Woodside’s Archaeologically Rich Site

On his first visit to Woodside in 2004, I was strolling through the yard with the archaeologist Joe Harl when he stopped and picked up a small broken piece of crockery.  Cleaning off the dirt with his fingers he remarked that it was a fragment of English transfer printed pottery from the 1830’s or thereabouts.  I was stunned but Joe wasn’t.  It was pretty much business as usual to a fellow used to working these old sites.

Part of the deal that made the acquisition of Woodside possible by the City of Maplewood split the property in order that new townhouses could be built adjacent to the historic home.  This worried me a bit because I thought there might possibly be the foundation from a barn or something historic that would be damaged by the excavation process.

The removal of the dirt and clay proceeded without incident.  Then nearing the end of the excavation in March 2005, I was watching the machine working in the huge yellow clay hole it had created.  Suddenly in the northwest corner a large deposit of very black dirt was exposed.  The dirt was bristling with bottles sticking out all over.  It was the remains of a privy from the late 1800’s.

Marty Fisher and I jumped down in the hole and began grabbing as many of the artifacts as we could.  The excavator operator was glowering at us over his steering wheel so we asked him to scoop up the soil containing the artifacts and place it on the front lawn.

Volunteers pitched in and we sorted as many of the objects from the dirt as we could find.  We delivered them to Professor Tim Bauman from UMSL.  He and his Museum Studies students, most notably Amy Creasy (now Clark), cleaned and sorted the 11 boxes of items that lacking a proper home are in my basement today.

These items include smashed oil lamps, false teeth, shoes, bottles of many different types, a bullet, remains of crockery and dinnerware and on and on.  They provide a fascinating connection to the 19th century life in this area, our area, Maplewood that can be found nowhere else.  Mr. Harl identified eight more sites immediately around Woodside that ought to be examined in a proper archaeological manner.

If we lose Woodside, we lose this wonderful opportunity to understand the evolution of our community.  If these items are valuable today, try to imagine how they will be regarded in the future.