White's Mill

One of the unique features of our area are many river and stream rapids Between the Bridges that are created as the hilly Piedmont changes into the flat Coastal Plain ecoregion. The “fall line” is filled with sharp changes in elevation creating powerful rapids which are ready-made power sources for mills. One of the very first gristmills in the Howard County region, almost 100 years before Savage Mill, was in Savage and was known as White’s Mill.

Surveyed in 1726 was White’s Fortune and it was patented in 1734 for Joseph White, Sr. Joseph White already owned and operated the old Proctors along Broad Creek in Annapolis for more than a decade so he was well equipped to do that same along the Little Patuxent River in present day Savage shortly after he occupied the land in the late 1720s. In the 1726 survey there was a Mill Race mentioned belonging to White indicating a mill was already on site. In 1732 as the patent survey for Harry’s Lott conducted in that year for Henry Ridgley contained a mention of White’s Mill downstream.

In the 1726 survey it clearly described White's mill land:

"standing by the head of a small Race belonging to the said White standing by the Great Dam of Stones and near the Great Falls of Patuxent River"

After Joseph White’s death in 1733, the Mill continued operation. In 1752, Joseph White, Jr. patented “Mill Land” where his mill resided at Savage. White’s Mill operated for decades more as seen in the 1794 map produced by Dennis Griffith.

White’s Mill probably operated a few more years but after Joseph White, Jr. died in 1793 his sons Gideon and Horatio who inherited the Mill Land may not have kept up operations very long. In the 1820 Census of Manufacturers, there was no mention of the White family having a mill or other manufacturing business.

In January of 1823, Gideon sold the Mill Land and much of White’s Contrivance to John Savage the namesake of the town of Savage and its manufacturing company. In this deed, there was no mention of an operating mill.  The Mill Land was eventually used to extend the mill race to its current location.

The 1850 census (see below) a Grist Mill making flour, corn meal and feed was listed along with a Saw Mill making planks of Oak and Poplar.  The grist mill advertised for sale in 1851 by the Savage Manufacturing Company was located close to the bridge so it was not at the same location as the original White's Mill.