Wednesday, April 08, 2020

Mysteries of the Kibby cellar hole in Estabrook Woods, Concord/Carlisle

Here is a place with various funny things going on. A site with lots of rock piles around a colonial (actually Revolutionary war period) foundation. Kibby was said to have been a large man who could only bring one (also large) daughter of three to church each week, having a single pony. So the other sisters had to wait their turn to go church every three weeks. When Carlisle was to be divided off and away from Concord as a separate town, Kibby who lived on the border, inside of what is now Carlisle, insisted that he fought in the Revolution to protect Concord and, so, did not want to become a Carlisle resident. So they let his property remain in Concord - a bite taken out of the southern border of Carlisle. At least for a while.
So I wandered around this place with my wife, looking at the piles, the indications of colonial life, and talking about the curiosities of the place. Mainly there are mounds all over, as well as smaller piles. And I am wondering how to argue that Kibby must have been a christianized Indian. I note that the site is at the very highest point of a drainage that leads south from here. A few steps away the water is flowing north.

And I look around thinking: could that be farming related? How would I know this was Indian? How would I know it is ceremonial? I don't think there is any very good answer here. I note the classic "mound with hollow" a few yards north of the site, across the wall and down hill, that Walter Brain passed while taking me to see something he found interesting:
Surely that is a classic burial. 

Anyway we had a pleasant walk, dodging other hikers due to coronavirus. As we we left I see a fine split wedged rock, a few feet from the cellar hole.
Farming related? Yeah right.

I think the evidence suggests Kibby was a christianized Indian, living in an ancestral home, at the top of an important drainage - a place that always belonged to his family. Future scholars can try to refute this by looking at land deeds. Do they show Kibby acquiring the land?

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