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A Historic Context for the Archaeology of Industrial Labor in the State of Maryland
by Robert C. Chidester |
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The Maryland Comprehensive Historic Preservation Plan includes six counties and Baltimore City in the Piedmont region. The counties are Frederick, Carroll, Montgomery, Howard, Baltimore and Harford. While many people are aware of the intense industrialization in Baltimore City and along the Patapsco River in Baltimore and Howard counties, they are not aware of the large amount of industry everywhere else in this region. The Piedmont consequently has some of the largest concentrations of industrial labor heritage in the state.
As with the rest of Maryland (except western Allegany County), most of the Piedmont counties have been dependent on agriculture throughout their histories. The Piedmont climate was not conducive to tobacco cultivation, however, and here farmers switched to wheat and other crops before farmers on the Western and Eastern shores. Agricultural milling, of course, forms a large segment of the industrial legacy of the Piedmont, as does lime production. Other prominent industries included iron production, mining, quarrying and various manufacturing enterprises.
Aside from milling, many laborers in the Piedmont region were immigrants or came from recently immigrated families. In earlier periods people of German descent, moving south from Pennsylvania, were prominent. Welsh and Irish immigrants made up an increasingly larger proportion of the labor force during the 19th century. In Baltimore City, as in many other East Coast cities in the U.S., Italian and Eastern European immigrants came to dominate the working classes during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Finally, antebellum iron furnaces followed the general pattern in Maryland by using enslaved Africans and African-Americans.
Industrial unionism became important in the Piedmont, especially in Baltimore City and Baltimore County, during the late 19th century and continued strongly into the 20th century. Baltimore City has seen numerous strikes throughout its history. Important unions have included the United Steelworkers, the United Autoworkers, the Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America, and the Industrial Workers of the World.[255]
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HARFORD COUNTY
Milling has been the dominant form of industry in Harford County throughout its history, but from its beginning it has milling has been more industrial than agricultural. It has been estimated that Harford County has been home to between 100 and possibly as many as 400 mills over the years.[256] Merchant mills had sprung up in Harford County by the late 18th century, possibly due to their proximity to the major port of Baltimore. The villages of Monkton and Mill Green developed around large grist mills.[257] The Jerusalem Mill Village, now a National Register site, included the grist mill, a miller’s house, a saw mill, a coppering and blacksmith shop, a gunsmith shop, a farm house, a general store, a post office, and mill workers’ dwellings.[258]
The Lower Deer Creek Valley and the Stafford vicinity were major centers of industry during this period. By the end of the 18th century, Deer Creek was lined with grist, saw, tanbark and flint mills, iron forges and furnaces and tanneries. One such industry was the Husband Flint Mill, opened during the first decade of the 19th century on the site of the earlier Nottingham Forge. This mill ground quartz for use in pottery and porcelain dishes. The labor force consisted of about 25 residents of the nearby free African-American community of Kalmia. Granite and gneiss quarries were opened in this area prior to the American Revolution.[259] Stafford was founded around 1800 by John Stump III. Stafford had saw, grist, and slatting mills, an iron furnace, and a blacksmith’s shop.[260]
The Bush Creek Iron Works and the Cumberland Forge comprised one of the earliest industries in the county. Established in 1746, this business included corn and saw mills, a coal house, a blacksmith shop, and dwellings for the 13 slaves who worked here. The iron works had ceased operation by 1810.[261] Up near the Pennsylvania border, in the vicinity of the present-day communities of Cardiff and Whiteford, slate quarries were being commercially mined by 1785.[262] The villages of Lapidum and Rocks were both important warehouse and shipping centers during the late 18th century.[263] Finally, a silk hat factory operated in Abingdon from about 1800 to 1820.[264]
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BALTIMORE COUNTY
Industry in Baltimore County during the period of Rural Agrarian Intensification was also dominated by milling, although not with the diversity of Harford County. One of the more famous milling concerns in early republic Maryland was Ellicott’s Mills, situated in southwest Baltimore County on the Patapsco River and on the border with what is now Howard County. In 1770 the Wilkins-Rogers Company built a grist mill on the site, and in 1792 the Ellicotts attached a flour mill to it. This flour mill is reputed to have been the first merchant flour mill in the U.S. The Ellicotts are important in Maryland history not just because they operated a number of very successful mills, but also because they were the primary proponents of the agricultural shift toward wheat and away from tobacco in 18th-century Maryland. In 1806 they added an iron works to the business, consisting of a rolling and slitting mill. The Ellicotts were also pioneers in the area of company-owned worker housing. Granite Hill, a long row of workers’ residences that is still extant, may have been built in the late 18th century. The village also contained a post office, a store and a school. Many of the laborers were, like the Ellicotts, Quakers who had migrated to Maryland from Pennsylvania.[265]
Another early mill village developed nearby in southwestern Baltimore as well. In 1809 an 800-spindle textile mill was opened by the Union Manufacturing Company, and the village was named Oella, according to the Oella Historic District National Register nomination,[266] “in commemoration of the first woman who applied herself to the spinning of cotton on the continent of America.” By 1815, the end of the period of Rural Agrarian Intensification, the Oella mill had 5,000 spindles. The 1811-1812 diary of a British diplomat who visited the factory describes some of its working conditions. According to this diplomat, the factory employed 300 people (including children) who worked from sunrise to sunset. They were allowed one half hour for breakfast and a full hour for dinner. The company built stone and log houses for its workers during the first quarter of the 19th century.[267]
A paper mill was constructed at Marble Vale in the late 18th century.[268] The other mills in Baltimore County at this time were mostly small, agricultural mills. A gristmill was constructed in Rockland in 1813, and downstream from this was a bleach works opened in 1810.[269]
The early iron industry in Maryland had at least three sizeable representatives from Baltimore County. Charles Ridgely built the Northampton Furnace north of Towson for Ridgely, Lux and Company around 1760, and the operation thrived into the early 19th century. Attached to Northampton were a merchant flour mill and a saw mill. The labor force at the Northampton Ironworks was in many ways representative of other colonial ironworks. The complex was located in a then-rural area close to water and abundant timber supply. The labor force could be divided into four basic classes, including enslaved laborers, indentured servants, hirelings and free laborers. Indentured servants were the largest group. All of the indentured servants at Northampton were British, with the majority being English. Enslaved laborers were the second largest group. Ridgely and the company owned separate enslaved populations, but both worked at the ironworks. Other small slaveholders also occasionally hired their slaves to the company. Indentured servants and slaves performed the least skilled work for the operation, such as woodcutting. Hirelings were a notch above indentured servants but below free laborers on the hierarchy, contracting themselves to the company for a certain period of time in exchange for a wage and certain provisions. Free laborers were often culled from the surrounding population on a seasonal basis. Many of these people were skilled artisans such as moulders.
Northampton, like many early “iron plantations,” was more than just an industrial complex; it was also a community. Charles Ridgely’s wife was an important early convert to Methodism in colonial Maryland, and as a result a chapel was built for the ironworks laborers. In fact, the ironworkers, the Ridgelys and their upper-class neighbors met frequently for prayer and worship. This allowed the upper class to display their paternalism and their innate superiority (even though Methodism stressed people’s basic equality).
Despite the fact that many of the Northampton Ironworks’ laborers were indentured or enslaved, labor unrest was not uncommon. Attempts to escape were frequent, if not often successful. Many of the enslaved laborers tried to escape into Baltimore, where they could easily blend in with the many free African-Americans in Fell’s Point. Irish indentured servants, the only workers known to attempt escape in groups, usually traveled west and north. Other forms of protest centered on workers’ customary rights, as when two slaves hired from another master left the ironworks complaining of rancid meat provisions. Overall, however, the division of labor at the ironworks (by both class and ethnicity) probably prevented the formation of group solidarity among the workers.[270]
The Gunpowder Iron Works, on Gunpowder Falls, began operation in 1759. Not much is known of the early years of this business.[271] Dorseys Forge was founded in 1761 by Caleb Dorsey, an ironmaster who was also involved in several other iron forges and furnaces. Dorseys Forge was located on the north bank of the Patapsco River, just north of Howard County. A gristmill was also attached to this operation. Part of the property was leased to William Whetcroft in 1775, a silversmith who had contracted with Maryland to produce muskets. Whetcroft’s complex included a slitting mill. At least nine skilled slaves were working at Dorseys Forge in 1787, including forgemen, blacksmiths, a miller, a waggoner, a carpenter and a fineryman.[272]
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BALTIMORE CITY[273]
Baltimore’s growth as an industrial city during the 18th century was largely due to its location as a prime shipping center on the Chesapeake Bay. Beginning with tobacco and then wheat, many of northern and western Maryland’s farmers and millers shipped their produce to Baltimore to be exported.[274] As people began to cluster around this port, related industries such as shipbuilding and wharf construction also arose. South of the city, the Westport district became the home of several iron furnaces, glass manufactories and textile and paper mills during the mid-18th century.[275]
The Baltimore Ironworks, located on the Gwynns Falls, was founded in 1731 by several prominent Maryland aristocrats, including three members of the Carroll family and Daniel Dulaney. Unlike many other early Maryland ironworks, this was owned and operated locally, rather than from Britain. The first forge was not actually put into blast until 1738, but by 1764 the operation included furnaces, two forges (and a third under construction), and 150 enslaved laborers. Jobs practiced by these workers included founding, keeping, men to keep the furnace in blast, men to supply it with ore and charcoal, men to crush and burn the ore, miners, colliers, woodcutters, farm hands (the company also cultivated a substantial amount of land to provide for its laborers), blacksmiths, wheelwrights, carpenters, and cooks. Free and indentured white laborers were also employed. Medical care for enslaved laborers was provided by the company.[276]
One of the first industrial areas of Baltimore was the Federal Hill vicinity. During the late 18th century Federal Hill, on the southwest side of Baltimore’s harbor, became a hotbed of the shipping and seafaring trades. Production of glass, brick and pottery also began in this area in the late 1700s.[277] Across the harbor in the Fell’s Point District, shipping, warehouses and shipbuilding all provided employment for a large number of people, including both enslaved and free African-Americans.[278] The Camden Yards area to the west was primarily rural during this period, but was home to several brickyards as well.[279]
On Lombard Street, north of the harbor, the Claggett Brewery opened.[280] In the northeastern section of town, the area around Gay Street in Jonestown was populated mostly by working-class artisans, including flour millers, blacksmiths, stay makers, tanners and brass founders.[281] The northern part of the present-day city, which was then an outlying area, provided water-power for milling through Gwynns Falls and Jones Falls. In 1790 a row of six houses was constructed in what became Dickeyville, for the workers at the Tschudi Mill. In 1811 this operation became the Franklin Paper Mill.[282]
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HOWARD COUNTY
Howard County was one of the last counties to be formed in Maryland, being separated from Anne Arundel County in 1851. Howard County has seen a great deal of industry and labor in its history. The Patapsco River has provided power for milling operations since this area was first settled by Europeans. Ellicott City sits on the site where the Ellicott family made milling a big business toward the end of the 18th century.[283] The first traces of industrialization appeared in other areas such as Guilford and Simpsonville, but would not blossom until the period of Agricultural-Industrial Transition.
In addition to the area that would become Ellicott City, the Elkridge area developed industry at an early date. Caleb Dorsey, Edward Dorsey and Alexander Lawson built an iron furnace here in 1755. This plant melted ore to produce pigs for work at a forge.[284] Nearby, the Hockley Forge was constructed under the direction of Charles Carroll of Carrollton in 1760. By the late 1790s the complex included a grist and saw mill, a slitting mill with a blacksmith shop attached, and a nail factory. Many of the laborers were slaves.[285]
CARROLL COUNTY
The idyllic rolling hills of Carroll County belie its industrial past. Carroll County was created from parts of Frederick and Baltimore counties in 1837. Mining, canning, tanning, milling, lime production and railroad construction are the major industries that have been located in Carroll County. Early industry in Carroll County was primarily confined to milling. By the end of the 18th century there were an estimated 31 mills in the county.[286]
The village of Detour grew around a complex that included a grist, a woolen and a saw mill, all constructed in the 1790s.[287] Bachman’s Mills became a small crossroads in the early 19th century when the Bachman family bought a grist mill and donated land for the construction of a church nearby. It was not long before a schoolhouse and a store were added as well.[288] A number of other small custom mills were constructed during the late 18th century, but many of them failed to attract a village until the period of Agricultural-Industrial Transition.
Avondale is a small community just outside of Westminster with an interesting legend. Leigh Master built an iron foundry here around 1765 and used slave labor to operate it. Thomas Scharf, the prolific 19th-century author of Maryland county histories, relates the tale that Master’s ghost haunts the hills around Avondale begging forgiveness for a horrible misdeed. It is rumored that he once killed a slave that he disliked and threw the body into the furnace while it was in blast, in order to hide the evidence.[289] Whether or not this actually happened is not known.
Westminster, which eventually became the county seat, owed much of its early prosperity to tanning; four of the first lots laid out in town were the home and tanyard of Jacob Yingling. An iron foundry was established there in the early 19th century.[290] Taneytown was the center of a diverse array of industries in the late 18th century. These included a tool manufactory (which burned in 1799), a hat factory, a pottery, tan yards and a brick-making business. In the early 19th century a marble yard was opened.[291] Near Middlesburg, copper was mined during the 1740s.[292]
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FREDERICK COUNTY
Surrounded by the primarily agricultural Carroll, Montgomery and Washington counties, Frederick County has seen its share of farming. Nevertheless, it has also been one of the most industrialized counties in Maryland throughout its history. Milling, tanning, iron production, lime production and glass-making have all been important to the county’s economic base.
The area around Sugarloaf Mountain saw a flurry of early industrial activity. The Johnson family moved to Frederick County in the 1770s, where they quickly became iron entrepreneurs. The Johnson Furnace was very important during the Revolutionary War, supplying the Continental Army with firearms. The labor used to operate the furnace came from primarily free and enslaved African-Americans. The Johnson brothers also established the Bloomsbury Forge, the Furnace Branch Furnace, the Bennett Creek Forge, the Bush Creek Forge, and Catoctin Furnace, all in Frederick County. With the exception of Catoctin Furnace, these enterprises were defunct by 1815.[293]
Catoctin Furnace was one of the longest-operating iron furnaces in Maryland. Established in 1774 by the Johnson brothers about 12 miles northwest of Frederick, Catoctin was originally a self-sufficient community. Dwellings were constructed for the laborers and for the overseers.[294] Many of the laborers were first- or second-generation slaves who brought iron-working skills and traditions with them from West Africa.[295] Not much is known about their lives outside of the time they spent working for the furnace, but skeletal analysis of remains from a partially exhumed cemetery indicates hard work, poor childhood health and a coarse diet.[296]
Nearby Johann Friedrich Amelung, a German glassmaker, set up the Amelung Glass Factory around 1785. Amelung brought 68 experienced glass workers with him when he immigrated to the United States, and fourteen more came shortly thereafter. By 1790 the operation employed between 400 and 500 people. Amelung built single-family housing for his workers, though not in a uniform architectural style or on a street grid. He also built at least two schools for his employees’ children. He called his village New Bremen, after the site of his origin in Germany. Amelung glass quickly became very popular, but financial troubles forced Amelung to close the factory in 1795.[297] Another glass factory, the Mt. Etna Glass Works, was in operation around the same time north of Frederick.[298]
Many of the laborers from the Amelung Factory stayed in the area after the business closed. Some went to work at the nearby Kohlenberg Glass Factory (partly owned by Amelung’s son) or the Bush Creek Forge. A number of them, however, established the Fleecy Dale Woolen Factory and Ordeman’s Distillery in 1810, at one point employing 10 men, 14 women and 15 children.[299]
Creagerstown was another early industrial village in Frederick County. Established as a crossroads village in 1775, the village became home to a large tannery in 1785. A German brewery was built in 1807, but the tannery closed in 1810.[300] Thurmont was also originally just a crossroads community, but eventually it became one of the three largest towns in Frederick County. During the late 18th century it was known as Mechanicstown for the large number of blacksmiths and mechanics who resided there. Early 19th-century industries included a tool factory, a woolen mill, tanneries and a match factory.[301]
Agricultural milling was a major industry in early Frederick County. It has been estimated that there were over 80 grist mills on the Monocacy River alone in 1791, and that there have been over 400 throughout the county’s history.[302] Villages grew up during the late 18th and early 19th centuries around Kinna’s Mill, Black’s Mill, the Lewis Mill, the Brunswick Mill, the Benjamin Rice Mill, the Bowlus Flour Mill in Spoolsville, the Dorsey Mill in New London, Michael’s Mill near Buckeystown, the Doubs Mill (supposedly built by Charles Carroll of Carrollton in 1812), the Harrisville Mill, the Ceresville Flour Mill and the Spring Plains Mills. All of these were grist, saw or flour mills, or some combination thereof.[303]
Other minor industries that appeared were quarrying, lime burning and brick making. A stone quarry was opened near Ceresville in 1810.[304] Buckeystown became home to the Thomas Brickyards in the late 18th century, and a lime kiln was constructed nearby around 1800.[305]
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MONTGOMERY COUNTY
Industry in early Montgomery County, as in other Maryland counties, was primarily in the form of milling. Several small agricultural mills became the raison d’etre for crossroads communities, which in turn became industrial villages. Compared to other counties in the Piedmont region, however, industry never became as important in Montgomery County as elsewhere.
Hyattstown developed around a mill that was built sometime between 1783 and 1798.[306] In Brookeville, a fulling mill was in operation by at least 1793, and a second mill and a tan yard were built early in the 1800s.[307] A grist mill was established in Triadelphia in 1809 or 1810.[308] A bone mill for fertilizer production was built in Clarksburg in the first years of the 19th century.[309] The Dufief Mill in Darnestown was built sometime around the turn of the century.[310] Other mills sprang up in Germantown, Kensington, Potomac and near Boyds and Rockville, among other places.[311]
Sandstone and marble quarrying were the prominent industries in the Seneca area during the late 18th and early 19th centuries. The first quarries were opened in the 1780s to provide stone for a skirting canal along the Great Falls of the Potomac River. In the early 19th century red sandstone and marble became popular, and many government buildings in Washington D.C. have some Seneca sandstone or marble in them.[312]
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HARFORD COUNTY
During the period of Agricultural-Industrial Transition industrial milling continued to be a force in Harford County. Saw and cider mills were added to the existing stock in Mill Green.[313] In the Lower Deer Creek Valley the village of Cookville was developed by Elisha Cook. After failing at a woolen mill, Cook opened a successful tannery and tanbark mill in 1842. The Cook family also owned the community’s school and store.[314] In the Stafford industrial area a flint and bone mill was constructed in 1850.[315] The Husband Flint Mill continued to thrive, and some quarry pits from this period can still be seen nearby. The inhabitants of Kalmia also established a chapel and cemetery during this time.[316] The Jerusalem mill village gained a general store and post office.[317]
The Whitaker Mill near Bel Air was constructed, and it eventually became one of the most productive mills in the entire county.[318] The N.S. Bemis Mill near Mill Green was built in 1827, and soon included a forge and a tavern.[319] In 1857 a grist mill was built in Chrome Valley, but by the late 1860s it was a part of the operations of the Baltimore Chrome Mining Company.[320]
Shipping also continued to thrive during this period. The LaGrange Warehouse in Rocks employed as many as 300 men at one point, and the owners of the business, the Rogers family, also built a schoolhouse, an icehouse, a smokehouse and a blacksmith and wheelwright shop.[321] Havre de Grace, which had been founded in the 18th century, became more than just a political center when it became a prominent shipping entrepôt. The town had coal and ice wharves and a shipyard.[322]
Figure 16. Family composition among Harford Furnace employees, 1850-1870. Source: Hurry 1990: Table 1. (Courtesy of the Maryland Geological Survey and the Maryland State Highway Administration.)
The first half of the period of Agricultural-Industrial Transition saw the zenith of the iron industry in Harford County. The Deer Creek Iron Works was established in the middle of the century employing African-Americans from Kalmia.[323] The Sarah Furnace was constructed in the Jarrettsville vicinity around the same time. This furnace produced pig iron. The village that developed around Sarah Furnace included at least five houses, a store, a post office, a cobbler shop, a blacksmith shop and a school.[324]
The Harford Furnace was constructed around 1830 near the site of the old Bush Creek Iron Works, and operated until the 1860s. A village grew up around the furnace, which at its largest consisted of 48 buildings or structures. These included a store and post office, a blacksmith shop, a lime kiln, a sawmill, warehouses, and workers’ dwellings. After the Civil War the iron works was converted to a chemical plant to produce pyroligneus acid, but it closed down for good in the early 1870s.[325]
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BALTIMORE COUNTY
During this period in Baltimore County, the iron industry expanded, manufacturing mills became even more numerous, and other industries such as quarrying, lime production and powder production appeared on the scene. In general, the county experienced an industrial florescence that has seldom been matched in Maryland’s history.
By the 1830s the Ellicotts had hit financial difficulties and sold their mills. The rolling and slitting mill was replaced around the middle of the 19th century by a textile mill, the Granite Hill Factory, which employed around 150 people (mostly women) in 1850. The Ellicotts’ main merchant grist mill had been replaced by another owned by the Patapsco Company in the 1830s. These changes were part of a general pattern of industrial change wherein large milling concerns went from being owner-operated to being investor-owned.[326]
In 1815 the mill in Oella had expanded to 5,000 spindles, and in 1819 it acquired power looms. In 1822 an additional mill was built that contained 150 power looms and 7,000 spindles, making the Union Manufacturing Company the largest textile company outside of New England. At this time the mills employed 10 men, 16 boys and 104 women. Before the end of the period Oella had 80 tenements for workers, machine houses, smith shops, a grist mill, a school and a boarding house for apprentices in the mill. The Union Manufacturing Company closed in 1834 due to overproduction, but in the 1840s the Granite Hill Factory took its place. By 1850 150 people were employed in the Granite Hill Factory. During this period the companies built workers’ dwellings out of brick.[327]
In 1823 a mill in Ilchester was purchased by Scottish immigrant brothers from the Ellicott family. By 1825 they had opened a cotton textile and cotton print mill called Thistle Factory. The owners built housing for their primarily Welsh workers. In addition to cotton print, the factory made silk, silk yarn, cotton and cotton thread.[328] Franklinville, another village centered around a mill, was born in 1827 with the founding of the Franklinville Cotton Factory.[329] In 1813 a grist, saw and flour mill had been erected in Rockland. In 1831 this mill became a calico printing works, and in the 1850s it was used to spin cotton. Rockland had a tavern, the head miller’s house, a post office and general store, and rowhouses for mill workers and team drivers.[330] In the 1840s the mill village of Elysville was founded. It was here that the Daniels Dam provided power to a denim and canvas mill, and in the 1850s the mill supplied the U.S. Army with tent canvas.[331]
The small community of Texas, in northern Baltimore County, developed in the mid-19th century around lime quarrying and burning. At one time there were as many as 40 lime kilns in the area.[332] Other lime kilns were located near Rockland, Wakefield, Greenspring, and the Gunpowder Falls.[333] Many miners’ barracks were constructed in Texas.[334]
In the Caves Valley district, iron ore mining began around the middle of the 19th century to supply the Ashland Iron Furnace.[335] In western Baltimore County, commercial granite quarrying began in the 1830s to provide material for the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad. The earliest companies active in this area were the Walters and Fox Rock companies, which both employed over 50 men. The aptly-named village of Granite sprang up around these operations. Residents were of African-American, Scotch, Welsh, English, French and Italian extraction, and the village soon had two churches, a school, a social hall and various community buildings.[336]
In the 1840s the Gunpowder Falls became home to the Gunpowder Copper Works. This enterprise included a sheet mill, two annealing furnaces, a till and bolt mill, two furnaces, a blacksmith shop, a carpenter and turning shop, two refining shops, a slag furnace, coal houses, and dwellings for the laborers.[337]
Several iron furnaces operated in Baltimore County during the 19th century. The Northampton Furnace continued to operate, employing 50 laborers in 1820. By 1826 it had shrunk to 22 workers.[338] The Gunpowder Iron Works stayed in business until 1866.[339] In the 1840s the Ashland Iron Works was chartered, and by 1850 it employed 45 laborers. The Ashland Iron Works was the first in the county to use anthracite coal rather than charcoal to power its blast furnace. The Civil War did nothing to dampen the success of this operation—in 1860 the company employed 200 people, increasing to 250 in 1865. The village around the furnace included a store, a school, a church and 65 workers’ dwellings.[340]
In 1815 the former Dorseys Forge property was bought by the Ellicott family. In 1822 the complex became the Avalon Iron Works near Elkridge and continued to operate throughout most of this period. In 1840 the iron works had thirty hands, but by 1850 it employed 140 people to operate puddling furnaces and nail machines, among other things. A large number of tenements had been built by this time for the company’s employees. In 1868, however, the Patapsco River flooded and washed away many of the buildings associated with this enterprise.[341]
In 1817 the Joppa Iron Works was established north of Gunpowder Falls. This business included a rolling and slitting mill, a nail manufactory and a kiln. The complex was destroyed by fire in 1832, but quickly rebuilt. In 1850 the company employed 130 people, but expanded even more the next year. Employees were housed in company-owned tenant houses.[342]
Beginning in 1849 the Oregon Iron Works operated a furnace and mined iron ore. The company ledgers from the 1850s are in the possession of the Maryland Historical Society, so much is known of the day-to-day operations of the company. The ledgers include time sheets for both furnace workers and ore miners, as well as such information as mechanical problems, weather, deaths, marriages, dates of occupation of the company houses and who was sharing the rent. The company store ledgers are also in the
Figure 17. Workers' house built for the Avalon Ironworks, Baltimore and Howard counties. This is the only remaining building associated with that business; it is located in Patapsco State Park near the Thomas Viaduct. ( Photograph by the author)
possession of the Maryland Historical Society. Between 1851 and 1857 there were usually 30 to 39 employees listed. Most of the names were Irish, but cart drivers were only identified by their first names, indicating that they were probably slaves. The ledgers record one instance when the ore miners refused to work unless their wages were raised to $1 a day; it is not known how this strike turned out. The company’s fortunes waned as the 1850s drew on, and in 1857 the number of employees dropped to 10.[343]
The area around Freeland was home to several paper mills beginning in the 1820s.[344] In 1850 the Davis Plow Factory was opened in Davisville.[345] The Keeney Mill operated in the Eklo vicinity, and its owners provided several houses for its workers.[346] A cotton mill was established north of Baltimore City in 1847 and gave rise to the mill town of Phoenix.[347] The Pocahontas and Powhatan factories had dominated Woodlawn since 1810.[348] During the 1820s, the Aetna Powder Works operated on the Gwynns Falls. In 1833 the mill was bought by the Bellona Powder Works. In 1860 the company had only five employees, and together they earned $180 per year.[349] The Mechanics Cotton Factory operated near Hebbville during the 19th century.[350]
Another venture that provided employment for industrial laborers early in this period was the construction of the B&O Railroad. Work began in the late 1820s with a labor force of about 800 men, which soon became 2,000. The construction work was dangerous, as is evidenced by the death of four Irish immigrants who were killed when the bank under which they were digging collapsed. During the summer of 1829 the work proceeded in shifts around the clock. Many of the workers were Irish immigrants. They lived in a series of temporary shanties or wooden cabins along the path of the railroad as it was being constructed, and many took their families with them.[351]
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BALTIMORE CITY
The period of Agricultural-Industrial Transition saw the true flowering of industry in Baltimore City. During these years industry expanded and diversified, and many of the working-class industrial communities that have left their legacy in the form of the ubiquitous rowhouse were formed. In some ways, Baltimore was like a huge company town run by a number of different companies.
The northern part of the city near the Jones Falls boomed with mill villages during the early part of this period. This area was not actually annexed into the city limits until 1888. By 1860 there were several mill villages, including the Mt. Vernon, Clipper, Druidville, Woodberry, Hampden, and Sweetaire villages. Census data shows a total of 536 mill employees in this area in 1860 and 616 in 1870.[352]
In Mt. Washington, a textile mill opened in 1835. The owners built about 40 houses for their workers. The business employed a diverse set of skilled and unskilled labor: in addition to the main mill, the complex contained a machine shop, a carpenter shop, a dye house, and a boiler room.[353] Over in West Woodberry, the Woodberry Mill, also a textile factory, constructed housing for its laborers in 1843. This mill changed ownership several time during this period, but it remained a model mill village. A few of the workers lived in single-family houses, but most lived in duplexes. The community also had a store and a church.[354]
In the mid-19th century the Mt. Vernon Mills rose to prominence. Built in the style of a Rhode Island-type mill village, the residential area, known as Stone Hill, was placed near the mill for economic efficiency. The company controlled housing, the church and the store.[355] Further west, the Franklin Paper Mill in Dickeyville was bought by the Wethered family in 1829 and converted to the Ashland Textile Mills. During the years between 1829 and 1871, when the Wethered family sold the factory, the town built worker housing, a school, churches and an International Order of Odd Fellows lodge hall.[356]
Western Baltimore also grew from increasing industrialization. In the Barre Circle district, the Hayward and Bartlett Iron Works was the first industry. By mid-century there were about 200 rowhouses for blue-collar laborers. Barre Circle was unusual in that instead of having a mixed blue- and white-collar population, it was almost exclusively blue-collar. Nevertheless, class distinctions did manifest themselves in residential patterns: Skilled craftsmen lived on the main streets while semi-skilled workers and free African-Americans lived in cramped tenements on the smaller streets and alleys.[357]
The B&O Railroad yard at nearby Mt. Clare Station employed 1,000 workers from the Barre Circle district by 1852. A peaceful strike had occurred there in 1839 when the company attempted to withhold back wages from employees who had been fired for dangerous negligence. The strike was broken, and its leaders were fired. The old iron works had become the Hayward-Bartlett Locomotive Works, and this operation and the Winans Locomotive Works employed 350 people each. By 1867 more housing was needed for the mostly Irish and German railroad workers, so Winans constructed another 100 three-story houses for them. By this time there were also two more furnaces and two wagon factories providing employment in the district.[358]
Another working-class community developed in this area as well. The Union Square-Hollins Market district was developed during the 1840s as a residential and commercial area for employees of the B&O Railroad shops, the Winans Locomotive Works, the Hayward-Bartlett Iron Works and the Newman Brothers Piano Works. By 1851 about 1,500 people were employed by these businesses. Many of the residents in this area were German and Irish immigrants who had come to Maryland in the 1830s.[359]
In southeastern Baltimore the area known as Canton developed during the second quarter of the 19th century. In 1828 the Canton Company, a real estate developer, began 100 years of planned growth. Canton became “an uninterrupted picture of a working-class neighborhood in the second half of the 19th century,”[360] eventually containing 91 square blocks of rowhouses. The area had begun to develop in the 1820s with shipyards, wharves, and the 1829 Canton Iron Works. By 1850 the district contained three furnaces, a forge, a cotton mill, a saw mill, a distillery, a candle and lard oil factory, a steam planing factory, a ropewalk, two shipyards, and seven brickyards. These industries together employed about 900 men. The population stood around 2,000 people inhabiting just over 100 dwellings, with one school and two churches. Before the end of the period Denmead’s Engine Factory, the Baltimore Copper Smelting Company and several canneries had opened. Many of the copper workers were Welsh immigrants. During the Civil War the Abbott Mills produced rolled iron plates for the Federal government, for which its employees were exempted from the draft.[361]
In the Federal Hill area, several hundred houses for blue-collar workers had been erected by the middle of the 19th century. By the 1840s the base of the hill had become packed with oyster-boat docks and shipyards. Federal Hill itself was also the location of several sand-mining ventures.[362] In Fell’s Point, shipping, warehousing and shipbuilding remained important. Towards the end of the period, canning and can manufacturing also became prominent.[363] South of the city, the Westport area continued to grow through the mid-19th century.[364]
In Jonestown, the famous Shot Tower was constructed in 1828. Not long after the area became a center of the garment industry, attracting German, Jewish, Irish and Eastern European immigrant laborers. Many sweatshops were opened on Baltimore and Lombard streets.[365] In the Gay Street area of Jonestown, a brush factory, freight company and bakery opened as the area became more commercial and less residential.[366] Between Little Italy and Fell’s Point, the industrial South Central Avenue neighborhood began to develop in the 1820s. Furniture and mattress manufacturing, malting, lumbering, textiles, tanning and iron working were all prominent industries. For the most part, however, this area served as an ancillary production center for other Baltimore industries such as textiles, brewing, canning and construction. Many textile sweatshops were operated in this area. The earliest rowhouses here were constructed between 1828 and 1840. The working-class residents of this area were an ethnically diverse group, including Irish, Italians, Russians, Poles and African-Americans.[367]
Camden Yards began its evolution into an industrial/urban residential area during this period. Many of the area’s early residents were artisans or businesspeople, but by the mid-19th century many of its residents were African-American laborers. Around this time a number of Irish and German immigrants also moved into the area. Industry was spurred by the construction of the B&O Railroad’s Camden Station in 1852, providing employment to many of the neighborhood’s residents. Rowhouses that had formerly housed single families were converted to multiple-family dwellings and boarding houses. Other industrial enterprises here included canneries, lumberyards, cooperages and stone yards.[368]
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HOWARD COUNTY
Howard County saw a rapid industrial boom during the period of Agricultural-Industrial Transition. In the 1820s industry extended to the southern portion of the county with the construction of the Savage Mill. This mill was primarily a carding and spinning operation, but the Savage Manufacturing Company also ran a warehouse, a flour mill and a saw mill. The owners built brick housing for their workers throughout this period. By 1825 the company had added a grist mill, an iron foundry and a machine shop. It employed 200 people, including women and children. In 1847 the company changed hands, and the iron foundry began to concentrate on making cotton mill machinery. Around this time a dry goods store and a grocery were built for the village, and most of the workers’ houses date from the middle of the century.[369]
In Elkridge, the furnace community peaked and then declined. By 1820 the Ellicotts had bought the business and expanded the forge. In the 1830s many of the extant buildings were constructed, including a mansion for the owner, a house for the manager or the clerk, a company store, a workers’ dorm and workers’ duplexes. There are two other small buildings that may have been slave quarters. The furnace’s business slowed, however, and it closed in 1854. The 1868 flood of the Patapsco River destroyed the furnace.[370]
The now-abandoned village of Simpsonville reached its peak during this period. In 1850 the village had two mills and a textile factory (which employed six people) and was called Owingsville. By 1860 a wheelwright, a blacksmith and a merchant were located in the village, as well as at least eight residences. The woolen factory employed ten men and seven women. The grist and saw mills only employed one person each. The village mainly served as a commercial center for the surrounding agricultural population, and that is where most of the labor came from during this period.[371]
James Sykes built a flour mill in the 1830s in what is now Sykesville (straddling the border of Howard and Carroll counties), anticipating the coming of the B&O Railroad. Sykes also owned several cotton and woolen mills in Frederick and Baltimore counties. He brought trained workers from England specifically to staff his mills, and eventually built the Howard Cotton Factory in Sykesville. At its peak this operation employed 200 people. Sykes built housing and a church for his workers. Economic hardship caused the factory to close in 1857, however. It operated sporadically thereafter until the 1868 flood destroyed most of the town.[372]
In the present-day town of Daniels, the Elysville Manufacturing Company was incorporated to produce cotton textiles in 1829. The mill was not actually constructed until 1845 and was not put into operation until 1847. A village quickly grew around the mill, however, and included several stores, a railroad station, a school and mill workers’ houses. In 1853 the business was sold to the Alberton Manufacturing Company and the town’s name was changed to Alberton. Although the Sagonan Manufacturing Company bought the enterprise in the late 1850s, the village retained the name of Alberton into the 1870s. By 1860 the mill had 120 looms and 3,000 spindles, and it employed 50 men and 120 women.[373]
Around the mid-19th century, the B&O Railroad began constructing water stations along its tracks to help provide steam power, and it was not unusual for small communities to develop around these supply points. In Howard County, Nathaniel and William Cavey built such a water station near the Gray Manufacturing Company’s cotton mill in 1869. Residents of the small community that grew up here worked at the Gray’s Cotton Mill, the Patapsco Cotton Mill, and the mills in Ilchester and Ellicott City. Another such water station had been built on Williams Run near Ellicott City earlier in this period.[374]
In 1825 J.D. Matthews built a house and store to accompany his grist mill in Roxbury Mills.[375] Just north of Ellicott’s Mills, the community of Oakland Mills developed in the 1820s. A grist mill was the focus of the village, and workers’ housing and shops for skilled artisans associated with the mill, including a cooper, were constructed.[376] The Hockley Forge and Mill was converted to a distillery and malt house from 1829 to 1833. In 1852 it reverted to being a grist mill.[377] Just south of Savage in Prince George’s County, the village of Laurel Factory expanded across the county line into Howard County in the 1840s.[378] Near Fulton on the Montgomery County line, several lime kilns were constructed and operated during this period.[379] The Elba Furnace mined ore and worked iron near Sykesville.[380]
The B&O Railroad was constructed through Howard County in the early 1830s. As everywhere else where the tracks were constructed, the laborers lived primarily in temporary shanties. While working on the Thomas Viaduct, wages actually decreased for the German and Irish workmen, causing some unrest but no overt violence.[381]
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CARROLL COUNTY
Many of the small saw and grist mills that had been established in Carroll County during the previous period now began to attract small communities. Other industries also began to gain momentum between 1815 and 1870. In particular, railroad construction, tanning and lime production gained importance.
Finksburg had been established in 1810 with the construction of a tavern. Real growth did not occur until the coming of the Western Maryland Railroad in the 1860s, however. Shortly after the Civil War the Patapsco Mining Company, a cannery and the Baltimore Roofing and Asbestos Manufacturing Company located there. The Caledonia paper and flour mills also located nearby.[382] Mt. Airy was another community that benefited from the railroad—construction of a tunnel brought between 200 and 300 construction workers to town who ended up staying.[383]
The Roop Mill near Westminster, which had originally been constructed in 1795, became a grist, saw and cider mill during this period.[384] On Pipe Creek, the Marker’s Mill complex included brick, saw and clover mills in 1835. A small community had arisen by 1860.[385] The village of Spring Mills on Little Pipe Creek was also centered on a grist and saw mill, but also included a tavern, blacksmith shop and railroad depot.[386] McKinstry’s Mills, near Union Bridge, were built from the 1820s through the 1840s. A cooper and a shoemaker were brought to the village around 1840, and a store was built in 1850.[387] The Oakland Mill, which had been built as a grist mill in 1796, was converted to a cotton mill in 1834 and spawned a company town.[388] In 1848 Isaac Hoffman, a member of the Hoffman milling family of Baltimore County, moved to Carroll County and built paper and fulling mills near Houcksville.[389] Roller, Hood’s Mill, New Windsor and Lineboro were other villages that grew up around mills.[390]
Taneytown was home to a clock factory during the first half of the 19th century.[391] In Westminster, the county seat, the Western Railway Company came through town in 1861 and attracted industry along its tracks, spurring the neighborhood nickname “Irish Town” for the Irish immigrant laborers who lived there while constructing the railroad.[392] Similarly, the Western Maryland Railroad’s shops in Union Bridge, built during the Civil War, provided employment for many residents and attracted other industries. The Western Maryland Railroad also built dwellings for its employees. Cigar manufactories were opened in Taneytown and Manchester, hat factories in Westminster and Uniontown, and a nail factory in Union Bridge. The Union Agricultural Works, which included a machine shop, a blacksmith shop and a saw mill, opened in Westminster in 1852.[393]
Tanning was a budding industry in Carroll County during this period. Tanneries were established south of Manchester and at the Union Mills.[394] Rising Sun, the site of a crossroads tavern, became the site of a tannery in 1842. In 1856 the tannery became steam-powered.[395] During the mid-19th century, however, the center of the tanning industry came to be in the appropriately-named Tannery. In addition to several large tanneries, the town had a distillery, a school, a church, a train depot and post office, a telegraph office and a general store. Most of the town’s residents worked in the tanneries.[396]
As a county with a large agricultural population, Carroll County needed kilns to produce lime. The Fenby Farm Quarry and Kiln, built in 1844 near Westminster, was one of the largest lime kilns in the county.[397] Other lime kilns were located near Tannery and Union Mills.[398]
The construction of the B&O Railroad reached Carroll County by 1831. In that year, many of the workers struck for lack of payment. Led by the Irish, they eventually began to destroy the work they had done. The militia was called out to stop the rioters at Sykes’s Mill, arresting 50 workers. Unrest was present within the workers’ ranks as well: The Irish and African-American workers prepared for a two-day battle near New Market in August of 1831. The exact reason for this conflict is unknown, but fortunately the warring parties were dissuaded from action by a local Catholic priest and the appearance of a militia brigade from Frederick.[399]
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FREDERICK COUNTY
Old industries expanded and new industries arose in Frederick County during the period of Agricultural-Industrial Transition. The arrival of the B&O Railroad both provided industrial labor and spurred the growth of other industries dependant on access to transportation.
The railroad era gave rise to a few small settlements throughout the county and also benefited a few mill villages. Buckeystown Station was established in 1831 and was home to railroad workers.[400] Adamstown was founded around 1835, also by railroad workers.[401] Doubs, the location of Charles Carroll of Carrollton’s mill, grew after the arrival of the B&O Railroad.[402] During the 1850s the community known as Slabtown developed a lime burning industry thanks to the railroad. In 1858 the Grove Lime Company located itself there and built housing for its workers.[403]
Point of Rocks was established as a B&O Railroad station in 1831, and the construction of the C&O Canal was taking place nearby. The proximity of both of these projects led to the construction of housing for the workers, and a town was laid out in 1835. Many of the workers were Irish, so a Catholic Church was built in town.[404] Knoxville was established primarily to serve railroad and canal workers around 1830, and also served as a shipping point for Burkittsville area farmers and distillers. The town had a hotel and several churches by 1870.[405] A railroad water station was constructed in 1831 near what became the village of Monrovia. By the 1850s a small community had developed and a bark mill was in operation.[406]
Several of the larger mills that had been established during the previous period shifted from custom to merchant milling around the middle of the 19th century, although many still performed custom work for local farmers. Some of these mills were Kinna’s Mill and Black’s Mill.[407] The Benjamin Rice Mill added cooper and blacksmith shops during the 1850s, and the Bowlus Mill added blacksmith and wagons shops.[408] A merchant grist mill was built in Utica in 1815, and soon attracted a community that included a church, a general store, a school and a cooper shop.[409] The proprietor of Catoctin Furnace built a combination saw and grist mill in 1824, and the village of Lewistown developed around it.[410] Industry remained in the Sugarloaf Mountain district for most of this period, but fizzled out towards the end.[411] The Fleecy Dale Woolen Factory closed in 1860, with only nine employees at the end.[412]
Michael’s Mill in Buckeystown was quite prosperous during this period. By 1842 the complex included a saw mill, a grist mill, a stable, a cooper shop and two warehouses. There were also four dwellings and slave quarters for those who worked at the mill. Two fires almost destroyed the complex in 1855 and 1858. Both were supposedly set by a female slave acting on a grudge against her owner.[413]
Several new mill villages developed between 1815 and 1870. Slate quarries had been developed near the future town of Ijamsville during the early 1800s, but a village didn’t develop until 1831, spurred by the construction of both the Ijams Mill and the B&O Railroad.[414] In Harmony Grove, near Frederick, Worman’s Mill was built around 1840. A small community of mill owners, employees and skilled craftsmen soon sprang up.[415] In Licksville, the Greenfield Mills were constructed in the 1830s.[416] The Glade Valley Mill was constructed around mid-century and spawned Troutville.[417] A woolen mill was built on the Little Catoctin Creek in the 1840s, around which grew the community of Beallsville (now Harmony). For such a small community, Beallsville was religiously diverse: it had three churches.[418]
A copper mine opened near New London in 1840 provided the impetus for the development of that town, which had already been home to a couple of mills. Not much is known about the labor that ran these industries, but there are some indications that both the mills and the mine were dependant on slave and indentured labor, and that after the Civil War many of the former slaves continued to work there.[419]
Catoctin Furnace continued to be an important industrial force between 1815 and 1870. Despite its isolation, manor houses had been built for the owners and the iron master by the early 19th century. The operation reached its peak from the 1850s through the 1880s, adding two furnace stacks during this time. Labor continued to be supplied primarily by slaves up through the Civil War. During its peak years, the furnace employed over 300 wood choppers and coal makers, 100 miners, and 100 men at the furnace, which was kept in blast 24 hours a day.[420]
The importance of tanning in Frederick County rose during this period. The Michael Wiener Tannery was built in Burkittsville between 1834 and 1840. This complex included a pottery kiln, shed and holding pens, wheelwright, blacksmith and carpenter shops, a loom house, tanning vats, and a manufacturing building. A distillery was also opened in the town.[421] Another tannery was opened in Hansonville around 1840, and the Birely Tannery complex in Frederick became an important industry in that town.[422]
Lime production was another industry that rose to prominence in Frederick County during the period of Agricultural-Industrial Transition. The Hoke/Grove Lime Kiln operation was built in Frederick in the mid-1800s by a German immigrant. It eventually became one of the largest and most important lime kiln businesses in the state and was bought by one of the largest limestone quarrying companies in the country. The site retains five residential buildings, outbuildings and possible remains of the kilns.[423] Defunct charcoal hearths dot the landscape in the City of Frederick Municipal Forest, testifying to the pervasiveness of the lime industry around Frederick during the 19th century.[424] The Burkittsville area was another center of lime production in the county.[425]
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MONTGOMERY COUNTY
Unlike many other Piedmont counties, Montgomery did not experience an explosion of industrial activity during the period of Agricultural-Industrial Transition. Industry remained characterized by milling and quarrying. Construction on the C&O Canal had begun, and from 1833 to 1834 it was completed from Point of Rocks, Montgomery County to Harpers Ferry, West Virginia.[426]
Triadelphia was one of the few industrial communities in Montgomery County that bloomed during this period. It was home to a cotton mill, a blacksmith shop, a grist mill, a saw mill and a granary. Before the Civil War most of the grain grown in the lower part of the county was milled here. In 1868, however, much of the village was swept away in a flood.[427]
The Dufief Mill reached its zenith around the mid-19th century. The owner of the mill also owned 19 slaves, and the mill property included a flour mill, a saw mill, a miller’s house, a warehouse and a barrel house. In 1870 the mill employed just three white farm laborers and one African-American domestic servant.[428]
A mill was constructed in 1840 in what came to be known as Greenwood Mills, and in 1865 a cottage was built for the miller—an ex-slave who had spent most of his adult life milling.[429] In Clarksburg, a tannery was established during the 1820s and the town subsequently became a center of commerce in the northern part of the county.[430] In Hyattstown, the grist and saw mill performed both custom and merchant milling. Nearby a quarry was opened to produce roofing slate.[431]
The quarries near Seneca saw increased use from the 1830s through the 1840s. During the former decade a stone mill was built to cut stone for construction of the C&O Canal, and by the 1850s the community also had a grist mill. In the 1840s Seneca sandstone was quarried for use in the construction of the Smithsonian Institution. In 1863 a school was built for the children of the quarrymen. The Seneca area was also home to one of the few mills for which anything is known about the labor used to run it: The 1850 census lists seven people working for the Long Draught Mill who cost the business $125 in wages every month.[432] Other quarries were opened near Cabin John in the 1830s.[433] Near Wheaton, the Gilmore Mica Mine was likely opened sometime during this period, although the exact date of its inception is not known.[434]
It was during the late 1820s that construction began on both the C&O Canal and the B&O Railroad. The C&O Canal was begun in Washington, D.C., and thus was completed through Montgomery County earlier than the B&O Railroad, which was begun in Baltimore. Nevertheless, both projects involved thousands of laborers (many of whom were immigrants) who spent years on the job, living in temporary camp after temporary camp. While one might expect these projects to have left a noticeable impact on the landscape, little remains except for the actual canal and railroad themselves.[435] The town of Dickerson, however, was established late during the period of Agricultural-Industrial Transition specifically to serve construction gangs working on the Metropolitan Branch of the B&O Railroad.[436]
The company responsible for the construction of the C&O Canal experienced labor troubles from the very beginning. First, a plan to import indentured servants for the work failed, and then a plan to purchase enslaved African-Americans fell through. Eventually the labor force consisted of a mix of Irish immigrants and American artisans. Drinking caused many problems among the workers, and when the company tried to prohibit it the problem only grew worse. The Irish were split into two rival factions, the Corkonians and the Longfords, who were often threatening each other with violence.[437] A cholera epidemic struck the laborers working on the construction of the canal in 1832, and again in 1833. The cemetery of St. Mary’s Church in Barnesville supposedly holds a mass grave of laborers who fell victim to this disease.[438]
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HARFORD COUNTY
As always, milling played an important part in the industry of Harford County. Monkton Mills, which was still centered around a large grist mill, reached its peak during the late 19th century.[439] Both the Mill Green and Lower Deer Creek Valley districts continued to prosper, though no major developments occurred.[440] Much of the Stafford milling complex was washed away in a flood in 1904, but the flint and bone mill continued to operate until 1920. Soapstone quarries and a soapstone mill were opened in Stafford around 1880 and also continued to operate until 1920.[441] The Reckord Mill, a merchant flour mill, was opened in Bel Air, the county seat, in 1886 and remained the only industry in the town until the 1950s.[442]
Many milling enterprises in the county also met their demise during this period, however. The Jerusalem mill village, once one of the most important in the county, slowly died out and was only a shadow of its former self by the dawn of the 20th century.[443] The Whitaker Mill has been described as being a thriving industrial center in 1890, but was closed by 1900.[444] The Husband Flint Mill was rebuilt in 1909 but only lasted another ten years or so.[445] The Eden Mill near Pylesville, owned by a gristmill magnate, burned in 1906. During the first quarter of the 20th century, however, it continued to operate as a power plant for Fawn Grove, Pennsylvania.[446] The Chrome Valley Mill was closed down in the 1920s.[447]
During the last quarter of the 19th century the slate quarrying industry in the northern part of the county became prosperous. The sister villages of Cardiff and Whiteford, both in Harford County, and Delta, Pennsylvania all developed around four quarries in Maryland. Many of the miners who lived in these villages, especially Cardiff, were Welsh immigrants who had been miners before they came to North America. Synthetic roofing became popular in the early 20th century, but the miners were able to keep their livelihood by shifting to the mining of green marble.[448] A related industry was the quarrying of talc begun near Dublin by the Harford Talc Company in the 1920s.