because of the
drop in family size and the decrease of households with extended
families under one roof. Therefore, there is a good chance that while
the population for New Philadelphia dwindled, and the average size of
the households also decreased, the number of dwellings would not have
declined in relative proportion. Over the next several years archaeology
will reveal many of these dwellings and associated outbuildings.
Excavations indicate that the plow zone is about 1.0 ft. to 1.2 ft. deep
throughout New Philadelphia and it is a bit shallower in the northern
and western portions of Block 9, Lots 4 and 5. The archaeology of the
town demonstrates that undisturbed archaeological features exist below
the plow zone in the areas tested. Archaeological deposits span the
entire time period of the town’s occupation. One 12.0 x 12.0 ft.
subterranean feature (Feature 4) associated with a domestic site was
abandoned and filled in the 1850s. The earliest tax records indicate
that the lot was unimproved from 1867, and the area was later referred
to as “the park.” This feature is associated with an undocumented
resident of New Philadelphia and is from the earliest settlement of the
town. Another pit feature (Feature 1) measures 5.0 x 5.0 ft. and is
related to the Casiah Clark’s ownership of the lot. She owned the
property from 1854 when McWorter sold her the property, and she was
taxed on the land from at least 1867 until her death in 1888. The
materials from the cellar pit date to the 1850s–1860s, and in the 1870
Federal Census Casiah and her family lived with Louisa McWorter.
A lime slacking pit (for the mixing of lime for the plastering of
interior walls) is located in Block 3, Lot 4, and is associated with a
yet to be discovered nineteenth–century building. A stone foundation
also exists in Block 7, Lot 1 and is probably a late nineteenth–century
addition to a mid–nineteenth century building. The precise dating of
these two latter features is tentative, but they are both related to the
nineteenth–century town (Figure 3H.1).
Fig 3H.1. Team Z– NSF–REU and
University of Illinois Students (Megan Volkel, Michael Collart, LaShara
Morris) (Photograph by Charlotte King). (click on image for larger view)
Two features were uncovered in Block 4. One (Feature 7) is hard compact
clay with brick and mortar measuring 6.0 x 3.5 ft. The other (Feature
13) has a large concentration of mortar and some brick fragments and
measures 4.5 x 6.0 ft. The plow zone above these features has a large
proportion of ceramics that date to the 1840s. There is a good chance
that these features date to the earliest settlement period of the town.
While excavations in Block 3 produced few artifacts and a relatively
larger proportion of clinker and slag, the archaeology team located a
square post mold (Feature 8) and the edge of an ash and cinder deposit.
This ash pit (Feature 10) may be related to a yet undetected domestic
activity.
Excavations in Block 13, Lots 3 and 4 located the basement foundation
for the house constructed by Squire McWorter. While Squire died in 1855,
Louisa continued to live in the house and take in boarders until her
death in 1883. The features related to this house are buried deep, and
it appears that the Burdicks placed soil from the excavation of a pond
(about 500 ft. east of the block) on top of the remains of structure
after it burned to the ground in 1937 (Figure 3H.2).
Figure 3H.2. Excavations in Units 1 and 2
in Block 13 (Gail Kirk and Charles Williams)
(Photograph by Christopher Valvano) (click on image for larger view)
Almost all of the nails found at the houselot sites are machine cut
nails. They were generally manufactured from about 1790 to about 1880.
In the 1880s wire nails become popular and they are still manufactured
today. The lack of wire cut nails provides some perspective about the
growth and eventual demise of the town. Little building and very few
repairs were made on existing buildings in New Philadelphia after the
1880s. While the residents of the former town left, people apparently
did not build or renovate existing structures. The town suffered a slow
decay as families moved away and buildings disappeared from the
landscape.
The artifact assemblages found at the different parts of the town also
help to paint a different picture of the end of frontier Illinois. While
there is a common perception of frontier life with little amenities,
this is not the case as the town developed in the 1840s, 1850s, and
after the American Civil War. Very early in the town’s existence the
residents were well connected with regional and national markets.
Refined earthenware ceramics from Great Britain found in contexts that
date to the 1840s/1850s provide notable evidence of the purchasing
networks necessary to provision material items to this town located over
20 miles from the Mississippi River. Agents from St. Louis traveled to
eastern ports and ordered large quantities of ceramics to be shipped to
St. Louis for eventual distribution to the city’s hinterlands. By the
1850s goods easily flowed from Chicago.
The presence of an aqua green scroll flask container fragment that dates
to about 1850 is also an intriguing object. It was made in the Midwest
and while the object may suggest the opening of regional trade routes
during this era to places like Louisville and Cincinnati, its presence
may also be attributed to the strong local connection that residents
maintained during the town’s early settlement (Figure 3H.3).
Figure 3H.3. Screening at Block 8, Lot 4 at New Philadelphia (Emily
Helton) (Photograph by Paul Shackel).
(click image for larger view)
The sewing assemblage from the Casiah Clark’s occupation furnishes a
context for domestic life of an African–American family, with a female
head of household in the third quarter of the nineteenth century. The
identification of slate pencils (found in Block 9, Lot 5) close to the
area where local accounts locate the site of a past, segregated school
house that served African–American residents (on Block 9, Lot 4)
provides notable evidence of the presence of this institution and the
use of this structure by members of the community. Excavations on this
“negro schoolhouse lot” (Block 9, Lot 4) produced the remains a stone
pier foundation that may be related to the building. Additional
archaeology may locate other architectural features, although since most
the topspoil has eroded from this area there is a good chance that the
other remaining architectural features may have eroded away, or would
have been impacted by plowing.
It becomes clear when comparing sites from the early nineteenth century
in Illinois that many forms of material culture become homogenized and
earlier cultural differences become indistinguishable (Mazrim 2002:268).
While “Yankee” and “Upland South” traditions are noticeable in the
faunal assemblage (see Martin, this report), a review of the material
goods uncovered to date shows that the types of material culture found
at sites inhabited by different ethnic groups show little or no
differences. All of the residents of New Philadelphia have the same
types of material culture and could access local merchants for goods,
such as refined earthenwares. What distinguishes the different
households from each other may be their dietary habits. Lack of access
to some markets, because of economics, transportation, and/or racial
discrimination may have encouraged some families to continue the
tradition of relying on foraging and hunting for a substantial amount of
their protein intake (see Mullins 1999). A closer and more detailed
examination of house construction techniques may also provide some clues
about household and ethnic differences.
Additional archaeology and a more detailed analysis of artifacts and
features will help provide a foundation for additional interpretations
of the lifeways of the residents of New Philadelphia.
