Questions Arise Over Folk Art Discovery In Sandy Hook

By Nancy K. Crevier

Imagine a young boy standing on the porch of his home on High Rock Road in Sandy Hook. It is the latter part of the 19th Century, his chores are done for the day, and perhaps the afternoon is stretching out long and boring before him. In his pocket is a jack knife, a not uncommon tool for a preteen boy of his era to carry with him.

In front of him is a stretch of blank wall, wide chestnut boards sheltered by the overhang. He looks about furtively for his parents, or maybe his older siblings, then fumbles to unfold the rather dull knife. There is a little bit of the artist that cannot be restrained in the boy. He steps closer to the wall, and reaching out begins to carve out the fictional village scene that may earn him a belting, if his father catches him.

The first building he whittles into the firm wood is a building of Greek Revival style. Nine over nine windows appear on either side of a large front door. The peaked roof includes a tall, spire-like chimney.

Now he adds some wavy smoke coming out of the chimney. A lean-to appears, teetering off the side of the building. Little by little, he adds other houses, skinny lines indicating pathways connecting them to each other. Some he carves more tentatively, perhaps listening for footsteps that will warn him to quickly pocket his knife before he is caught.

It is a scene we can only imagine, said Town Historian Dan Cruson, observing the primitive panels that perch atop one of his tables in his Edmond Town Hall office. More than one hundred years later, the boards have been recovered from the site of the original historic Sherman family homestead, where owner Jeffrey Paison had stored them in his garage, following the destruction of the 1700s home by fire about eight years ago, said Mr Cruson. “Jeff saved as much of the paneling as he could when the home burned,” Mr Cruson said, “maybe intending to utilize it somehow when he rebuilt. Chestnut boards have some value, since the trees no longer exist. But they stayed stored in his garage. I don’t think he had ever noticed the etchings until this past spring when he was moving them around, and a fluke of light caught them.”

 Mr Paison contacted Tucker Frey, a local antiques dealer, to verify the authenticity of his discovery, who in turn called Faith Gulick, curator for the Newtown Historical Society, and himself, said Mr Cruson. “Talk about enthusiastic!” he declared. “As far as we knew, this was unique.”

Since the discovery, several archeologists from around the state have taken a look at the panels, and agree that these are one-of-a-kind examples of early American folk art.

“This is as exciting as the discovery of those murals in the home on Flat Swamp Road a few years back,” said Mr Cruson, Tuesday, October 18, looking at the boards in his office. “More so, because they were incised on a somewhat exterior wall and survived.”

The low relief carvings cover three boards for a length of just over five feet, at a height of what would have been approximately three feet off the ground. It is the height at which they were drawn and the simplicity of the drawings that leads Mr Cruson to believe they were done by a youngish boy — or girl.

Under the office lighting, the boards appear to be blank. Once high intensity lamps are strategically aimed at the boards, though, the whimsical scene of nearly 20 structures suddenly unfolds.

The eye is drawn first to the primary building, and the largest and most deeply cut, in the middle. From there, lines of varying depth and clarity lead the viewer on a tour of the town, which from what Mr Cruson and his colleagues can currently ascertain, is not of an actual place.

“We did find a Federal-style building, a duplex, in Sandy Hook, that resembles this one, in the upper part of the board,” said Mr Cruson, pointing to a square building featuring what appear to be six windows on a third story above another six windows on a second story, with windows flanking two separate doorways on the lower level. Although it was similar, the house in Sandy Hook was only a two-story home, he said.

“I’m guessing these were all from the artist’s imagination,” Mr Cruson said.

Looking more closely, one can see the ghostly images of primitive stick figures in doorways or on pathways. “It’s like Where’s Waldo,” Mr Cruson declared. “The more you look at it, the more you see. You discover things where you haven’t seen them before, each time you look at it,” he said.

The use of a magnifying glass has helped him to uncover subtle carvings, and carvings over which others have been superimposed. In the center part of one board, a perfect circle with a dot in the center indicates that at some point the artist pulled out a compass to draw the sphere. Nearby, a peculiar collection of dots gives Mr Cruson pause. “What could these be? Do they mean anything, or are they just random jabs made with the point of the knife?” he wondered.

Who the artist is remains a mystery — as does his fate when the adults in the household certainly discovered his dalliance with art. The only clue is a precisely crafted letter “E” in the lower right of the bottom board. Because the letter is executed so perfectly, Mr Cruson suspects a straight edge was used to form the letter.

“There are some Ezekiels and Ephraims in the Sherman family history — enough probable candidates in the ten generations of Shermans who lived there that I can’t eliminate any one,” said Mr Cruson. Further calligraphic initials scrawled on the backside of one panel, barely having survived the scorching of the fire, give further pause as to the identity of the artist. Those initials, “D” and “P,” are more likely the initials of the original builder, though, said Mr Cruson.

Because the early American graffiti is a local piece of folk art, it makes it a desirable addition to the town’s history, he added.

“There is a lot of mystery accompanying this. I’m happy to give an invitation to the public to take a look at it for themselves and extend some other theories,” Mr Cruson said.

The boards will be in the office of the town historian, in Edmond Town Hall, located behind the former town clerk’s office, for several months, and may become a permanent exhibit in the town historian’s office.

Office hours for the town historian are Tuesday and Thursday afternoons, between noon and 4 pm. Mr Cruson suggested calling him at 203-426-6021 prior to visiting — in case he has been called away to another historical mystery.