Barnyard Trail: Incinerator

The incinerator was a modern solution to an age old problem.

NPS/Sucena

In August 1852, Sarah Kirkland Floyd wrote her husband John Gelston Floyd, Sr. about her dismay of the conditions of the barnyard. Martin Van Buren’s son, John, had visited the estate and asked to see the barns. She wrote that she made excuses, “knowing all the time they would not have looked any better if you had been [here], you careless fellow! so they did not go through the gutter now 1/2 a foot deep with green putrid water, or see the vile wood pile & trash around the outbuildings." 

Trash was, as it remains to today, always a struggle to manage. Through the 18th and 19th centuries, the Floyds relied on refuse pits for discarding trash. In the 20th century, the Floyd’s decided to tackle the endless trash problem by installing this incinerator. 

 Archeological digs of refuse pits, outhouses, and land around extant and previous building locations help us date periods of occupation and land use. We have recovered toothbrushes, ceramic dishes, tobacco pipes, and more from these sites.