Truckin' on the Western Branch

Alison Dodson Anderson. Image by Sheally

Christmastime when lights spell out a large Merry Christmas across the front yard.

The story begins about 1809 when General John Hodges bought 100 acres of land along the river. He built a two-room house and named it Wildwood. He also, according to Dodson, started the Hodges ferry. The General, who is buried across the road, later sold the property to a man named Coffman who turned it into a large farm and shipped truck to Baltimore. He moved the cottage to the back of the property and built a larger, two-story Greek revival–style home before he lost the farm during the Depression. A man named Taylor rented part of the property and set up a gambling house until 1939 when John Kirchmier Sr. bought the house and 75 acres of the farm. According to local lore, he found a bit of money hidden away in the fireplace. Wildwood has remained in the Kirchmier/Dodson family ever since. John Kirchmier Sr. had a coal and oil business and bought the property to farm, raising vegetables, fruits, sheep, and pigs to sell locally rather than ship. Alice Kirchmier Dodson and her two brothers, Stan and John, grew up on the farm. My father had severe arthritis and spent his winters in Florida, leaving us and my mother on the farm. To catch the bus at Elmhurst Lane to go to St. Paul’s school, we walked right down Hodges Ferry Road for a mile but there were no cars and no neighbors.

Alice Kirchmier Dodson and her granddaughter, Alice Anderson. Image by Sheally

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