Maryland’s Last Grain Mill is Shutting Down, Relocating
Maryland will be losing its last remaining grain mill early next year when Wilkins-Rogers Inc. shutters its Oella milling operations on the banks of the Patapsco River after 30 years of operations.
Baltimore County officials report that the company plans to relocate its milling business to a yet-undisclosed location in the Midwest to be closer to grain supplies.
The move will usher in an end to more than 200 years of milling (one of the earliest industries along the Patapsco River) in the state of Maryland, that began in 1774 with the Ellicott brothers on the same site as the Wilking-Rogers facility. Over the centuries between the Ellicott brothers and Wilkins-Rogers, a succession of owners have continuously run mills on the site, with a milling boom after the Revolution that saw mills on the Patapsco milling grain, paper, and textiles.
The Wilkins-Rogers operation milled flour for the production of pretzels, cakes, pastries, and cookies, and also milled whole wheat, all purpose and self-rising flours, yellow and white corn meals, including Washington branded corn meal, flour, and bread mix.
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