Rural Roots and Tradition
Many of the families that lived at Sites 44PY178 and 44PY181 had agricultural roots. By the late nineteenth century, they were increasingly exposed to a rapidly changing industrial society (Guilland 1971:66–67, 70, 73). Their experiences may not have been too different from those of some families living in Harpers Ferry, West Virginia. Studies of ceramics from nineteenth-century house sites in that community suggest that residents responded to increasingly available mass-produced goods. They purchases also seem to have been influenced by changes in community values and certain social "rituals" (or fashions) involving ceramic forms (Lucas and Shackel 1994:29, 32). Families responded to socioeconomic change differently; some maintained traditional dining customs, while others adopted new dining rituals and fashionable wares. The presence of eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century ceramic types like creamware and pearlware at Site 44PY181 suggests possible differences in consumer behavior between the earliest occupants and those who followed. This may reflect economic differences between early and later mill households, or a desire to maintain traditional customs by some families despite changing fashions (Lucas and Shackel 1994).
Ceramic types and general refuse disposal patterns at Site 44PY181 reflect possible differences in consumer behavior between early and late residents. The earliest artifacts (creamware, pearlware, whiteware) came from Site 44PY181, which is consistent with documentary evidence that the first houses were built on the north side of Front Street. Artifact scatters found at the back of the property and along the east side of the of the property may be associated with the Hill and Poplin households who occupied the site beginning in the early 1890s. Some of the recovered ceramics, such as edged, painted, and printed whiteware, were produced into the 1860s and 1870s, whereas the creamware and pearlware examples probably date to the late eighteenth and/or early nineteenth centuries. During the early nineteenth century, decorated wares (hand-painted, printed) were more expensive than undecorated examples (Miller 1980). The 44PY181 assemblage may represent items purchased toward the close of the nineteenth century, or perhaps heirloom pieces from earlier generations. Some families seem to have brought earlier traditions with them to the mill community. During this early period, maintaining tradition may have been possible with longer-term stability on Front Street than for occupants during the 1920s and 1930s. These later residents probably had a quite different consumer experience, as innovations in manufacturing and distribution made goods cheaper and more accessible. Their attraction to new and fashionable products, however, was still a seed planted by previous generations and grew despite periods of economic uncertainty.
