Mount Ida

Mount Ida was built by 1834/1836 by William Ellicott (1793-1838) son of Jonathon and grandson of Andrew Ellicott, one of the founders of Ellicott City.

It was the last house built by an Ellicott in the historic district. The formal entrance that faced the town, is now the back, and the current front was the rear of the house with two doors - large one into the entry hall, and smaller one on the right into the kitchen.

Mischievous Ellicott boys, the store and electricity

In the 19th century, a few people, including Ben Franklin, experimented with electricity for science or entertainment. Joseph Priestly wrote the book The History and Present State of Electricity, with original experiments in 1769. One image from the book is at left.

An Ellicott descendant related in his 1882 book how some grandsons of the founders set up electrical devices around the stove in the Ellicott's store in order to shock unsuspecting locals.

Ellicott store or warehouse before 1790

Martha Ellicott Tyson (1795-1873), daughter of George Ellicott (1760-1832) and Elizabeth (Brooke) Ellicott (1762-1853) was raised in his stone home across from the mill and store/warehouse. She wrote about the history of many buildings and people in her Maryland Historical Society article 1865. Image from 1854.

Ben Franklin staying young ... described by Andrew Ellicott

After completing the survey of the extension of the Pa and Va boundary (the continuation of the Mason-Dixon line) in 1784 and the western border of PA in 1785, Major Andrew Ellicott, 31 years old (1754-1820) was invited to spend a day - Dec 4, 1785 - with the 79 year old Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790).
Franklin's "little room" was "filled with old philosophical Instruments, Papers,Boxes, Tables, and Stools" and at 10:00 Franklin set water over the fire (over a 'Franklin fireplace?) and shaved himself.  Fighting aging, he insisted on doing it all himself rather than to give in, thus increasing his "infirmaries."  Franklin described changing his course at age 70... and "walked back" the years, rather than age.

George Ellicott house

George Ellicott built a large stone house in 1789 across from their flour mill and next to his brother Jonathon. It was actually two houses or a back wing connected and a third portion for the kitchen. An 'observatory' was on the third floor. The first Marylander to write a cookbook (Elizabeth Ellicott Lea) in 1845, was born in this house. Click on the pictures to enlarge.

The 18th century almanacs of Andrew Ellicott

Andrew Ellicott (1754-1820) - surveyor extraordinaire, inventor, astronomer and, though born a Quaker, became a Major in the Revolutionary War - wrote at least thirteen yearly almanacs from 1781-1793, even during the war.  He calculated each monthly chart and composed a prose segment on predictions and biographies as the "Allegheny Philosopher". 

His early editions were published by Mary K. Goddard (1738-1816), the woman newspaper publisher and Baltimore postmaster who bravely printed the Declaration of Independence.

Ellicott family founders of EC - 250 years ago

The remarkable Ellicott brothers - Joseph, Andrew, John, with some financing from Nathaniel - created the state-of-the-art mill and the town of Ellicott mills in 1772. 1854 image of George, Jonathon and John homes.

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.

James Lea grafitti at the B&O railroad station 1838

James Lea (1816-1857) was the son of Elizabeth (Ellicott) Lea (daughter of George Ellicott), and Thomas Lea, of the Lea Brandywine mills.  James was born in Delaware but raised south west of Ellicott's mills at the family farm "Walnut Hill" near Sandy Spring, Md.  He and his brothers took produce and livestock into Ellicott's mills, then visited his grandmother Elizabeth (Brooke) Ellicott who lived by their mill, across the river from the station.

James fought during the Mexican War (1846-48), went overland to California for the 1849 gold rush then ran a hotel until he became ill and returned home. A further reason, when his grandmother Elizabeth (Brooke) Ellicott died in 1853 she left him a portion of her Brooke lands near Sandy Spring, MD if he returned to live in Maryland. He died, unmarried, in 1857.

Ellicott's Mills and Bonnie Branch mill 1907

Now all gone, one mill on the Bonnie Branch river was preserved in photos and described in this 1907 article.  Wooden gears are also described from the Ellicotts' Gwynn Falls mill, and the problems they had with Oliver Evans, 200 years ago.

Patapsco Female Institute and the women who ran it

As pictured in 1854, the institute (opened 1837) was managed or owned by three ladies ... and a few men.  The most well-known, from 1841 to 1856, was Almira Phelps who moved in with her family and made it a nationally celebrated school. Sarah Randolph, author and great-granddaughter of Thomas Jefferson, was the last director from 1879 to 1885. A descendant of one of the Ellicott founders, Lilly Elliott owned it from1891 until her death in 1924; first as her home, then hotel, then as a WWI hospital.

Elizabeth Ellicott Lea and the first Maryland cookbook in 1845

Elizabeth (Ellicott) Lea (1793-1858) was born in Ellicott’s mills to

George and Elizabeth (Brooke) Ellicott, the son of one of the

founding Quaker brothers.  In 1812, she married Thomas

Lea Jr. (1789-1829) at the New Elkridge Meeting House in Ellicott City,

and lived at his family mills near Wilmington, DE.

After moving to her mother’s Brooke family lands near Sandy

Spring MD in 1823, Lea’s husband died and left her to

raise their large family at "Walnut Hill" farm.  Lea sent her newly

married daughter a recipe manuscript which was first published

in 1845.  Domestic Cookery went through two more editions -1846, 1851 -and numerous printings during the next 40 years. 

Elkridge Quaker meeting house in Ellicott City

The Ellicott family donated four acres for a Quaker meeting house and a cemetery on 'Quaker Hill'. Excerpts from Martha Ellicott Tyson, and an 1891 article about the abandoned meeting house.

Benjamin Banneker's almanac and the Ellicotts

George Ellicott, his brother Elias Ellicott and their cousin Major Andrew Ellicott each helped to get Banneker's first almanac published in 1792. The previous post HERE on the biography of Benjamin Banneker has other details of his life and accomplishments.  George taught interested neighbors astronomy using his celestial globe and telescope, and gave some of his books and tools to his friend Benjamin.  Andrew, a famous surveyor who did at least thirteen years of almanacs, passed on Benjamin's well-written letter, and it is preserved in the Historical Society of Pa.  Elias who had moved to Baltimore was also a Quaker, joined the newly formed Md Abolition Society and wrote numerous letters about the almanac. 

Humor: Ellicott - - a la cote

In a story from a NY ladies magazine in 1837, a visiting Frenchman forgot the name Ellicott's mills, but remembered that it sounded like the English word for jacket (cote/coat); so in broken English he asked a sailor what his jacket was called. Unfortunately he was at the Ellicott wharf in Baltimore, not the mills - which is why he could not see the mills with the whur, whur, whur of the wheel to grind the floo (flour).  The Frenchman was more than thirteen miles away from the mills.  The arrow shows the location of the early Ellicott wharf at the end of Light Street (north-south) and Pratt Street (west-east) Baltimore.

Ellicotts' movable house - an 1800 mobile home

When they were building a road going west from Ellicott's Mills, the Ellicott brothers had a house built on wheels where the road workers cooked and slept.  It was "drawn from place to place" and was the "first movable building seen in Maryland."  Perhaps it was a small house or possibly a part of a Conestoga wagon or like a Gypsy caravan.  Moving wooden or even brick buildings was surprisingly common in the US, as noted lighthouse engineer Stevenson described in 1838...

8113 Main St., to be torn down after 2016 Ellicott City flood, had connections to Elizabeth Ellicott Lea

Elizabeth Ellicott Lea (1793-1858), whose cookbook Domestic Cookery was first published in 1845, had ties to the shorter of the two adjoining buildings due to be torn down. The old building sets over the Tiber branch (usually more of a stream) on hand-hewed wooden beams forming a truss system (like a bridge).  Incredible. For about 200 years these buildings have been held up by wood. [HO-586] The supporting wall between the frame (wood) buildings was destroyed during the flood, making it a hazard. Lea was born in the George Ellicott home (below).