My interest in the native American peoples who inhabited this area before the settlers arrived was re-kindled recently by two events – a visit to the replica Monongahela people settlement at Meadowcroft Village; and “180 Years of Archaeology at Woodville”, a special event at the Woodville Experience focused on archaeology at that site.
I made the trip to Meadowcroft with my friend Kevin Abt, primarily to see the Rockshelter and to learn more about the “First Americans”, the primitive people whose presence in that area 16,000 years ago is recorded by artifacts uncovered in an archaeological “dig” there. Our first stop, though, was at the Monongahela people settlement where we heard an interesting presentation on these folks who inhabited southwestern Pennsylvania from about 1000 AD till 1600 AD.
Discussing this with Kevin and remembering numerous stories about Indian artifact finds in the Bridgeville area convinced me that this was a subject that warranted further study. I immediately decided to plan an exhibit on the Monongahela People in the Chartiers Valley, on behalf of the Bridgeville Area Historical Society, and to request advice on sources of information to support that effort. I then emailed representatives of the Society for Pennsylvania Archaeology (SPA) and the Meadowcroft Rockshelter and Historic Village, pleading my case. Much to my surprise, within a few hours, I had constructive responses from both of them.
First was David R. Scofield, the Director of the Meadowcroft Rockshelter and Historic Village. His advice was that I obtain a copy of “First Pennsylvanians, The Archaeology of Native Americans in Pennsylvania”, by Keith Carr and Roger Moeller, for an overview of that cultural period before “delving into the academic papers”. I immediately ordered a copy via Amazon Prime, which arrived promptly the very next day. It is an excellent resource.
A short time later I received an email from the editor of “the Pennsylvania Archaeologist”, the SPA journal. His name was Roger Moeller; I presume he is the same gentleman who co-authored the book I had just ordered. He sent me a relevant article by Richard L. George, entitled “Getting High: Chartiers Valley Monongahela and the Troublesome 14th Century”. It was quite instructive and the source of numerous relevant references in the SPA journal.
The Woodville event turned out to be even more productive than I had hoped. It consisted of a display of archaeological artifacts excavated at the Woodville site, plus a slide presentation by Ms. Nina Schreiner describing her work as she completes her Ph. D. dissertation at the University of South Carolina. In addition to the on-site work, she is involved in cataloguing and evaluating a very large collection of artifacts acquired by the Wrenshall family beginning as early as 1840.
The Woodville mansion was purchased by Christopher Cowan in 1816. His daughter Mary Ann eventually inherited it in 1835 and lived there for many years with her husband, John F. Wrenshall. Thanks to the loving stewardship of the Wrenshall family and their descendants, the property was still in excellent condition in 1975 when it was acquired by the Pittsburgh History and Landmarks Foundation and repurposed as a museum.
The first Wrenshalls had a large family, all of whom were avid amateur archaeologists. For most of the nineteenth century they travelled around the country finding artifacts and adding them to an impressive collection at Woodville. Fortunately, William Ebbs Wrenshall (1848 – 1927) served as curator of the collection and made a serious attempt to inventory its contents.
The folks currently responsible for maintaining Woodville, “The Neville House Associates”, were unaware of the existence of the collection until very recently when a number of taped storage boxes were found in the attic. One of Ms. Schreiner’s projects is to professionally catalogue each item, using Mr. Wrenshall’s inventory list and a number of family letters as a reference.
For example, one of the items in the collection is a large bone pestle, almost certainly dating back to Monongahela People times. In addition to being mentioned in the inventory, it was also described in a letter as having been found “in Dr. Spahr’s field” in 1855. We are well aware of Dr. Clarence Spahr and his prominence in the Bridgeville area in the nineteenth century. We believe that his property, bounded by the Washington Pike and Chartiers Creek included the area now occupied by the Chartiers Valley and Great Southern shopping centers. Ideal Monongahela people site!
Another obvious local artifact is described as having been found by Sam Tidball on the McKown farm. Both these names show up prominently as residents along the Washington Pike in what is now Kirwan Heights, obviously neighbors to the Wrenshalls.
The bulk of the Wrenshall collection is currently in Ms. Schreiner’s “lab” in South Carolina. The only local Monongahela People piece on display was a potsherd, a portion of a pot perhaps three inches on a side and three eighths of an inch thick. Pots and their remnants make up an important part of the family of artifacts and are valuable tools for identifying specific cultures.
One of the unique characteristics of a specific type of pottery is the material used to temper the clay. By adding finely ground non-plastic porous material to natural clay, the potter is able to eliminate cracking. Pots made by Monongahela people in this area used ground mussel shells as temper; their contemporaries in Somerset County used ground limestone. In addition, Monongahela People pots are described as being simple, smooth faced with zoned incising, and having castellated rims and small lugs.
The potsherd on display is completely unimpressive; nonetheless it was exciting for me to handle an artifact that almost certainly was produced by a native American potter here in the Chartiers Valley eight or nine centuries ago. I am learning more about local archaeology each day and beginning to realize how relevant this area has been to that subject.