Edward Gray - cotton mill on the Patapsco, George Washington,

Edward Gray (1776-1856) sailed from Ireland as a teenager to Philadelphia where he saw President Washington and would work his way up to owning a mill on the Patapsco.  Gray was born in Londonderry, Northern Ireland to a Welsh mother and Irish clergyman father.  He “became warmly interested” in the American Revolution and at eighteen went to the new country’s capital of Philadelphia to make his fortune.  The first day he saw his hero, George Washington and happened to start work at the “commercial house” of Washington, and he took the President his monthly bank-books.  He owned the Patapsco Mill, later named Gray's Mill, which made cotton.


He was Girard’s agent in Europe for a couple years and became well known in Philadelphia society, so when his ship and fortune literally was taken by privateers, his friends helped him by buying the Patapsco Mill from its Philadelphia owner - publisher/bookstore owner John Conrad who had to dissolve all his businesses in 1812. 

As the agent and factor, Gray moved to Maryland and changed the paper mill to a cotton mill.  He hired a young Robert Mills, who would design many notable buildings and the Washington Monuments (Baltimore and DC), in 1816 to devise a way to safely heat the huge stone mill. More on a previous post HERE

After a fire it was rebuilt, and finally after the tariff of 1823, it started to be financially sound.

He volunteered in 1814 (War of 1812) in Capt. Henry Thompson's First Baltimore Horse Artillery of the Maryland Militia with George Howard (of Waverly) and two of his brothers.  They saw action at Bladensburg and North Point.

He married Eliza Craig (1788-1845) and they had two daughters; one, Elizabeth (1808-1889)   married John Pendleton Kennedy (1795-1870). More on Kennedy and "Patapsco" in previous posts HERE. The extended family lived in the Gray home in Baltimore and the home "Patapsco" at the mill south of Ellicott City.

In 1833 Gray was one of the founders of the Patapsco National Bank in Ellicott City.

The Life of John Pendleton Kennedy by Henry T. Tuckerman.  NY: 1871 --

"He was energetic and wise in the management of affairs ; and, at the same time, delighted in art, literature and society. He loved to read poetry to his children, and music was his unfailing resource and favorite recreation.  A successful man of business, he was keenly alive to the claims of humanity, and could not bear to witness suffering or hear of privation without instantly seeking to relieve them.

While a mere lad, Edward Gray had become warmly interested in the American war ; he followed its course with deep sympathy for the colonists, and knew its heroes by heart. Determined to seek his fortune in the New World, soon after the inauguration of the Republic, he embarked for Philadelphia.”  One of his fondest and highest anticipations was to behold Washington, for whose character and career he cherished an enthusiastic admiration; while his political sympathies were identified with the eminent founders of the Federal party. He used to relate, as a remarkable and auspicious coincidence, that he arrived at Philadelphia on a beautiful Sunday morning; and, on landing, walked up Chestnut Street in search of accommodations; he was but eighteen years of age, and his entré into the city of brotherly love, reminds us of Dr. Franklin's ; after a short walk, he saw a tall and singularly dignified man approaching, and, when near enough to examine his features, felt convinced he could be no other than General Washington; to confirm his conjecture he followed, until the object of his reverent curiosity entered a house ; inquiring whose it was, of a passerby, he was answered “the President’s.” Nor was this all; in the house where he engaged a lodging, he found Alexander Hamilton a temporary inmate, with whom he became intimately acquainted, and the commercial house where he was soon after engaged, happened to be that with which Washington transacted his private business; so that, immediately upon reaching our shores, the ardent boy had seen and soon came to know personally the two great republican patriots and statesmen—so long the objects of his juvenile idolatry. It was his duty every month, to take the General his bank-book; and Washington soon conceived a high regard for the bright and genial young clerk, and subsequently invited him to Mount Vernon.

Mr. Gray, at an early age, established himself in Philadelphia; for two years he was Mr. Girard's agent in Europe; and, having largely engaged in the China trade, became a successful merchant as well as a great favorite in society. The financial reverses incident to the war in Europe, and the capture of his largest and most richly-laden ship, by privateers, brought on a great reverse of fortune; and Mr. Gray, with so many others, had to succumb to the tide of disaster. His personal popularity and his sanguine temper now became recuperative resources ; for his friends, including some of the most honored names in the city, united in the formation of a manufacturing company of which Mr. Gray was appointed the agent and factor. 

In 1812 he removed to Maryland, and a mill was erected under his supervision, on the Patapsco, the company's mill, of which Mr. Gray had charge, was destroyed by fire; but, by his own energy and good judgment, he succeeded in re-building it on a larger scale and on his own account. For some years it was not very profitable; but, after the tariff of 1823, it became largely remunerative; and enjoyed an exceptional reputation for the manufacture of a fabric for which there was constant demand. Thus prosperously occupied, Mr. Gray embellished his grounds and improved his homestead, in the immediate vicinity of the mill; and yet secluded and rural enough to charm the eyes and enlist the pencils of English tourists, who found something in the scene at once picturesque and home-like.

...always succeeded in enlisting the best talent, amateur and professional, on these occasions; and found scope for his own inspiration in playing the violin. Blessed with an adequate fortune and the object of the most devoted affection to his daughters, his old age was singularly happy; and although a martyr to asthma, his spirits rose at once during every respite from the obstinate malady; and he became cheerful and earnest with all the freshness of feeling that belongs to a heart never hardened or perverted by the world. When dying, he said to his daughters; "Do as you like with your money; but comfort the aged and educate the young." And this sentiment, so characteristic of their father, they placed, as the most appropriate epitaph, on his tomb.

WASHINGTON IRVING  --

...can only remember him as he was in his genial moments—the generous and kind-hearted centre of a loving circle, dispensing happiness around him.. .To be under his roof at Baltimore or at Ellicott's Mills, was to be in a constant state of quiet enjoyment…I cannot expect, in my brief remnant of existence, to replace such a friend and such a domestic circle rallying round him ; but the remembrance will ever be most dear to me."

In a letter to Mr. Gray, dated at Sunnyside, April 24th, 1853, after acknowledging a present of some fine hams, Mr. Irving writes: "I have celebrated my seventieth birth-day and passed that boundary beyond which a man lives by special privilege. Your example shows me, however, that a man may live on beyond that term, and retain his sensibilities alive to every thing noble and good and pleasant and beautiful; and enjoy the society of his friends and diffuse special happiness around him. On such conditions old age is lovable. I shall endeavor to follow your example."

Writing to Mrs. Kennedy in April, 1853, Mr. Irving says, "It gives me sincere pleasure to hear that your father continues in his usual health. I trust that he has his musical evenings and his pet minstrels to play and sing for him. There will never be any wrinkles in his mind as long as he can enjoy music and have youth and beauty to administer to him." And when, in the autumn of the next year, his old friend began to fail, the same genial correspondent writes to Mr. Kennedy from Sunnyside: "I am concerned to learn that Mr. Gray's health has been feeble of late, and that he has had days of suffering and nights of prolonged nervous distress. Your account of his firm presentiment that he was to close his earthly career on his birth-day; of his business arrangements for the event, and the calm serenity with which he awaited it, is really touching and beautiful. It only proves how worthy he is of length of days, for no one is so fitted to live as he who is well prepared to die. God send him many more years, with a body as free from pain as his mind is from evil and his heart from unkindness. He has every thing that should accompany old age— 'as honor, love, obedience, troops of friends,' and he is an instance of how lovable old age may render itself."

Tuckerman, Henry T.  The Life of John Pendleton Kennedy.  NY: 1871

BA-879  school  Gray's Store c1830, then school 1870s-c1928 at 169 Frederick Road

BA-1576  long building  1576A long building and mill race  1577   3066 tenant house

HO-52  Patapsco National Bank  1905 building

First bank in EC       first building HO-76

State charter in 1833  first meeting in 1835 Edward Gray, Dorsey Worthington   

©2019 Patricia Bixler Reber
Forgotten history of Ellicott City & Howard County MD