Published in the Baltimore County Democrat, of October 27, 1888
Warren, 8th District – The village of Warren is said to be about seventy years of age. Robert Bambler (a Methodist preacher) walked from Philadelphia and started the calico works under James Buchanan’s administration. There were about sixty dwellings put up, the same number as at present. No additional buildings have been erected. Some of the old ones have been torn down and rebuilt by the present company. Under Buchanan’s administration from two to three families lived in each house and you could not enter a house without seeing a bottle of whisky. A malignant fever broke out at one time and it was of such a nature that several physicians met to consult in reference to it – Doctors Ridgely, Risteau, Baker and others. Some were of the opinion that it was caused by some cotton, others that it was brought in a hogshead of sugar, as it is said that everyone who used it was taken sick. The fever was so malignant that it carried the people off faster than they could be buried. Two and three bodies were put in a cart at a time and hauled up on the Warren farm, thrown into a gutter and the bank dug and thrown over them. There being no railroad at that time, all the cotton and calico prints were hauled by wagons. The teamsters would have to take an axe with them to cut their way through the woods. The calico was in so much demand that quite often the merchants took them from the wagons before they reached the warehouse. It is said that the colors were so fast that the goods were almost as bright when worn out as they were new. On pay days the money was brought up in a hack and it took two men to carry it into the office. Hard times were unknown in those days. Quite different from the present day. Was it under free trade or protective tariff?
Mr. Buchanan was a man of humorous vein. Every pay day he would fill his hat with pennies and look for some mud hole and call the boys together and scatter them all around himself to see the boys run over one another to pick the up. Whenever he saw one imposed upon he would give him a nod and throw some out to him. During those days at times the sun could not be seen for three and fours hours in a day on account of the birds flying over the village.