Just two centuries ago the town of Daniels, Maryland, which is now entirely reclaimed by nature was a prosperous mill town.
But in 1968 people started moving out from Daniels and four years later, the Tropical Storm Agnes completely destroyed it.
The ghost town of Daniels that is situated on the banks of the Patapsco river in Baltimore and Howard counties has seen many changes over the years and although there are not many buildings left, Daniels is absolutely beautiful and has an interesting story to tell.
The town’s history can be traced to 1810 when Thomas Ely and his family came to the area and set up a textile mill on the Patapsco River. Together with his four brothers, Thomas started building the main mill building in 1845 and named the town Elysville.
The mill was finally completed in the spring of 1846 and started producing cotton textiles for Oskiska Manufacturing Company but after the company went bankrupt, James S. Gary purchased the town and mills and renamed the town to Alberton in honor of his son Albert Gary after moving from Connecticut.
A flood damaged the mill in 1868 but the Garys maintained it until 1940 when the Daniels Company purchase it for the sum of $65,000 and as you guess the town was renamed again. On November 24th, 1940, the Baltimore Sun reported that the Daniels Company now owned “a three-and-a-half-story mill, a concrete dam over the Patapsco River, 118 homes and 550 acres of land. It also bought a water system, private roads, a bridge, two churches and a general store.”
The ruins of the St. Stanislaus Kostka Catholic Church can be seen on the northern side of the town. John Stark designed the church in 1878, but it was struck by lightning and burned down in 1927.
Another unique building was the Pentecostal Holiness Church that was severely damaged by the flood in 1972 and was therefore abandoned. It is probably one of the creepiest sights in the ghost town of Daniels and many people claim to have experienced strange things while visiting the ruins.
The Daniels Company doubled the business in order to manufacture additional products, but apparently, it wasn’t going as planned and in the late 1960s, the company made it clear to the residents of Daniels that it would close all housing. In the period that followed 90 families moved out from Daniels.
The company demolished many of the historic buildings in Daniels, including the school and the church. However, it was the Tropical Storm Agnes that washed away the entire town.
There are only a few crumbling ruins that can be seen today in Daniels, but many people who visited Daniels will tell you that this little-known ghost town is a gorgeous place to visit and a great opportunity to see nature reclaiming what humans once took away.