The Brengle Site (18FR989)

The Brengle Site was home to members of the Brengle family between 1801 and 1909. The land containing the site changed hands several times in the early 20th century before the lot was finally purchased by the M.J. Grove Lime Company in 1923 and served as a residence for employees of the nearby limestone quarry until the late 1990s.

Between 1801 and 1836, Jacob and Amelia Brengle owned and resided at the Brengle Site and established a farm and lime burning business. Jacob Brengle died in 1836 and his son, Alfred Fleener Brengle, inherited the property, including the adjacent limestone quarry, lime kilns, and the Brengle home. During the remainder of the 19th century and well into the early part of the 20th, the site was occupied by Alfred and Louisa Brengle and their family, as well as enslaved African-Americans and servants.

Historic maps show several structures pertinent to the immediate project vicinity. The 1858 Bond map shows a structure north of the project area, which is likely now beneath I-70. As mentioned above, the 1873 Titus map shows lime kilns in the project area. The 1909 USGS 15 minute Frederick quadrangle shows the same information. Today, several structures stand in this part of the property. A building reputed to have been used by the Grove family as a residence (Artemel 1995, Wall & Kollman 1999) is currently in use as one of LaFarge's offices. Another two-story dwelling is no longer in use. Near this dwelling is a small wooden building with a substantial brick chimney that has been interpreted as a blacksmith's shop or kitchen (Artemel 1995, Wall & Kollman 1999), a garage, and a small wooden shed. As-built plans from the early phases of construction of I-70 show the existing buildings in a different arrangement, and possibly one more structure that is no longer present.

In December of 1998, Bob Wall and Dana Kollmann conducted a Phase IB Intensive archeological investigation of areas affected by the proposed widening of I-70 in the vicinity of the property. A transect of 16 shovel test pits at 5m intervals was excavated just south of the fence line. In addition, two shovel tests were placed to the west, in a disturbed area north of the driveway leading to the tenant house, and four were placed in an area of yard immediately north of the kitchen/blacksmith building west of the tenant house. Fieldwork recovered no prehistoric or historic artifacts, apart from a few small finds of modern material including 2 fragments of colored plastic, 1 piece of barbed wire, and a single piece of modern glass (screw cap container). The four shovel tests scattered within the yard area behind the kitchen/blacksmith shop exhibited profiles similar to the line of shovel tests within the APE. None of these tests contained artifacts, i.e. there was a complete lack of artifacts and features related to the Hoke Grove Lime Company site within or adjacent to the APE. The site was not recorded at that time.

In Late 2008 through March of 2009, the State Highway Administration undertook additional fieldwork at the site, including an additional two transects of shovel tests (slightly south of Wall and Kollmann's) and a 1x1m test unit. The Hoke-Grove Site includes several standing structures (a 2-story house, kitchen/blacksmith shop, garage, and shed). The fieldwork carried out for this investigation has identified a buried living surface that is likely associated with the late 19th-early 20th century occupation of the dwelling and its associated outbuildings. In addition, STPs revealed a deep deposit of slag and burned debris, which may be associated with the supposed blacksmith’s shop, or which could be byproducts of a lime kiln. This deposit is, in any case, a deep midden feature and contributes to the understanding of the site's period of occupation and use.

Between March 23 and April 13 of 2009, SHA conducted additional testing of the site, including additional shovel tests and two additional units. Between the Phase I and Phase II work by SHA, the following were excavated: 40 shovel test pits in three transects at 5m intervals, two 1x1m test units (TU1 and TU3), and one 1x2m test unit (TU2). These excavations confirmed the presence of significant intact living surfaces and features within the limits of disturbance. The buried A horizon that is present in the northwestern portion of the site is clearly related to a late 19th and early 20th century occupation. Further, the artifacts associated with that occupation appear to be concentrated in the immediate vicinity of the standing structures, although further testing along the west side of the site, near the sinkhole, would help to confirm this. The cellar identified in TU2 was recommended for further exploration. The oldest deposits within the cellar dated to the late 19th century, and may have been the beginning of the cellar’s use as a refuse disposal site. The materials recovered from shovel tests in the E transect and from TU3 were quite different from those recovered at other locations tested during the survey. The soils were also lighter in color, had a different texture, contained very little coal, and contained an assemblage of artifacts which predated the assemblage recovered in the northern portion of the site. These materials may correspond to the Brengle occupation of the site, which spanned 1808 to at least 1873.

Between July and August of 2010, SHA, with R. Christopher Goodwin & Associates, conducted Phase III Data Recovery excavations at the site. Five shovel tests were excavated along a single transect at 5m intervals along the northern edge of a parking area. A total of 27 test units were excavated in a grassy open space or yard area located northwest of a currently vacant tenant house and outbuildings. Of these, 23 measured 1x1m, one measured 0.86 x 1.7m, and one measured 0.45 x 0.45m. The remaining three 1x1m test units were placed in the west-central portion of the site to investigate potential buried historic surfaces also identified during the Phase I/II investigation. Finally, a Gradall was used on three occasions to remove 20th century fill materials and expand the excavation area to permit safe access to the work area, and on a fourth occasion to remove modern fill materials overlying a buried historic surface in one portion of the site.

The placement of the units was guided by the Phase II fieldwork that took place in 2009. During that earlier excavation, a deep (approximately 5 feet) deposit of coal and ash-filled soil was discovered adjacent to a buried stone wall. This feature was initially thought to be the wall of a cellar that had been filled in, but as the Phase III excavations continued, it became clear that in fact, the stone wall was one side of an intact stone structure (Feature 4-01) which once stood above ground. The majority of the excavation focused on this building, although several units were placed in other locations of the site in order to provide a broad sample of the entire site.

During the Phase III testing, 11,695 historic artifacts were recovered from feature and non-feature contexts. Although a majority of the artifacts (n=9,916; 84.8 per cent) were recovered from non-feature contexts, three historic features were identified: 4-10, 7-01, and 15-01. Feature contexts yielded 1,779 artifacts and were defined as cultural deposits directly associated with the construction, use, or abandonment of those features.

Feature 4-01 was a stone structure of unknown function; associated contexts were a builder’s trench and soil within the interior of the feature. Feature 7-01 was an iron water line; associated contexts were the installation trench for the utility line. Feature 15-01 was a stone L-shaped addition onto the northern side of Feature 4-01. Contexts associated with this feature were a builder’s trench, soil behind a temporary wall within the structure, and soil within the interior of the feature that appeared to be the working surface.

Based on the Phase III testing, the entirety of the Brengle site within SHA right-of-way had been significantly disturbed as a result of repeated episodes of construction and demolition, and particularly as a result of dumping on a massive scale to level terrain that was once deeply cut by a small stream channel.

The dumping and leveling of the ground was accomplished by bringing in fly ash and garbage from the lime kilns on the quarry property circa 1939. The overwhelming majority of artifacts recovered came from this secondary deposit, which could not shed any light on the lives of occupants of the Brengle site, since it obviously originated elsewhere.

Intact historic living surfaces were identified in a few small areas, but these soils yielded only a handful of artifacts that offered little information about the site and its past residents.

Portions of the site outside SHA’s right-of-way, particularly in the immediate vicinity of the Brengle house and outbuildings, may yet contain intact archeological deposits, since the ground in those areas has been subject to significantly less modification. The house and all remaining outbuildings were demolished by the property owner in July of 2010.

During this project, research revealed that the house was more properly attributed to the Brengle family, and was only associated with the Hoke-Grove lime kiln in the mid 20th century. Therefore, the Hoke-Grove site was renamed the Brengle Site.

(Edited from archeological site survey form, Maryland Historical Trust)