David,
One of the earliest "industries" in Texas (starting way before the
Revolution) was folks from the early Red River settlements carting
wagon-loads of the bois d'arc "apples" collected from the groves along
Red River (as far west as Pecan Point & Bois d'Arc Creek) over to White
Oak Shoals (with shipment downriver by steamer to New Orleans &
re-distribution up the Mississippi to everywhere from there) or on to
Washington, Arkansas (and sometimes even taking wagon-loads on
themselves for overland shipment to other states, and fetching more
family from "back home"):
"Art. VI. – Osage Orange. (Maclura Aurantica) Communicated by William
Kendrick.
THE Osage Orange is a native of Missouri and Arkansas, where it rises in
elegant proportion to a height of sixty feet. The tree is deciduous and
hardy, as it has endured the rigors of the last seven winters near
Boston, and is one of the most ornamental of all our native trees. The
leaves are oval, lanceolate, of a beautiful shining green, and bear
striking resemblance to those of the orange, and the wood also like that
of the orange, is armed with long sharp spines. The trees are dicecious,
or some male and some female, therefore requiring more than one tree for
the production of fruit; but these however cannot be distinguished when
young. The fruit is beautiful, but not eatable; of the size of a large
orange, of a golden color, and the trees when laded with the fruit are
splendid. The wood produces a fine yellow dye. It is valuable for
furniture as it receives the finest polish. It is remarkably tough,
strong and elastic, and is therefore called */Bow Wood/*, being
preferred by the Indians to all other wood for bows. It is also supposed
to be the most durable timber in the world, and for ship building is
esteemed preferable to live oak.
Even the leaves so beautiful, may, it appears, be converted to very
important use, since according to a memoir lately presented to the
French Institute, they are valuable as food for silk-worms.
On the best authority I am assured that the trees of the Osage Orange,
when set at the distance of fifteen inches asunder, make the most
beautiful as well as the strongest hedge fence in the world, through
which neither men nor animals can pass.
/Newton/, April 18, 1836."
[The Horticultural Register and Gardener’s Magazine, 1836, Volume 2,
Joseph Breck & Co., Boston, pp195-196]
Regards,
Bob Skiles
PS - best & most poignant example I ever saw, of what must have been the
remnants of a bois d'arc hedge, was a square of giant gnarled and
more-dead-than-alive bois d'arc ... trees (I hesitate to call such
wrecks, trees, they were mainly just rotted-out trunks, with one or two
stubby branches ... yet, still, a few living leaves), with huge piles of
dead limbs piled high around their bases. These must be have been the
survivors of a hedge planted to surround and protect the yard of a
lonely pioneer's home, built way-out-in-the-middle-of-nowhere on a
sloping stretch of blackland prairie near Grapeland, about 1856 ... all
swept away long-ago, now ... in the name of progress ... expansion and
new approaches for DFW airport ... you know the sad ol' song, my friend
On 6/26/2015 7:04 PM, David Parkhill wrote:
> Yes, bois d'arc was used as fence post among other choices items. Indians and early pioneers used thorns for needles along with mesquite trees. Indians also used Bois d'arc for bows. If you can find the write up by Bill Holm he shows plots on his maps where the Indians took very young saplings along with them on the War Trail, in West Texas. The camping spots shows part of the Comanche War Trails which are many. A very dear friend of mine made some of the most beautiful bows which were valued by his friends.
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: HISTORICAL ARCHAEOLOGY [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Barbara Hickman
> Sent: Friday, June 26, 2015 4:04 PM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: Selective bibliography - ICOMOS Documentation centre
>
> Linda, this anecdotal, but it seems a good example. My grandfather (1863-1951) used bois d'arc along some property lines here in central Texas in lieu of barb wire. He is said to have thought 'bodark' was more effective at keeping cattle inside the property than wire. It grew quickly into an almost impenetrable hedge.
>
> David T. Parkhill
> Avocational Archaeologist
>
> Barbara J Hickman
> Archeologist III
> Archeological Studies Program
> Environmental Affairs Division
> Texas Department of Transportation
> 125 East 11th Street
> Austin TX 78701
> 512-416-2637
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: HISTORICAL ARCHAEOLOGY [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Kate Johnson
> Sent: Friday, June 26, 2015 3:58 PM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: Selective bibliography - ICOMOS Documentation centre
>
> Linda,
>
> I read a couple papers that describe the use of osage orange hedge specifically as fencing and meant to distinguish specific boundaries.The 3rd footnote to the second paper (Hewes & Jung 1981) also references several sources that note the use of ditches alone or ditches plus fence / hedge as being used to demarcate legal property boundaries. Hopefully one of these sources can be of use!
>
>
>
> * Hewes, L. 1981. Early fencing on the western margins of the prairie.
> Annals of the Association of American Geographers 71 (4):499–526. Hewes, L., and C. L. Jung. 1981. Early Fencing on the Middle Western Prairie.
> Annals of the Association of American Geographers 71 (2):177–201.*
>
> Footnote from Hewes & Jung 1981:
>
> Herbert G. Schmidt, *Agriculture in New Jersey* (New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1973), p.73, cites ditches as legal enclosures as early as 1730. Lewis Cecil Gray, *History of Agriculture in the Southern United States to 1860*, Vol. 1 (New York: Peter Smith, 1941), p. 540, refers to the occasional use of ditches and sod fences supplemented by small post and rail fences on the embankments. Stevenson Whitecomb Fletcher, *Pennsylvania Agriculture and** Country Life, 1640-1840* (Harrisburg:
> PennsylvaniaHistorical and Museum Commission, 1950), p. 87, cites the use of ditches with hedges in 1778. See also John A. Warder, *Hedges and
> Evergreens: A complete Manual for the Cultivation, Pruning, and Management of all Plants suitable for American Hedging; especially the Maclura, or Osage Orange* (New York: Orange Judd Company, Agriculture Book Publishers,Press, 1858), pp. 174, 195, 201.
>
> Best wishes,
> Kate
>
> On Fri, Jun 26, 2015 at 2:35 PM, Linda Derry <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
>> Histarchers,
>>
>> I need your help. There is a cemetery in our archaeological park that
>> was established by the Alabama legislature in 1851 but we can't find
>> any legal records that describe the boundaries. However there are
>> historical records (newspaper reports mostly) that say that the
>> cemetery was "surrounded by a ditch" and a few years after it was
>> created, an osage orange hedge was planted just inside the ditch.
>>
>> Today, the ditch is still very apparent, and there are a few aged
>> osage orange trees too.
>>
>> Our attorney has told us he does't think that he can use the ditch as
>> evidence of the boundary, because of the word "surrounds" since, as he
>> says, "its like saying that the Indians surrounded the fort and that
>> doesn't imply they were establishing a boundary." A fence he would
>> accept, and he may consider the osage orange, but he doesn't seem to
>> think we can protect the ditch from our neighbor's bulldozers.
>>
>> So, I am turning to you for help. Are there other examples of
>> graveyards that were enclosed by ditches, or documented evidence that
>> ditches were used as boundary markers. I'm trying to argue that
>> historically ditches were just as real as fences in establishing boundaries.
>>
>> Linda Derry
>> Site Director, Old Cahawba Archaeological Park Alabama Historical
>> Commission
>> 719 Tremont Street, Selma, AL 36701
>> office: 334/875-2529
>> park: 334/ 872-8058
>> [log in to unmask]
>>
> --
> *Katharine Johnson*
> PhD Candidate, Dept of Geography
> Geospatial Data & Web Development Specialist Map and Geographic Information Center Connecticut State Data Center University of Connecticut [log in to unmask] http://geomorphology.uconn.edu/research-group/kate-johnson/
> <http://uconn.academia.edu/KatharineJohnson>
> Talk. Text. Crash.
>
>
> [Talk. Text. Crash.]<http://www.txdot.gov/inside-txdot/division/traffic/safety/share-road/distracted.html>
>
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