Farming a Rich Part of Essex-Middle River's Heritage

As we drive around the Essex-Middle River community today we can see vast and large apartment, town home, and cookie cutter developments such as the Greens at Essex, Town & Country, Hawthorne, Waterview and many more.

This is an extremely far cry from the ways things were as European settlers arrived.

In colonial times and continuing up until the early 1900’s our area was filled with farms, both large and small. The first major crop for those farmers was tobacco. In the early 1600’s settlers discovered that tobacco would grow well in the Chesapeake region and would sell profitably in England. The potential cash value caused them to plant the product in every available space and clearing.

Maryland began to rely on tobacco as a safe and stabile substitute for gold, silver, and cash. The colonists used tobacco to purchase goods and supplies as well as pay taxes or fines. Many received tobacco as payment for services provided.

Tobacco also provided local governments with steady income as a “duty” of about 20 cents per hogshead of tobacco exported was levied. This translated to an annual income of about $3,000 for the government. By the end of the 17th century, England imported more than 20 million pounds of tobacco per year.

This was all about to end around the mid to late 1700’s. As demand for tobacco decreased, farmers searched for other crops to supplement their incomes. Landowners, especially those in the eastern Baltimore County region, began to discover the richness and value of local soils for the growing of a wide variety of produce.

Farming had become the major industry of the area. Corn, wheat, spinach, kale and other “stoop” crops began to appear on lands previously used for tobacco. Even the farms themselves took on a different image. The acreage was larger, the farmhouses were roomier, and the families seemed to become larger to help with the increased workload.

The birth of the industrial age in this country had a significant impact on how these farms operated in the late 1800’s on through until the 1920’s and 30’s. The invention of the steam powered engine would eventually lead to the creation of steam powered threshers and cultivators.

The entire Back River Neck peninsula was covered with farms around those times. Families such as the Hombergs, Shuncks, Browns, Nadolnys, Shaffers, Vollmers, Gillespies, Brehms, Fitzells and Schluderbergs all owned and operated their farms.

One gentleman (name unknown) was the owner of one of the aforementioned steam powered threshers. When it came time to harvest the crops, this gentleman would start at the head of the peninsula and begin the process. As he was nearly finished with one farm he would blow the steam whistle. This would inform the next farmer in line to get ready because he was on the way to their farm next.

Once the crops were cultivated, the farmers would load the grains onto horse drawn wagons for the long trip to Jerusalem Mill on the Gunpowder River where the corn and wheat would be ground into meal and flour.

Sadly the 1930’s and 40’s brought changes to our community that would shrink or cause the disappearance of most of these farms and their traditions.

We all know that story.

The relocation of Glen L. Martin to Middle River, the start of World War II, and the increased production at the Bethlehem Steel plant, caused our community to switch from agricultural land into residential areas. Residents in turn began to rely more on grocery stores for their produce rather than local farms.

Today, we still have a few reminders of our past scattered throughout the community. At a small number of locations in the Essex-Middle River you can still buy corn, tomatoes, watermelons, cantaloupes and other produce fresh from the farm and picked that day.

In the Back River Neck area you can still visit Kellner’s Farm and Browns Cove (Zahradka) Farm. In the Middle River area I suggest Huber’s Farm or other local farmers

Have a safe summer, RIP John Mackey, and keep reading Patch.