About the Society
The Society is a 501(c)(3) organization founded in 2006. Our mission is to encourage research and education on the history and development of the Oella area in order to increase the community’s understanding of and appreciation for its historical significance and the importance of preserving its unique character. The Society supports historical restoration and preservation efforts in the area.
The original group undertook the massive effort to research and produce the Oella Walking Tour Brochure. After falling dormant for a few years the organization was revived in 2015 primarily to lead clean up efforts at the Oella Cemetery. Since then it has evolved to take on other efforts such as interpretive signs, the archive and oral history project and producing a video.
Oella
Oella is a revived textile mill village nestled among the wooded hills and winding roads along the Patapsco River across from Ellicott City. Named for the first woman to spin cotton in America, its fortunes have followed the mill and the river’s immense waterpower. The mill, founded by the Union Manufacturing Company, was briefly the largest cotton mill in the nation. The 1.75-mile mill race was the longest in America to power a single mill, and though hurricane-damaged, still exists today.
Throughout its 200 plus years, the mill and Oella experienced both prosperous and depressed times, enduring floods and fires. In 1887, the company sold at auction the village and mill to William J. Dickey, who shifted production to woolens. A devastating fire swept through the mill complex early in 1918, but the Dickeys promptly rebuilt the mill in brick and went forward to achieve distinction as America’s foremost producer of men’s sport coat fabrics. Declining demand for these woolens forced the mill to close in 1972.
The mill passed through a succession of owners, while a great grandson of W. J. Dickey, Charles L. Wagandt II, bought the surrounding village. Shortly afterward, Oella began a time of rebirth, gaining public water and sewer service in the 1980s and beginning the restoration of its historic houses. The mill too has experienced rebirth as upscale apartments.
The mill was the beating heart of Oella, but its people were its backbone. Here they lived, worked, played, worshiped, shopped, and socialized with one another. As mill workers, they lived in the housing built and owned by the mill company until the automobile made housing nearby unnecessary.
Slightly over 100 of the original mill homes within the National Register historic district still stand. The village homes showcase a visual timeline and diversity of architecture. Mr. Orin M. Bullock Jr., an architect who was a national authority on historic preservation, said that no other mill village in Maryland retains “the number of buildings found in Oella, nor reflect such a long period of occupancy.” Historic Oella is a testimony to the people who have adapted to economic and life changes and worked to preserve this unique community for future generations.
The Oella Cemetery
Union Manufacturing set aside this hillside burial ground where the oldest graves date to within a few years of the mill’s founding. Acquired by W.J. Dickey & Sons in 1887 as part of the purchase of the mill village, a separate company, the Oella Cemetery Company was established to operate the cemetery. As the only known company cemetery in Maryland, there was no perpetual care established. Approximately 380 mill workers and their families, including many children, are buried here. Interments continued until around 1950. Many of the earliest burials were of those born before the Revolution. The stones bear witness to a wave of immigration from Lancashire England, as well as the high mortality rate for infants and children.