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The area between the Little Patuxent and Middle Patuxent Rivers was settled by Richard and Benjamin Warfield in 1702 when they filed a land patent for Wincopin Neck and enlarged the patent in 1735 (see attached map). Wincopin Neck was home to the Guilford Mills which dated back to at least 1744 when the first record of at grist mill in Guilford appeared which was owned by Alexander Warfield, Richard’s son. The mill was located just downstream from the Guilford Pratt Bridge along the Little Patuxent River. That was about 275 years ago in our community!
Over the next 100 years, Guilford Mill, operated as a grist mill and saw mill. In 1830 James Owings took over the mill from Zachariah Polton and turned it into cotton mill about 1833. Its success as a cotton mill wavered and in the 1850 Census of Manufacturers only a grist and saw mill owned by Henry H. Owings was listed and no activity was reported in the 1860 census of manufacturing for the mills. In 1867, Owings sold the land to Stephen Heath, a machinist and cotton mill expert, who later obtained a mortgage for the property from James S. Gary who owned the Alberton Mill. In 1870, Stephen Heath was the proprietor of both the Guilford and Laurel cotton mills.
The Guilford Mill operated primarily as a cotton mill until it ceased operations in 1890 when it burned down. The stone building was reused as a company store and post office for the Maryland Granite Company which is the subject of another post.
There is still a small wall left of that Guilford Mill (see photo below) as well as a dry mill pond just to the east of the Patuxent Branch Trail parking lot. Not only that, but upstream we still have a 100 foot intact section of the mill dam on Columbia Association open space that is more than 150 years old (see photo below). We are working with the Columbia Association and Howard County government to protect these historic sites.
[Documentation comes from deeds available in the Maryland Land Records Website, a detailed Chancellery record from the Maryland State Archives website, newspaper articles from Newspapers.com and Genealogy Bank, US Census documents and a few other sources upon request].
1744 Oct. 6. Agreement between Richard Green and Alexander Warfield, Son of John, Partnership for Building Mill and Race. Mentions a mill stone at Alexander, son of Richard’s mill. Anne Arundel County Court (Land Records) RB 2, p. 0274, MSA_CE76_19. Date available 04/03/2006. Printed 01/20/2019
http://guide.msa.maryland.gov/pages/item.aspx?ID=S1189-1809 (Wincopia Neck–erroneous label )
1871. The state gazette and merchants and farmers' directory for Maryland and District of Columbia.. Sadler, Drysdale & Purnell, Baltimore, pub 921 pages https://play.google.com/books/reader?id=bXdQAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover
Map above: This is the map of the 1735 Land Patent of Wincopin Neck made by Jody Frey and can be downloaded from https://jsfecmd.info/FREAK/Museum.html. You can tell it is bounded by the Little and Middle Patuxent Rivers and a line coming straight from Broken Land Parkway. This area covers a small portion northeast of the river from the Pratt Bridge to upstream of the mill dam and then straight northwest. It included the area of some of the early granite quarries but not the largest quarry just north of the Wincopin Neck boundary. For the source of the patent boundaries of Howard County see https://jsfecmd.info/FREAK/Museum.html
Map above: This is the original plat of the 1735 land patent for Wincopin Neck. It is basically look from the north to the south (the top are is the confluence of the Middle and Little Patuxent Rivers). The area added in the 1735 patent - noted by x..x..x - included land east of the Little Patuxent River (aka Brown's Branch, North Branch and East Branch). This was downloaded from the Maryland State Archives and was erroneously called Wincopia instead of Wincopin- http://guide.msa.maryland.gov/pages/item.aspx?ID=S1189-1809
Map above: This is a portion of the 1878 Hopkins Atlas showing the Guilford Factory including the mill pond upstream of the dam and the long mill race leading downstream to the Guilford Mill. The map orientation is not quite to the north which skews the viewing a bit. You can see Murray Hill Road between the Earp houses on the left of the map which leads to Guilford Road which runs along the mill pond and the old Berger Road connecting to Oakland Mills Road and then back to Guilford Road. It is available from Johns Hopkins online library - https://jscholarship.library.jhu.edu/bitstream/handle/1774.2/32620/p.%2028-29%20-%20Gildford%20District%20%26%20Savage%20Factory.jpg?sequence=20&isAllowed=y
Map above: This was map provided by Jerry Uekermann showing the position of the Old Mill Ruin. The original map is available upon request. It does not seem to be available anymore from the MSA Website. Thank you, Jerry, for adapting this from a very busy plat.
Map above: 1794 Griffith Map showing Richard Greens mill (see arrow) and Green's bridge crossing the Patuxent River.
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