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Assessing Historic Sites: Elements to Consider

Assessing Historic Sites: Elements to Consider. Charles S. Wallis, Jr. State Historic Preservation Office a division of the Oklahoma Historical Society. Acknowledgements.

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Assessing Historic Sites: Elements to Consider

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  1. Assessing Historic Sites: Elements to Consider Charles S. Wallis, Jr. State Historic Preservation Office a division of the Oklahoma Historical Society

  2. Acknowledgements • Maps of Oklahoma shown in this presentation are taken fromHistorical Atlas of Oklahoma, 4th ed. 2006. OU Press, C. Goins & D. Goble • Cherokee County, Camp Gruber site images are from LopezGarcia Group, Dallas, TX cultural resource reports prepared for the Oklahoma Military Department (OANG)

  3. Assessing site eligibility: With emphasis directed towards evaluation of Late Historic Period Farmsteads • Factors to consider: • Age • Complexity • Integrity • Significance

  4. Site also needs to be evaluated within a Historic Context • Identification • Placement within a cultural theme • Placement within its geographical and chronological limits

  5. Historic Period • Defining historic versus prehistoric • Dates vary depending on region • Proto-historic (transition from pre- to post-contact period) • Oklahoma (1541 versus 1719) • Coronado versus La Harpe’s expeditions • Upper end date for consideration (WWII) • Cold War Era

  6. French and Spanish Explorers

  7. Assessment Based on Age • Early Exploration Period • Deer Creek & Bryson Paddock sites (Kay Co.) • Early- to mid-1700s (with French trading connection) • Spanish Fort (historic Wichita village, Jefferson Co.) • Mid-1700s to early-1800s (site attacked by Spanish 1758) • Removal Period 1820s-1850s • Typically associated with one of the five Civilized Tribes • Location of site may depend on degree of blood • Slave owner/plantation oriented versus non-slave owner • Sites are generally located in eastern Oklahoma

  8. Indian Territory, 1855-1866

  9. Indian Territory, 1889

  10. Northeastern Oklahoma Tribes

  11. Historic Context: Pre-Statehood Settlement Pattern • Period 1889-1906 • Land Runs • Allotment • Lotteries • Sealed Bids

  12. Land Grab: Anglo-American Settlement Pattern • Lands Opened by Runs • Unassigned Lands - April 22, 1889 • Iowa, Sac & Fox, Pottawatomie & Shawnee - September 22, 1891 • Cheyenne & Arapaho - April 19, 1892 • Cherokee Outlet - September 16, 1893 • Kickapoo - May 23, 1895

  13. 1889-1906 Land Openings

  14. Settlement Pattern cont. • Lands Opened by Allotment • Tonkawa - 1891 (now Kay County) • Pawnee - 1892 (now Pawnee County • Ponca - 1904 (now Kay & Noble counties) • Oto-Missouri - 1904 (now Noble County) • Kaw-1906 (now Kay County) • Osage - 1906 (now Osage County)

  15. Allotments cont. (Five Civilized Tribes) • Choctaws – 1897 • Chickasaws – 1897 • Seminoles – 1898 • Creeks – 1901 • Cherokees – 1902 • No surplus lands available for allotment in eastern Indian Territory • Land acquired through other means

  16. Settlement Pattern cont. • Lands Opened by Lottery • Wichita & Caddo - July 9 to August 6, 1901 • Comanche, Kiowa and Apache - July 9 to August 6, 1901 • Lands Opened by Sealed Bids • Big Pasture - December 1906

  17. Proposed State of Sequoyah, 1905

  18. Determining site eligibility: Considerations • Complexity of site • Single component versus multi-component • Ethnicity • Period(s) of occupation • Pre-1890 versus post-1890* *Post-1890s sites are more common due to large migration into territory as result of runs, lotteries, and purchases of allotments

  19. Integrity and Significance:Both factors in decision • Integrity: • Presence of features (foundation stones, water well, depressions denoting possible cellar or cistern, vegetative plantings, etc.) • Demonstrates farmstead layout (integrity)

  20. Integrity and Significance cont. Significance: Demonstrating the property has significance determined according to one or more of the following: • Criterion A • Criterion B • Criterion C • Criterion D

  21. Integrity and Significance cont. • Criterion A: associated with events that have made a significant contribution to the broad patterns of our history • settlement of a community or important battle field site • Criterion B: associated with the lives of persons significant in our past • George Guess (aka Geo. Guyst, Geo. Guist, Geo. Gist) • Criterion C: embody distinctive characteristics of a type, period, or method of construction, or represent a significant and distinguishable entity whose components may lack individual distinction • brick kiln or charcoal production/operation facility • Criterion D: may yield information important in history or prehistory • archeological sites

  22. An Example • Historic Context: Cherokee Settlement Pattern • Camp Gruber: Native American Cherokee versus Cherokee Freedman • Defined by allotment records and archeological sites

  23. Early Cherokee Settlement

  24. Cherokee Nation 1889

  25. Case Studies • Nannie Sleeper allotment, site 34MS404 • John Benge allotment, site 34MS406 • Manard Baptist Church, cemetery & school house, site 34MS407 • Sequoyah’s Cabin • Eliza Bressman allotment, site 34PT141

  26. Plan Map: Site 34MS404 Nannie Sleeper Allotment

  27. 34MS404 Builder’s Trench

  28. 34MS404 ceramics

  29. 34MS404 ceramics

  30. Settlement pattern 1896 GLO survey

  31. Circa 1910 Cherokee Nation Township Map

  32. Nannie Sleeper Allotment**although chain of title shown below states site area was designated as homestead this is incorrect

  33. Archival/ historical review • According to 1898 GLO map (1896 field survey), site 34MS404 is in a wooded tract, at fork in road north of an orchard, with a house shown west of orchard in Section 21, not Section 16 (area of site) • No house is shown for site area on either 1898, 1901 or 1936 maps • House in section south of 34MS404 is situated on Lewis Sleeper’s allotment • Artifact sample documents primarily 1830-50s occupation, with hint of later wares • Possible history of single Cherokee family use, eventually conveyed to US. Govt. in 1937

  34. Site 34MS404 eligibility cont. • Nanny French (nee Sleeper) also known as Cricket married Louis G. Sleeper (a Texas born white) in 1896 • They had a daughter named Nannie, born between 1900 & 1903, who died as a child in 1906 • Nannie’s allotment is first recorded for the record in 1909, a date after parents had inherited the property • Homestead allotment (40 acres) was selected within sections 6 and 11, not 16 where site 34MS404 is situated • Pre-allotment Cherokee farmstead use of area supported by evidence, whether by this family remains uncertain

  35. Outcome of Review: Site determined eligible by consensus • Even though a clear association of site 34MS404 with the Sleeper family cannot be established, location has the potential to provide information concerning pre-allotment Cherokee farmsteads • Site contains in situ features, important for defining site lay out • Artifacts support initial Cherokee settlement of the area

  36. John Benge Allotment Site 34MS406

  37. Site 34MS406 Glasswares

  38. Site 34MS406 Plan Map

  39. Site 34MS406 Chain of Title

  40. Archival/ historical research • John Benge born circa 1889, resided with father Martin V. Benge who lived in Township east of J. Benge’s allotment (US Census 1900) • Site 34MS406 on J. Benge 50 acre homestead allotment • J. Benge’s homestead had all restrictions removed in 1921 when property conveyed to Adna Starr Benge, relationship unknown but possibly wife of a brother • According to 1920 Muskogee County Court records, J. Benge resided with wife and family at Fort Lyon, CO • Adna Benge a Fort Gibson subscription school teacher, rented a home in Nash Township (US Census 1920), but possibly not area of site 34MS406

  41. Archival cont. • In 1923, declaration of trust mentions “Benge Farm”, but for Section 22, not location of site • In 1927, after failure to pay mortgage, property with site 34MS406 auctioned by mortgage company for $50 to M. W. Drumheller, an out of state owner (sale price suggests no home present) • By 1937, after teaching for 42 years and as a resident of Fort Gibson, Adna Benge retired • In 1934 property conveyed to Herbert Kreider, who in 1930 was listed as a white renter residing in Nash Township (US Census 1930) • In 1942 property purchased by declaration of taking by the US Govt.

  42. Summary of review • No building noted for area, 1896 GLO survey • Chain of title documents multiple owners • Archival data unclear as to date of initial residency • Artifact sample supports early-20th century occupancy • Occupants likely share croppers or renters, not initial Cherokee allottee • 1941 aerial photo (of poor resolution) appears to still show two to four buildings in site area

  43. Outcome of review: Site determined not eligible • Association of site 34MS406 with John Benge may only be through receipt of a homestead allotment for the tract, not actual occupation • Adna Benge’s occupation of site 34MS406 also not established, possible absentee owner only • Sharecropper occupation also a possibility • Artifact sample supports 20th Century occupation, likely later Anglo owner use only

  44. Manard Baptist Church, cemetery & school house, site 34MS407

  45. Site 34MS407 Plan Map

  46. Site 34MS407 Chain of Title

  47. Outcome of review: Site determined eligible by consensus • Documented early church and school use • Cemetery reflects settlement pattern • Uncommon site for region, has information potential for addressing post-allotment Cherokee Nation sites other than farmsteads

  48. Questioning documented “History”: Examining the record • An example: • Sequoyah’s cabin site, Oklahoma Historical Society property • Listed on the National Register of Historic Places as a National Historic Landmark (NHL)

  49. Assessment • Site is already listed on the National Register of Historic Places, assessment already determined • There is however the question, is this theactuallocation of Sequoyah’s home? • Was the house moved in from somewhere else in 1936? • Should be verifiable by conducting an archeological survey of the entire OHS tract

  50. USGS Brushy, Okla. Quadrangle 1973

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