A Look at the Past Through Material Remains
What can we expect to gain from looking at broken pieces of plates, bottles, animal bones, buttons, and window glass 50 or a 100 years old? Aren’t museum collections and written histories adequate for providing information about rural life from 1870 to 1910? Unfortunately, there is a big difference between the type of information available through antiques, books, people, and [archaeology]. [Artifacts] represent fragments generally resulting from the discarding or breaking of common items. Most antiques represent whole items recognized as having some intrinsic value which afforded them greater care or curation and less utilitarian usage. Most artifacts, on the other hand, represent common household items or possessions that did not receive special care or handling. No fragments of elaborately cut crystal wine glasses were among the 30,000 historic artifacts recovered from the project area, but fragments of inexpensive, undecorated tumblers were present. Similarly, only several dozen fragments of porcelain vessels were among the nearly 1,200 ceramic fragments excavated. Does this mean that cut wine glasses or porcelain cups were seldom available? No, more likely it represents a difference in handling and caring for these more expensive items. As an example, try counting the number of porcelain tablewares (plates, dishes, cups, etc.) in the household of an elderly person. In most cases, porcelain will be very frequent and often 50 years old or even older. These items have been saved from common use and now serve decorative or very special functions. The point of this example is to emphasize that the items fifty or more years old in households or museums today are not representative of the items lying broken and scattered around [historic sites].
Can the written record provide us with much of the information we need to know? The richness of the written record is not to be underrated. However, in many areas, the written record is not without its problems. Often objective details about daily activities or observations about common material possessions, farm layouts, folkways or folk technologies are hard to locate. Diaries, travelers’ accounts, and written histories, on the other hand, frequently provide interesting personal or anecdotal kinds of information. The position that archaeologists wish to emphasize is that we should not rely solely on the written record in an attempt to understand the past. The picture conveyed for a group of people from their [sites] and material remains can be strikingly different from their own story told in writings. The archaeological record provides a direct and often objective source of information which is consistent over long periods of time. The record of your own life as revealed in the items you discard may be quite different than what you portray to others. This fact makes some aspects of the archaeological record both interesting and important for reconstructing past lifeways.
These major points all contribute to the value of the archaeological record. For nineteenth century rural East-central Texas, written records, oral folk knowledge, and antiques leave much of the story untold. The [archaeology] of [historic sites] in the proposed Reservoir area will begin to illuminate much of the former lifeways of these small rural agricultural communities. Without preserving some of this information, future generations will have little to study in order to probe the past of this nearly 100 square miles. The displacement of people and the submergence of places and [sites] so familiar today means oblivion for many former homesteads and communities. The task of the historic [archaeologist] is to select and preserve important aspects of the past record so that this information is available to future generations.
Historic Settlement Along Richland and Chambers Creeks (1840-1940)
The first few permanent settlers came to this area soon after Texas declared its independence from Mexico in 1836. Settlement increased tremendously after Texas achieved statehood as families migrated westward. Most of these earliest settlers constructed log cabins for dwellings. About ten log cabin [sites] possibly dating to the mid-nineteenth century have been located in the area. Overall, however, we see a picture of families with widely different resources facing the same rural frontier. On the upper end were relatively affluent frontier plantation owners, such as the Burlesons and Blackmons, who settled along Richland Creek, or the Ingrams along the Trinity River to the north. The location of these affluent households were similar. They were located well above the creek bottoms and in the vicinity of good cotton land. Even the crude plantation houses themselves were similar in that each presented an air of important social status. Through the architecture of these dwellings each owner presented a visual display of his personal wealth and social status. Although these houses were far less sophisticated than those found further east in Louisiana or Mississippi, they were the mark of status in this area. The Burleson plantation house is shown in Figures [9] and [10]. Compared to the simple, small, unpretentious log cabin shown in [Figure 11], the crude frontier plantation house of East-central Texas fulfilled its social role as needed.
In the reservoir area, the former [sites] of several simple log cabins have been found. [Figure 12] shows the remains of one log cabin as found today. These sites indicate that life was orderly yet simple during the mid-nineteenth century. The settlers that came to this area were, for the most part, experienced in reading the land. The locations selected for each cabin were well above the bottomlands in order to avoid the danger of floods, but at the same time close to rich farmland and water. Fifty years later people were much less concerned about selecting the proper location for a dwelling. As a consequence, many log cabins have endured over a century of harsh weather and have outlasted more recent structures.
By 1870, several dozen small communities, (Petty’s Chapel, Birdston, Rush Creek, Wadeville, Pisgah Ridge, Rural Shade, Re, and Providence) dotted the landscape. The railroad penetrated the area in 1871 and brought about many changes in the area that have lasted until today. There was, however, a price to be paid for this modern convenience of trade and travel. For some of the small communities, the railroad brought financial death and abandonment. The archaeological record shows this pattern clearly. New communities seem to have grown up overnight (e.g., Richland, Navarro, Cheneyboro, Streetman, and Kerens) while others, which had been around for 30 or 40 years, deteriorated rapidly (e.g. Wadeville, Pisgah Ridge, Winkler, and Re).
In addition to causing a shift in rural populations, the railroads also brought another major change. Prior to the railroads, these rural communities had become nearly self sufficient. The remains of a kiln for firing hand made bricks found in the project area stands as an example of rural folk industry (some fragments of glazed handmade bricks from the kiln are shown in [Figure 13]). Other craftsmen also may have been dispersed over this rural countryside. The shoe last (iron form used in shoe repair) found at one [site] suggests that a rural cobbler may have once stayed at the site ([Figure 14]). The railroads symbolized the start of a new era where mass produced goods, brick, lumber, shoes and commercial products could be transported cheaply into the area. Along with these goods came better living conditions and prosperity for many farmers and merchants. As a consequence some rural folk industries such as brick making disappeared and were replaced by commercial establishments. Even the need for a rural cobbler may have been eclipsed by the railroads.
