The Union Mills Homestead Foundation, Inc. is pleased to announce that Kyle P. Dalton has been named executive director of the Union Mills Homestead. Dalton starts work in his new position on March 27, 2023. Dalton has served as Membership and Development Coordinator at the National Museum of Civil War Medicine since April 2019 and served as Public Programs Administrator at Historic London Town and Gardens before that. He has
The Union Mills Homestead celebrated its 225th year in 2022, marking the anniversary of the site’s founding by brothers Andrew and David Shriver, Jr. in 1797. The brothers planned to combine their respective skills in a business enterprise centered on a set of water-powered mills to be built in a wide valley along Big Pipe Creek. The site was promising, strategically located between Westminster and Littlestown where Pennsylvania’s early roads
A severe storm blew through Maryland on Tuesday, July 12, 2022, causing significant damage at the Union Mills Homestead. The thunderstorm, packing violent straight-line winds, blew through the Maryland area Tuesday late afternoon/early evening causing power outages and tree damage throughout the area. At the Union Mills Homestead, numerous trees were downed and other trees were severely damaged. Assessments are underway to determine how many trees will needed to be
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 Old-Fashioned Corn Roast Festival, an annual tradition at the Union Mills Homestead, returned this year after the 2020 event was canceled for the COVID-19 pandemic. This year’s event was particularly festive, marking the 50th time the event was held at the site. 50th Celebration a Few Years Delayed The Corn Roast is patterned after picnics and frolics held at the site in times gone by. The event dates to
(Photo above: George M. Shriver, III volunteering at the 1981 Flower & Plant Market at the Union Mills Homestead.) The Union Mills Homestead community was saddened to hear of the passing of George M. Shriver, III, who died July 24, 2021 at his home in Reisterstown, Maryland at age 88. A long-time member of the Union Mills Homestead’s Board of Governors, Shriver left a legacy of lifetime support for the
(Image Above: The Tannery Bark Shed and Drying Shed at the Union Mills Homestead) Most visitors to Union Mills know about its grist mill – it is hard to miss that big brick building when you drive into the site! As reflected in its name, the enterprise founded in 1797 by Andrew and David Shriver featured a union of two mills, a grist mill and a saw mill. Much less
A Christmas Eve poem written in 1886 has been brought to life by a video that highlights some of the evolving Christmas traditions of the families that lived at Union Mills in the nineteenth century. The author, Louis E. Shriver of Union Mills, dedicated the verses to his nieces Winnie and Catherine Shriver. Louis lived in the Union Mills Homestead. His nieces, daughters of Lou’s brother Wirt and his wife
(Photo above: Stone Arch Bridge over Big Pipe Creek in Union Mills, circa 1890. The bridge was built 1807-08 and remained in use until washing out in a 1933 storm. Photo by Louis Shriver.) If you have even been to Union Mills, you have driven the route of the historic Baltimore-Reisterstown Turnpike. The road, with important ties to Union Mills, played a significant part in the early economic growth of
With the COVID-19 pandemic of 2020 forcing cancellation of the Union Mills Homestead’s Flower and Plant Market for the first time in 51 years, we are reminded of a similar health crisis in 1918. That year, a wartime influenza epidemic ricocheted around the globe before finding its way to the far reaches of rural Carroll County. The 1918 flu outbreak took a heavy toll in the area. ‘Spanish Flu’ Outbreaks
With another election season upon us, attention once again is focused on the tone of political discourse in the United States. These concerns are not new, however, as politics has been almost a full-contact sport since our nation’s founding. The Shrivers who founded the Union Mills Homestead took center stage in some of the most brutal political battles of the early 19th century. This topic will be one of those
Just who is Belsnickel? To some the answer may come readily, but for others it is an unknown word. The Belsnickel and related Kris Kindle customs trace to the Palatinate area of Germany. During the early 1700s, these customs were brought to North America by early German immigrants. For many Pennsylvania German families, Kris Kindle or Christkindle was the St. Nick of the Santa Claus tradition, who slips down chimneys