Antebellum MC era unearthed

As workers disassemble the logs of a small building to the east of downtown Madison’s Kemper Residence, a bent fork sparkles between the boards.
Although there’s no way to know for sure, those who work in the field of archaeology doubt the fork mistakenly found its way into the wall during a mid-meal argument. Rather, the curved fork was likely a “magic charm” deliberately placed in a small crevice to “push evil away,” according to Madison County native Carole Nash, who spent last week combing an area of the Kemper Residence property for long-buried artifacts.

In addition to the fork, workers also uncovered a small porcelain doll within the walls of the small building, located at 414 N. Main St. in downtown Madison.
The structure – near the historic Main Street two-story, white wood-frame home named for Virginia Gov. James Lawson Kemper who lived there right after the Civil War – is believed to have originally been built in the 1850s as a cabin for slaves.

The uncovered “magic charms” likely show that the building’s former residents “still had very important core African beliefs” that were mixed with Christian beliefs, according to Nash, a professor of geographic science at James Madison University in Harrisonburg.

The Madison County Historical Society’s most recent project to restore the property’s historic buildings to their Kemper-era look and condition includes a community- and grant-funded restoration of the former slaves’ quarters.

(The building was used as servants’ quarters during Kemper’s time on the property starting in 1865 when Kemper, who had served as a Confederate general at the Battle of Gettysburg, returned to Madison County, where he had been born. According to historical accounts, a Yankee shot Kemper in the thigh at Gettysburg, and since doctors were unable to remove the bullet, he suffered from lifelong pain. Still, he later recovered enough from the serious wound to practice law in Madison until leaving to become Virginia’s first post-Reconstruction governor in 1874.)

Ground below uncovered

In order to replace about 80 percent of the building’s termite-damaged pine logs, the Madison County Historical Society recently hired Orange-based Salvagewrights Ltd. to disassemble the structure.

With the building temporarily out of the way, Nash and a group of volunteers from the Archaeological Society of Virginia had the rare opportunity to dig through the ground beneath the building, sifting through the dirt and discovering items likely left behind by long-gone Madison residents who lived on the property more than a hundred years ago.

“When you find a button or a nail or something that’s been in the ground for 150 years and you’re the first person to see it since it fell through the cracks, there’s a physical connection with that person in the past,” Nash said while taking a break from screening dirt samples.

The Archaeological Society of Virginia volunteers – including Harrisonburg residents Joe Sharrer and Kay Veith and Cindy Schroer of Augusta County – collected soil in five-foot square sections, screening the dirt and bagging any items of interest. During the first few days of their dig, the group had already come across various pieces of opaque glass dating to the 1860s, chicken bones, bits of newspaper (likely used as insulation) and various buttons, including a pewter Revolutionary War button and buttons made of shell, bone and glass, according to Nash.
“We don’t know if someone’s button box overturned…or maybe a seamstress lived here,” she said.

Clarifing ‘history’

Digging through the dirt is one way to “flesh out” the history of the property that has been recorded in written documents from the past, she said.
“Written” history does not always paint an accurate picture as the authors of the documents often only included details of life that they deemed important.
“People like this are often left out,” Nash said of the slaves and servants who considered the small cabin home.

In addition to gaining a clearer picture of the building’s original construction and any changes that have occurred over time, the archeologists hope to get a better idea of what life was like for the area’s former residents.

“[We’re trying to figure out] what it was like to be an African-American living in this crucial time,” she said of the period right around the Civil War. According to the 1860 census, the owners of the Kemper property at the time had seven slaves, Nash said.

Nash and Madison County Historical Society representative Maury Hanson doubt all seven slaves lived in the 198-square-foot structure, however, it’s unclear how many of them did consider the building their home, and where exactly the others would have lived. Although the census lists the genders and ages of the slaves, it does not include their names, Nash said.

While substantial research has been gathered about slaves who lived on large plantations and in urban settings, less is known about what life was like for slaves who lived in small towns, according to the JMU professor.

The researchers also hope any found items will help them understand if living conditions changed substantially for the newly emancipated slaves, who continued to live in the building after the Civil War. Following the war, the building was used to house servants into the 20th century and then later, as a children’s playhouse and – most recently – the county used it for storage, according to Hanson.

Madison County residents should be proud they helped preserve the building, according to volunteer Cindy Schroer, as many similar have been demolished to make way for development, she said.

“It’s necessary to preserve as much history as you can,” Hanson said as he visited the site for the day. “Not all of it is as you would have liked it to have been, but nevertheless it’s history.”

Donations needed

Early in the dig, the workers discovered clues as to why the building has deteriorated much faster than other nearby structures that were built at the same time.

The building – made from pine logs – did not include a brick foundation, but was set on stone pillars above the ground, which allowed for moisture to enter the home and contributed to its long-term damage, according to the volunteers.

After the dig is complete, a foundation of 19th century bricks found on the property will be installed, according to historical society representatives. Then representatives from Salvagewrights Ltd. will reassemble the building using any salvageable material and replacement pine logs, that were obtained from another old cabin in Madison County, according to a report from Hanson.

The archaeological items found on the property will eventually be on display inside the Kemper Residence, he said.

The historical society is still working to raise money to continue its restoration of the former slaves’ quarters, including rebuilding a chimney that was attached to the building during the Kemper-era.

Donations can be mailed to the Madison County Historical Society, P.O. Box 467, Madison, VA 22727, and designated for the Slave Quarters Restoration Fund.

(Madison County Eagle Editor Don Richeson contributed to this story.)