Chief Little Turtle visited George Ellicott's home in 1807

The then famous Native American chief Little Turtle (c1752-1812) and other chiefs visited Ellicott mills during Christmas week 1807 after meetings in Washington City and Baltimore.  Two were chiefs of the Miami nation: The Little Turtle and Busheville; two from the Delaware nation; two chiefs of the Shawnee nation; and two chiefs of the Potowatomi nation (Marpau and his wife did not go to Ellicott's home). 

George Ellicott's (1760-1832) wife Elizabeth (Brooke) Ellicott (1762-1853) prepared hominy and other dishes she felt would interest their guests.  Their daughter Martha (Ellicott) Tyson  wrote about the visit.  Ellicott and Gerard Hopkins, the uncle of Johns Hopkins, had been part of the Quaker delegation to visit the chiefs near Fort Wayne, in 1804.

B & O rail road sites in Howard County 1857

"Ellicott's Mills, fourteen miles from Baltimore, covering the bottom and slopes of the steep hills with dwellings, and their tops with churches and other public edifices." From excerpt below. Click on images to enlarge.

B & O rail road and the Chesapeake & Ohio Canal in 1829

James Stuart (1775-1849) from Scotland, traveled in Maryland in 1829, and wrote about the canal, railway and the famed "Baltimore clipper" ships.

Although both had ground breaking ceremonies on the same day - July 4, 1828 - (B&O in Baltimore, C&O in Washington DC), the canal only reached Cumberland, MD and stopped because the train line progressed further and was more profitable.

The image, from the 1850s, at Point of Rocks, shows the rails on left, the canal, and the towpath on right.

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.

1831 B & O horse drawn carriage

During an 1831 trip to North and South America, Sir James Edward Alexander (1803-1885) took a detour from riding a “coach (a sort of windmill, freely admitting the cold air through the leathern sides)” from Washington to Baltimore to ride on the “Baltimore Railway”.  They rode in a "heavy double carriage, drawn by one horse."

Ruthless, winner of first Belmont Stakes, killed by a hunter at "Oakland Manor"

In 1867 the first Belmont Stakes race was held at the new Jerome Park racecourse.  A filly won. Ruthless was raised by Francis Morris (1811-1886) at Throggs Neck, now part of NYC.  Morris also owned farms in Texas and "Oakland Manor" near Ellicott City where Ruthless was shot in 1876.  In her short career, Ruthless ran in 11 races: won 7 and second in 4, before an injury.  Her first foal Battle Axe, won the Kentucky Stakes at Saratoga in 1873.

Surgeon General Robert Murray from Elkridge

Robert Murray (1822-1913) was born in Elkridge and earned his medical degree at University of Pennsylvania in 1843. After serving in the Army for forty years - 1846-1886 - the general retired to live in his childhood home in Elkridge.

Enchanted Forest - a fairy tale wonderland - now at Clark's Elioak Farm

In August 1955 the Harrison family opened a new concept family park.  A story-book-land.  And it was a success.  It closed in 1989 and luckily, after 2004, many of the buildings and figures were moved to Clark's Elioak Farm, restored and now part of the popular petting farm.

Ellicott's Mills and Bonnie Branch mill 1907

Now all gone, one mill on the Bonnie Branch river was preserved in photos and described in this 1907 article.  Wooden gears are also described from the Ellicotts' Gwynn Falls mill, and the problems they had with Oliver Evans, 200 years ago.

Bollman truss bridge images

Wendel Bollman (1814-1884) from Baltimore started working for the B&O railroad and created a more stable bridge of iron for the trains. His first iron bridge was at Savage in 1850, and received a patent in 1852. Many photos (one of Mr. Bollman) and information at link below.

Bleak House - historic home ruin becomes a tot slide

On a hill off the east side of Rain Dream Hill near Wilde lake sits the shell of a stone house - "Bleak House" - once part of "Oakland." The wealthy George Riggs Gaither built the home for his newly married son George (who became a Confederate cavalry officer) and his wife Rebecca Dorsey.  As the home of a confederate, Bleak House was sold during the Civil War in 1863 and the family moved to a safer Baltimore.  During the Depression the home was deserted and was just a few wall fragments by 1960.  The ruins form a creative play space with a slide, a ramp and a few levels to practice stairs.  A small outbuilding, probably the dairy, is beyond the slide in the photo to the left.

Ilchester tiny post office is even tinier

At one time the smallest post office in Maryland, it was built about 1910 on the shore of the Patapsco River.  In the 1950s it was moved to 4607 Bonnie Branch Road at the postmistress, Teresa Schaad’s house.  Originally it had wood siding, but it now has stone to match the current home. 

Patapsco Female Institute and the women who ran it

As pictured in 1854, the institute (opened 1837) was managed or owned by three ladies ... and a few men.  The most well-known, from 1841 to 1856, was Almira Phelps who moved in with her family and made it a nationally celebrated school. Sarah Randolph, author and great-granddaughter of Thomas Jefferson, was the last director from 1879 to 1885. A descendant of one of the Ellicott founders, Lilly Elliott owned it from1891 until her death in 1924; first as her home, then hotel, then as a WWI hospital.

Martha Ellicott Tyson - Swarthmore founder, writer, Quaker elder

Martha (Ellicott) Tyson (1795-1873) was born in Ellicott’s Mills to George Ellicott, son of one of the founders, and younger sister of Elizabeth Ellicott Lea.  She married Nathan Tyson, lived in Baltimore and had a country home “Jericho” north of Baltimore by the Tyson mills. While raising a large family she became an Elder in her Quaker (Society of Friends) meeting, stressed education, women’s rights and abolition. She helped found Swarthmore College in Philadelphia, Pa. in 1860. Her many books include a genealogy of her family, The Settlement of Ellicott's Mills, and A Sketch of the Life of Benjamin Banneker.

Elizabeth Ellicott Lea and the first Maryland cookbook in 1845

Elizabeth (Ellicott) Lea (1793-1858) was born in Ellicott’s mills to

George and Elizabeth (Brooke) Ellicott, the son of one of the

founding Quaker brothers.  In 1812, she married Thomas

Lea Jr. (1789-1829) at the New Elkridge Meeting House in Ellicott City,

and lived at his family mills near Wilmington, DE.

After moving to her mother’s Brooke family lands near Sandy

Spring MD in 1823, Lea’s husband died and left her to

raise their large family at "Walnut Hill" farm.  Lea sent her newly

married daughter a recipe manuscript which was first published

in 1845.  Domestic Cookery went through two more editions -1846, 1851 -and numerous printings during the next 40 years. 

The Maryland Society for promoting the abolition of slavery, and the relief of poor negroes and others unlawfully held in bondage

Elias Ellicott, one son of Ellicott City founder Andrew Ellicott, was a founding member and on the 'acting committee' of the Maryland Society was also a member of the Philadelphia Abolition Society (logo on left). The Maryland Society, founded 1789, was the sixth in the world after Phila, NY, London, Paris and Delaware.  Constitution, bylaws and founding members (by 1797 membership had increased to 231) from a book 90 years later...

Tom Randall and the Howard House

Tom Randall was the son of Julia Bacon, a slave who was the cook at Howard House.  The Howard House hotel, built in 1850 contained a bar and dining room in addition to the bedrooms.  Randall told his story in the WPA's Slave Narrative Project in 1936.

The Ellicott City Colored School House and Beulah Buckner

Beulah (Meacham) Buckner (1930-2005) saw the dilapidated building while searching for tombstones and other records for slaves and free African Americans.  She found out that it was the old "Ellicott City Colored School", the first publicly funded school for African Americans in Howard County, Maryland.  Tirelessly working to restore and fill the old building, Buckner saw that it became a museum.

Jail and Courthouse Underground Railroad markers

The stone section under the porch roof was the original jail built in 1851 and is behind the courthouse built in 1843.  The National Park Service Underground Railroad Network to Freedom website HERE

Thomas Ellicott was the author of "The Millwright's Guide"

Thomas Ellicott (1738-1799) did indeed write and include drawings in his section "The Practical Millwright" which was combined into Oliver Evans' Young Mill-wright and Miller's Guide, 1795. Ellicott was listed in the subscribers list at the end of the book for buying 150 copies at $2 each; and also wrote a 10 page article about his new mill in Occoquon, Va in the journal Repertory of Arts and Manufactures, London: 1796.  Thomas Ellicott was not involved in the mills in Maryland started by his brothers and now called Ellicott City.