Hoddinott Locus A-1(18HO284)

Archaeological site 18HO284, also known as Hoddinott Locus A-1, consists of the foundation remains and artifact deposits associated the Tierney Gambrel Roof House (MIHP #HO-163), a late-18th to early-20th century dwelling in Howard County. The structure was a 1½ story gambrel-roofed log house that was burned by vandals in 1977. Secondary sources suggest that the house was built by Rachel and Cornelius Howard, or by Thomas Worthington. Worthington’s Range was a 1,169 acre parcel patented by Thomas Worthington in 1733. Howard's Chance was a 235 acre property patented by Cornelius Howard in 1749. The two tracts were contiguous, with Worthington’s Range to the north, and Howard’s Chance to the south.

Thomas Worthington gave 369 acres of Worthington's Range to his daughter, Rachel, in his 1753 will, perhaps as a dowry. The 369 acre parcel inherited by Cornelius and Rachel Howard was combined with the Howard's Chance parcel to the south to establish their plantation. According to his 1772 will, Cornelius Howard later lived elsewhere, but held most of the Howard’s Chance tract until his death. He bequeathed 170 acres to his son, Thomas Cornelius Howard, who already was living on the property. The conveyance also included, "all negroes, stock of every kind, and all and everything else that's on the plantation," indicating that slave labor was used on the farm. Thomas C. Howard still possessed both tracts at the time of the 1798 Federal Direct Tax. He owned 892 acres, including 349 acres of Worthington's Range and 170 acre of Howard’s Chance. Howard held 16 slaves and owned one dwelling house and three outbuildings on less than 2 acres. The buildings were described as one frame dwelling house 24 by 16 feet, one 36 by 16 foot log kitchen, one 12 by 12 foot log meat house, and one 32 by 14 foot log stable.

In 1801, Thomas C. Howard willed to his son, Thomas Worthington Howard, "all that part of two tracts of land called Worthington's Range and Howard’s Chance which lies on the east side of the main road leading from Snell's Bridge to Ellicotts." After Thomas Howard Worthington’s death in 1818, the land passed to his wife, Amy, and then to his nephew, Thomas Hall Howard, after her death.

The land containing the site was transferred out of the Howard family in 1849, when Thomas Hall Howard agreed to sell 179½ acres out of the two tracts to Denton Miller. The 1850 census listed Miller as wheelwright with real estate valued at $6,000. Miller probably owned the wheelwright shop depicted on the west side of the Clarksville Pike on an 1860 map of the county. The household also included his wife, Margaret, their six children, and two laborers. Miller was listed in the Federal slave censuses of 1850 and 1860, suggesting that the farm also was tended by slave labor. In 1850, there were 9 slaves, males and females between 1 year old and 58 years old. In 1860, Miller held or oversaw 11 slaves, males and females ranging in age from 8 to 70 years old, and one "slave house" was located on the property.

The property was the subject of an equity court case beginning in 1868 after Miller defaulted on a mortgage. An 1871 advertisement for a trustee’s sale of Miller’s property indicated that his holdings totaled 214 acres along Clarksville Turnpike. Based on the 1860 map, the lot containing the blacksmith shop, wheelwright shop, and two dwellings was located on the west side of Clarksville Pike.

In 1872, the trustees appointed by the equity court conveyed the 179½ acre portion to William Welling, who conveyed an 80 acre portion to William W. Watkins in 1877. According to a survey performed in 1871, this 80 acre parcel included 18HO284. After Watkins died, his wife, Margaret, owned the property and was included in the 1880 agricultural census. According to an 1878 tax assessment, the 80 acre parcel was valued at $1,600 and the improvements were valued at $500. Improvements maintained this worth when the property was sold in 1881.

In 1881, Denton Miller’s son, James Nicholas Miller, bought the 80 acre property from the Watkins estate. He incorporated the property into a total holding of 246 acres, and owned the property until 1922. During his period of ownership, improvements consisting of "a new barn and sheds" were valued at $1,000 in April 1903, while $a barn, two sheds, a corn house, and a hen house appear to have been demolished. Clarence C. Adams purchased the 246 acre property in 1922 and operated a farm.

The site was first examined archaeologically in 2008 during a combined Phase I and II project in Clarksville in anticipation of new residential development. During Phase I, 731 shovel test pits (STPs) were dug, as well as remote sensing work around the Miller family cemetery to identify unmarked grave shafts. Nineteen of the STPs produced artifacts and visible depressions and surface features aided in delineating the approximate boundaries of the site. A total of 199 artifacts were recovered during Phase I work. Pearlware and creamware sherds were recovered from a spatially discrete location within the site, suggesting that isolated deposits might be present dating back to the 18th-century occupation of the property by the Howards.

Phase II testing at Site 18HO284 entailed the excavation of 18 formal 1 X 1 m test units. Ten cultural features were identified during the excavation of test units, including a cinder block and mortar-lined cellar hole, a stone foundation remnant and a possible stone foundation remnant, 3 post features, and 4 pits or depressions. The Phase II investigations produced 7 prehistoric artifacts and 6,981 historic artifacts. The prehistoric component appears to represent a low density lithic scatter of unknown specific temporal association, which has been impacted by historic activity at the site. The historic component at the site includes domestic occupation from the mid-18th through mid-20th centuries, but the most flourishing periods of farm use should be defined as ca. 1753-1865.

Phase III excavation of the site was undertaken and a total of 34 cultural features were identified after plowzone was stripped from the site. Fifteen were structural features like piers and postholes and one was a feature of unknown function. Eighteen features were identified in the final report as trash pits, but were more likely subfloor pits associated with kitchens south of the main house and probably nearby slave quarters associated with the Howard family ownership and later the Denton Miller ownership of the property. The artifact assemblages from these features was more indicative of lower status individuals.

The historic component of 18HO284 produced evidence for both vertical and horizontal integrity. Evidence for vertical integrity included data that portions of the site’s deposits may not have been frequently plowed since the late 19th century, and the presence of intact early to mid- 19th century features. Evidence for horizontally separable activity areas included differentiable distribution of architectural and kitchen-related artifact concentrations, and chronologically discrete (late 18th to early 19th century) activity areas with little to no overlay of late activity. The evidence for both horizontally distinct and vertically intact deposits associated with the historic component of Site 18HO284 suggests that it can contribute significant data on time-specific farmstead development, spatial distribution of farm activities, refuse disposal patterns, and the socio-economic status of site inhabitants. Hence, the historic component at the site appears to retain the potential to address significant research issues. To date, the property has not been developed and the site remains preserved.

(Edited from the Maryland Historical Trust Synthesis Project)