Union Mills celebrates its 225th anniversary in 2022, a good opportunity to reflect on the site’s rich industrial history. Founded in 1797 centered on a water-powered gristmill, the site evolved during the course of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries along with the American Industrial Revolution. (Image above: The A.K. Shriver & Sons Tannery in 1877, as depicted in the 1877 Illustrated Atlas of Carroll County, Maryland; Lake Griffing & Stevenson,
The Maryland Microbrewery Festival, held each September at the Union Mills Homestead, will not be held in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Mark your calendars now for next year’s event, which will be on Saturday, September 25, 2021. Highly Anticipated Each Year The Maryland Microbrewery Festival is one of the most anticipated events each year in Carroll County. The event, which celebrates and promotes the best of Maryland craft
In 1869, Benjamin Franklin Shriver (known to friends and family as “Frank”) started a cannery to preserve excess crops from his father’s farming and milling business. He set up a small canning operation in the cooper’s shop adjacent to the grist mill at Union Mills, owned by his father William Shriver. From this modest shop, where B.F. Shriver began packing corn and cherries, grew one of Maryland’s largest canning businesses.