Debora Tolliver
ECSU EDU563
June 2012
A TIME LINE FOR
CONNECTICUT’S
STONEWALLS
http://gonewengland.about.com/library/users/ucctstonewall.htm
The Age of Ice & Pre-European North America
• 23,000 years ago: Laurentide ice
sheet begins to retreat
• 20,000 years ago: sea levels rising
because of deglaciation
• 16,000-17,000 years ago: Southern
New England deglaciation (tundra
conditions)
• 13,000-14,000 years ago: Northern
New England deglaciation (tundra
conditions)
• 9,000-10,000 years ago: Closedcanopy deciduous forest
• 1,000 years ago: Deforestation
http://clasfaculty.ucdenver.edu/callen/1202/Climate/GenCirculation/Laurentide.jpg
• 1500-1600: Coastal exploration and
fishing stations
• 1607: North Virginia Company
• 1620: Plymouth Colony (Pilgrims)
• 1630: Massachusetts Bay Colony
• 1692: Town of Lebanon, CT was
deeded to a collective of colonists
• 1695: 350 settlers took place in
Lebanon, CT
• 1711-1734: Cattle drives from Lebanon,
CT to Boston, MA created a network
of roads and a system of water
management, including dams and
mills
http://www.hinmanfamily.com/strat.htm
Coastal Living (1500-1740)
Early Plantations & Colonial Towns
Rapid Interior Settlement (1740-1830)
brought intense building of stone walls
http://www.stonewall.uconn.edu
/Classification.htm
http://jmsalsich.edublogs.org/2011/06/15/
a-childs-day-in-colonial-connecticut/
http://www.stonewall.uconn.edu/
GeogofWallGallery.htm
http://www.theday.com/images/static/PDF/elan_fall_2009.pdf
http://robertfrostoutloud.com/MendingWall.html
http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/states/events/
1755_11_18.php
http://www.ranker.com/pics/N1000109535/
mount-tambora-event-photo-u1
• 1755: The Great Earthquake (Cape Ann,
MA) many stone walls tipped
• 1763: Treaty of Paris ended the French
and Indian War
• 1776-1783: Revolutionary war left
many farms untended and fieldstones
accumulated faster than they could be
hauled away
• 1775-1825: The Frenzy of wall building
millions of stone walls were built
• 1787-1794: Agricultural societies and
journals were established in every
state
• 1816: The year without a summer
Tambora Volcano in Indonesia
eruptions and ash darkened the skies
• 1819: Market panic – U.S. farm
production fell to less than half their
former, long-term average
Connecticut
http://www.historyoflebanon.org/
aboutus.htm
• 1796: Lebanon, CT had more than
13,700 acres of cattle pasture on
the town’s tax list
• 1800: only 4% of Connecticut
residents lived in cities, every
third person was a child younger
than 5 years old, and only one
person in six was older than 45
• 1800-1830: Economic reasons for
using stones for fences: shortage
of wood and abundance of
stones, ended labor cost of
repeated fence construction,
conserve disappearing timber
resources
• 1811: City of New Haven
consumed 7,500 full cords of
wood
http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~woodworth/ne/lebanon.htm
Changes in Farming and Trade
http://www.greatlakescruising.com/bssa/locks-legends.php
• 1812-1840: Tools for farming changed
horse-drawn hay rake widespread in
1820s; multi-bottomed metal plows and
specialized seed drills in 1830s;
McCormic’s mechanical reaper in 1834
• 1819-1829: Watershed decade for New
England
• 1825: Erie Canal completed
• 1829: First overland railroad ended the
Watershed decade
http://historicaltidbits.blogspot.com/2011/10/
1829-lion-railroad-locomotive.html
http://www.machine-history.com/Agricultural%20Machinery
http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~blinkofamily/pafx10.htm
http://www.dipity.com/
Griffincrowley/personal/
http://www.nps.gov/history/history/onli
ne_books/civil_war_series/15/sec8.htm
• 1861-1864: Civil war
• 1852: Rock crusher (stone
eating monster) invented and
accelerated disappearance of
stone walls
• 1862: Homestead Act gave
away rich fertile land
• 1874: barbed wire came into
widespread use
• 1908: Ford Motor Company
Model T
http://www.arthursclipart.org/transport/land/cars/
page_01.htm
Abandonment of
farms (1830-1910)
http://www.beavercoveart.com/1902FarmsAG.jpg
Department of Agriculture New England Stone
Wall Fencing Census & Report (1871-1872)
the first and last national census on fences
• Approximately 240,000 miles (819,088,710 feet) of stone walls in
New England. That’s longer that the U.S. coastline, or even the
distance to the Moon at perigee!
• It has been estimated that forty million man days of effort would
have been required to build them. Furthermore, the census
indicates that the average length of stone wall around an average
107 acre New England farm could have been built with a two-man
crew in less than two days per year. The average farmer probably
spent twenty-two times as much effort to heat his home as to clear
his fields of stone.
• 33% of the fences in Connecticut were being made of (or partly
made of) stone
Rediscovery of Rural New England (20th Century)
• 1910-1968: Suburban expansion changed the attitudes toward New
England stone walls
• Early 1900s: Archaeologists, landscape architects, physical
geographers, foresters, soil scientists, and engineers began to
locate and describe stone walls
• End of 1800s to mid-1900s: Stone walls were being filtered through
poetry, paintings, novels, photographs, and oral traditions
• Howard Mansfield (writer: In the Memory House)
• Henry David Thoreau (writer)
• Robert Frost (writer: poem - Mending Wall)
• J.B. Jackson (writer)
• Eric Sloane (writer)
• George Perkins (writer: Man and Nature)
• J. Alden Weir (artist)
• Samuel Chamberlain (photographer)
• Wallace Nutting (photographer)
http://poulwebb.blogspot.com/2012/01/julian-alden-weir-part-1.html
Suburbanization/sprawl (1960-1980)
http://www.istockphoto.com/stoc
k-illustration-1585993-connecticuthighway-map-vector.php
• Made possible by the interstate
highway system
• CT River Valley (from New Haven, CT to
Brattleboro, VT) was nearly fully
developed
• Early part of sprawl focused on toxic
waste or on preserving wilderness areas
• Aldo Leopold (Sand Country Almanac)
• Rachel Carson (The Sea Around Us)
• Bill McKibben (The End of Nature)
• 1969: National Environmental
Protection Act
• 1971: Curtis Fields book The Forgotten
Art of Building Stone Walls
• 1969-present: environmental awareness
http://www.barharborbookshop.com/ap_curtis_fields_p.html
Gungywamp near Groton CT
http://polizeros.com/2007/10/07/gungywamp/
References
• Thorson, R.M. (2002). Stone by stone: The magnificent history in New England’s stone walls. New York, NY:
Walker & Company.
Resources for Education
•
The Stone Wall Initiative (SWI) Education: http://stonewall.uconn.edu/Education.htm
•
The Geology of Colonial New England Stone Walls:
http://www.primaryresearch.org/stonewalls/schweizer/index.php
•
Stone Walls of North Eastern Connecticut: http://www.qvctc.commnet.edu/brian/smith/stone.html
•
Stone Wall Preservation Laws: http://www.cga.ct.gov/2009/rpt/2009-R-0194.htm
•
Stone Wall Preservation (SWI): http://stonewall.uconn.edu/ConserveIntro.htm
•
Robert M. Thorson Books
•
Hartland Land Trust Stone Wall Discovery Project: http://www.hartlandlandtrust.org/stonewalls.html
Curriculum standards - 4th grade integrated unit
Stone Walls in Connecticut
Social Studies: (S.S. Curriculum Framework 2011)
• 1.2: Significant events in local and Connecticut history and their connections to United States
history
• GLE 4: Research the significance of CT historical sites
• GLE 5: Analyze the impact of historical changes on the state or region
• 1.4: Geographical space and place.
• GLE 8: Locate man-made and physical characteristics of Connecticut
• 1.8: The Interactions between citizens and their government in the making and implementing
of laws
• GLE 15: Explain the process for making and implementing laws in Connecticut
• 1.10: How limited resources influence economic decisions
• GLE 19: Hypothesize how people use their personal resources
• 2.1: Access and gather information from a variety of primary and secondary sources including
electronic media
• GLE 4: Summarize information from primary and secondary sources
• 2.2: Interpret information from a variety of primary and secondary sources including electronic
media
• GLE 6: Distinguish between useful and irrelevant information
Curriculum standards - 4th grade integrated unit
Stone Walls in Connecticut
Social Studies: (continued)
• 2.3: Create various forms of written work to demonstrate an understanding of history and
social studies issues
• GLE 7: Create written work to describe historical events, people and/or places using evidence
• GLE 8: Organize information in outlines and graphic organizers
• 2.4: Demonstrate an ability to participate in social studies discourse through informed
discussion, debate and effective oral presentation
• GLE 9: Engage effectively in a range of collaborative discussions with diverse partners on social
studies topics and texts, building on others’ ideas and expressing their own clearly
• GLE 10: Present information orally and answer questions about a social studies topic
• 2.5: Create and present relevant social studies materials using both print and electronic media
• GLE 11: Prepare accurate charts or graphs depicting relevant social studies information
• 3.3: Apply appropriate historical, geographic, political, economic and cultural concepts and
methods in proposing and evaluating solutions to contemporary problems
• GLE 4: Analyze articles from appropriate sources that propose solutions to contemporary issues
Curriculum standards - 4th grade integrated unit
Stone Walls in Connecticut
Arts: (Arts Curriculum Framework)
• ART – CS4: History and Cultures - recognize that the visual arts have a history and a variety of
cultural purposes and meanings
• Art – CS6: Connections – recognize that works of visual art are produced by artisans and artists
working in different cultures, times and places
• MUSIC – CS4: Composition – Create and arrange music to accompany readings or
dramatizations
Language Arts: (Common Core State Standards)
• RI.4.3: Explain events, procedures, ideas, or concepts in a historical, scientific, or technical
text, including what happened and why, based on specific information in the text
• RI.4.6: Compare and contrast a firsthand and secondhand account of the same event or topic;
describe the differences in focus and the information provided
• W.4.1: Write opinion pieces on topics or texts, supporting a point of view with reasons and
information
• W.4.8: Recall relevant information from experiences or gather relevant information from print
and digital sources; take notes and categorize information, and provide a list of sources
• W.4.9: Draw evidence from literary or information texts to support analysis, reflection, and
research
• SL.4.1: Engage effectively in a range of collaborative discussions with diverse partners on
grade 4 topics and texts, building on others’ ideas and expressing their own clearly .
Curriculum standards - 4th grade integrated unit
Stone Walls in Connecticut
Mathematics: (Common Core State Standards)
• 4.MD.6: Measure angles in whole-number degrees using a protractor. Sketch angles of
specified measure
• 4.G.1: Draw points, lines, line segments, rays, angles (right, acute, obtuse), and perpendicular
and parallel lines. Identify these in two-dimensional figures
Science: (Science Curriculum Standards 2011)
• 4.2.a.: When the environment changes, some organisms survive and reproduce, and others die
or move to new locations.
• GLE 1: Give examples of ways that living and nonliving things are interdependent within an
ecosystem
• GLE 2: Draw diagrams showing how the sun’s energy enters and is transferred from producers
to consumers in a local land or aquatic food chain
• GLE 3: Design and conduct simple investigations to record interactions among producers,
consumers, herbivores, carnivores, omnivores and decomposers in an ecosystem
• GLE 4: Analyze food webs to describe how energy is transferred from plants to various animals
in an ecosystem
• GLE 5: Distinguish between naturally occurring changes in ecosystems and those caused by
human activity
• GLE 6: Predict the effect an environmental change, such as drought or forest destruction,
might have on the community of living things