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.

Grist mill became an electric power plant on the Tiber

Just off lower Main Street on Tiber Alley, a grist mill was built sometime before an 1860 map labeled it "T McCrea Depot Mill." The 1894 Sanborn map labeled it "Ellicott City Electric Light & Power Co." (black on pink rectangle behind Kraft Meat) with the "Engines & Dynamos".  The electric company was started in 1892 but was in financial troubles by 1894 and in 1898 EC went with a Catonsville company.   Click images to enlarge.

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.

B & O Rail Road in the Niles' Weekly Register 1830

The opening of service on the Baltimore and Ohio Rail road was covered in the local Niles’ Weekly Register  Baltimore: Mar – Sept 1830.

Chronology of the B & O railroad 1825-1853

The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad was started by businessmen in Baltimore, with the first line going to Ellicott mills.  As recalled by JHB Latrobe, John Eager Howard hosted a dinner at his mansion "Belvidere" in 1825 (or 1826) to discuss the possibility of a railroad. In 1827, a more formal meeting was held at George Brown's home.

Howard County and Russian Jewish immigrants 1900

A small community of 29 Russian Jewish families started farms near Hollofield on the old "Brosenna" estate.  The following articles from The Baltimore Sun, Sept. 17, 1905 and Aug. 3, 1906. 

Nathan Tyson's patented flour drying process - 1831

Nathan Tyson (1787-1867) married George Ellicott's daughter Martha Ellicott (1795-1873) in 1815 at the Quaker Meeting house in EC.  They lived in Baltimore city and at 'Jericho' by his family mills on the Gunpowder.  He was on the Board of Directors of the B & O Railroad, and historian Scharf wrote after his death that he was "one of the ablest and most honorable merchants of Baltimore."

Thanksgiving Day county fair... IN... the Patapsco Hotel

The Howard County fair began on Thanksgiving Day, 1907, and probably took place in the old Patapsco Hotel, by the train tracks and across the bridge from the railroad station.  The hotel was originally a passenger station for the new Baltimore & Ohio Railroad. A past post HERE.  Ponies, poultry, pumpkins, 'Pekin ducks,' turkeys and more filled all the four floors.

Kiln-dried corn meal

Drying corn in a pan-kiln (patents by 1812, 1816; British patent 1824 at left) for corn meal was said to have been invented at the Lea owned Brandywine Mills (Wilmington, Del).  George Ellicott's daughter Elizabeth Ellicott Lea married Thomas Lea, the son of the founder.