Electric trolley to Ellicott City for Christmas shopping

"Line will be in operation in time for Christmas Shopping" was the headline for an 1898 article in the Baltimore Sun.  Initially started in 1895 by the Edmondson Avenue, Catonsville Ellicott City Electric Railway, they stopped constructing the road which involved cutting through a 50-foot hill and diverting a stream. The new company had problems building the eastern bridge abutment and had to get permission to shut down the mill race for the Gambrills mill while they built the abutment.

Cotton mills of Ellicott's Mills in 1849

 In 1849 there were 4 large-scale mills along the Patapsco River by Ellicott City which made cotton material: Union in Oella (pictured), the Granite, the Patapsco, and the Thistle. 

Oella - the Maryland mill town and the Incas of Peru

The Union Manufacturing Company started buying land in 1808 for cotton mills, and in 1811 patented their holdings as Oella "in commemoration of the first woman who applied herself to the spinning of Cotton on the Continent of America."  Mama Oella (Ocllo and other spellings) and her husband/brother Manco Capac were the legendary founders of the Inca empire.  They were included in the then-popular epic poem by Joel Barlow on Columbus published in 1787 and expanded as The Columbiad in 1807.