Indian old field
Encyclopedia
Indian Old Field, or simply Old Field, was a common term used in Colonial American times and up until the early 19th century United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

, by white explorers, surveyor
Surveying
See Also: Public Land Survey SystemSurveying or land surveying is the technique, profession, and science of accurately determining the terrestrial or three-dimensional position of points and the distances and angles between them...

s, cartographers and settler
Settler
A settler is a person who has migrated to an area and established permanent residence there, often to colonize the area. Settlers are generally people who take up residence on land and cultivate it, as opposed to nomads...

s, in reference to land formerly cleared and utilized by Indians
Native Americans in the United States
Native Americans in the United States are the indigenous peoples in North America within the boundaries of the present-day continental United States, parts of Alaska, and the island state of Hawaii. They are composed of numerous, distinct tribes, states, and ethnic groups, many of which survive as...

 for farming (corn
Maize
Maize known in many English-speaking countries as corn or mielie/mealie, is a grain domesticated by indigenous peoples in Mesoamerica in prehistoric times. The leafy stalk produces ears which contain seeds called kernels. Though technically a grain, maize kernels are used in cooking as a vegetable...

 fields or vegetable patches) or occupation. The term appears in many old maps and land documents, often persisting for many decades. It also remains in a number of present-day place names of the Eastern U.S.

Infectious disease epidemics may partially explain why these areas were abandoned in advance of the arrival of white observers. These outbreaks killed in excess of 90% of the population in the hardest hit areas of North America in the wake of initial European contact.

History

Pioneer settlers, in applying for their land grants, exhibited a strong preference for sites located along major trails and particularly those coinciding with these Old Fields. Thus, early land survey plat
Plat
A plat in the U.S. is a map, drawn to scale, showing the divisions of a piece of land. Other English-speaking countries generally call such documents a cadastral map or plan....

s emphasized these features and many place names from New England
New England
New England is a region in the northeastern corner of the United States consisting of the six states of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut...

 south to Florida
Florida
Florida is a state in the southeastern United States, located on the nation's Atlantic and Gulf coasts. It is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the north by Alabama and Georgia and to the east by the Atlantic Ocean. With a population of 18,801,310 as measured by the 2010 census, it...

 represent vestiges of these places.

The earliest white settlers of Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley
Shenandoah Valley
The Shenandoah Valley is both a geographic valley and cultural region of western Virginia and West Virginia in the United States. The valley is bounded to the east by the Blue Ridge Mountains, to the west by the eastern front of the Ridge-and-Valley Appalachians , to the north by the Potomac River...

, which had been vacated by the Indians, noted “Indian old fields”. On the earliest Virginia map to show the upper Chesapeake watershed
Chesapeake Bay
The Chesapeake Bay is the largest estuary in the United States. It lies off the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by Maryland and Virginia. The Chesapeake Bay's drainage basin covers in the District of Columbia and parts of six states: New York, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, and West...

 and Allegheny Mountains
Allegheny Mountains
The Allegheny Mountain Range , also spelled Alleghany, Allegany and, informally, the Alleghenies, is part of the vast Appalachian Mountain Range of the eastern United States and Canada...

 in any detail (the Jefferson-Fry map of 1751) an extensive area of “old fields” known as “Shawno Fields” was designated at the mouth of the South Branch of the Upper Potomac River. (About 9 miles upstream further extensive clearings were noted by the first settlers. A post office and community, "Old Fields
Old Fields, West Virginia
Old Fields is an unincorporated community on the South Branch Potomac River in northern Hardy County, West Virginia, USA.According to the Geographic Names Information System, Old Fields has also been known throughout its history as Indian Old Field, Indian Old Fields, and Oldfields.-History:The...

", exists at this site to the present day.)

In the 1750s, the explorer and surveyor Christopher Gist
Christopher Gist
Christopher Gist was an accomplished American explorer, surveyor and frontiersman. He was one of the first white explorers of the Ohio Country . He is credited with providing the first detailed description of the Ohio Country to Great Britain and her colonists...

 — traveling near the Ohio River
Ohio River
The Ohio River is the largest tributary, by volume, of the Mississippi River. At the confluence, the Ohio is even bigger than the Mississippi and, thus, is hydrologically the main stream of the whole river system, including the Allegheny River further upstream...

 in what later became western West Virginia
West Virginia
West Virginia is a state in the Appalachian and Southeastern regions of the United States, bordered by Virginia to the southeast, Kentucky to the southwest, Ohio to the northwest, Pennsylvania to the northeast and Maryland to the east...

 — wrote in his journal of "Indian old fields" describing "large meadows, fine clover Bottoms & spacious Plains covered with wild Rye".

A 1761 visitor to the colony of South Carolina
South Carolina
South Carolina is a state in the Deep South of the United States that borders Georgia to the south, North Carolina to the north, and the Atlantic Ocean to the east. Originally part of the Province of Carolina, the Province of South Carolina was one of the 13 colonies that declared independence...

 noted:


"There are dispersed up and down the country several large Indian old fields, which are lands that have been cleared by the Indians, and now remain just as they left them. There arise in many places fine savannahs, or wide extended plains, which do not produce any trees; these are a kind of natural lawns, and some of them as beautiful as those made by art.

As recently as 1912, a geneaologist in northern West Virginia published the following definition:

"Old Fields" is a common expression for land that has been cultivated by the Indians and left fallow, which is generally overrun with what they call "broom grass"

"Old Field" place names

New York:
  • Old Field, New York
    Old Field, New York
    Old Field is a village of 918 residents in Suffolk County, New York, United States. The Incorporated Village of Old Field is in the town of Brookhaven, on the North Shore of Long Island. It is one of the most affluent communities in the state and is among the wealthiest towns in the United States...


West Virginia:
  • Old Fields
    Old Fields, West Virginia
    Old Fields is an unincorporated community on the South Branch Potomac River in northern Hardy County, West Virginia, USA.According to the Geographic Names Information System, Old Fields has also been known throughout its history as Indian Old Field, Indian Old Fields, and Oldfields.-History:The...

    , Hardy County
    Hardy County, West Virginia
    As of the census of 2000, there were 12,669 people, 5,204 households, and 3,564 families residing in the county. The population density was 22 people per square mile . There were 7,115 housing units at an average density of 12 per square mile...

  • Old Field Branch, Greenbrier County
    Greenbrier County, West Virginia
    As of the census of 2000, there were 34,453 people, 14,571 households, and 9,922 families residing in the county. The population density was 34 people per square mile . There were 17,644 housing units at an average density of 17 per square mile...

  • Old Field Mountain, Greenbrier County
  • Old Field Fork, Lewis County
    Lewis County, West Virginia
    As of the census of 2000, there were 16,919 people, 6,946 households, and 4,806 families residing in the county. The population density was 44 people per square mile . There were 7,944 housing units at an average density of 21 per square mile...

  • Old Field Fork, Pocahontas County
    Pocahontas County, West Virginia
    As of the census of 2000, there were 9,131 people, 835 households, and 527 families residing in the county. The population density was 10 people per square mile . There were 7,594 housing units at an average density of 8 per square mile...

  • Old Field Ridge, Pocohontas County


Kentucky:
  • Indian Old Fields
    Eskippathiki
    Eskippathiki was the last Native American town in Kentucky....

    , originally Eskippathiki, last Indian town in Kentucky
    Kentucky
    The Commonwealth of Kentucky is a state located in the East Central United States of America. As classified by the United States Census Bureau, Kentucky is a Southern state, more specifically in the East South Central region. Kentucky is one of four U.S. states constituted as a commonwealth...


Georgia:
  • Ocmulgee Old Fields
    Ocmulgee National Monument
    Ocmulgee National Monument preserves traces of over ten millennia of Southeastern Native American culture, including major earthworks built more than 1,000 years ago by Mississippian culture peoples: the Great Temple and other ceremonial mounds, a burial mound, and defensive trenches...

    , Georgia


The name of Clearfield County, Pennsylvania
Clearfield County, Pennsylvania
Clearfield County is a county located in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania. As of 2010, the population was 81,642.Clearfield County was created on March 26, 1804, from parts of Huntingdon and Lycoming Counties but was administered as part of Centre County until 1812...

is also thought to be related to Indian old fields.
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