Cellar Hole Survey Newsletter #12
A Long Way Home
Greetings Canterbury history enthusiasts,
The Question
Why would any family wish to build a farming homestead 2,190 feet [as the crow flies] from the nearest town road?
History
This is Clough family history territory and the record of land use here is convoluted and the research as to which Clough first lived here has not been completed. Maybe you can help! We do know Samuel Shepard was the first Proprietor/Owner in 1731.
The Site Speaks
The first examination of the site offered a very chaotic appearing foundation on a level, cleared plot of land on the south-west side of a hill which topped out over 900 feet above sea level. Nearby was the well, carefully protected by a wooden cover, and beside that a viewing area complete with chairs and a typical metal mail box on a stout pole. You will need to read to near the end of this brief report to find out something more about the mail box! Just a few feet south of this site is an east-west stone wall that upon study was revealed to be the original lot line of Samuel Shepard’s holding.
Next noted that while the area around the site is open field and lawn, the site itself is overgrown with brush, consisting mostly of milkweed, blackberries, and tiny black birch trees. And the root cellar portion of the foundation is decrepit. Due to the relatively large size of the cellar hole, in this newsletter we only sometimes refer to it as a root cellar. Overall, at this point in the work the original shape and size of the cellar and possible crawl space was obscured.
While the crew cut and removed much of the brush and briars around the site, our metal detectorist Shaun began searching for ancient metal objects. Then we began our data collection.
Details: Cellar Hole/Root Cellar
None of the original, cut granite sill stones remain, yet a few mostly broken red bricks lie scattered around reveal the location of the central fireplace and chimney mound as does a generous display of large, flat base stones and hearth stones. Evidence that probably this had been a classical, center chimney, two story house. The mail box contained drinking water and a couple of treats. And a map of the hiking trails leading up to the site.
Amidst the jumble of stones along the South foundation wall our youngest crew member spotted a displaced 5 foot long, thin, very flat stone, probably from the area of the centrally located front door. Note: it appears in the photo above near the right edge. We imagined standing in the hallway, looking out the open door on a warm Autumn day at a view of the church steeples in Concord. That was about the time we asked each other where they climbed more than 250 vertical feet while walking over two thousand feet along a dirt road on the way home. Was this the “driveway”?
You may be able to help find the “driveway”. The little double black dot just right of the middle of the image is the cellar hole. You can see the line of the stone wall mentioned in the “Site Speaks” section on the first page, just below the cellar hole.
In the upper left is the faint tracing of a road that seems to connect with the site. It ends up about 2,200 feet at a town road. There is a faint tracing of a road in the shadow to the right of the image. It is 2,500 feet to a town road, but there is no hill to climb!
Back to the documentation. As there was a “missing” one quarter of the excavated cellar hole, we set out to find evidence of a crawl space foundation. We located a likely place to dig and invited our two young helpers, boys 7 and 9, to dig through the topsoil. With enthusiasm they began finding flat stones typical of the practice of making part of the building being supported close to the ground above a crawl space foundation. At this point we were now able to make an approximate estimate that the long gone house was 28 feet by 42 feet.
Metal Detectorist Shaun checked in a couple of times and in the end, recovered 4 nails in very good condition which appear to have hand hammered heads. These were found within 30 feet of the foundation. As well as a variety of 5 metal buttons that he indicated appeared to be from the 1700’s. This home was built a long time ago.
The quest to learn by what path the family hiked home continues. We also seek to understand why the family built here in the first place.
Tell us about a cellar hole on your property at: cellarholesurveys@gmail.com