Cellar holes

RIdirtdigger

RIdirtdigger

New member
New England is full of old cellar holes. They are my favorite place to detect but why were they abandoned in the first place? Other than obvious reasons like fire, land condemnation, and the family dieing out, why would someone abandon an ideal home? And what happened to the house itself? Was it dismantled or simply left to rot? I've wondered these things while I'm out detecting
 
It depends on the site and area. I have seen some cellar holes with partial wooded and roofed structures so there it means the struicture rotted out. I got my eye on a place and there is definitely a structure there even tho the assessor card says there are no buildings, only land, and it was a homestead before the 1860's. Idk at what point in time the local governments got involved with deeming structures unsafe and condemned. With sometimes a bunch of '20s era trash or the place being used as a bottle/trash dump after the prohibition time, you have to think many of these homes were abandoned around the depression era. I know of an entire town under water due to just that reason. People losing their houses/estates. There's also a town I know of that was washed out due to a flood from a dam break. Plus people moving out west. Theres no one real answer.
 
I too have also wondered about this. So much work went into placing all of the stones around the hole, not to mention all of the walls on the property.

I'm sure to some degree for the older sites the Rev War played a part from the Brit's invading and burning the property. Look what happened up in Danbury. Also I image anyone who was loyal to the crown may have had their home burned down.

For the sites that are after that period it's tough to say but after the Civil War many moved west or like Gay City, after the CW the population was reduced as well as the manufacturing died out.
 
...and I'd add that most of our stone walls (and cellar hole foundations) were already completed by the 1850s. Abandonment started at that time and the west was becoming safe. The land wasn't as hilly or rocky out there and they were giving it away. Not to mention gold was found in 1849. Also, our own newly built mills brought the people down from "the hills" at the same time. The depression saw the last of the them give up the ghost. Robert Thorenson's book about stone walls is very informative.
 
Yeah, I gave only a few examples. Don't forget there were more than just the RW where houses were burned. Not so sure in the CW, but there were a few other wars I am certain I read about the houses being burned. Obvi the family never returned to the foundation that was neatly placed due to some circumstances, dead, prisoner, ect. Drew, I guess to even add that there were more resources out west. Another thing I read on a specific town historical write-up. I can't mention any specifics on a forum; proprietary info. :lol:

The one thing you have to realize as well, there are some structures re-built on some of those original stone foundations. One place where I asked a permission for a different property owned by same person. Their house they were occupying was re-built in 1900 and he even pointed out the original marker stone. And I can even mention one near me. Two adjacent properties owned by same person. One had an 1800 (even) house. Just this summer it got torn down and filled in. He had a lot of junk on the property. Idk if I will ask there.
 
MangoAve said:
It depends on the site and area. I have seen some cellar holes with partial wooded and roofed structures so there it means the struicture rotted out. I got my eye on a place and there is definitely a structure there even tho the assessor card says there are no buildings, only land, and it was a homestead before the 1860's. Idk at what point in time the local governments got involved with deeming structures unsafe and condemned. With sometimes a bunch of '20s era trash or the place being used as a bottle/trash dump after the prohibition time, you have to think many of these homes were abandoned around the depression era. I know of an entire town under water due to just that reason. People losing their houses/estates. There's also a town I know of that was washed out due to a flood from a dam break. Plus people moving out west. Theres no one real answer.
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I grew up in Scituate RI so I know all about towns being underwater lol
 
MangoAve said:
Yeah, I gave only a few examples. Don't forget there were more than just the RW where houses were burned. Not so sure in the CW, but there were a few other wars I am certain I read about the houses being burned. Obvi the family never returned to the foundation that was neatly placed due to some circumstances, dead, prisoner, ect. Drew, I guess to even add that there were more resources out west. Another thing I read on a specific town historical write-up. I can't mention any specifics on a forum; proprietary info. :lol:

The one thing you have to realize as well, there are some structures re-built on some of those original stone foundations. One place where I asked a permission for a different property owned by same person. Their house they were occupying was re-built in 1900 and he even pointed out the original marker stone. And I can even mention one near me. Two adjacent properties owned by same person. One had an 1800 (even) house. Just this summer it got torn down and filled in. He had a lot of junk on the property. Idk if I will ask there.
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Most of the early homes in RI were burned during King Phillips war in the 1670's. Sadly many of those homes are located in the middle of parking lots now for example
 
Very interesting discussion guys. Really enjoyed the read. Quite frankly I was reading some quick article I found on the web today and found out on the 1700s homesites if it burned down, they'd still take a lot of the rocks they used for the foundation/root cellar to where they would be putting the new root cellar for the new house site. That's why on some of the foundations you will only see a depression or no traditional "cellar hole", maybe a mound even. When they don't have a lot of rocks in the area (such as here in VA) they'd use log cabins and the "cellar holes" u guys in new england have are just a small indentation in the ground and pile of rock and brick from the chimneys. Sometimes grass/flowers/larger trees will be growing around where the old house would've sat even after it was abandoned for many decades.
 
Just after the Revolutionary War there was a huge debt to be paid so new taxes and lack of coinage in the late 1770's and 80's hurt some especially the poor . just about then in the 1790's there was a huge push out west , there was reported vast rich lands to farm in the Ohio territory (which at about that time was considered part of Connecticut as payment to that colony for its war effort by the continental congress) it was dirt cheap land and a huge proportion of the New England sold or just left everything and moved out west . a vast amount of these cellars were just abandon , the bank creditors or state had a hard time selling all the newly acquired pieces of property because the state's of the economy so most of them were sat in disrepair and the land neglected it reclaimed the old fields. With the taxes not paid it was turned over to the state and most became state lands.
 
RIdirtdigger said:
Most of the early homes in RI were burned during King Phillips war in the 1670's.
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I knew of this and it was all over NE. I probably read it once but forgot but reading it today I was surprised the entire town of Springfield was burned from this war. And... you are lucky to find two blades of grass there now. :lol:. BTW, what are you studying?

Isaac said:
Sometimes grass/flowers/larger trees will be growing around where the old house would've sat even after it was abandoned for many decades.
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I wonder why they used barberry bushes which I have seen at a bunch of sites. Maybe not just because it was an aesthetic shrub, it was your home security system. :hystericallaugh:

del said:
Just after the Revolutionary War there was a huge debt to be paid.
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huh. I did not know that. It might have been a fact that past from ear to ear once with the RW studies in.. 5th grade?? Forefront memory only knew about the debt after the CW which caused the use of those tokens people be finding now.
 
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MangoAve said:
I knew of this and it was all over NE. I probably read it once but forgot but reading it today I was surprised the entire town of Springfield was burned from this war. And... you are lucky to find two blades of grass there now. :lol:. BTW, what are you studying?



I wonder why they used barberry bushes which I have seen at a bunch of sites. Maybe not just because it was an aesthetic shrub, it was your home security system. :hystericallaugh:


huh. I did not know that. It might have been a fact that past from ear to ear once with the RW studies in.. 5th grade?? Forefront memory only knew about the debt after the CW which caused the use of those tokens people be finding now.
Click to expand...

I'm studying history at URI
 
Great discussion folks. I agree with all of the comments, with abandonment resulting from a variety of factors, the most relevant being (1) financial difficulty, 2) the expansion westward in the 1800s, and 3) the sheer difficulty in farming some of these rocky locales. Also to consider was the dawn of the industrial revolution and the creation of many other job opportunities other than farming etc. from the mid-1800s onward.

John
 
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