History Notes about Savage Mill

The two Howard County mill towns celebrated a significant anniversary in 2022. In 1965, Vera Ruth Filby published a timeless history of “Savage, Maryland” for the former Savage Civic Association (see below). I won’t rehash Filby’s effort but will supplement her story with a couple of minor corrections, especially with information that was not readily available during that research era. Filby’s history booklet was written during the massive renovation of Savage Mill and launched a sesquicentennial celebration the following year. Although there was no documented beginning of Savage Mill 150 years earlier, the town and mill was deserving of a huge celebration and they received it!

Questions about Savage Mill Origins Answered

A few questions arose when reading Filby's booklet, prepared before the days of email and the internet when some records were still being archived.

• Did Alexander Warfield really have a mill on Hammond's Run or even on the Little Patuxent River at Savage in 1750?  The short answer is no.  This claim was first made in Joshua Dorsey Warfield's book "The Founders of Anne Arundel and Howard Counties, Maryland" on page 365 but he provide no source information for it.  

Although the land was part of Venison Park owned by the Warfield's and was bordered by the two rivers mentioned, there is no record of him building a mill.  But Alexander Warfield, son of John, was in the millstone business and partnered with Richard Green in 1744 in building a mill along the Patuxent River and providing Mr. Green with two millstones, one from the mill of his cousin Alexander, son of Richard, which was located at Guilford (see . In 1750, Venison Park changed hands among the Warfield's but Alexander, son of Richard, was listed as just a witness to the happenings.

• Was 1816 the actual date of the oldest building of the Savage cotton mill?  The short answer is that there is no evidence of that and it is highly unlikely.  The land was not even in the possession of Savage or the Williams brothers until after 1822.  So where did the 1816 date come from?  According to Filby "renovation in the 1940s uncovered on a window frame the blue-pencil inscription, "Ted Sullivan, April 16, 1816".  Filby did not claim this was an actual date of a building constructed, but it has created a legend repeated often in the folklore of Savage.  No one knows who Ted Sullivan was, if the date was a birthdate or other date.  But it seems extremely unlikely that blue-pencil was around during those days although it was in the later 1800s.  Please share any speculation you might have.

The Actual Anniversary Data for Savage

Researching history can be confusing at times, sometimes most of the time. When examining a Chancery Court case Amos Williams vs the Savage Manufacturing Company (SMC), December 1821 was the date provided more than once for when the Company was incorporated. December 1821 was when the incorporation bill was submitted to the Maryland General Assembly in their 1821 legislative session and an index for the 1821 session lists that year for the incorporation of the Savage Manufacturing Company.

Making it confusing is the February 22, 1822 date which is when the bill was legally approved by both houses of the General Assembly. So IMHO either December 1821 or February 22, 1822 can be used as anniversary dates. 

Purchasing Land for the Savage Manufacturing Company

SMC purchased 460 acres of land within a year of the incorporation and began building their factory immediately. In April 1832 SMC purchased 50 acres of Pinkstones Thicket which was “east of the falls of patuxent River and a small way below the Island of the river…” as well as 114 ¼ acres of Warfield’s Range on the west side of the river extending to Hammond’s Branch. In July, SMC purchased 87 ¼ acres of Venison Park and Brothers Partnership on the south side of the Little Patuxent river adjoining the Warfield’s Range parcel extending to “what is called the great Falls on said river”. The next large land purchases were in January of 1823 when Gideon White sold to John Savage the tracts known as Mill Land (8 ½ acres) and Whites Contrivance (200 acres) and then in March 1823 SMC took out a $20,000 mortgage from John Savage on the land they had already purchased in 1822.

Who were Michael McBlair and John Smith Hollins?

McBlair and Hollins were the only specific names in the SMC Charter probably due to their experience and political connections. If a new cotton mill would be competing for business of other mills then there may have been some lobbying against it, so having McBlair and Hollins to Charter this business makes sense.  Possibly the real reason McBlair and Hollins chartered the Company is that Amos A. Williams and George Williams had serious legal problems stemming from the failures of their respective banks on which each served as a Director.  The State of Maryland would never charter a new company to people in legal troubles.

John Smith Hollins (future Baltimore Mayor) was the son of John Hollins (1760-1827) who was a successful Baltimore shipping merchant and privateer. Hollins formed a partnership first with Joshua Barney in 1790 when they were appointed auctioneers under John Hollins and Company, and then with Michael McBlair in a company called Hollins & McBlair.  John Smith Hollins married Rebecca, the daughter of Cumberland Dugan.  Dugan was the "step-uncle" of the Williams brothers, but no known relationship to Joseph Dugan of the Philadelphia firm of Savage & Dugan.  George Williams was also acquainted with John Hollins when contracting the shipment of cotton from Baltimore to France before the war and he and John Savage were both Directors of the 2nd Bank of the United States out of Philadelphia.

When was the Mill and Factory Built?

There was already a grist mill on the site originally belonging to Joseph White in the 1700s, but there is no evidence of any cotton mill structures built before 1822. Joshua Barney left the Guilford-Savage area in 1818, the year that he died, and no records exist of a cotton mill in the area at that time. The expense for erecting a cotton mill and factory would have required raising of a large sum of money through a corporate body such as the Savage Manufacturing Company. That would have occurred starting no earlier than December of 1821.

It is clear from the March 4, 1823 mortgage of the properties by SMC from John Savage that there were “fixtures and machinery in and about the factory erected by the Savage Manufacturing Company…upon a tract of land called White’s Contrivance” which was purchased in January of 1823. Perhaps there was an agreement between Gideon White and John Savage earlier than 1823 so construction would begin immediately in 1822, but no records suggesting that are yet to be found. We will keep searching for a better answer, but it is highly unlikely the mill was started before 1822 due to the troubled financial status of the Amos and George Williams during that time.

Joshua Barney and his Son-in-Law Nathaniel Williams

The events that paved the way for establishing the Savage Manufacturing Company were many, including 1) Commodore Joshua Barney's  marriage to Harriet Coale in April 1809 after his first wife died two years prior, 2) the marriage of Barney’s daughter Caroline in October, to Nathaniel Williams (youngest brother of the Williams’).

In short, Barney resided for just a few years on Harry’s Lott and appeared in our 1810 census. Barney was interested in the Little Patuxent River and patented lands in 1810 called “First Attempt” just downstream of Guilford Mill and in 1811 called “Mill Race” representing the area around what would become the Savage mill dam (see images). After a return to war and being wounded and captured during the Battle of Bladensburg in 1814, Barney came home to his farm on Harry’s Lott (see ad for it below as well an article Barney wrote from there) which is still present and on the National Register of Historic Properties.

Both Barney, and his son-in-law Nathaniel, served in the war and Nathaniel become involved with the disposition of Barney’s property. Other than involvement in land issues with Cole’s Choice, another property just upstream on the river, Barney seemed to focus more on the thousands of acres of land he secured in Kentucky for his retirement. He finally set off with his family for Kentucky in 1818 leaving his affairs in the hands of his son-in-law. Barney never made it to Kentucky and succumbed to his war wound in Pittsburgh.

Perhaps it was the Williams brothers or Michael McBlair's idea (along with the Williams family) who incorporated the Savage Manufacturing Company in Dec. 1821.  After McBlair was bought out of the Company in 1823 he started another cotton manufacturing business on the Gunpowder River indicating his interest in textiles. One of the enduring mysteries of the origin of Savage Manufacturing Company.

[NOTE: Although widely claimed, Joshua Barney's land, Harry's Lott, was not the land used for the establishment of the Savage Manufacturing Company - that land was White's Contrivance (originally Whites Fortune) patented by Joseph White, Jr, the son of Joseph White who built a grist mill just upstream of the current mill in the 1720s.]
For more information:

John Smith Hollins - from Maryland State Archives

Michael McBlair - Maryland Center for History and Culture

 Please also see: 

• Savage - A Former Sundown Town

• White's Mill

• Joshua Barney - A Guilford-Savage Pirate