Guilford & Waltersville Granite Company

The story of the Guilford & Waltersville Granite Company starts around 1871 in Granite, Maryland, formerly called Waltersville for the Walters family who operated a granite quarry.  Ansley Gill and James McMahon took over the quarry in Granite and upon Mr. McMahon’s death around 1887 the firm of Gill and McMahon was dissolved (Maryland GS 1898). It was about this time that Ansley Gill joined with William H. Johnson and presumably with the knowledge of the granite quarries in Guilford, formed the joint stock company called Guilford and Waltersville Granite Company by 1888.  As part of this company, they were joined by George Mann, Hugh Hanna, Messrs. Grey and Sons all from Philadelphia, and Mr. Peter Hamilton of Baltimore (Hamilton of the Druid Hill Sundial - (http://www.rawlingsconservatory.org/virtual-tour/).  Ansley Gill and William H. Johnson, as Maryland residents, were the most active in acquiring property in Guilford for their new business.

According to the Maryland Geological Survey (1898), the Guilford and Waltersville Granite Company started work on the quarries in 1887 but the equipment was pulled in 1889.   Based on an 1888 lease agreement with Henry A. Penny, Ansley Gill and William H. Johnson provided the Guilford and Waltersville Granite Company with prime quarry lands to mine along with other deeds that expanded the company’s coverage to both sides of the river.  With the 1887 opening of the Patuxent Branch line at Savage connected to the Washington Branch main line, expectations seemed high that a railroad extension to Guilford would follow and the lease from Henry A. Penny specifically mentioned a possible railroad.

A note in a report by the USGS (1910) in which they conducted a site visit to Guilford in 1908 to examine the quarries, stated that  “work had been suspended some time prior” to the visit. They identified the Guilford and Waltersville Granite Company quarry downstream of the Maryland Granite Company large quarry (beyond the bend of the river) on the east side of the river.  This located is supported by a deed from the Company to John Sieling in 1912 who sold the land to Louis Perna in 1923 and was identified on the tax records as owning the land on the east side of the river where an abandoned quarry is currently located and is owned by Howard County Department of Recreation and Parks.  You can see the quarry filled with water even today.

In September (17th) of 1921, the Charter of the Guilford and Waltersville Granite Company was declared null and void by the State of Maryland for failure to pay the franchise tax. In February of 1924, Putney sued the Company to be allowed to remove his machinery from the land leased from the Company. Perhaps this action was responsible for the Company Charter to be revived in June of the same year after lapsing for non-payment of taxes. In April of 1925, receivers were appointed for the company indicating it was being dissolved.

With the quarry abandoned, it became part of the controversy involving a 1920's murder mystery in Guilford.  I hope you enjoy this historic news story.