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June 2016 Tour
“Hidden in Plain Sight”
Opacum Woods, Sturbridge, MA

By Mary E. Gage
© 5/11/16

More information http://www.opacumlt.org/events.html

Trip Detail

The total walking distance is approximately 1 ¼ miles. The terrain is uneven and sturdy footwear is recommended. Tick and insect repellent is highly recommended. Tour is estimated to last 2 hours.

Historic Background of Property

The site is located on an old 18½ acre parcel. David Benson purchased it from Caleb Weld an out of town owner, in 1842. David built a small house and lived there until January 1853 when he gave the house and one acre to his son Edwin. Edwin lived in the house until he died in September of that same year. At that point David was living someplace else in Sturbridge. He retained the 17½ acres. In 1853 on his daughter’s birth record David is listed as a laborer. Two years later in 1855, he listed himself as a farmer in the census. By 1865 he is listed as infirmed. His 1868 deed stated it contained a “wood [lot], pasturage, and tillage land”. The farming aspect therefore dates from circa 1855 to 1865 with David living in another part of town. Not living on the property he would have pastured livestock such as two cows. The low number of animals is indicated by an advertisement of a small farm in the June 22, 1864 edition of the Boston Daily Journal. “Farm of 30 acres, … with stone wall; 8 acres of woodland; balance suitably divided; 100 apple trees in bearing; good variety of other fruits; will keep four head of cattle the year through; …”  Benson’s 17½ acres was suitably divided into woodland, pasture and tillage (plowed field). His acreage was half of that farm’s suggesting he could keep two beef cattle the year through. After 1865 the land ceased to be farmed, it reforested and circa 1900 was logged.

The house and one acre were sold out of the Benson family in 1857. Repeat sales of the “dwelling house” and one acre suggest it continued to be used as a house although not by the owners as they lived out of town. That suggests the house was rented. By the 1868 deed it is listed as “buildings” suggesting it was no longer used as a dwelling house. That correlates with the artifacts (see below). By 1900 there is no mention of buildings.

Artifacts excavated during a professional excavation recovered items dating from the 1830s to the 1860s. This time period correlates with David Benson’s occupation and afterwards rental of the house.

Stone Structures

Two Enclosures – Have everyone walk down into them.

a) Point out the tall ledge faces used for walls

b) Point out the niche in the wall

Are these animal pens?

The only animal I thought might be able to be kept in them were pigs so I did some reading on them in period books on farming (1845, 1870, 1916). All three said the same thing: pigs need a wooden house with an attached open pen. Facts For Farmers (1870) stated: “The eating and sleeping apartments of Mr. Pig should always be a good frame building, with a plank floor and shingle roof … (page 26) Pigs could also be raised in barns as noted in this advertisement. The June 13, 1864 edition of the Boston Daily Journal had a house and barn for sale in Jamaica Plain, MA, “There is a stable having accommodations for two horses, cow, pigs, etc.” The enclosures do not meet the criteria for pigpens.

Cairns

We are now entering the one acre house lot. In this small area there are stones piled on top of boulders on one side of the stream. (Go to opposite side.) On this side of the stream stones were piled up on the ground in mounds.  Are they field clearing piles?

First let’s evaluate where they are located. This area is wetlands with an active stream. It is rocky, small and confined there is no room for a field. James did a complete study of stone removal on farms. What he found was only plowed fields had stones removed. Here is a photograph from the 1930s of what field clearing piles look like. They are in a field and all the same small mounds. There are no boulders with stones on top. There is no wetland. The stone piles you are looking at here do not match what the farmers were creating therefore they are not field clearing piles. I’ll talk more about this later.

Well

This is a good example of a local well. It has a platform surrounding it. The term local was used as platforms are from this area we do not see them in northeastern Massachusetts.

House Foundation

The foundation was sunken into the ground which is the most common method. The extension off the cellar was for the stairs. Bricks and household artifacts are still found around it. This was David Benson’s house built circa 1842.

The surrounding stone walls show the overall one acre of land. The boundary walls, house foundation and well are classic historic stone remains. What are out of place are the stone piles in the wetlands area and the enclosures on the outside of the one acre lot. They belong to the Native American ceremonial site that was integrated into the farm site.

The farm site fell into disuse circa 1865 when David Benson became infirm and could no longer farm the property. By then the one acre and house was a rental property. That gave the renters the privacy they needed to create a ceremonial site. 

Native American Stone Structures

We are often asked if the Indians built with stone? The answer is yes. There are several examples:

1) Flagg Swamp Rock Shelter with its 4,000 year old constructed stone wall (professionally excavated)

2) Twin Brothers – two stone cairns built in 1703 at the Casco Bay (Maine) Peace Treaty signing

     The Indians built one cairn and the Colonist built the second cairn

These examples will serve but if anyone is interested in learning more please us later.

Niche – Short Stone Wall Segment – Wide Wall on Top Outcrop, only

Please note the thrown style wall along the boundary it is about to change. Here at the exposed outcrop the thrown wall becomes a flat-faced wide wall strictly on top the length of the outcrop. We will talk about outcrops later in the tour. Attached at the bottom is a short segment of wall extending over towards the niche. The niche is a simple construction with a flat elongated stone that bridges the gap between two narrow elongated outcrops. Here again, outcrops play a role in the structure. We also saw it with the two enclosures. The outcrops appear to have significance.

Split Outcrop with Stone Sandwich Wedged into Split at Top

This is a tall outcrop with a wide split filled with large stones. The stones come in different colors and shapes. At the top is a stone sandwich: two slabs with small stones in between. It is wedged into the top of the split.

Anthropology accounts help us understand the context of split stones as ceremonial structures.

a) Little People and Rock Crevasse

“Often an Indian will eat and eat and still feel unsatisfied; he wonders how he can eat so much and still be hungry, for the dwarfs, unseen, are stealing the food from his dish. Occasionally you hear the reports of their guns, but cannot see either the dwarfs or their tracks. Yet Pegahmagabow once saw their tracks, like those of a tiny baby, on a muddy road on Parry Island. Certain dwarfs haunt a crevasse in a rock on French river, where they sometimes make themselves visible; if you throw them some food they disappear.” (Jenness 1935, 43)

b) Ogauns, a boy entering the Underworld during a vision quest through a chasm

(Vision of Ogauns) “Some moons later I left my parents again, carrying this time a complete travelling equipment, even a small birch-bark canoe. I found the chasm securely blocked, and stared aghast at the huge, irregular granite masses in front of me, charred and discoloured where they had been shattered. ‘All hope is gone then,’ I murmured; ‘Never shall I obtain the everlasting life’; and I covered my face with my hands. But while my face was thus covered the pathway stood revealed to me, and, looking up, I searched for the mouth of the chasm by which I must enter [Underworld].” (Jenness, 1935, p57)

Through these accounts we see how the Native Americans fit split stones into their cultural beliefs.

Narrow Enclosure

Short outcrop makes up side wall and back wall

A man-made wall makes up the opposite side

This is a man-made construction with no farm association. It is large enough for a person to fit inside.

House Foundation

Tall outcrop makes up side wall

Wide thick walls on front and side suggest a house was to be built on top

Flat faced stones on interior with square corners – classic historic house foundation construction. What is different is it is above ground. Occasionally we have encountered above ground house and barn foundations so they do exist in New England. What makes this one different is the outcrop used for the side wall.

 

Discussion: Tall, Large, Flat-Faced Outcrop (Drawing on Back Page)

1) Split stone cairn with stone sandwich was built into a tall flat-faced split glacial boulder

It is follows the pattern of using outcrops in the stone structures

2) Two large enclosures were at the base of tall outcrop faces (beginning of tour)

3) Narrow enclosure in this section

4) House foundation

The common factor with each of these structures is a massive flat-faced outcrop forms one wall. It creates what is called a pattern. In this case, it is a symbolic feature.

The split stone is a Native American feature associated with spirits. The Indians also used enclosures to bring spirits and people together. The two stone enclosures each had a tall outcrop wall. That creates a pattern. So why does this house foundation have a tall outcrop wall? My opinion is it was intended to be used as an underground ceremonial enclosure. When finished the Native American ceremonial enclosure would have been concealed from public view making the owners of the property think they had stopped holding ceremonies. Hidden in plain sight.

Niche on a steep hillside (James will take you up)

It was built into a short stone wall segment with no farming purpose. It is not a boundary wall. The niche is one of three structures spread out in a triangular layout. It is likely a large enclosed ceremonial area. After you view the niche we will walk back to another stone structure in the triangle.

Split Wedge Cairn

This is a very different type of split stone cairn. It is a small split boulder with a couple of stones wedged into the split. The cairn forms a corner of the triangle layout. Another cairn with a few stones on top of a boulder forms the third corner. Point out or go over to it.

Conclusion

The 18½ acres was a multi-use and multi-cultural site. It was homestead, a house lot, and short term farm. The addition of Native American stone structures added another cultural layer. It turned the old farm into a ceremonial site.

Bibliography

 

Gardner, Frank D.
1916 Traditional American Farming Techniques. 2nd ed. Guilford, CT: Lyons Press.

Jenness, Diamond
1935 The Ojibwa Indians of Parry Island, Their Social and Religious Life. (Bulletin No. 78, Anthropological Series No. 17), Canada Department of Mines, National Museum of Canada, Ottawa: J.O. Patenaude, I.S.O., printer); [Facsimile Reprint, Coyote Press]

Robinson, Solon
1870 Facts for Farmers. New York: A.J. Johnson

Four Structures with Boulders

 

Pig Pen-Barn Plans and Outbuildings (1893)

19th Century Pig Pen illustration
Byron D. Halstead, Barn Plans and Outbuildings. New York: Orange Judd Co. (1893)

Field-Clearing

1937 FSA photo showing a Michigan potato field with stone piled around stumps
(Courtesy of the Library of Congress)

 

Copyright (c) 2005-2008, James E. Gage & Mary E. Gage. All Rights Reserved.
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