Two of my great loves are history and botany and one of the best ways I know of to get a good dose of both is by following stone walls. This particular wall is in Swanzey, New Hampshire and surrounds what I believe is the oldest cemetery in town. Revolutionary war soldiers are buried here so it certainly has some age.
Right off I spotted some sulfur dust lichen (Chrysothrix chlorina.) It’s very yellow and hides under overhangs so it doesn’t get rained on. At least I think that’s why I always find it tucked away like this, but this is odd behavior for a lichen because they usually like a lot of rain and sunshine.
Sulfur dust lichens are kind of granular in texture. If you’re lucky you can sometimes find them with fruiting bodies (apothecia) but more often than not I see them when they aren’t producing spores.
There are stone walls called “lace walls” which are built of a stack of stones just one stone wide, and which are full of holes that make them look like lace, but this is a tossed wall sometimes three or four stones wide and it was built to keep animals, probably sheep, out. There were no holes when it was built but there are now, as this photo shows. I can’t explain how it happened but I’ve built enough dry stone walls to know that building a hole like this one into a tossed wall would be close to impossible. In a tossed wall the stones are literally just tossed on top of one another. The object wasn’t to build a pretty wall; it was to get rid of the stones as quickly and efficiently as possible. I think a stone must have fallen or been taken out of the wall to create such a hole.
There are a lot of tree stumps along the wall and some of them, like the one above, are very old. Not only was this one covered with moss and lichens, it also had birch trees growing out of it. Stumps like this are always worth a second look.
The old stump had more British soldier lichens (Cladonia cristatella) growing on it than I’ve ever seen in one place. Old rotted logs and stumps are the perfect spots to find them.
Even I can see this shade of red, and I’m colorblind.
A large pile of sand at the base of another hollow tree stump meant that something was living under it. Possibly a ground hog, but I didn’t see a single paw print.
This old maple tree was covered on its sunny side by whitewash lichen (Phlyctis argena.) This is a tough, crusty lichen that is fairly common on hardwood tree bark. They can cover quite a large area and make the tree look as if it has been painted, hence the common name. They can be greenish white, silvery, or bright white.
As time passed barbed wire was often added to stone walls to keep animals in or out. Stone walls were usually too low to be effective and cows and other farm animals often jumped right over them, so their height was increased by adding wire or other materials. You had to pay a fine if your animals escaped and were caught roaming free. They were brought to the town pound and the owner had to pay to get them back. This wire grew out of the very center of a pine tree, so it has been here for quite a while. Running their saw into steel wire is one of a wood cutter’s worst nightmares come true but many things have been found inside trees, from axe heads to gravestones to even bicycles.
Every time I see rusty old barbed wire stapled to a tree I think about a book I read by a man who lived in a cabin in the Massachusetts woods. He said that one of his favorite things to do was run through the woods at night. He wouldn’t want to do that here. I wouldn’t even run through these woods in broad daylight because much of what is now forest was once pasture, and there is a lot of barbed wire out there.
Peppered rock shield lichen (Xanthoparmelia conspersa) likes to grow on stone in full sun and I find a lot of them on stone walls. They’re a good introduction to lichen study because their brown apothecia, where their spores are produced, are large and easy to see without aid.
Scattered rock posy lichens (Rhizoplaca subdiscrepans) on the other hand, are quite small and difficult to see without magnification, but it’s worth looking for them because they almost always have their bright orange apothecia showing. They like to grow on stone, especially granite, in full sun. They don’t seem to change their color when they dry out like many other lichens do.
Sometimes it isn’t what is on the stone that interests me, it’s the stone itself. I’m not sure if this pattern was on the stone or part of it but it was very interesting. Also interesting was how it had absolutely nothing growing on it when all of the stones around it had mosses and lichens growing on them.
I never knew my grandfather but I do know that he made his living as the town blacksmith in Westmoreland, New Hampshire, and this old horse hitching ring brought thoughts of him to mind. If he was lucky a blacksmith might make a dollar a day but very little cash changed hands in colonial America so he most likely would have been paid in food, charcoal for the forge, lumber, or something else he needed. In the early 1800s blacksmiths charged anywhere from 2 cents for an axe wedge to $5.50 for all of the ironwork on a new wagon. That would include springs, axles, brakes, and rims for the wheels. I have a photo of my grandfather working on a wagon wheel in his blacksmith shop. The wheel sits on top of a big wooden keg that he probably made the iron hoops for. I hope he was paid more than they were in colonial times.
Some of the stones in this old wall are not natural, meaning they were cut or quarried. There is a large granite outcrop just up the hill from this spot and stone was taken from it using star drills and sledge hammers, I would imagine. The marks of the old hand drills are still easily seen on some of the stones. It’s unusual to see both natural and cut stones together in a wall; usually they’re made of one or the other but the farmer could have been trying to increase the height of his walls.
Some of the quarried granite was used for fence posts. Four posts were put in around certain family plots in the cemetery and chain hooks were added by drilling a hole into the top of each post and hammering a hook into the hole. I’m not sure if friction alone held the hooks in the holes or if cement was added to hold them, but after over 200 years they are still solid and immovable.
Once chain was added the family plot was enclosed but still visible to anyone trying to find it. This chain looks like it was hand wrought.
Blacksmiths don’t cast iron; they soften it by heating it in a forge and then shaping it with a hammer, and I love how you can see all the hammer blows on this chain hook. I also love how the smith fashioned something as simple as a chain hook into what looks like a dragon’s tail. He didn’t have to do this; it was extra work that he probably wasn’t paid for, but he was good and would have wanted people to know his work. If I needed ironwork done and I saw this hook and the ones in the previous photos I would have chosen the smith who made this one. It’s a beautiful thing which, if I owned it, would be considered a work of art.
Sometimes these posts wander in unplanned directions and almost write themselves, and this is one of those; l felt as if I were just along for the ride instead of the one doing the writing. It began in the old cemetery and I just tagged along with the camera while the story wrote itself in my mind, so I hope you won’t mind that there is a little more history than botany in this one. Though I expected the post to be full of mosses and lichens for me the history I found was a refreshing diversion while I wait for spring flowers to appear, and thoughts of my hammer wielding grandfather ran all through the day. I wonder if he ever imagined that one of his grandsons would grow up to be a stone wall builder.
Stones are all about time—time to find them, to move them, to place them, and time, occasionally, to chisel and shape them. And above all, time to see them, experience them, and fall under their spell. ~Charles McRaven
Thanks for stopping in.
I found the lichens and the new life sprouting from the stumps interesting and much as I see here in Michigan, except for the species of lichens being different. However the ironwork was the star of this post in my opinion! I never was a blacksmith, but I’ve done that type of work making replacement parts for machinery and other reasons, so I understand the skills needed to produce not only the practical, but to make it a work of art as well. I agree, the chain looks to be hand wrought, tedious work, but it had to be done.
I often wonder about the patterns that I see in stones around here, since most of them are sedimentary rock, it’s easier to understand how patterns came to be.
Thanks Jerry. It was great when people took pride in their work. I was raised that way and I can tell that you were too, but few seem to care these days.
I loved that post where you saw the picture rocks. (?) They were beautiful and unlike anything I’ve seen here.
Such an interesting post, with all that wonderful lichen!
Thank you Clare. There are a lot of lichens on that wall!
You have such an eye for detail. Remarkable!
Thanks!
I like stone walls, little ones and big ones. I suppose it’s a good thing this particular wall has not been rebuilt. I love that first picture of the stump, it really speaks to new life growing out of decay.
If you like stone walls you’d love New England. There are over a quarter million miles of them.
This wall doesn’t need to be re-built. That’s pretty much how tossed walls look when they’re built. They weren’t built for good looks; just to get rid of the stones.
Amazing things grow out of tree stumps!
What a fantastic display of British Soldier lichens. I would love to have seen that.
It was more than I’ve ever seen. There had to have been hundreds on just one side of that stump.
This is hands down, thumbs up my favorite post so far. The information, along with the beautiful shots, are just wonderful. My ancestors were blacksmiths and wheelwrights. The talent lives on in my youngest son. And I didn’t realize you were an expert builder of stonewalls. I would like to know the name of the cemetery and would want to research the information on Find a Grave. I just enjoyed every aspect of this post.
I see you have another storm headed your way and hope it will spare your area.
Thanks very much Penny, I’m glad you enjoyed it. I’m also glad to hear your son works with his hands. I have an irrational fear that one day nobody will remember how to do so. I hope he’ll teach his children.
I can’t say that I was an expert at stone wall building but every one I built is still standing. It was a job I loved, but it takes its toll on the body.
The name of the cemetery is Mount Caesar cemetery in Swanzey New Hampshire. I’m fairly sure that none of my family is there but there are some very old, hand worked slate gravestones there. Some of the lichens you see in these posts grow on them.
Yes, the latest nor’easter is due on Tuesday and that will mean one per week for the last three weeks. They say it’s too early to tell about this one but it looks like it will be plowable snow. I’m not at all looking forward to that, but they could be wrong.
I have been trying to follow the weather in your area and from here it looks pretty bad. Hope you and yours are safe and snug.
Thanks very much Penny. Parts of the state are getting hit pretty hard and could see two feet of snow but here in the southwestern corner in my yard I barely have 4 inches. Often even a distance of even 50 miles can make a big difference in snowfall amounts.
We have similar protection here in Dillon and are often spared the worst when just 20 miles north it can be very bad. I looked up the graveyard and no Nor crosses. I did find 68 Norcrosses in Cheshire County, 20 in Meeting House Cemetery. Are you related to Deacon Jeremiah Norcross? Find a grave memorial # 88519122. Maybe sometime we could see photos of that cemetery? Take care!
Thank you Penny. Yes, pretty much all of us are related. Two brothers, John and Jeremiah came over from England in 1638 and started what I think of as the eastern branch of the family. Then in 1699 William, a Quaker and grandson of John, came over to live in Pennsylvania with William Penn’s followers. The Pennsylvania branch headed west eventually and settled in many places. Greely Colorado for instance. was full of us at one time. So virtually any Norcross in this country can be traced back to John, Jeremiah and William. From there we go back to 1550 London, and Ribchester, England. The earliest of us known was John, who was a haberdasher in London.
There are stone walls in the woods behind our house, leftover from a time when there were fields rather than a forest. Stone walls are indeed a part of New England’s history, and they tell the story of different times, different methods, different needs.
Thank you Laurie, they certainly are a big part of our history. I have trouble sometimes imagining what our forests looked like as pastures. What an amazing amount of work clearing it all must have been!
For sure!
I loved this post and your comment about what your grandfather would think about his grandson being a stone wall builder. It brought to mind my own affinity for granite, and the many stone walls I’ve built on our properties over the years. I can’t walk through the woods without becoming entranced by stone walls and pieces of granite. Imagine my surprise when I discovered last year, while doing family history research, that my great great grandfather ran a whinstone quarry in northern Scotland in the early 1800s! I’ve read that a certain type of rodent has been studied for its apparently genetic fear of snakes, with researchers concluding the fear was handed down genetically. Maybe my great great grandfather handed down an affinity for stones, maybe your grandfather handed down an affinity for working with your hands and forming new things with hardened raw materials.
Thank you Tammy. It certainly sounds as if stone is a big part of your life. I used to love building walls, patios and anything else I could fashion from stone and yes, I think my grandfather would have been happy about that. I hope we’ll both fall under the spell of stones once again this summer!
For our 20th anniversary my husband asked what I wanted and I replied, “stones.” Now, for some women, that would mean diamonds. But my sweet husband knows me well and got me 4 pallets of fieldstone instead!
I’ll bet they made a great wall!
Excellent! I love the traces of history and the accounts of it!
Thanks Montucky! History is like nature; you can’t ever be without it because it’s everywhere you go!
Another awesome post. It’s amazing how you can wander through what seems like the middle of nowhere and find so many stonewalls. I can’t even begin to imagine the amount of work that went into building them. Cemeteries can be so peaceful and interesting. The sad thing is, the older you get, the more people you know there.
Thank you David, I know what you mean. I’ve seen stone walls in what seemed like terrible places to live, and I’ve even seen them go into ponds and come out again on the other side. I’d guess the wall was there before the pond!
Building walls is a lot of work but I always loved doing it. It’s also hard on the back though, and mine wasn’t as happy with the job as I was.
I had to laugh about your thoughts on cemeteries. Very true!
What a wonderful walk you brought us on! I have always had a deep appreciation for old stone walls. We have plenty of them here in northern New York. I love to stand in their midst and think about the men and young boys who built them so long ago. Tedious, laborious work, but necessary at the same time. I know absolutely nothing about lichens, but your post certainly has my interest peaked. Maybe at the age of 70 I will find them a new passion! I am so intrigued by the rock without lichens and just white marks running along the surface. It makes my ever questioning mind wanting to know more. I’m sure your grandfather was with you on your walk and proud that you have such appreciation for the different types of work that he and other “smithy’s” did. Thank you so much for a great post as always.
You’re welcome Ginny, and thank you. I’d guess that your stone walls are buried under snow right now, from what I’ve heard.
I’ve built a few stone walls and you’re right, it is very hard work but also very satisfying. Of course I didn’t do it for the same reasons the early settlers did so I didn’t feel the same pressure to get them done.
Lichens are fascinating things and once you’ve learned to identify one or two you’re hooked! It’s the same with mosses, I’ve found. And we’re never too old to learn something new!
My grandfather was unlucky enough to be a blacksmith just as autos came along, so I imagine that people needed him less and less as time passed. History always seems to be intertwined with a bit of irony. If he’d been born a little later his work would have once again been in high demand.
I too am drawn to both history and nature. Wonderful post!
Thank you Lee. It seems like a lot of nature lovers also enjoy a little history mixed in.
Reblogged this on Poltrack Pix and commented:
I heard a fascinating talk by Keyin Gardner of Hopkington called “Discovering Stone Walls”.
Thank you John. I would have loved to have been there!
Well that was an interesting walk you took us on. I loved that stone with the patterns on it and the beautiful shape of the chain hook.
Thank you Susan. Those were the highlights of my day as well.