Waring Fertilizer Company

The Waring Fertilizer and Bone Mill Company was organized in 1869 by the Waring brothers, to bring "Scientific Agriculture" to Cecil County, Maryland. With Thomas Waring as President,and his brother, Wilson Waring, as Vice-president, the company utilized buffalo bones brought from the Great Plains (during the buffalo extermination) to manufacture top quality fertilizer to improve farming in the region. This excerpt from an magazine article, taken from INDUSTRIES OF MARYLAND: EASTERN SHORE COUNTIES AND SUSSEX COUNTY,DELAWARE,1883, gives a more detailed picture of the Waring Fertilizer Company: "This village (COLORA) is in the midst of a fine farming and grazing section, on the Philadelphia and Baltimore Central Railroad, eight and a half miles from Port Deposit. The population of the place is small, but the country surrounding is thickly populated. Within the village are two churches, Methodist and Presbyterian, and Orthodox and Hicksite (Quaker) meetinghouses." The WARING FERTILIZER COMPANY of Cecil County, Md., was chartered under the general laws of Maryland in 1879, and is of first importance among the large enterprises of Cecil County, and in standing and reputation among the first of its kind in the State. It is located at Colora, Cecil County , about five miles north of Port Deposit. The large buildings, 335 by 60 feet, are very substantial, and are fitted up with a sixty-horse power engine and boiler, and the very best machinery and labor-saving appliances. There are also large chambers for the manufacture of the sulphuric acid used in the making of the various brands of fertilizers sold by the company. During the busy season, twenty-five to thirty workmen are employed in manufacturing, bagging, and shipping, and the place then presents one of the liveliest scenes imaginable. The present capacity of the works is six thousand to eight thousand tons of fertilizers per annum. The business is under the immediate supervision of the Messrs.Waring , Thomas and Wilson Waring , president and vice-president of the company, respectively, who have had twelve or thirteen years experience in this line. These gentlemen are well known in the community for their strict integrity in all their transactions, and they have put their character into their goods, and established for their various brands a reputation which has placed them in the very front rank. It is not uncommon for salesmen of other products to recommend what they have as "equal to Warings." September 13,1998