Agenda - 10-02-1995 - IX-F - Laserfiche WebLink

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NPS Form 10.900-a (8-86) OMB Approval No.1024- 15 United States Department of the Interior National Park Service National Register of Historic Places Continuation Sheet Section number 7.e Page 3 Alexander Hogan Plantation Orange County,NC Description(continued) Who exactly is buried here remains unclear. While members of the Hogan family were almost certainly interred in the cemetery, there is some uncertainty as to whether any Hogan slaves, or freed African-Americans are buried there as well. With regards to the latter possibility, some oral accounts claim that the cemetery contains some black graves. Two of the graves are thought to belong to Zachariah and Alice Hogan, grandparents to Essie Hogan Leak. On the other hand, the overall cemetery design is more typical of a southern folk family cemetery (Clauser 1994). That is, the immediate Hogan family would be buried within the enclosure with extended kin buried outside the stone walls (John Clauser, personal communication 1995). Moreover, the grave layout is more representative of white than black cemeteries, since black graves do not tend to be laid out parallel to each other or in rows as do white graves (Little 1994). If true,this latter interpretation raises the possibility of the existence of another cemetery on the property. Statement of Significance The significance of the Hogan plantation (31 OR296) is that it represents an example of a small nineteenth- century North Carolina Piedmont plantation that spanned the antebellum and post-bellum occupation of Orange County. Virtually no archaeological work has been done on any such site in the county and, in fact, only very limited work has been reported from similar sites elsewhere in the state. The site contains well-preserved archaeological data including structural remains, artifact assemblages, and a cemetery that would contribute significantly to our understanding of the daily life of its African-American and Euro-American occupants. In addition, the site has the potential to address anthropological questions dealing with slavery and plantation social structure. Not only would such information be of value to local archaeologists and historians, it would also be of interest to researchers elsewhere in the Southeast where plantation archaeology has been ongoing for over two decades. Therefore, the Hogan site meets Criterion D for inclusion in the National Register. Historical background and significance: Farming dominated Orange County economic life throughout the nineteenth century. In the antebellum years, for example, 75% of all white men reported farming as their primary occupation (Kenner 1987:30). Corn, wheat,tobacco, and cotton were the primary crops of the county. Even those who did not farm were somehow tied to its agricultural economy. Not surprisingly, most of the county's households grew enough food to maintain their self- sufficiency. Moreover, what was not domestically produced, could be obtained at the neighborhood rural general store. Thus, there was little reason—at least from an economic standpoint—to establish extensive contacts outside one's neighborhood. In fact, Orange County has been described as a series of several rural neighborhood communities tied together by kinship during the nineteenth century(Kenner 1987:19).