University of Tennessee, Knoxville TRACE: Tennessee Research and Creative Exchange Masters Theses Graduate School 8-1996 Exchange Place: Development of the Commercial Frontier Dalford Dean Owens Jr. University of Tennessee - Knoxville Follow this and additional works at: https://trace.edu/utk_gradthes Part of the Anthropology Commons Recommended Citation Owens, Dalford Dean Jr., "Exchange Place: Development of the Commercial Frontier. " Master's Thesis, University of Tennessee, 1996.edu/utk_gradthes/1231 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at TRACE: Tennessee Research and Creative Exchange. It has been accepted for inclusion in Masters Theses by an authorized administrator of TRACE: Tennessee Research and Creative Exchange.
For more information, please contact trace@utk. To the Graduate Council: I am submitting herewith a thesis written by Dalford Dean Owens Jr. entitled "Exchange Place: Development of the Commercial Frontier." I have examined the final electronic copy of this thesis for form and content and recommend that it be accepted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts, with a major in Anthropology. Charles Faulkner, Major Professor We have read this thesis and recommend its acceptance: Walter E.
Klippel, Jan Simek Accepted for the Council: Carolyn R. Hodges Vice Provost and Dean of the Graduate School (Original signatures are on file with official student records.) To the Graduate School: I am submitting herewith a thesis written by Dalford Dean Owens Jr. entitled "Exchange Place: Development of the Commercial Frontier". I have examined the final copy of this thesis for form and content and recommend that it be accepted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts, with a major in Anthropology.
Charles Faulkner, Major Professor We have read this thesis and recommend its acceptance: _ W&vt�_\il� ·l () Dr. Jan Simek Accepted for the Council: �. Associate Vice Chancellor and Dean of The Graduate School EXCHANGE PLACE: DEVELOPMENT OF THE COMMERCIAL FRONTIER A Thesis Presented for the Master of Arts Degree The University of Tennessee, Knoxville Dalford Dean Owens Jr. August 1996 Copyright @> Dalford Dean Owens Jr.• 1996 All rights reserved ii DEDICATION This thesis is dedicated to my parents Mr.
Dalford Dean Owens Sr. Gerry Phillips Owens 111 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS There are several people who have made a considerable contribution to my academic endeavors at the University of Tennessee. Above all I would like to thank my major professor Dr. Charles Faulkner who meticulously plodded through a number of revisions of this thesis.
He has also provided invaluable advice throughout my graduate studies at the University of Tennessee for which I am very grateful. Also from the University of Tennessee, thanks is given to other graduate students in the Department of Anthropology (and other academic departments) whose friendship I have had the pleasure to have over the past three years. Interaction with these individuals has been a large contributor to who I am today. Tony Galloway and other staff of the Governor's School for Tennessee Studies, at East Tennessee State University.
Galloway helped to foster a relationship between the Governor's School and the Exchange Place which facilitated the operation of an archaeological field school at the historic site during the summer of 1995. This work ultimately led to this thesis. A special thanks to Mrs Suzanne Burow, site director, of the. Mrs Burow has been an essential source of information relating to the.
history of the Exchange Place and Sullivan County. She is commended for her support of the Governor's School Program and this research. I am also grateful to Dr. David Phelps of East Carolina University for initially encouraging my interest in anthropology and archaeology.
Thanks to Dr. John Byrd, East Carolina University, for advice and academic discussion whenever possible. iv I would also like to thank all the people who I worked with at Lexington Memorial Hospital that encouraged me to continue my education. This came at a time when I thought college education was an impossibility for me and others like me.
As a result of their support (and occassional harrassment) I now know that this is not true and have surely succeeded with some debt to them. The most important recognition is given to my family, my parents Dalford and Gerry, sisters Tracy and Kelly, and brother Rondall. Thank you! v ABSTRACT The archaeological study of early commercial sites and their contribution to regional development has been lacking, particularly in the Upland South. As an adaptive response of an expanding society, these sites originated through specific cultural and historical factors.
Via these locations moved people, information, and consumer goods. These sites were strong integrative forces in frontier development and served as infrastructure for an expanding society. A better understanding of the active role that commercial sites played in local and regional development is presented. This is accomplished by a historical, archaeological, and geographical study of the Exchange Place (40SL22), Kingsport, Tennessee.
Following a discussion of the historical and archaeological background of the Exchange Place, 1996 testing at the site is evaluated for information pertaining to site history and location of archaeological features. This research will examine the cultural manifestations of the commercial activity at the Exchange Place and the farmstead's commercial development as a manifestation of cultural processes and regional development. The "antebellum commercial farmstead" is offered as a unique site that characterizes the Exchange Place and possibly other historic sites with similar commercial histories. The site will then be contextualized within southern Appalachia, a newly formed United States, and a growing capitalist world system.
vi TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE 1. INTRODUCTION AND RESEARCH DESIGN. HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT OF THE EXCHANGE PLACE. 6 The Preston Occupation.
PAST ARCHAEOLOGICAL RESEARCH AT THE EXCHANGE PLACE. 14 1973 Cultural Resource Assessment. 16 Cook's Kitchen and Smokehouse Floor Excavations. 19 19th Century Kitchen Excavation.
Archaeology and the Governor's School. Window Glass Analysis. Artifact Density Analysis. THE FRONTIER PROCESS AND TRANSPORTATIONAL DEVELOPMENT IN THE UPLAND SOUTH.
53 Adaptation and Diversity. COMMERCE AT THE EXCHANGE PLACE. vii CHAPTER PAGE 7. A WORLD SYSTEM CONTEXT.
Upland Areas in a World Context. Individual Action in a World Context. 78 Implications for "others". 106 viii LIST OF TABLES TABLE PAGE 1.
Agricultural Production at the Preston Fann. Comparison of Window Glass Dates. 38 ix LIST OF FIGURES FIGURE PAGE I. USGS Quadrangle Map Showing Location of the Exchange Place.
Site Map Showing Extant Structures. Map Showing 1973 Excavations. Map Showing Location of 1996 Excavations and Permanent Reference Points. Distribution of Window Glass Thicknesses from Unit I.
Distribution of Window Glass Thicknesses from Unit 1 Quantified by Surface Area. Distribution of Window Glass Thicknesses from Unit 1 Quantified by Fragment Count. Map Showing Artifact Concentrations (C) a Through i and Their Spatial Relationship to the tvfain House and 19th Century Kitchen. Map Showing Possible Cultural Features in the Rear Yard of the Main House as Inferred from Artifact Density Distributions.
Map Showing Distribution of Cultural Features Attributed to the Commercial Period of the Exchange Place. 70 X Chapterl Introduction and Research Design The historic "Exchange Place" is located at 4812 Orebank Road, just east of Kingsport, Tennessee. Situated on the northwest side of Chestnut Ridge, the site is at the head of a spring which feeds a tributary of Reedy Creek (Figure 1 ). Exchange Place was built into a commercial center by John S.
Gaines and later operated exclusively as a agricultural enterprise by James W. Preston and his descendants. The site was nominated to the National Register of Historic Places in 197 1 after the property was donated to the Netherland Inn Association, a local historical association, for preservation. Since that time, Exchange Place has been developed into a historic attraction and educational facility functioning as a mid-19th century farmstead (Fielder 1979).
Original buildings on the site (Figure 2) include the main house which is a 1 1/2 story double pen log building, a frame granary, and frame store all attributed to the Gaines period of the site's history (1820s-1845). Additionally, there is a log smoke house (perhaps from Gaines period), a spring house, a log bam, and a shed, the latter three buildings attributed to the Preston occupation (1845-1923). A building known as the cook's cabin has been restored in the exact location where it originally stood. There is also a blacksmith shop on the property which was moved onto the site because it was in danger of destruction at its original location near the Exchange Place.
In addition to these invaluable architectural resources is a rich archaeological record (Fielder 1979; Owens 1996; South 1973; Wentworth and Dickson 1974). The most significant aspect of the 1 Figure 1. USGS map showing location ofthe Exchange Place (Indian Springs quad). 2 KEY • Extant Structures GN 11!1 Not Original (relocated) t� D Reconstructed Building Barn Split Rail Fence Barbed Wire Fence �---: ---�--� �-----------------�---.
'•,, ___ _ ,-----------------�----------- - '•, ··· ··· r · ------- -------- � Creek � �- ---·--· Cook's Cabin - - - -. I · - --l � d - Sprin� se ' ' Main House Blacksmith Shop -L - -- Store & Granary ./ - -------- -- -- -- -- -- -- 0 50 100 Orebank Road ------------- · � -- -- Feet Figure 2. Site map showing extant structures. 3 Exchange Place, however, remains its former function as an antebellum commercial center in East Tennessee (Fielder 1979:5).
This is reflected in the farm's physical configuration (Owens 1996), and in the presence of unique cultural features from the antebellum period. While the Exchange Place has been the topic of recent professional research (Owens 1995; 1996), there is no synthesis of the historical and archaeological data relating to the site.Fielder's report ( 1979) was the last to completely synthesize all relevant information, but this report is almost two decades old.Since that time there has been unreported archaeological research in addition to newly discovered historical information.As a result there exists an abundant, yet fragmented amount of lmowledge relating to this historic f armstead and commercial center. This thesis will synthesize all of the historical and archaeological information about the Exchange Place and appraise the current site resources. The most fascinating aspect of the site history is its development as a commercial center and transportation node in East Tennessee during the antebellum period.
This has been the topic for previous research (Owens 1996) and the site offers numerous opportunities for additional study. Questions relating to the nature of its commercial development and day-to-day operations of commercial activities are of particular interest. An additional important resource relates to the archaeological manifestation of early commercial activities at the site.The development of the site's commercial activity is further accentuated if considered as a manifestation of cultural process (Lewis 1984; Taafe et al. 1963) and within a world-systems theory (Braudell972; 1973a; 1973b; 4 Wallerstein 1974; 1980).
Subsequently, its spatial, temporal, and historical location provide an opportunity to examine this unique farmstead's role in the region and the larger world. The following research addresses three primary objectives. The first objective is to discuss historical information relevant to the Exchange Place. The second objective will synthesize all archaeological work conducted at the Exchange Place.
This includes the unreported testing conducted by this author during the s ummer of 1995. Lastly, this research will examine the cultural manifestations of the commercial activity at the Exchange Place and the farmstead's commercial development as a manifestation of cultural processes and regional development. The site will then be contextualized within southern Appalachia, a newly formed United States, and a growing capitalist world system. 5 Chapter2 Historical Development of the Exchange Place Introduction The founding of the Exchange Place is a product of late colonial society and the expansion of a newly formed United States of America.