FARMSTEAD CERAMICS AND SOCIAL STATUS IN THE 19th CENTURY: THE DRAKE SITE, STEPHENSON COUNTY, ILLINOIS

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1 FARMSTEAD CERAMICS AND SOCIAL STATUS IN THE 19th CENTURY: THE DRAKE SITE, STEPHENSON COUNTY, ILLINOIS Joseph S. Phillippe Utilizing data from the Drake Site, a northwestern Illinois farmstead occupied by one family from ca , this paper seeks to examine the socioeconomic status of the residents and how it changed through time. George Miller's (1980) ceramic scaling scheme was utilized to address this question. The occupants' status changed little through time and appears to be high when compared to other farmsteads, but low when compared to sites from urban contexts. Although the residents of the Drake site could have afforded expensive ceramics and no doubt had access to them in the market place, their conservative tastes were better served by less expensive wares. Situated in Stephenson County, (northwestern) Illinois, the Drake Site was a farmstead occupied by one family from about 1839 to Over the course of their 60 year tenure, the occupants no doubt observed great changes in the region. The countryside was still "frontier" when Chauncey Stebbins and his 19 year old bride Roxanna went west in 1838 seeking good, cheap land not available in the east. They did not come alone. They settled near friends and family who could provide the mutual help and moralsupport so needed to succeed in making a home on the frontier. Like many newlyweds, Chauncey and Roxanna began a family and farm with great enthusiasm but little money. Their first substantial home was small. The structure, based on archaeological data, was probably similar in style and plan to a one-and-a-half New England cottage (Noble 1984:104). With its well, cistern, and privy, the house served Chauncey and his wife well for the first years of their marriage. As their prosperity and the size of their family increased, a larger structure was needed (Figure I). Sometime before 1850, a major addition to their house was constructed. In the process, a cellar entrance and cistern were filled and sealed. When examined in isolation, the addition to the earlier structure is similar in style to a gable-front house (Noble 1984:107); however, when added to the earlier structure, the over-all house plan is more reminiscent ofa upright-and-wing house (ibid.:109). The Stebbins family prospered; Chauncey acquired other farms and a house in town. The barns and outbuildings needed for his farming operation were either located on one of these other farms or at some distance Joseph S. Phillippe Midwestern Archaeological Research Center Illinois State University, Normal, Illinois. from his home. Chauncey, like many other farmers then and now, speculated, borrowing the money to purchase new lands while hoping for good growing conditions and high prices for his produce in order to pay off his debts. Upon his death in 1857, Chauncey had a large prosperous farm, but he owed a number of creditors. Roxanna was left to provide for three small children and manage a large farm, ifthe creditors did not seize it in compensation for their claims. The chancellory record is full of the efforts of Roxanna and others to save as much of the farm land for her and her children as possible. Although some of the land had to be sold to pay off the creditors, Roxanna and her children retained their home and much of their original acreage. Roxanna remarried in Her new husband, Lloyd Drake, moved from Belvedere to be with his new family. Roxanna and Lloyd lived in the house until his death in Roxanna was then 77 years old; with his passing she no longer wanted or was able to live in the house alone. Shortly thereafter, she deeded the property to her daughter, Amy Freeman, and moved to Medford, Minnesota, to be with family. The house and land were eventually sold to Samuel Schmitt, the owner of a neighboring farm. His interest was in expanding his farm, not in living in the house. It appears likely that he demolished the structure about CERAMICS AND SOCIOECONOMIC STATUS Drake Site excavations did not produce large samples ofrefuse from throughout the span of the site's occupation. Artifacts were recovered from two main contexts, A small assemblage of artifacts from the 1850s was recovered from Features IA,, and 6. Most artifacts were from Features 1, 3, and 5. These artifacts date from the mid- to late 19th century, but they appear to have been discarded when the site was abandoned about Ohio Valley Historical Archaeology 6(1988):90-96

2 Ohio Valley Historical Archaeology Volume RES.OF ROXANA DRAKE.. SEC. SILVER CREEK rp. STEPHENSON CO. ILL? FIGURE I. LATE-19th CENTURY ENG RA YING OF DRAKE RESIDENCE. One question we hoped the Drake Site artifacts would answer was the socioeconomic status of the occupants and its change through time. To address this question, we used Miller's (1980) ceramic scaling scheme. Prior to this study, McCorvie (1987) and Thomas (1987) have dealt with Miller's ceramic scaling scheme using data from Illinois. McCorvie used mid- l 91h century ceramics from a number of farmstead sites and Thomas ( 1987) dealt entirely with late l 91h and early 0'h century ceramics. He used Montgomery Ward and Sears catalogues to scale ceramics obtained from the "Old Main" building on the campus of Illinois State University. McCorvie (1987) scaled the ceramics from a number of Illinois farmstead site, some excavated by herself and some excavated by others. She utilized sherd counts rather than minimum vessel counts for her analysis. As few reports include the data needed for meaningful comparisons (vessel form, decoration, and minimum vessel counts), utilizing sherd counts provides some means for comparison The presentation of data on vessel form, decoration, and minimum vessel counts is preferable, however. THE DRAKE SITE ASSEMBLAGE As the Drake Site assemblage is large and contains a number of whole and reconstructible vessels; vessel, not sherd, counts were utilized. Also, the features present appear to represent two distinct periods of deposition, which allows for comparison of groups of features. Features IA,, and 6 were filled when an addition to Stebbins' original house was made around A minimum vessel count was made for these features and the data were scaled according to Miller's (1980) scheme (Table 1). Features I, 3, 4 and 5 have a mean ceramic date of , but appear to have been filled about The ceramics in these features are predominantly types produced ca (Table ). The early date for the features may be a result of the fact that the site was occupied by a young couple who established their home there around 1838 and subsequently developed into an industrious household which had acquired most of its 91

3 TABLE 1. DRAKE SITE VESSELS FROM FEATURES la,, AND 6 (Mean Ceramic Date= ) VESSEL DECORATION/ FORM TYPE SIZE N CUPS CC* 6 SPONGED 5 PAINTED 10 PRINTED 4 SAUCERS cc 6 SPONGED 4 PAINTED 10 PRINTED IRONSTONE 1 PLATES CC (all) 5 EDGED 10" 4 8" 8 PAINTED? 1 PRINTED? 5 IRONSTONE? BOWLS cc IRONSTONE * Undecorated creamware. l 76 c.c. DATE OF INDEX PRODUCT INDEX x x x x x x x x x x x x x I tableware by the 1870s. Thus, when the features were filled with their trash around 1900, there was little debris which had been accumulated in the last three decades of occupation. It is possible that late 19 1 h century ceramics in the collection have been inadequately dated and economically evaluated because of ignorance about their actual temporal and cultural context. Our lack of information may have led to the attribution of dates too early and values too high, or low, for such ceramics as molded white ironstone and brown tea leaf decorated ware. With this proviso in mind, it is observed that the average ceramic value calculates to be l.365 for Features 1, 3, 4, and 5 (Table ). This is surprising as the earlier group of features has almost exactly the same value: These data suggest that the residents of the Drake Site were neither extremely prosperous nor did their socioeconomic status, as indicated by their ceramic tableware, change much from the middle to the end of their occupation. The real change in their economic situation would have been in the decade or so after their arrival on the frontier (i.e., ca. 1850), the period in which they developed the farm into a successful enterprise. Unfortunately, the data do not exist to make a comparison of their status in 1838 and THE DRAKE ASSEMBLAGE IN REGIONAL PERSPECTIVE McCorvie (1987:80) presents a table showing the ceramic economic scaling values for a number of Illinois farmstead sites. Although these sites were not excavated in the same ways, are from very different parts of the state, and may not all be typical farmsteads (Jesse Lindel and Twiss Hill possibly relating more to coal mining and railroad construction), no other regional data exist. Table 3 utilizes McCorvie's information and is modified to show Drake in relationship to those sites. Although the average value for the Drake Site is relatively low when viewed alone, when compared to these other sites its' occupants appear to have been reasonably prosperous. Historical research on the site suggests that the Stebbins' and Drake's were reasonably prosperous and solidly middle class. Why then are the values for all of these sites so low? Is this the result of sampling error or is it due to the fact that, in general, 19th century Midwestern farmers spent less on tablewares than their eastern 9

4 counterparts? Mansberger (1987) suggests that "... status in the United States is primarily the result of income, which is determined predominantly by occupation". Were the sites listed in Table 3 to be compared to sites representative of other occupations - merchant, banker, factory worker, miner, etc. - how would they compare? Unfortunately, we do not have values for sites representing people involved in different occupations. Neither, at present, do we have much data to compare urban versus rural populations. We have data from only one urban site with which to compare urban and rural populations. The low values for fannstead sites may represent a pattern worthy of study; however, only through research on a variety of sites, representing different occupational groups in both urban and rural areas, will the data base be created which will allow us to address the variations we observe. TABLE. DRAKE SITE VESSELS FROM FEATURES I, 3, 4 AND 5 (Mean Ceramic Date = ) VESSEL FORM CUPS SAUCERS PLATES DECORATION/ TYPE CC* SPONGED PAINTED PRINTED IRONSTONE cc SPONGED PAINTED PRINTED CC {all) EDGED 10" 8" IRONSTONE 10" 8" PRINTED? N= C.C. DATE OF INDEX PRODUCT INDEX x x x x x x x x BOWLS *Undecorated Creamware cc IRONSTONE x I SITE Baldridge Drake Red House Jesse Lindel Twiss Hill Davis Crazy Dog Huggins Speckhardt TABLE 3. ECONOMIC SCALING OF 19rn CENTURY SITES IN ILLINOIS AVERAGE VALUE Mansberger, in an unpublished paper entitled "Historic Archeology at the Dana-Thomas House: Life in 's Springfield, Illinois" (Mansberger n.d.), presents ceramic data on an s urban household in Springfield, Illinois. Table 4 presents data abstracted from that report. When comparing the Drake Site and Dana-Thomas House Site ceramics (Figure ), it is clear that the Dana-Thomas Site ceramics were higher priced wares (.4 vs. 1.37). The mid-l 9 1 h century Drake Site ceramics consisted primarily of painted cups and saucers, edged plates and platters, and undecorated creamware bowls. The Dana-Thomas assemblage was quite different, consisting primarily of molded ironstone and porcelain cups and saucers, and molded white ironstone plates and bowls. 93

5 VESSEL DECORATION FORM TYPE N CUPS CC* 5 PAINTED 5 PRINTED 1 IRONSTONE ~ 19 TABLE 4. DANA-THOMAS SITE VESSELS c.c. INDEX x 1.3 x 1.60 x 4.00 I PRODUCT DATE OF INDEX SAUCERS cc 3 PAINTED 3 IRONSTONE 8 14 x 1.3 x 4.00 I PLATES BOWLS cc EDGED 3 PAINTED 1 PRINTED 4 IRONSTONE 10 1 cc 6 PRINTED 3 IRONSTONE 1 16 x.6 x 1.50 x 1.80 I 8.6 x.00 x.00 I l TOTAL 49 *Undecorated creamware. I Although it is tempting to suggest that urban consumers were less isolated and therefore had access to a wider range of wares to purchase, other factors contribute to the differences in consumption habits of the Drake family versus the Dana-Thomas Site residents. One difference is that social status in urban communities was determined differently than in rural communities. Mansberger suggests this may be the case: A broad range of temporal, geographical, political, and economic factors have influenced the way in which status is manifested in the archeological record. Because different resource bases and processes of interaction and exchange varied by region, many variables that reflect status differences are valid only for particular communities during specific time periods. In the Midwest during the mid-19th century, social differences in rural communities were based on land ownership and persistence in an area. In urban areas, social status was indicated by possession of goods, quality of housing, and cash on hand (Mansberger 1987). Miller (1984:37-49) examined rural trade and consumption of ceramics from data found in the account books of George M. Coates, a pottery merchant of Philadelphia. The accounts studied cover the period and represent the dealings of six rural merchants located in New Jersey and Pennsylvania. What he learned about these merchant's buying habits is most interesting and may well apply to the buying habits of rural Illinois merchants during the same period, and later (1830-). Miller states: One of the most common lines in newspaper advertisements from importers and jobbers during the nineteenth century was "packages made up for the country trade." Country storekeepers, who ran general merchandise stores in small towns and rural communities of the United States were an important link in the ceramic distribution system. These merchants usually made spring and autumn buying trips to cities like Philadelphia, New York, Boston, and Baltimore. Jobbers and importers went out of their way to secure these important customers. Country merchants selected the ceramics consumed 94

6 Drake Site Dana-Thomas House Privy 1.oL _..... PLATES ~CUPS ITIIlII 8 0 W L S FIGURE. COMPARISON OF CERAMIC SCALING AT DRAKE AND DANA-THOMAS SITES. in their communities; they responded to what their customers wanted (ibid :45-46). Doubtlessly, the merchants with whom Coates dealt were responding to the wants of their customers and it is interesting to observe that all six sold the same inexpensive assemblage of wares. Miller's findings are most interesting in regards to the types and values of the wares being sold by these country merchants. He further states: All six carried the same forms, sizes, and decorative types. Only one merchant had porcelain teaware in his store, limited to six sets of cups and saucers out of an assemblage of 166 sets. The most common ceramics in almost every form and size were the cheaper decorative types like edged flatware, painted teaware, and colored and painted bowls, mugs, and pitchers. The next most commonly found was CC, or undecorated creamware. The least common was transfer printed, the most expensive type available from Coates (ibid.:46). Although the data apply to an earlier period in a different region, one wonders if the same situation existed in Illinois in the period Both the Drake and Dana-Thomas Site residents appear to have been prosperous and of high social status in their respective communities. Perhaps farmers like Stebbins and Drake 95

7 were generally more conservative and traditional in their consumption habits while urban residents like those at the Dana-Thomas House Site were more liberal in their consumption habits. It would be interesting to know if they were liberal and conservative in other aspects of their lifeways. Data at this time does not exist to address this question. CLOSING OBSERVATIONS Comparison of the Drake Site materials with the Dana Thomas House Site assemblages suggests questions which can be answered only when more data become available for study. Some of these questions are: 1) Did urban residents have access to more varied and expensive goods than rural residents; ) Did urban dwellers in general consume higher priced ceramics than people living in rural settings; 3) Were the Dana-Thomas residents wealthier than the Drake residents or did they simply expend more of their income on ceramic tablewares; 4) Were rural consumers isolated from the markets or did they have a preference for less expensive, more traditionalstyle ceramics; 5) Does the ceramic assemblage at the Drake Site represent a prosperous farmer with traditional conservative tastes? REFERENCES CITED Mansberger, Floyd R "Artifact Patterns" and Socio-Economic Status in the Archeological Record. Proceedings of the Symposium on Ohio Valley Urban and Historic Archaeology 5:1-9, Louisville, Kentucky. n.d. Historic Archeology at the Dana-Thomas: Life in 's Springfield, Illinois. Ms. in possession of author. McCorvie, Mary 1987 The Davis, Baldridge, and Huggins Sites: Three Nineteenth Century Upland South Farmsteads in Perry County, Illinois. Preservation Series No. 4, American Resources Group, Ltd., Carbondale, Illinois. Miller, George L Classification and Economic Scaling of 19 1 h Century Ceramics. Historical Archaeology 14: George M. Coates, Pottery Merchant of Philadelphia, Winterthur Portfolio, Journal of American Material Culture 19(1). University of Chicago Press, Chicago. Noble, Allen G Wood, Brick, and Stone: The North American Settlement Landscape - Houses 1. University of Massachusetts Press, Amherst. Thomas, Fredrick 1987 Economic Scaling of Late 19th Century and Early 0th Century Ceramics. Paper presented at Second Conference on Historic Archaeology in Illinois, Illinois State University, Normal. 96