The Farm before Hoagland Gates

In 1929, Hoagland Gates purchased 235 acres in Cecil County, Maryland which would become the core of Broadlands Farm. The land Mr. Gates acquired was formerly part of a 1,000-acre parcel that spanned the present-day border between Maryland and Pennsylvania. That tract was first surveyed to Samuel James in 1704, but Mr. James failed to pay his taxes. In 1735, the property passed into the ownership of David Evans. The land remained in the Evans family for several generations until, in 1813, John R. Evans sold a 102 acre parcel to Benjamin Bowen of North Milford, Maryland.

Bowen held the land for the next four decades, and it was he who first “improved” this portion of the larger 1,000-acre parcel. In 1855, Bowen advertised his lands for sale in the Elkton Democrat and described the property as a “model farm” with a “substantial” stone mansion, “a stone kitchen, a good barn, fine gardens and orchards, ice house and ponds for making ice from spring water, with all the necessary out-buildings.”

Benjamin Bowen was unable to sell the farm and, after his death, ownership passed to his niece, Sarah Ann Bowen, and her husband, William Bowen. In 1898, the farm was sold out of the Bowen family to Mr. Charles M. Ellis. Following Ellis’s death in 1911, the farm was inherited by Ellis’ nieces, Elizabeth E. Tull and Roberta F. Tull. When the two sisters sold the farm to Hoagland Gates in 1929, it was occupied by a tenant farmer and his family, who ran a dairy and milk route. Hoagland soon purchased a neighboring farm and other parcels, expanding the property.

This photograph shows the large stone house that stood on the property prior to its purchase by Hoagland Gates. The house would have been erected by Benjamin Bowen shortly after his purchase of the land in 1813.

Another view of the Bowen House looking to the east. The house stood to the south of the Broadlands Farmstead. The photograph shows a large kitchen wing extending to the rear of the house.

In July of 1855, Benjamin Bowen placed this advertisement in the Elkton Democrat offering his 140 acre farm for sale. Bowen was ultimately unsuccessful in finding a buyer.