GAI Site 9/CCNPP Site 9(18CV482)

Site 18CV482, also known as CCNPP Site 9 or GAI Site 9, is a late 19th-century domestic site located on the Calvert Cliffs Nuclear Facility in Calvert County, Maryland. The site measures roughly 45 X 55 meters and is bisected by an old (NW-S trending) logging road. The site was first investigated archeologically in late 2006 during a Phase Ib investigation in advance of the proposed expansion of the nuclear facilities at the Calvert Cliffs Nuclear Power Plant.

Phase Ib investigations at 18CV482 consisted of systematic 15 m interval shovel testing (STPs), followed by radial STPs around positive finds and close interval shovel testing within a cluster of historic artifacts. A total of 56 STPs were excavated, with 14 positive STPs producing 64 historic artifacts. The diagnostic artifacts pointed to a mid-19th to early 20th-century date for the site. Based on these findings, Phase II testing was recommended, which was carried out in 2007.

Archival background research was conducted. Sites 18CV480 and 18CV482 are located within the same parcel of land, with ownership histories identical from the early 20th century on. Prior to that, the parcel was two separate tracts: Locust Grove (aka The Home Place) and the Wilson Farm. The boundaries between the farms disappeared from the landscape over time and are not illustrated in court records. Furthermore, the family that purchased and combined the two parcels in the early 20th century (the Goldsteins) also purchased other parcels which they subsumed into a single farm. Assigning each site singularly to either farm would be a dubious assertion at best. The two parcels are described jointly below.

Both tracts are believed to have originally been part of a large plantation/estate owned by the Somervell family. The Locust Grove tract was certainly part of the Somervell property, but the Wilson Farm is less certain. Joseph A. Wilson acquired his farm by a deed that has been lost due to a fire in the Calvert County courthouse. However, there is historical evidence that suggests some familial connection between some of the Wilsons and the Somervells.

The Somervells had been in the area since the early 18th century and held a substantial estate. The 1850 Census identifies Alexander Somervell as a 44 year old white male farmer, holding $20,000 worth of real estate, with a wife and 5 children. Furthermore, the Slave Schedule identified Alexander Somervell as the owner of 56 slaves. Historic mapping from 1862 identifies structures in the general vicinity of the site during the Somervell's period of ownership, but no map shows a house in the precise location of Site 18CV482. The 1862 map could just as easily represent 18CV480. The Locust Grove tract was passed from Alexander Somervell to his son Charles, and then to his wife Margaret. Again, the disposition of the tract that became known as the "Wilson Farm" is less certain.

At the death of Margaret E. Somervell, Locust Grove was transferred at private sale to a Willis G. Dowell by Joseph A. Wilson (an attorney), his son Joseph S. Wilson (the adjoining landowner), and the other executors of Margaret Somervell’s estate. The ownership of Locust Grove is in question between 1883 (when Dowell acquired it) and 1891, when Joseph S. Wilson, acting as a trustee for the sale, oversaw the sale of the parcel to a Morris C. Menghis. The property would then be sold to Joseph S. Wilson in February of 1892, who then sold it to James Locks and his wife July 28th, 1892. Joseph S. Wilson died in 1904.

The Locks would eventually sell most of the property to John W. Breeden on March 8, 1915. Breeden would, in turn, sell the property to Frederick C.H. Wessel in 1920. Wessel sold the tract to Goodman Goldstein in October of 1925, reuniting the tract with the Wilson Farm and other properties (much of which came out of the old Somervell estate).

Again, the Wilson Farm tract was acquired by a deed that was lost in the Calvert County courthouse fire. Records in a later case, however, record the transfer. Joseph A. Wilson (Joseph S.' father) acquired the property from other members of the Wilson family and from individuals with the surname Dare; a name that provides a tenuous link between Wilson and the Somervells. Joseph A. Wilson died in 1888 and willed the property to his wife, Sarah. The farm featured "about ½ mile of waterfront, with a natural oyster bar opposite the dwellings, where most delicious oysters grow. The farm is improved by a large dwelling, two tobacco barns, and other buildings."

Joseph S. Wilson died in 1904 and the property apparently passed to his brother Augustus S. Wilson. In 1904, he defaulted on a mortgage and his creditors became party to a suit over the estate of Joseph A. Wilson. The ultimate outcome appears to have been the sale of the Wilson Farm tract in 1916 to Goodman Goldstein who, again, reunited it with Locust Grove. The Goldstein Family would eventually sell the property to BG&E in 1967.

Phase II field investigations began with the excavation of 131 STPs at 4.6 meter (15 ft) intervals. Fifty-nine positive STPs produced a total of 229 artifacts, all but 5 STPs yielding a low density of artifacts (<10 per STP). The distribution of the artifacts revealed two low-density artifact clusters. Cluster 1 was situated on the southwest side of the old logging road, and Cluster 2 was northeast from the road to the edge of the ridgetop.

The STP work was followed by the excavation of 11 judgmentally placed test units that varied in size (30 X 90 cm up to 1.5 X 1.5 m). Excavations identified 4 cultural features: two plow scars, a sheet midden near the edge of the ridgetop, and the corner of a dry-laid stone foundation. But the site soils were largely disturbed (primarily by erosion brought on by plowing). Soil profiles consisted of an organic layer (Ao horizon) over subsoil (BE or Bt horizon). The road bed within the site appears to have been constructed with heavy machinery, removing most of the historic-era A horizon. One of the only exceptions to the general disturbance was in the area of the sheet midden at the north end of the site. The sheet midden was organically rich with shell and 19th century artifacts covered by duff.

Phase Ib and Phase II investigations produced a combined assemblage of 6,225 artifacts, whose diagnostics suggest a mean date for the site of 1880. Two relevant cultural features, a sheet midden and a dry-laid stone foundation, were encountered along with numerous late 19th-century artifacts. No builder’s trench was identified for the stone foundation. Much of the site was disturbed by plowing. Some time afterward, mechanical earthmoving activities further disturbed portions of the site, including the area around the former structure with the stone foundation.

(Edited from the Maryland Historical Trust Synthesis Project)