Waverly Jumbles

Governor George and Prudence Ridgely Howard named the home and lands that his father, Col. Howard, gave them "Waverly" after the enormously popular 1814 Sir Walter Scott novel Waverley. His brother Benjamin's wife, Jane Gilmor Howard, included a recipe for the rose water flavored cookie in her charity cookbook Fifty Years in a Maryland Kitchen in 1873.

The Dairy - at Waverly and Doughoregan Manor

Gov. George Howard's (1789-1846) large stone dairy was built c1822 according to an early sketch of his "Waverly" buildings and payments to a stonemason. The second story window on the front has been changed into a door, but the side windows look like the sketch. His wife Prudence Ridgely Howard (1791-1847) had been raised at "Hampton" (north of Baltimore) which operated a large dairy operation making over 5,000 pounds of butter in 1822. Howard's neighbor Charles Carroll's lovely dairy at "Doughoregan" was much smaller. 

Morse's telegraph message went over the Thomas Viaduct

On May 24, 1844 Samuel F. B. Morse (1791-1872) sent the message "What hath God wrought?" from the Supreme Court chambers in the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C. to Baltimore's B&O train station.  Congress had appropriated money to run a line from DC to Baltimore along the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad tracks, thus going over the amazing Thomas Viaduct with its two tracks and a walkway.  More on the viaduct HERE .  Although not the first person to invent the electric telegraph, nor was it his first message, the line became famous, as did Morse and Morse Code.

Cotton mill heated in 1816 by a young Robert Mills

Robert Mills, the American born architect of two Washington Monuments - Baltimore in 1815 and DC in the 1830s - designed a soap stone and brick furnace for the large (100 feet by 40 feet, three story stone) cotton mill a mile down the Patapsco River from Ellicott's Mills.  It was run by Edward Gray, father-in-law of John Pendleton Kennedy.  More on "Patapsco" HERE

"Patapsco" - the home not the river - and the 1868 flood

Edward Gray built the home and mill complex, and lived there with his two daughters and his son-in-law John Pendleton Kennedy.  Kennedy (1795-1870) was a lawyer, novelist, politician, Secretary of the Navy and kept a journal which gives fascinating accounts of his education, fighting to protect Baltimore in 1814 and his homes in Baltimore and "Patapsco" near Ellicott City.  After Edward Gray died in 1856, the Kennedys continued to live between the two homes until the flood of 1868 - described below.

Washington Irving visits his friend John Pendleton Kennedy

Novelist Washington Irving (1783-1859) who bought a cottage in 1835, and transformed it into the fanciful "Sunnyside" in Tarrytown, NY (picture below) wrote about his visits to Kennedy's "Patapsco" country home outside of Ellicott City.  The house had been built c1820 by his father-in-law Edward Gray within his textile manufacturing complex by the Patapsco River, with additions built over the years.  John Pendleton Kennedy (1795-1870) was a lawyer, politician, Secretary of the Navy, novelist, reformer, historian and kept a detailed journal.

Oakland's outbuildings repurposed

A previous post HERE described Oakland. Next to the mansion is a stone wash house (left) which connects to the underground ice house holding 1200 bushels of ice. Nearby is the fancy carriage house.  In the farm section, now next to the man-made Wilde Lake on Hyla Point Road, is the old Oakland house, stone slave and blacksmith buildings, a sheep house, a spring house and a later-built barn.

Charles Sterrett Ridgely's name change and Oakland

Charles Ridgely Sterrett (1782-1847) legally changed his surname as requested by his mother's uncle Capt. Charles Ridgely, the builder of "Hampton" when he died in 1790.  Another heir of the childless Ridgely, Charles Carnan also added Ridgely to his name and inherited Hampton.  Built in 1811, Oakland underwent changes during its years of many owners. It is at 5430 Vantage Point Road, Columbia. 

B & O Railroad's Thomas Viaduct

This curved granite viaduct with eight arches was built in 1835.  Incredibly it is still being used... with modern heavy trains on the double tracks!  Designed by Benjamin Henry Latrobe, Jr. (1806-78), the son of the architect of the US Capitol and Baltimore's Basilica, it was 612 feet long and cost over $142,000 or the equivalent of $3.8 million.  At the time it was called Latrobe's Folly, since it was so novel detractors thought it would fall down.

Jane Gilmor Howard, cookbook author, raised millions for starving Southerners

150 years ago, Jane (Gilmor) Howard led more than 350 Maryland women to collect the equivalent of $2.3 million dollars for the starving women and children in the South following the Civil War.  Additionally, she wrote a charity cookbook when she was 72 aptly titled Fifty Years in a Maryland Kitchen.  For several years in the 1840s, she and her husband Benjamin Chew Howard spent summers outside Ellicott's Mills at "Wyoming," near his brother Gov. George Howard's home "Waverly" at Marriottsville. One of their daughters attended the Patapsco Female Institute.

5 Maryland Governors and Howard County

Four governors lived in the county, and it was named for a fifth governor with extensive land holdings there - Col. John Eager Howard.  When the Revolutionary War hero lived in Jennings House (left) in Annapolis, his son George Howard was born in 1789, and would return to Jennings House (the official residence from 1777-1870) when he too became governor in 1831. Other governors: Thomas Ligon of "Chatham" in 1854; John Lee Carroll of "Doughregan" in 1876 and Edwin Warfield of "Oakdale" in 1904.

B & O railroad sheet music 1828 and Carrollton Viaduct

On July 4, 1828, Charles Carroll of Carrollton laid the 'cornerstone' for the start of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad between the planned Carrollton Viaduct and Mount Clare. The original stone is in the B&O Museum in Baltimore. Two songs were written for the occasion - Carrollton March and the Rail Road March.

Linwood, Mary Merrick and Jeanne Simons

“Linwood” was the home of a possible future Saint, at one time owned by the great-grandson of Martha Washington and would become a school for children with autism in 1955.  The cupola and flue system were designed to cool the summer house.  ...

Columbia's poetical street names

"Oh, you must live in Columbia!" is the title of an entertaining and very informative book, and a response to hearing one of many odd street names.  Rouse needed new names for a thousand streets, and the book goes into detail of how the names were chosen. And what names!  Topbranch Lane, Besthold Garth, Barefoot Boy, Fruitgift Place and so many more.

The names?  Historical homes - Oakland Mills Road, Oak Hall Lane, and Grey Rock Drive. Historical people - Gateway Center inventors: Thomas Edison, Samuel Morse.  Art works from museums, Whistler, Wyeth and Homer. ...

Doughoregan - bath house

The manor is known for its connection to Charles Carroll of Carrollton (1737-1832), who outlived all the other signers of the Declaration of Independence, and it is still owned by the family.  It had 'nut-shell' sized bedrooms and an out building that contained a freezing cold bath (pool) where CCofC 'plunged head foremost' every summer day at 4 AM! ...

Howard County map c1860

This new blog will have monthly postings (if not more frequently) on interesting women of years past and historic houses in Ellicott City and Howard County, Maryland.  The information on most of the homes were presented in short two-five minute talks at the local Colonel Thomas Dorsey DAR chapter meetings. 

"Wilton" the home of William H G Dorsey is one of the buildings pictured around the Martenet's map of Howard County, c1860 from the Library of Congress map site.
Click to enlarge.

©2016 Patricia Bixler Reber