Chicone Village Project at Handsell House

Daniel Firehawk Abbott, current Coordinator of Native Programming at Colonial Williamsburg

The Nanticokes and the Chicone Village Project

“We honor the Native American People of Delmarva at the Chicone Village at Handsell”

photo credit: Rev. Karis Graham

Chicone Village Logo copyright of the NHPA.

The Nanticoke Historic Preservation Alliance is proud to honor the Eastern Woodland Native People of Delmarva by constructing and maintaining the first authentic replica of a single family homestead using the materials and techniques available to prehistoric people circa pre-1600.  Now that the longhouse is complete, a waddle fenced garden has been installed and is planted each summer with plants appropriate to a garden of the native people.  In 2016, our “Village Volunteers” have completed a lean-to “workshelter” to even further enhance this project. The Chicone Village at Handsell may be visited at any time during daylight hours year round.
At special events like the Chicone Village Day in the spring and the Nanticoke River Jamboree in October, there are native historic interpreters and representatives from Delmarva Native tribes who come to Handsell to celebrate their history.  Our events are not Pow-Wows, but educational events held to teach of the ways of the ancient Eastern Woodland people who inhabited the Chesapeake Bay region and Mid-Atlantic coast.  Experimental archaeological techniques are explored and ancient skills demonstrated at these events.  For more on this project and the history of the Nanticoke People, scroll down this page.

Local tribal groups are invited to participate in our events by exhibiting or demonstrating special skills or crafts which reflect the ways of the ancient Eastern Woodland People of this continent.  Participating last year were: the Pocomoke Indian Nation, the Mid-Atlantic Cherokee Tribal Group, the Lenni-Lenape Manetu, the Cheswald Lenape and Nanticoke descendant Daniel Firehawk Abbott, current Coordinator of Native Programming at Colonial Williamsburg.  Please contact us at restorehandsell@gmail.com if you are interested in participating in our events in the future.

SOURCE: Restore Handsell

A Garden  Tour posted this in 2015:

CHICONE VILLAGE LONGHOUSE AND GARDEN, Indiantown Road Step back to the 1500’s before the English arrive and you are in the Chicone Village at Handsell.  Located on the site of the pre-historic native village encountered by John Smith in 1608, this thatch and reed lodge home is a functional replica of those used by the Nanticoke people on the Eastern Shore.  Built from material harvested from county fields and forests, it was constructed by volunteers who logged in 2500 hours.  Accompanying the longhouse is a native garden surrounded by a “waddle” fence  as well as a new Work Shelter currently under construction.  You will be greeted  by living history interpreter Daniel Firehawk Abbott when you arrive at Handsell, a National Register Historic Site.

Another more recent article about the Handsell House in Jan 2019:

Handsell historic site is attacked by vandals

Jan 1st, 2019 · by  Dave Ryan · Comments: 3

Submitted to the Dorchester Banner
The Handsell Plantation House shows bullet holes after vandals fired at a number of displays on the site.

VIENNA – Vandals have attacked a local historical site, using firearms to damage displays. A statement from the Nanticoke Historical Preservation Alliance, operators of the Handsell historic site, said on Sunday, “Recent incidents at Handsell involve shooting at the building and longhouse exhibits, including damage to a newly installed window. Persons responsible are subject to criminal prosecution, as vandalism to a National Register Historic Site is covered Under the Maryland Malicious Damage Law.”

Penalties include:
* Damage of less than $1,000 – Misdemeanor, up to 60 days in jail and/or a fine of up to $500
* Damage of $1,000 or more – Misdemeanor, up to three years in prison and/or a fine of up to $2,500

“We have discovered a total of more than 20 bullet holes on the signs, doggie station, house and trailer,” the statement said. “Some idiots really had a field day with their guns at Handsell. Any information about this incident can be reported to the Maryland State Police.”

On Monday, Alliance President Midge Ingersoll contacted the Banner on Monday with an update. “It looks like they used more than one gun,” she said, raising the total number of bullet holes to as many as 30.

After a further inspection of the area, it was determined that perpetrators also were in the longhouse – a recreated Native dwelling – though no damage was found there. But it seems clear this wasn’t a quick, drive-by shooting.

“They spent some time there,” Ms. Ingersoll said.

It isn’t the first time vandals have visited the site, the main sign outside having been damaged in 2017. “Somebody tried to set fire to it,” Ms. Ingersoll said, adding with a rueful laugh why the attempt failed, saying, “It’s made of plastic.”

Not only were outdoor signs, brickwork and other displays damaged over the weekend, but particularly hurtful to volunteers is a broken window. The alliance recently spent $34,000 on a replacement project.

“The windows were $2,000 a piece,” Ms. Ingersoll said.

As a registered site, Handsell is defined as “the location of a significant event, a prehistoric or historic occupation or activity, or a building or structure, whether standing, ruined, or vanished, where the location itself maintains historical or archaeological value regardless of the value of any existing structure.”

Edith Knoblick heard the news online, and responded, “This is very sad news. However, it demonstrates the vitally important work that still needs to be done in this country. It is important to remember, I think, that many of the historical issues that this great site brings forward, both physically and on cyberspace, are extremely relevant today. It highlights the work still needed, more difficult perhaps than replacing the beautiful windows, in the hearts and minds of people. Keep at it. Don’t despair. The real work is ongoing and education of such ignorance is a most difficult task. Sites like this are the best chance for change to take place.”

Handsell is located along the Nanticoke River two miles north of Vienna. It is owned and maintained by the Nanticoke Historic Preservation Alliance.

The site is connected to a prehistoric village named Chicacone or Chicone. It was once inhabited by thousands of Native people.

After the area was taken over by Europeans, African people worked as slaves on the property. With such a rich background representing these ethnic and racial groups, Handsell occupies a special place in Delmarva’s history.

A statement on the alliance’s website says, “History lives at Handsell, as we tell the story of these three cultures and how they blended to build a uniquely American experience.”

Members of the alliance are asking for tips leading to the arrest of the vandals. “Thank you for your help,” their statement said. “Please help us protect Handsell.”

The incident has been reported to the Maryland State Police (MSP) and the Dorchester County Sheriff’s Office.

Source: https://www.dorchesterbanner.com/local-history/handsell-historic-site-is-attacked-by-vandals/

Sharing with Sepia Saturday this week.

Handsell House, Vienna, Dorchester MD

I've easily found more information about that house which used to be called the Webb/Handsell House.

I included it in my great grandfather's story, Samuel James Webb HERE.  And I included old information about it at that time, with this photo.

Handsell or Webb home Viena, MD

Handsell, also known as the Webb House, is a historic home located at Vienna, Dorchester County, Maryland. It is a late-18th-century Georgian-style manor house. It is a ​1 1⁄2-story brick structure over an English basement. The main facade is five bays wide and has a central entrance containing a double door flanked by windows. Handsell bears the name of a 1665 land grant, which has been in the Webb family since 1892. Handsell was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2008. (Source: Wikipedia)

The following is all from the link I recently discovered!! restorehandsell.org

The Nanticoke Historic Preservation Alliance welcomes you to the 

Restore Handsell Project

 

The Old Brick House (in 2003)

The NHPA was formed in 2005 to purchase and restore one of Dorchester County, Maryland’s most interesting and intriguing historic structures, an old ivy-covered brick building located in the middle of what is known as “the Indiantown”.  After just a little bit of research, we knew we were on to something BIG.  As the layers of the story unfolded, through research in archives, deeds, Wills and historic family letters, a better yet not fully complete story emerged of Native people, licensed Indian traders, English settlers, British attacks, merchant activity and structural devastation.  Much of the Handsell story is STILL a mystery, but it seems each day brings a little more light to this amazing, yet previously unknown saga of the Steele family’s mark on the Eastern Shore.

Handsell House Feb. 2019

The “old brick house” at Chicone, known as Handsell, located in the Indiantown north of Vienna, Dorchester County, Maryland, was purchased by the Nanticoke Historic Preservation Alliance with a Preservation Easement from the Maryland Historic Trust.  Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2008, the site will be used to interpret the native American contact period with the English, the slave and later African American story and the life of all those who lived at Handsell.

There was a big to-do in October 2019, but I only discovered this link in November 2019. Just my luck!

The History of Handsell House

Handsell, an architecturally significant brick 18th century structure derives its name from the original land grant laid out for the Proprietary in 1665.  This land is historically and irrevocably linked to the early Native Americans of the Nanticoke and Chicone tribes.  Located on the Nanticoke River and Chicone Creek north of Vienna, Dorchester County, the house which stands today was built on a Native American Chicone Village site.  This site was established as an Indian Reservation by the state of Maryland in 1720, but in 1768 the Maryland legislature passed a bill authorizing the purchase of all remaining rights to Chicone Indian lands from the Nanticoke Indians.  (Ref: Eastern Shore Indians of Maryland and Virginia, by Helen C. Rountree and Thomas E. Davidson, p. 159). 

     The first patent was awarded to Thomas Taylor, at Chicone who formerly was a licensed “Indian trader” and then a high ranking military officer who was usually the person sent by the proprietor to deal with the Nanticoke “Emperor” during this period.  On July 13, 1665 he received a land grant called “Handsell” for 700 acres which encompassed the main Native American residential sites within the Chicone town lands. It is likely these were friendly patents held by Taylor to protect the “Indian towns” from other Englishmen.  During the late 17th century, Taylor was an influential county justice who often served Maryland’s provincial government as an envoy to the Nanticokes and was also the nominal landlord of the Nanticoke paramount chief since he was the owner of record for the land grant that included the site of the Nanticoke Fort at Chicone. (Ref: Eastern Shore Indians of Maryland and Virginia, by Helen C. Rountree and Thomas E. Davidson, p. 146).  Taylor served in many capacities including sheriff of Dorchester County 1675-77 and 1685.

On January 24, 1673 Quaker Leader George Fox visited the Indiantown on the Nanticoke River (Chicone Village) where the Emperor dwelt.  The interpreter mentioned here was most likely Thomas Taylor.   Here is an excerpt from his Journal:

“The twenty-fourth (Jan. 24, 1673) we went by water ten miles to the Indian town where this emperor dwelt; whom I had acquainted before with my coming, and desired to get their kings and councils together. In the morning the emperor came himself, and had me to the town; where they were generally come together, their speaker and other officers being with them, and the old empress sat among them.  They sat very grave and sober, and were all very attentive, beyond many called Christians.  I had some with me that could interpret to them. We had a very good meeting with them, and of considerable service it was; for it gave them a good esteem of truth and Friends; blessed be the Lord!”    —–A Journal of George Fox.  Philadelphia:  1831, p. 141.

In 1693, ownership of Handsell was transferred to a Christopher Nutter, an “Indian trader” who since 1670 was the interpreter for the region.  However, the Natives Americans felt the English were getting too close to their village and surrounding lands, exerting too much influence on the tribe.  In 1721 a serious conflict arose between the English and the Native Americans after Nutter’s heirs sold their land to a John Rider, who almost immediately tried to seize the 700 acres of Handsell, including the site of the Nanticoke Fort. The son of the Nanticoke emperor was among the inhabitants of the village.  Because of the ill feelings caused by the English settlers who deprived them of the land on which they had once lived and hunted, the Native Americans complained that on the very banks of the Nanticoke River some of the colonists were building their houses.  The Maryland government sided with the Native Americans and ordered John Rider off the reservation.  But by 1742 only a few Nanticokes remained on their land.

In 1753 Chicone was made a proprietary manor making the reservation the property of Lord Baltimore. By 1768 the Maryland legislature passed a bill authorizing the purchase of all remaining rights to “Chicone Indian lands” from the Nanticoke Native Americans.  In 1770 the land was deeded back to the heirs of John Rider, by then deceased.  Henry Steele and his wife Ann Billings (grand-daughter of John Rider) were deeded 484 acres of the southern half of the Handsell tract, this portion bordered by the Chicone Creek and Nanticoke River, the exact site of the Native American village.  According to Dorchester County history, Henry Steele built a “large and pretentious home on his property north of Vienna”.  It is likely that Handsell is that house and that the part of the existing house is what remains of this large home.

In 1779-1781 British privateers raided and robbed homes along the waters of the Chesapeake Bay including “Weston”, the Nanticoke River home of Governor John Henry and the town of the Vienna.  It is possible that Handsell burned at about the same time as Weston or later in a house fire.   After archaeological and physical study of the house, it has been determined that the Handsell house standing today was a victim to a fire and a partial collapse.  Today it retains a brick façade and east wall that is believed to date from the 18th c, but roof, chimney tops and interior woodwork that dates from the early 19th period, indicating it was rebuilt to a smaller scale after the fire.

Pictured here is Isaac Nevett Steele was the last of the Steele family to own Handsell. He sold it in 1837 to John Shehee, who rebuilt the house to what we see today.

Handsell remained in the Steele family until 1837 when it was sold to John Shehee. A dendrochronolgy study undertaken by the NHPA in 2010 on the pine frame members of the house revealed that this wood was cut during the winter of 1837-1838.  This indicates that John Shehee was responsible for the rebuild of the brick ruins of the original house to the present form.  Currently, more research is ongoing into the history of this family.  Shehee died in 1844 and his daughter and son-in-law, Milcah and Robert Rook remained at the house until it was sold.

In 1849, the trustee of his will sold Handsell to Jacob C. Wilson, who owned it until 1859 when it was sold to the Thompson family.  In 1892 the Thompsons sold Handsell to the Webb family who has owned the large farm in various family partnerships.  The Webb family corporation has continued to farm approximately 1400 acres of land surrounding Handsell house since that date.  The house was boarded up many years ago and has remained unoccupied for at least 60 years.

The house at Handsell with two acres and a right-of-way to the Chicone Creek were purchased by David and Carol Lewis from the Webb family, who realized the historical benefit in having the house restored.  The Webb family has also placed the entire 1,400 acres surrounding the house in Rural Legacy Conservation Easement.  Recognizing the long history of this rare property, the Lewis’ sold Handsell house in 2009 (with support from the Webb family) to the Nanticoke Historic Preservation Alliance, Inc., a non-profit dedicated to preserving Handsell house for future generations to study and explore the rich history of the land, the river and the people of this place.

Handsell is now listed on the State and National Register of Historic Places and filed with the Historic American Buildings Survey!!

In case you didn't have time to read all of this, or to go over to the link, I'll be including more about the site, as I can.  Sharing this bit of history (and some old photos) with Sepia Saturday.

They are honoring a woman I have no knowledge of, but perhaps should. So I hope someone posts info about her over there!

I'll have more next week about this historic property in Maryland which once belonged to my Webb ancestors.

A veteran of the Civil War fromTexas

Samuel James Webb 1827-1877, my mother's great grandfather. Born in Vienna, Dorchester County, Maryland, died in Clinton, Dewitt, Texas

His son was Leroy Francis Webb.



Yes I admit I've used this 1894 photo of roof-sitting friends for my great grandfather Leroy F. Webb before in Sepia Saturday HERE.  But last week I promised to show a sepia photo, rather than my usual more recent ones!

So I will talk about Leroy's father, Samuel J. Webb.  I posted about him a few years ago Here (also a Sepia Saturday link.)

This week's Sepia Saturday prompt photo!

Since everyone (in the US at least) has been celebrating our veterans last week, those who fought and died that we might have freedom, I'm going to consider his fighting for the Confederacy in a losing battle had as much merit as many other soldiers.

He enlisted in 1862 in the Confederacy, in Waul's Legion (Infantry, Cavalry, and Artillery) according to US, Confederate Soldiers Compiled Service Records, 1861-1865.  Another record from the same source says he was a private, Company B, in Waul's Texas Legion.

I'm currently reading more about the Siege of Vicksburg which ended on July 4, 1863.  That's because the lists on Wikipedia of the Confederate leaders doesn't include Waul.  Yet they do list him being there under his own biography.  Just curious, because also his biography doesn't list a Company B (in which Samuel J. Webb was listed) But there is a memorial to Waul's Legion in Vicksburg.

Waul's Texas Legion Monument, Vicksburg National Military Park

What I do know is that the north's winning general, U.S. Grant, did not want to keep track of all the prisoners of the Confederate Army following the eventual end of the siege...so he sent most of them home.  Those who weren't sick or injured continued to fight from Alabama.  I don't know whether S. J. went back to Texas at this point or kept fighting. But he was a private both in enlisting and leaving the army.

I'm linking to Sepia Saturday with some new photos I have found since my last posting about my great great grandfather.  This continues to be a process, so more information may come along in the future, about the past!

The house in Vienna MD may have been where Samuel J Webb lived, or perhaps cousins of his...the connection has not yet been found. There seem to be a lot of Webbs in the same area of Maryland, and some of them fought in the Civil War for the Union...most probably his brother Thomas H. Webb.

Handsell or Webb home Viena, MD

"Handsell, also known as the Webb House, is a historic home located at Vienna, Dorchester County, Maryland. It is a late-18th-century Georgian-style manor house. It is a ​1 1⁄2-story brick structure over an English basement. The main facade is five bays wide and has a central entrance containing a double door flanked by windows. Handsell bears the name of a 1665 land grant, which has been in the Webb family since 1892. Handsell was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2008.

I now have a photo of Samuel J. Webb's grave in Clinton, DeWitt County, Texas...with probable dates for birth and death.

Sailing to Cuba

For fun!
My grandmother and several of her 3 sisters (maybe all of them) used to sail from the US to Cuba to gamble and have fun. That was before Fidel started making things uncomfortable for US folks.  So it was probably in the 30s-40s. But first, how about some posed photos with cars...

I have some lovely shots of Mozelle (Grandmommy to me) with some cars.  They remind me of the Sepia Saturday prompt this week.

Whoever first took a digital photo of the original didn't get many pixels into it...but this was supposedly in the 50s.  Grandmommy was still dressing well, and had a nice car...or had a friend with a nice car.

Here she was in 1925, posted in my mother's photo album.  So that's another car in the background.

I think she has on some snazzy boots.

Great Aunt Margaret was the youngest of the 4 Miller sisters...here she was in '27, with another car in the background!

And here I am (around 3 or 4) in Dallas TX with Grandmommy, who had made my little coat, hat and leggings set.  She was a whiz dressmaker in San Antonio TX.

Another recent find on Ancestry was this passport with a photo of Great Aunt Dorothy and her husband Buck Buchanan.  They married late in life (when she was 47), and he had grown children who I never met.

Stop over and see what more Sepians have come up with from this prompt photo...

I heard about the Cuban gambling trips as a child, and somehow remembered it! And then recently I found a shipping manifest about 2 of them returning to the US from Havana...it was real!

Oh I'm so glad I published this document here, because I see their father, Charles H. Miller (68) went as well as Dorothy (32) and Margaret Miller (26).  The S. S. Florida docked in Miami, FL in 1936 from Havana.

So my grandmother, Mozelle, and her other sister, Rowena, weren't on that trip.

 All these wonderful relations are no longer posing by cars with their smiles, but I remember learning how to play cards from them (but not poker!)