mechanics and functions of a smoke house - University of Delaware ...

not have poured money into a vacant or unused building. We may therefore
assume that the smoke house was a necessary element of the farm, and
that it was in Dickinson's interest to keep it in working order. Indeed in
1798, an agreement between Mr. Dickinson and Daniel Walker concerning
various repairs on the property include the building of a new smoke house
14 feet by 14 feet. s Whether this contract was fulfilled we do not know,
though a note to Dickinson from Joseph Rash the following month (May
1798) indicates that he had taken down the smoke house? (In preparation
for erecting a new one?) A receipt dated April 7, 1802 for "2 logs for the
Smokhouse got and put in"s acknowledges that four years after the contract
to build a new smoke house was written there ~ a smoke house. Of
Daniel Walker's hand or some other's is a mystery.
However, it is the detailed contract between John Dickinson and
William Dickinson of June 17, 1806 which provided the material
specifications necessary to the reconstruction of the building. 9 (See
Appendix A) It is hypothesized that the smoke house mentioned in previous
accounts burned when the mansion caught fire in 1805. If the smoke house
was located behind the house, as it logically would have been, (though no
archeaological evidence has been discovered), it would have been in the
path of the fire blown west by the wind. 1o Furthermore, 1806 is the year in
which repairs to the fire damaged mansion were begun and thought the
1806 agreement is reportedly "for repairing the smoke house", the itemized
list of material used in the repair amount to a new building from top (700
shingles), to bottom (4 logs twelve long). The current reconstruction is
based therefore on the John DickinsonlWilliam Dickinson agreement, on
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