History of Oakley Farm

For its first 150 years 100-acre Oakley Farm was owned by a succession of owners – including Foulkes, Watson, a few Lockermans, Haskins, Scott, 2 Ecclestons, Pattison, and a Jackson.  However, in 1853 Samuel L. Byrn became the final Oakley Farm owner.  Byrn purchased Oakley Farm in 1853 from a trustee in a court case involving Oakley owner Benjamin D. Jackson.  He maintained the farm, but also during the 1850’s Byrn was a partner in the Byrn & Rea dry goods store on Poplar Street.  In 1866 he considered selling some Oakley land to the Dorchester and Delaware RR, but the railroad instead opted for a site on Cambridge Creek for their new terminal.

For whatever reason, Byrn’s Oakley land sales began in 1874.  Why did he begin to sell then?  It is not clear why, but here are a few obvious possibilities.  He paid $6000 for Wilton in 1870.  That may have caused some cash flow problems.  Or he may have been facing financial problems related to the Great Depression spawned by The Panic of 1873.  Of course, there is also the possibility that he simply saw the potential for a western suburb for Cambridge and created a plan to subdivide and sell off Oakley and move to Wilton. 

The first purchasers acquired their Oakley Property on 7/30/1874.  On that date Byrn sold 2 adjacent lots of land on the Choptank River at the northern tip of Oakley.  One 4-acre lot was sold to James and Sophia A. Moodie, newcomers to Cambridge.  This lot was at the very corner of Oakley and up against E. N. Clark’s Glenburn Farm.  They paid $370 and after adding a dwelling they sold it 2 years later for $700.  Moodie’s 4-acre lot, like the other 5 blocks of land discussed below, would eventually be resold and subdivided multiple times before achieving their current shapes.

On the same day in 1874 Byrn sold an adjacent 6-acre lot east of Moodie’s lot to Alfred & Emily Buckner.  Alfred Buckner was a waterman.  He built a simple house about 40 feet from the shore.  The Buckners sold their house and property after only a year.  They paid $462 and sold it 1 year later for $700.  According to the deeds Byrn also conveyed a 16-foot wide right of way to both properties along the property line with Glenburn Farm all the way from “the road to Sandy Hill”. 

Next, we find a mortgage in September of 1875 for Oakley.  We learn two important things from the mortgage.  First, Byrn owed Henry Hubbard of James $3300 and secured that debt with a mortgage against all his remaining Oakley acreage.  Secondly, we learn that Byrn had previously sold a 12-acre lot along the northwest edge of Oakley to prominent Dorchester attorney Sewell T. Milbourne.  However, he had failed to file the deed.  Milbourne’s lot abutted E. N. Clark’s Glenburn Farm and extended from the road to Sandy Hill to the Moodie property.  It did not appear to include the 16 foot right of way Byrn granted to Moodie and Buckner.  So, Milbourne became the third investor.  Hubbard’s mortgage on Oakley in 1875 actually covered 78 acres and excluded the 22 acres of Oakley land already sold by Byrn.

The fourth Oakley investor, Ann and J. C. Henry, bought a quarter-acre lot in February of 1876 at the southernmost tip of Oakley Farm on what is now Glasgow Street.  They then built a new house.  We can see the outline of the house on the 1877 map of Cambridge. The house is now numbered 701 Glasgow Street.  It is noteworthy because it is the oldest house still standing on Byrn’s Oakley Farm property.  The lot it sits on is now only half as big because in 1892 the north half of the lot was sold and a new house facing Locust Street was built (now 800 Locust Street).  I believe J. C. Henry was a druggist in Easton and the descendant of the Henrys who were longtime owners of Hambrooks Manor. 

In February of 1877 Dr. George Washington Varnum from Missouri became Oakley’s fifth investor when he purchased a 13-acre parcel from Byrn.  Actually Dr. Varnum, as executor, made the purchase on behalf of his late father’s estate.  His parcel is bordered today by the northern curb of Locust Street, the east curb of Choptank Avenue, the east curb of West End Avenue, and the Choptank River.  Varnum immediately began marketing and selling Oakley building lots. His instructions as executor per his father’s will was to make investments that would continue to increase the estate’s value until the grandchildren mentioned in the will reached 21 years old.  While it is not clear how much time Varnum spent in Cambridge, a daughter was born in Cambridge in 1877 (with the middle name of Goldsborough) and a son was born in Cambridge 3 years later.  Varnum sold some building lots before selling his remaining Oakley property to Cambridge Building and Loan in 1881.  Varnum family background and the story of his Choptank Avenue tract will require additional posts.  Note that the first name for Choptank Avenue was Varnum’s Alley.

Byrn’s final sale occurred on 11/20/1877.  On that date he sold a 12 acre farm to investor number six, Andrew G. Taylor of Wilmington, DE.  His tract included most of what is now Belvedere Avenue plus the property between Locust and Glasgow Streets that lined up with the width of the Belvedere block.  At its northeast terminus it abutted the property purchased by Buckner referenced above. Taylor’s purchase was unique because he apparently farmed the land and did not intend to subdivide it.  We do not know how much time he spent at his farm because he lived in Wilmington, DE and was a painter working for the Philadelphia, Wilmington & Baltimore Railroad.  What we do know is that a year later in 1878 he purchased 6 additional acres adjacent to his farm which gave him an 18-acre farm stretching to the Choptank River.  This additional 6 acres was the lot that had been previously sold by Byrn to Alfred Buckner in 1874.  As previously noted, Buckner had built a house on his property, so Taylor’s farm now also had a house.

The final chapter to this part of the Oakley story began when Samuel Byrn died the following year in 1878. At that time, he owned less than 53 acres and all of that was mortgaged to Oakley’s seventh investor, Henry Hubbard.  You may also be wondering how Byrn was able to sell the last 3 properties while Hubbard held a mortgage on them.  In each case there is evidence that Byrn paid an agreed upon amount to Hubbard from each sale in order to clear the titles.  So, when Byrn died Rich Henry Hubbard, as he was known, had a mortgage on a 53-acre Oakley Farm.  Hubbard was referred to as Rich Henry Hubbard because he was a shrewd investor who owned close to $2,000,000 in property in today’s dollars.  In September of 1878 Byrn’s Oakley property was sold by mortgagee Hubbard to farmer, real estate investor, and former boat yard owner William Hopkins for $3000.  In the meantime, Mrs. Margaret Byrn and 4 of her children moved to Wilton Farm.  The children were all adults except 15-year-old Samuel.  However, Samuel would, in fact, return to Oakley (Street) to live almost 50 years later! 

With one exception the map below shows the name of the property owner who purchased the tract of land from Samuel Byrn. However, the area labelled “Hubbard” was Byrn’s land that had been mortgaged to Hubbard. Upon Byrn’s death on 5/29/1878 a mortgage sale was triggered that resulted in Byrn’s 53 acres being conveyed to William Hopkins. One other clarification is that the Moodie and Buckner lots total 10 acres according to their original deeds (4 for Moodie & 6 for Buckner). The map rendering below is a bit skewed for these lots because the actual 1874 shoreline and marsh land are not taken into account. In a future post about the development of these 2 parcels an interesting 1916 court case will provide a more accurate depiction of these lots.