A Territorial Period Site in Dubuque

Michael J. Perry

Part I: Historical Background and Archaeological Surveys

We took the old house site collection back to the laboratory, along with collections from other sites encountered during the survey. The site, designated 13DB496, included a variety of features related to both the farmstead and other historic period uses of the hollow. Since I knew this to be the location of a fairly old house, I suspected that there were some relatively old historic artifacts at the site. But with limited expertise in historical archaeology, I didn’t recognize any particularly outstanding specimens at the time of the field work.

Analysis of the 13DB496 survey collection was conducted with the assistance of my colleague, historical archaeologist Marlin Ingalls. In the surface collection, Marlin quickly recognized a pearlware rim sherd, a polychrome spatter decorated rim sherd, “old blue” decorated body sherds, black transfer printed body sherds, porcelain body sherds with a blue, Chinese-style decoration, a redware elbow pipe fragment, and cobalt blue bottle fragments, including a bottle base with a pontil mark, and other other specimens dating from the 1830s to the 1860s (Figure 3). The shovel test collections contained additional redware body sherds with the tan colored glaze typical of vessels produced in Galena, Illinois, a green shell-edge decorated rim sherd, and lead glass jar or tumbler fragments. The redware elbow pipe sherd was remarkable for its relief molded inscription, which read “Rough and Ready.” Rough and Ready, of course, is the nickname Zachary Taylor earned during his military career, and the specimen is possibly a commemorative dating to his presidential campaign in the late 1840s. Although the collection contained a few specimens produced in more recent time periods, Marlin exclaimed that this was one of the best collections of pre-Civil War era artifacts he had seen since he began working in Iowa. I was astonished, because sites containing pre-Civil War artifacts in appreciable numbers are rare, even in the Dubuque area. What’s more, although removal of the old house had disturbed some of the deposits, the lawn appeared to contain enough intact soils to justify further test excavations.

Record searches prior to our surveys typically involve an examination of available plat maps, site records forms, previous archaeological survey reports, and perhaps a perusal of published county histories. When Marlin asked about the site’s documentary data, I could only show him my 1874 plat and the other more recent plats. The oldest available plat was the 1837 General Land Office survey plat of the township, which showed no house at the site location. Although the field notes accompanying the original township survey listed Dr. Langworthy’s presence in the area, his house location wasn’t specified. By 1874 the farmstead at 13DB496 was one of several in the 160-acre parcel originally claimed by Dr. Langworthy, any one of which could have been his. The artifact assemblage certainly indicated that the site had been occupied well before the Civil War, but by whom I could not say. The testing program would also provide an opportunity to track down more complete documentary information about the property.

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