T H E

        F U R N A C E

                                          Or Dutch Hill Almanack

                              For The Summer of Two Thousand & Eight

Volume I, Number 3 new ftyle                                                                                    F r e e  o r  S i x  P e n c e

 

Produced by the Offices of The Warren County Cultural & Heritage Commission at Shippen Manor Museum, the restored circa-1754 iron master’s mansion, in Oxford, New Jersey. The museum is open to the public on the first and second Sundays of every month from 1-4 pm. Special tours, school and group visits are available by appointment. The Commission also maintains nearby Oxford Furnace, a source of Patriot iron in the War of Independence. Please call (908)-453-4381 for more information, or visit our web site at wcchc.org.

 

Hours Extended at Shippen Manor for July 4th

 As part of our ongoing efforts to expand museum services, Shippen Manor will be open for tours throughout the July 4th weekend! Hours on Friday and Saturday will be 11 am to 4 pm, with Curator Andy Drysdale serving as host and tour guide, as well as portraying a member of the Oxford’s 18th Century militia. Musket Demonstrations will be featured both days! Our regular program of tours will be offered on Sunday, July 6, 1-4 pm, by our dedicated staff of volunteers. The Manor will again be open on Saturday, July 12, 11 am to 4 pm, Sunday, July 13, 1-4 pm. Information about August hours and the Oxford Festival, Saturday, August 9, at the fire company, will be posted soon. Note: Open hearth cooking with Sally Shutler will return to the Manor on July 12.

 

Artifacts Recovered During Garden Dig

  This past spring, we decided to plant a colonial herb garden on the south lawn adjacent to the lower kitchen.  We have no documentation for a garden here, but we have no information on 18th Century gardens at Shippen in general; 19th and 20th Century gardening at Shippen is quite well documented, and was quite extensive. The south lawn, or properly, southwest hillside was chosen primarily because of the proximity to the kitchen, and because it wouldn’t interfere with concert seating. A terraced plot with a wooden retaining wall, measuring approximately four feet wide and twenty-four feet long, was constructed in May by Andy Drysdale; the garden was then planted by volunteer Virginia Walsh, who also provided the herbs at her expense, and cooking specialist Sally Shutler. It was necessary for Andy to set six posts to support the retaining wall, at a depth of approximately three and a half feet. The topsoil layer uncovered while digging the garden was very rich, very dark, and about two feet thick. A very thick yellow clay was encountered below that while setting the posts. A few small items manifested themselves during the dig; mostly very small bits of broken pottery, china, and a very thin, round dished piece of lead about the size of a half-dollar. More exciting, however, was a find made by Andy a few days after the initial construction of the garden. While raking a portion of the surface, he discovered a cylindrical object about an inch long that turned out to be a bone with saw marks at each end; the interior was filled with yellow clay, indicated that it had been unearthed while digging the post holes.

 

   Quite a number of similar items were recovered at Shippen during archaeological digs conducted in the 1990s. Known as “faunal remains” (as in “fauna” meaning animals), they have provided great insight into the types of meats consumed by early residents. Additionally, archaeologists have determined that evidence of butchering techniques on these bones is significant as well; saw-tooth marks suggest that a person of European origin did the butchering, while hatchet marks may indicate African-American work, particularly if the site has collateral evidence of African-American occupation. About 9% of the bones recovered at Shippen showed evidence of hatchet marks. It is, of course, well within reason that a slave at Shippen, or anywhere else for that matter, could easily chosen a saw, or been directed by someone to do so. Regardless of who did the butchering, our “ham bone” may have something else to tell us. It is believed that the lower kitchen was no longer used as such after about 1810 or so, becoming just another storage room in the basement. Kitchen refuse was, then as now, frequently tossed into gardens. Our colonial garden may well be in exactly the right spot!

 

 

 

 ALMANACK

 TAKE NOTICE: That the Publishers of the Furnace & Almanack are sincerely apologetic that subscribers and readers received no forecasts since April 20. Our confidence in our subscribers to Project times for sunrise and sunset based upon the Accurate information provided in previous Almanacks is complete. We foresaw that May and June would generally be quite pleasant, with a few humid spells in June, and a number of thunderstorms, and in this we were proven correct, though we did not share it, and can only celebrate among ourselves.

 At this latitude, at Dutch Hill, on Independence Day, the Fourth Day of July, sunrise will be at 4:37 am & sunset will be at 7:32 pm. On Saint Swithin’s Day, the Fifteenth Day of July, sunrise is expected at 4:44 am with sunset at 7:28 pm.  Subtract or add approximately one to one and one half minute per day to ascertain sunrise or sunset for past or future dates. A full moon will be visible on July 18 and August 16, weather depending. Predictions are made at Shippen Manor, that Independence Day will be mostly sunny and quite humid, with a chance of a shower; much the same for Saint Swithin’s Day as well.

Saint Swithin’s Day, if it does not rain

Full forty days, it will remain

St. Swithin’s Day, if it be fair

For forty days, t’will rain no more

                                                                                -English, circa 16th century

 It is well-known that Sassafras tea is an excellent spring tonic, but readers are advised that this long-held limitation has been reconsidered by apothecaries, and it is now recommended for summertime use, particularly good with crushed ice, if the ice be clean. Our correspondent along the Delaware at Belvidere, Mr. Drysdale, reported in the last edition of the Almanack that the feeding of layer mash intended for chickens to white geese was quite effective in enhancing their well-being, and he now claims the same salutary effect upon ducks. He also reports that the layer mash is now being consumed at night by a large raccoon of increasing girth, but he is uncertain of the eventual outcome.

 

“What country can preserve its liberties if its rulers are not warned from time to time that their people preserve the spirit of resistance?” -Thomas Jefferson, 1788

 

 

Warren County

Cultural & Heritage Commission

Shippen Manor Museum

8 Belvidere Avenue,

Oxford, NJ 07863

 

The Furnace is published as a public service with funding from the Warren County Board of Chosen Freeholders. Commission programs are funded in part by the New Jersey State Council on the Arts/Department of State, a partner agency of the National Endowment for the Arts.