Archaeology at the Ebenezer Story Site, Preston

“A Convenient House at the Place Called Brewster’s Bar”

Archaeology at the Ebenezer Story Site, Preston

by Ross K. Harper

            On May 20, 1777, Ebenezer Story petitioned the Connecticut General Assembly for a license to operate a tavern out of his house. The house, which had only been completed “since the month of Jan. Last,” was described as “a convenient house at the place called Brewster’s Bar in the Great River in Norwich,” and “within a few rods” of the shipyard in which the Continental frigate Confederacy was under construction. Rediscovered in an archaeological survey conducted by AHS, Inc. for the Connecticut Department of Economic and Community Development, the Story site provides insights into how families once lived along Connecticut’s great tidal waterways.

            Ebenezer Story’s tavern proved to be a success. The Confederacy, launched on November 8, 1778, was described by the Norwich Packet as “the finest ship yet built on the Continent.” Its construction, which involved hundreds of workers for over a year, also offered other economic opportunities for the Storys, who provided milk, meals, carting services, and timber to the shipyard. According to family accounts, Ebenezer signed on to the Confederacy as a carpenter when she sailed. The ship, however, was captured by the British Navy in 1781, and Ebenezer later starved to death in New York’s notorious Sugar House prison. Mehitable was widowed with three small sons, David, Ebenezer II, and James. 

            Ebenezer’s probate records, filed in 1782, show he held partial interests in saltworks, a cider mill, several canoes, a scow, fishing seines, and the house on about 20 acres of land, which he shared in ownership with his brother Jonathan Story, Jr. Also in his probate is listed £230 in gold and silver, and almost £100 in notes due to him, a remarkable sum which probably represented most of what he earned from the Confederacy project.

For several generations, the Story family resided at the homestead and derived their livelihood primarily from the river by fishing and shell-fishing along with small-scale farming. But the 19^th century brought significant change. In 1843 the Norwich and Worcester Railroad was laid between the house and the river. By the end of the century the river’s fish and shellfish had become depleted from over-harvesting, damming and industrial pollution, bringing an end to the Storys’ maritime way of life.

            At first appearance the Story site looked unpromising, but testing determined that the site was eligible for listing in the National Register of Historic Places. Because the state intended to develop the area, AHS began to remove the site in a large-scale excavation, recovering 35,882 artifacts and revealing structural remains.  

            Below the layers of fill a large, L-shaped dry-laid stone foundation was found, which correlated well with a late 19^th-century railroad map showing the homestead. Old photographs show a typical 19^th-century-style house with an older-looking ell off of the side. This ell is likely the original 1777 Story house. Measuring 20 by 20 feet, it may have begun its life as a two-story one-room end-chimney-type, which archaeological excavations are confirming was a common house form in 18^th-century Connecticut (see CPN May/June 2009).

            Several feet south of the house archaeologists discovered an extraordinary large and deep natural swale that was used as a midden, or trash pit, by the Story family from 1777 until the mid-19th century, when the swale was completely full and covered with soil, becoming part of the house yard. The midden layers tell the story of the Storys’ lives through time with each layer representing a different period. The midden contained shellfish-processing equipment such as “cracking irons,” knives and barrel hoops, and fishing accoutrements like fish hooks, lead line sinkers, and net weights. One layer was actually made of stone-cobble paving, which served as a work surface for fish-processing; oysters were shucked and the shells discarded in the midden.

            Below the paving, a thick and dense layer dated to the last quarter of the 18^th century contained matching sets of creamware and China-glaze plates, punch bowls, and tea services, along with utilitarian vessels such as a chamber pot, a slip-decorated milk pan and a large storage jar. There were also considerable numbers of liquor bottles, clear glass tumblers, and other items in quantities necessary for operating a tavern. Large fragments of slag in this layer are likely refuse from the forges of the adjacent Confederacy shipyard. The bottommost layer contained debris from the 1776/7 house construction. Fragments of red brick, hand-wrought nails, shell mortar, and green window glass were found. 

            So much was recovered that we can virtually “set the table” of the Story family through time, not only with their plates, glasses, knives and forks, but with the food they ate. Animal and plant remains show the Storys consumed a remarkably varied diet that included beef, pork, mutton, chicken and geese, as well as wild game like deer, squirrel, rabbit, snapping turtle, and dolphin. Fish included herring, suckers, and bass. Plant foods include wheat, maize, beans, apples, and peaches, strawberries, huckleberries, cherries, blackberries/raspberries, elderberries, grapes, hazelnuts, butternuts, and hickory nuts. Quahog and oyster shells were found in uncountable numbers. The oldest shells, from the 18^th-century layers, are huge, over 6 inches long and an inch thick; by the mid-19^th century the shells were half that size.

            The archaeological excavation removed only a portion of this incredibly rich site. By the time AHS finished, the state concluded that the Story site’s unprecedented capacity to provide information on historic maritime life made it too important to be developed. The site is now a State Archaeological Preserve. A booklet on the site will be available in the spring of 2010. 

Ross K. Harper, Ph.D., is an archaeologist with Archaeological and Historical Services, Inc. in Storrs.