Farming in Galesville: Montell Farm

Farming in Galesville: Montell Farm. Surrounded by Water, Reliant upon the Soils. While Galesville is best known for its waterfront, farming has always played an important role in the community. Farmers utilized easy access to nearby wharves on the West River for the transportation of agricultural products like tobacco, produce and livestock to markets up and down the Chesapeake Bay.

Montell Farm: The Moreland Family Legacy

Montell Farm received its name from Alice Key Montell who inherited the land in 1903. In the 1920s, newlyweds Stallings Moreland and Laura May Woodfield began farming the land. Sons Francis Ray and Edward soon joined in the intensive work of tobacco farming, in 1954, Francis Ray and Betty Moreland acquired the farm and continued the southern Maryland tradition of tobacco farming.

Seasonally, local laborers worked for the family, The Moreland's had working horses and kept a small herd of milk cows, beef cattle, pigs and chickens for their personal use. They also grew corn and watermelons, but tobacco was the crop that sustained the family for generations.

Montell Farm once covered much of the acreage surrounding this sign, including the Galesville Park, (known as Francis Ray Moreland Field), the Carrie Weedon School, Galesville Estates (est in the early 1970s), to the head of Lerch Creek, and the Woodfield Cemetery at the corner of Main Street and Muddy Creek Road.

[Captions]:
Tommy Moreland (left) joined by hired hands (right) in the labor intensive work of cutting and spearing the tobacco in the fields.
Photos courtesy of Galesville Heritage Society

Francis Ray Moreland standing next to a packed tobacco harvest ready to take to auction. Notice the tobacco basket atop the stack.
Photo courtesy of Galesville Heritage Society

A typical 20th century tobacco barn: note the open slats that allow air flow which helps the curing process.
Photo courtesy of Galesville Heritage Society

Hogshead barrels were historically used to tightly pack and ship 'prized' leaf tobacco.
Photo courtesy of John Calhoun collection at Galesville Heritage Society

Cut and speared tobacco hanging up to cure in the rafters of a barn. This step in the process takes four to eight weeks.
Photo courtesy of Galesville Heritage Society

Edward Moreland "topping" or plucking off the plant's flowers to concentrate growth on the leaves, encouraging a more robust and stronger tobacco.
Photo courtesy of Galesville Heritage Society