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.

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."

1831 B & O railroad drawn by horse and wretched breakfast at Ellicott Mills

Thomas Hamilton (1789-1842) rode in "a wooden house or chamber...drawn by a horse at the rate of about four miles an hour."  After 3 hours he arrived in "Ellicot Mills" to a poor breakfast.

Sites on the B&O train line through Howard County in 1833

Riding the new B&O railroad from Baltimore was a novel 'excursion', and was described in the 1833 book:  A Complete View of Baltimore

Duc de La Rochefoucauld's visit to Ellicott's mills in the 1790s

"Ellicot’s-Mill is a small village, the principal establishment of which is a large gristmill belonging to Mr. Ellicot.  This mill has six pair of millstones, and is constructed as well as any of the mills of Brandy wine [Lea mills]."

François Alexandre Frédéric de La Rochefoucauld, Duke of Rochefoucauld (1747-1827) escaped France during the Revolution for England then sailed to America, finally returning to France.

Ellicott mills in 1805

"1805 8th Month, 3d. This evening I visited Ellicott's Mills, in company with J. T. and his wife. The overseer of these mills informed me they could grind and pack 300 barrels of flour per day. A barrel being 196lbs. or 14st. the annual returns, at 3s. per stone, would be nearly 200,000L. The stones were 7 feet in diameter."