Dodon is a 555-acre working family farm in Anne Arundel County.

The Dodon Land Trust currently owns the farm. Polly and her six siblings are the trustees. Established in the late 1980s by their parents to preserve farmland, the trust agreement requires that a supermajority of the trustees agree to any sale or other significant change to the property. In addition, Dodon was one of the first farms to enter into an easement agreement with the Maryland Agricultural Land Preservation Foundation that restricts the use of most of the property to agricultural purposes. The trust and easement agreements effectively preserve the rural, agricultural nature of the farm and make it nearly impossible to develop the land.

Dodon’s history is complex, with many gaps in our understanding. We know that human habitation in the area around the farm likely began 8-10,000 years ago when tribes of the Piscataway nation first arrived. While we don’t know whether these indigenous peoples settled on the property itself, they appear to have lived in small family groups of 20 to 50, moving their campsites to take advantage of seasonally available resources and adapt to the rapidly changing climate that followed the last ice age.

While cultivating crops began in many parts of the world much earlier, it was not until about 1,000 years ago that Native Americans introduced tropical plants like maize, squash, beans, and tobacco into our region. Before Europeans arrived, however, these crops appear to have been more dietary supplements than staples. After planting the crop, native peoples would move on to sow, hunt, and gather elsewhere for several months while the crop ripened, returning to harvest and trade with other migrating tribes.

Dr. Francis Stockett was among the early Europeans to come to the region. In 1671, he received a patent of 664 acres for “Dodon.” We know that Stockett, along with his two brothers, had supported King Charles I during the English civil wars, going into exile with his son, King Charles II, in northeast France, where Saint Dodon established a nunnery in 753 CE. Stockett’s brothers also received patents for adjacent properties. Stockett’s Run, presumably named for them, is the small stream that runs through the farm. Stockett’s Run is now also the name of the winery’s “friends and family” red wine.

George Hume Steuart was the first of the family’s ancestors to own the farm. He arrived in Maryland from Scotland in about 1721. Records in the Maryland Archives, and his grandson’s diary, indicate that he acquired Dodon in 1725, but we have not found the original deed or other documentary evidence. In 1747, when archival records show that he owned at least 533 acres, Steuart purchased 409 acres described as “Dodon.” We do not know whether this might have been the original acquisition, an adjacent property, or something else, but we know that he acquired land at a rapid pace. By 1775, when he returned to Scotland, he owned at least 4,100 acres in Anne Arundel County alone.

Horses and tobacco played an essential role in these early years of European settlement. For example, family letters recall that George H. Steuart imported a horse from England called Dungannon. In May 1743, Dungannon won what historians believe was the first recorded horse race on an oval track in Maryland. Dungannon is also the name of our Merlot-led Collectors wine.

While we do not know when it was first introduced to the property, Oronoco tobacco (Nicotiana tobacum) was the primary crop for most of the history of the European settlement in Southern Maryland. This variety, much more pungent and aromatic than the sweet tobacco grown in Virginia, probably originated in the Caribbean and came to Maryland via the Orinoco River delta with European settlers. It differs considerably from the wild Nicotiana rusticum brought from the Amazon and used for ceremonial purposes by indigenous peoples. Oronoco is the name of our Cabernet Sauvignon-led Collectors wine, reflecting the tobacco-like aromatics typical in this grape variety.

Once commercialization began, tobacco farming led to the rapid degradation of the soil. It also fueled a tragic system of slavery that was common in the region. In Anne Arundel County alone, over 900 families owned fellow human beings, and the Steuarts were part of this deplorable practice. In the years leading up to the Civil War, the census shows that Dr. Richard Sprigg Steuart owned 130 slaves. This legacy of slavery and the acts of extreme cruelty accompanying it are still painfully present in society today.

The tangible wealth accumulated by Dodon’s owners during that period is long gone. Dr. Richard Sprigg Steuart used some of it in the mid-19th century to establish the state’s mental hospital at Spring Grove. In doing so, he also accrued a great deal of debt that he passed down to his children, ultimately leading to the loss of the farm. Two of Dr. Steuart’s sons assumed the entire debt to protect two unmarried sisters, Emily and Isabel, allowing them to receive the unencumbered deed to the farm. When the sisters died in 1890, they donated the farm to the Catholic Church.

One of these sons, William Donald Steuart, and his family were living on the farm at the time. His daughter Annette, Polly’s great-grandmother, was ten when they moved to Baltimore. She later recalled how devastated she was to leave Dodon.

For the next 39 years, Dodon served the Marists, and in the later years, the Redemptorists, as a seminary and retreat. Local history of the Church suggests that a “Dodon Fair” was held each spring for the community. The Church’s interest in the farm, however, waned over time. In 1890, when the farm was donated, Maryland planned to build a railroad from Baltimore to Drum Point in Calvert County that crossed the farm.

By 1929, however, despite miles of rail bed that had been prepared, the Drum Point Railroad project had been abandoned. We call our third Collectors wine, a blend of Sauvignon and Chardonnay, Drum Point.

In a letter to Annette that year, the Cardinal of Baltimore offered to sell the property back to family, concluding that the farm was too remote for the Church to continue to support it. Annette and her adult son, Ernest Pittman, bought 344 acres from the Catholic Church for $15,000, returning a large part of the property to her family.

Ernest’s son and Polly’s father, Steuart Pittman Sr., was about ten when the farm was repurchased. Coming from New York to spend summers at Dodon, he grew to share his grandmother’s passion for the land. In 1971, when Steuart Sr. owned the farm, he purchased another 211 acres from the Hardesty family to prevent impending development in the area. That parcel now contains the vineyard and winery operation.

Dodon is 555 acres in its current configuration. It comprises roughly 400 acres of woodland, 65 acres of pasture, 65 acres of cropland, 17 acres of planted vineyards, and 15 acres of “farmstead” – houses, barns, sheds, roads, and other non-tillable areas. Since 2010, the vineyard and winery have occupied a section of about 43 acres in the northeastern corner of the property.

Until 2017, when Polly’s brother Steuart ran for County Executive, he operated an equine business focused on retraining retired racehorses to be three-day eventers. At the height of his riding career, he rode his stallion, Salute the Truth, in advanced level eventing. Salute the Truth is also the name of a dessert wine that resulted from the difficult 2018 red wine harvest.

As part of the eighth generation of the family to raise our children and grandchildren on this ever-changing property, we are acutely aware of our good fortune. But that good fortune is also a reminder of our obligation to work forcefully, persistently, and constructively not just towards better environmental stewardship of the land but also to advance a more equitable society. Like the history of this country, the farm's history is both wonderful and painful. Both need to be acknowledged.