1802 Ferry rates to cross Patapsco River at Elkridge Landing

The Traveler's Directory of 1802 listed the "rates of ferriage" - man and horse 6 cents, four wheel carriages 27 cents, passengers 3 cents.  The ferry, left, was on the Delaware River by Philadelphia in 1779.

Ellicott's Mills "provost" in 1863

During the Civil War there was competition among the war correspondents to get the story and get it to their publisher. One reporter played a trick on another and got his report sent out first.

7 mile walk from Relay to Ellicott City 1919

Illchester had a "medieval air" and "nothing very modern" while Ellicott City felt like being "in Europe again. These old houses with their balconies, their stone walls either orange and tawny as the quarries yielded them, or washed with pale pinks and yellows and blues, Italian fashion."  The flour from the Patapsco mill "so familiar to your grocer's shelves."

Baltimore and flour 1831 ... and garlick flour

The port of Baltimore handled about 600,000 barrels of flour and 70,000 bushels of wheat mostly shipped to England - more than any US port except NYC.  Ellicott's mills supplied flour to Baltimore.  Wild garlic was probably a problem in the wheat from Howard County.  Oliver Evans' book (who visited Ellicotts mills, book was co-written by a brother of the Ellicott founders) contained an entire section on the wild garlic problem.

Schools at Ellicott mills and Chickasaw students

Martha (Ellicott) Tyson (1795-1873) wrote the book The Settlement of Ellicott's Mills, 1871 which included several education related topics.  Her father was George Ellicott, whose 18th century home is still across from the mill.  Various past posts about Tyson HERE

First Presbyterian Church... now the Howard County Historical Society museum

The 1894 building was built on the site of the 1842-4 church, next to the courthouse above Main Street, Ellicott City.  Both dates are on the cornerstone incorporated in the bell tower which was the original entrance.  There is an interesting two window partition between the sanctuary and the Sunday school classrooms that raise into the attic to expand the viewing.

Charles Carroll's Doughoregan Manor in 1831

An English traveler, Godfrey Vigne, wrote about his six month visit to America in 1831 which included a visit to Doughoregan.

Billy Barton, Belmont, Gentleman Jockey Albert G. Ober and ... Pimlico

Billy Barton, a thoroughbred horse, was not suited to race tracks but excelled at steeplechase races. He was sold to many owners, from a high of $32,000 to the owner of the NY Giants, finally for $2,000 to Howard Bruce of  "Belmont" (mansion in Elkridge, Md., not the racecourse in NY).  Billy Barton became very "ractious" and eventually was banned from race tracks - he bolted the opposite direction in a race at Pimlico.  After a few years of fox hunts, he gained fame as a steeplechase winner, often mentioned in the newspapers and made the cover of Time in 1929.  One article was about the negotiations for the horse to stay in a stateroom on the Cunard shipping line sailing to England to run in the Grand National. Gentleman jockey Albert Ober often rode him to victory. 

Blog change

The last two years have been very busy, as will this year.  So I am stepping back and will put up posts once a month for a while.  The next post will be on "gentleman jockey" Albert Ober.

Meeting to make Howard a county in 1837

Gov. George Howard (1789-1846) of "Waverly" was selected to chair the group of residents including Nath’l. H. Ellicott, Andrew Ellicott, Edward Gray, Thomas B. Dorsey, Chas. D. Warfield and Gustavus Warfield to "partition off the upper section" of Anne-Arundel county into a separate county.  The meeting was held at Deborah Disney's Hotel in Ellicott's mills.  Howard District was created in 1839, but not made a county until 1851.  The current court house was built in 1841.  The name Howard was to honor Gov. George Howard's father, Revolutionary War hero Col. John Eager Howard (1752-1827, also a governor when George was born) and landowner in Baltimore and Howard County.

Gen. Lew Wallace and his retreating troops in 1864 drawn by 11 year old Edwin Abbey

Edwin Abbey (1852-1911), who would gain fame painting large murals while living in England, visited his father’s sister and her husband Dr. Isaac J. Martin in Ellicott City during summers. In July 1864 the Union army lost the Battle of Monocacy, near Frederick. Troops under Lew Wallace marched down Main St. followed by the three officers, walking leading their horses.

Lew Wallace (1827-1905) held several posts after he resigned from the Army, including Governor of New Mexico Territory and then US Minister to Turkey (Ottoman Empire).  But his fame is from the book he wrote - Ben-Hur, published in 1880, and the epic film in 1959.

Elkridge lodging house - McCorys in 1815

Harriott (Pinckney) Horry (1748-1830) took an overland trip north from her plantation "Hampton" near Charleston SC when she was 67 years old.  After leaving the burned DC they stayed at McCorys, a new lodging house with new beds and mattresses.

Map - Avalon (iron works) at Elkridge

B & O Railroad 1832 - barracks

Charles Joseph Latrobe (1801-1875) an English traveler and future Governor of Australia described sites in Maryland - point of rocks, and "gigantic undertakings" like the railroad.

Elkridge Hunt Club

The club was officially organized in 1878 had moved to Baltimore in 1870.

"The Howard County Hounds can be traced back as far as 1814, when the Duke of Leeds gave two Irish foxhounds, Mountain and Muse, to a visiting guest, Bolton Jackson. This famous pair of hounds changed hands several times before going to Charles Carroll at his Homewood estate. Nimrod Gosnell bred July, a famous hound tracing back to Captain, a descendant of Mountain and Muse"

Civil War female spies and their connection to the Patapsco Female Institute

Patapsco Female Institute had at least two connections to famous Civil War Confederate female spies.  Two daughters of Rose O'Neal Greenbow were students.  Clara Haxall Randolph Howard married the grandson of John Eager Howard and was a cousin of Sarah Randolph, the last principal of the school.

Hickory Ridge in Highland with Reip wall oven

The country home of Nicholas Greenberry Ridgely in Highland (Rt 108 between Ellicott City and Sandy Spring) was built in 1749 with an addition in the early 1800s.  It was later bought by Samuel Hopkins (nephew of Johns Hopkins) and renamed "White Hall."

Gen. E. B. Tyler - captured at Jug Bridge then escaped to Ellicott's Mills... or not

During the Civil War, Brigadier General Erastus Bernard Tyler (1822-1891) was sent to defend Baltimore in June 1863, and was involved in the Battle of Monocacy on July 9, 1864.  He commaned the troops protecting Jug Bridge on the east side of Frederick. It was an intense fight, but the Union troops held.  There were false newspaper reports that he had been taken prisoner, escaped and went to Ellicott's Mills.  He married a local lady, remained in Baltimore and died at his home "Rosedale" near Calverton.

Jug Bridge - Jonathan Ellicott proposed a "bold plan of this bridge with 4 arches [each with a] 65 [foot] span" and built 1808-9 when Col. John Eager Howard was president of the Frederick Turnpike.  The bridge lasted 140 years, and the Jug monument was moved to I-70's East Patrick exit.

B&O Railroad route in 1831, by an American travel writer

Theodore Dwight (1796-1866) wrote several books, including an early travel book by an American.  He describes the early days of the B&O Railroad.  He wrote "Ellicott's Mills may be compared with Little Falls on the Erie Canal."

Andrew McLaughlin's 1834 lottery description of Ellicott's Mills -- it was noisey

Andrew McLaughlin (1802-1863) managed or owned three hotels, more HERE He sold The Patapsco Hotel in 1834 by lottery, and advertised it in the newspapers and a poster. Below, is his description of the looks... and sounds... around the hotel.  Not to mention the rumbling of the trains next to the hotel. Click to enlarge.

Andrew McLaughlin and the Patapsco Hotel

Andrew McLaughlin (1802-1863) is remembered in Howard County for the sketch showing lower Main St. for a lottery to sell his property.  He worked at the Indian Queen hotel in Baltimore for his uncle John Gadsby (known from Gadsby's Tavern Museum, Alexandria, VA). Gadsby's second wife, Margaret McLaughlin, was born in Ellicott's Mills.  McLaughlin married David Barnum's daughter and became the proprietor of the famous Barnum's City Hotel in Baltimore (left; click images to enlarge).

B & O railroad - wooden rails or stone rails

During the early days of railroad building, various materials were used to make the rails, including wood, stone or iron.

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.