Richland Farm (Clarksville, Maryland)

Richland Farm is a historic home and farm complex located at Clarksville, Howard County, Maryland, United States. The main house is a log and frame house, the earliest section of which is presumed to date from 1719. The main block comprises three sections, with a large addition on the rear added in 1920. It features a one story shed-roofed wrap-around porch supported by 22 Doric order columns. Also on the property are the Overseer's/Superintendent’s House, Gardener’s Cottage, wagon shed, tractor shed and smokehouse with board-and-batten siding, a bank barn, a stone spring house and “Barrack.”

Richland was originally part of "Altogether," a land grant surveyed on May 10, 1719 by Thomas Worthington and his brother-in-law, Henry Ridgely. A small portion of Richland was also part of "Worthington's Range." Thomas Worthington left 300 acres of these original land grants to his daughter, Ariana Worthington Watkins, who was married to Nicholas Watkins, Jr. She divided her holdings among her three sons, John, Nicholas and Gassaway. Richland was part of Gassaway Watkins's inheritance. Gassaway Watkins returned to Richland to live after his service in the Revolutionary War. The current boundaries of Richland were set in 1801.

Gassaway Watkins, born in 1752, was a president of the Society of the Cincinnati of Maryland and, when he died in 1840, he was the last surviving member of the Maryland Old Line (General Washington referred to the Maryland units as the "Old Line" due to the quality and length of their service during the revolution). Colonel Watkins served under General Smallwood at Long Island and at the Battle of Cowpens, among other engagements. Colonel Watkins was married three times: first to Sarah Jones, who died within a year without issue from the marriage; then, to Ruth Dorsey, with whom he had Gassaway, Bonaparte, Thomas, Turenne, Charlotte and Ann Watkins; and, following Ruth's death, he married Elenora Bowie Clagett on April 26, 1803, with whom he had Caroline Lyles (1804-1896), Camsadel Bowie (1805-1842), Eleanor Clagett (1807-1868), Amanda (1809 - ), Elizabeth Louise (1815 - ), Priscilla Agnes (1817-1893), Margaret Gassaway (1819-1896), Albina Charlotte (1822-1899), William Washington (1810-1880) and John Sebastian Watkins (1813-1893).

Daughter Margaret Gassaway Watkins married Albert Gallatin Warfield. One of their sons and a grandson of Gassaway Watkins, Edwin Warfield, served as the 45th governor of Maryland from 1904 to 1908. He lived at Oakdale in Howard County, which still stands and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

During his lifetime, Gassaway Watkins acquired nearby land, including Hayland Farm (now known as the Walnut Creek housing subdivision) and Walnut Grove (also now a housing subdivision), where he built a manor house that still survives and is listed on the Howard County properties of the Maryland Historical Trust. Gassaway Watkins, Elenora Bowie Clagett Watkins, John Sebastian Watkins and several other family members are buried at Walnut Grove. Howard County historian Ken Short undertook an exhaustive analysis of the history of Walnut Grove.

A son of Gassaway Watkins and Elenora Bowie Clagett Watkins, Dr. William Washington Watkins and his wife, Laura Louise Watkins Watkins, ultimately owned the main house at Richland Farm. Mrs. Watkins was the daughter of Thomas Jones Watkins (1773-1860), a Baltimore merchant, and Elizabeth Spurrier Watkins (1779-1851). Dr. and Mrs. Watkins were married in Baltimore on May 30, 1837. In 1846, they added a section to the main house at Richland that includes a first floor parlor and second floor bedroom. Their children included Eleanor Elizabeth (1838-1893); Lewis Jones (1839-40); Thomas (1840-1880); Louis Jones (1843-1888); Amanda Fitzallen (1845-1917); Dr. William C. (1846-81); and Laura G. Watkins (1849-52).

According to his obituary in the Baltimore Sun on June 2, 1880, Dr. Watkins received an appointment to West Point but preferred instead to pursue the medical profession. He attended the University of Maryland and received his medical degree from the Medical College of Philadelphia. In addition to his service as a medical doctor, Dr. Watkins was elected as a representative of the Howard District of Anne Arundel County in the Maryland legislature. In 1838, Dr. Watkins proposed the "Howard District" of Anne Arundel County, which became Howard County in 1851. He was elected as the first state senator from Howard County thereafter. Beginning in 1845, Dr. Watkins also served as a judge of the Orphan's Court in the Howard District of Anne Arundel County. He ran the same year for the U.S. Congress but was defeated by Thomas F. Bowie. Following his departure from the senate, Dr. Watkins served as a director of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company, and he was elected as the Clerk of the Howard County Circuit Court, a post to which a son, Louis J. Watkins, was later appointed. For a period, Louis J. Watkins and his half brother, J. Harwood Watkins, owned the Ellicott City Times.

Laura Watkins's brother, Thomas Jr., married Dr. Watkins's sister, Amanda, on February 16, 1835. Thomas died of pneumonia at Richland on January 10, 1874.

Laura Watkins died in 1850, and Dr. Watkins subsequently married Margaret Eleanor Harwood. They had two children: Joseph Harwood (1853-1887) and Sophia Watkins (1855-1870).

Dr. Watkins retired to Richland in 1873, where he died on May 31, 1880. An obituary at the time of his death describes Dr. Watkins: "But in his retirement at Richland the people of his county fully realized was still of them and among them. His house continued the abode of the most liberal and unastentatious hospitality, where gathered a large circle of relatives and friends. To all was extended the warm and hearty welcome that bespoke the man." Another obituary observed: "Dr. Watkins was possessed of rare social qualities, and had the pleasant manners of the 'old school.' His hospitality was boundless, and his home was the favorite resort of the gentlemen of influence and standing throughout the county. Socially, he was sought and enjoyed not only by the old, but the young as well."

The last slave owner at Richland, Dr. Watkins was discussed extensively in the manuscript of a slave who escaped from Richland in 1848, Oliver Cromwell Gilbert. That manuscript, in turn, was the basis for a lengthy piece in the summer 2011 edition of the Maryland Historical Magazine by Jody R. Fernald, "In Slavery and Freedom: Oliver C. Gilbert and Edwin Warfield, Sr."

Thomas Jones Watkins and his wife, Elizabeth Spurrier Watkins; Dr. William W. Watkins and his wives, Laura Louise and Margaret Harwood Watkins; and Thomas Watkins, Jr. are buried in Greenmount Cemetery in Baltimore, Maryland (Area P, Lot 36).

Joshua Worthington Dorsey, whose wife was Eleanor Watkins Dorsey, a daughter of Dr. Watkins who grew up at Richland, next owned Richland Farm. He was the son of Rinaldo Warfield Dorsey (1812-1850) and Achsah Ann Worthington (1814-1839). A confederate soldier in the Civil War, Mr. Dorsey owned a large farm supply and hardware business in Ellicott City, Maryland. A directory from the Ellicott City Times describes Mr. Dorsey as a "Dealer in Coal and Fertilizers of all kinds; Horses and Vehicles of all kinds to hire, and Horses taken at Livery." He was one of the organizers and a director of the Patapsco National Bank and was a member of St. Peter's Protestant Episcopal Church in Ellicott City. He added many improvements at Richland, including the bank barn; corn crib; and barrack barn.

Joshua and Eleanor Dorsey had numerous children and, when Joshua died in 1918, a daughter, Achsah Dorsey Serpell, and a son, J. Worthington Dorsey, Jr., bought out the interests of their siblings in Richland. They hired prominent Baltimore architect Bayard Turnbull to renovate and expand the main house over the period from 1919 to 1920. Thereafter, Richland served as the venue for many summer family gatherings and parties for the Washington, D.C., "navy crowd" hosted by Achsah Dorsey Serpell's brother, Rear Adm. Benjamin Henry Dorsey and his wife, Theda Fulton Dorsey.

In June 1953, Richland was deeded to Achsah Bowie Dorsey Smith, the niece of Achsah Dorsey Serpell and daughter of Admiral and Mrs. Dorsey. She was a society reporter for the Washington Post and Washington Times Herald, in which she ran a daily column about the social scene in the nation's capital, "Ask Achsah."

Richland Farm passed to Achsah Dorsey Smith's goddaughter and niece in 2005. It thus remains in the same family after nearly 300 years and eight generations.

Richland Farm was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2008.