Forgotten history of Ellicott City & Howard County MD

Gray had improved the old paper factory for cotton in 1815, but in five years there was a terrible fire.  200 workers - mostly women and c...

The new B & O Railroad made the international news as seen in this excerpt from a French book. 

The Traveler's Directory of 1802 listed the "rates of ferriage" - man and horse 6 cents, four wheel carriages 27 cents, pas...

During the Civil War there was competition among the war correspondents to get the story and get it to their publisher. One reporter played ...

Illchester had a "medieval air" and "nothing very modern" while Ellicott City felt like being "in Europe again. ...

The port of Baltimore handled about 600,000 barrels of flour and 70,000 bushels of wheat mostly shipped to England - more than any US port ...

Martha (Ellicott) Tyson (1795-1873) wrote the book The Settlement of Ellicott's Mills , 1871 which included several education related...

The 1894 building was built on the site of the 1842-4 church, next to the courthouse above Main Street, Ellicott City.  Both dates are on ...

An English traveler, Godfrey Vigne, wrote about his six month visit to America in 1831 which included a visit to Doughoregan.

Billy Barton, a thoroughbred horse, was not suited to race tracks but excelled at steeplechase races. He was sold to many owners, from a hi...

The last two years have been very busy, as will this year.  So I am stepping back and will put up posts once a month for a while.  The nex...

Gov. George Howard (1789-1846) of "Waverly" was selected to chair the group of residents including Nath’l. H. Ellicott, Andrew El...

Edwin Abbey (1852-1911), who would gain fame painting large murals while living in England, visited his father’s sister and her husband D...

Harriott (Pinckney) Horry (1748-1830) took an overland trip north from her plantation "Hampton" near Charleston SC when she was ...

Charles Joseph Latrobe (1801-1875) an English traveler and future Governor of Australia described sites in Maryland - point of rocks, and ...

The club was officially organized in 1878 had moved to Baltimore in 1870. "The Howard County Hounds can be traced back as far as 181...

Patapsco Female Institute had at least two connections to famous Civil War Confederate female spies.  Two daughters of Rose O'Neal Gre...

The country home of Nicholas Greenberry Ridgely in Highland (Rt 108 between Ellicott City and Sandy Spring) was built in 1749 with an addit...

During the Civil War, Brigadier General Erastus Bernard Tyler (1822-1891) was sent to defend Baltimore in June 1863, and was involved in ...

Theodore Dwight (1796-1866) wrote several books, including an early travel book by an American.   He describes the early days of the B...