The Farm After Hoagland Gates

By 1930 the majority of the farm buildings were complete, and Hoagland Gates, his wife, Margaret, and their two daughters, Anne and Elizabeth, had settled into life on the farm. Unfortunately, Hoagland’s health began to deteriorate due to an illness, eventually diagnosed as tuberculosis. At the recommendation of his doctors, the Gates family began wintering in the south. In 1934, Gates purchased a property in Arizona, and the family began spending winters there. By the fall of 1943, Hoagland’s health had deteriorated so significantly that he entered a Sanatorium in Asheville, N.C. His time in Asheville would be relatively short. He passed away there on January 17, 1944.

From 1934 until the time of Hoagland Gates’ death, the farm in Maryland was run by James Guibeson, a local farmer. Gates continued to maintain a Jersey herd throughout the period of his ill-health, but he stopped importing expensive stock from Jersey. Following Gates’ death, his wife, Margaret Gates, took over the management of the farm and the Jersey cattle herd. With the help of her daughters and farm hands, Margaret Gates continued to run Broadlands as long as she was able. In1958, she began renting the farmland to the Spry Brothers, Inc., which operated multiple farms in and around the Elkton area, primarily growing soybeans. They continued to farm the land until the sale of the property out of the Gates family in 1988.

This photograph, probably taken in the 1970s, shows how Broadlands looked from the road during the final years of the Gates family’s ownership.

Broadlands remained an active center for Maryland’s dairy community even after Hoagland Gates’ death. In this newspaper photograph, dairymen and 4H members attend Maryland Jersey Cattle Club’s dairy judging school held in front of the milk room and wagon shed in the courtyard at Broadlands.

Ultimately three generations of the Gates family were involved tending the herd at Broadlands Farm. This photograph shows three year old Phyillis Copley, Hoagland Gates’ granddaughter, stroking the muzzle of a champion cow at a Jersey cattle show in Columbus, Ohio. Phyllis would spend many of her early years on the farm helping to care for the cows and chickens.

After it was no longer actively used to support the dairy herd, the old barn at Broadlands was used by the Gates family for barn dances and other gatherings.  

Anne Gates with four members of the Broadlands herd in the 1940s. Hoagland Gates raised both of his daughters, Anne and Elizabeth, to take an active role in the operation of the farm.

Following Hoagland Gates’ death in 1944, more of the best cattle from Broadlands were sold at auction by his widow. However, his widow Margaret continued to keep a smaller herd on the farm for many years.

Listen as Phyllis Copley Machledt discusses farming at Broadlands.