John Ellicott and the first steam boat

John Ellicott, son of the founder John, was one of the early experimenters of steam.  He worked on a steam boat (about 1789), and foresaw that "steam cars would roll their rapid wheels from city to city."  Unfortunately while working on his steam engine, the safety-valve became clogged and the explosion took off his right arm.  John Fitch of Phila. tried out his steam boat (image left) in 1787 which is recognized as the first steam boat.


John Ellicott  (1769-1820)  1789
"About the year seventeen hundred and eighty-nine John Ellicott, a cousin of Andrew [the surveyor], was engaged in experiments in steam machinery for the propulsion of boats, a subject which was attracting much attention from the more speculative of the mechanical engineers of the time.

He was very enthusiastic in the opinion that "not only steamboats would be navigated through the water, but that the time was approaching when roads would be so constructed and adapted to machinery that steam cars would roll their rapid wheels from city to city."

It has been claimed by some that John Ellicott invented the first steamboat* that was constructed in this country. 

* It was about the year seventeen hundred and eighty-nine that the first steamboat that ever moved upon the waters of America floated in triumph along the canal at Ellicott's Mills—the steamboat of John Ellicott' —From the Howard District Press, published at Ellicott's Mills eighteen hundred and forty-seven.

His experiments resulted in a disastrous accident, by which he lost his right arm. While secretly experimenting alone in the night, the safety-valve of his boiler became obstructed, and a violent explosion was the result.

John Fitch  (1743-1798)  1787
But this assumption must be received with a liberal allowance to a local pride of being successful claimants to an invention that has produced such results in ocean and river navigation; for it is now well authenticated that the first boat successfully propelled by steam power in America, was constructed and tried by John Fitch, at Philadelphia, August twenty-second, seventeen hundred and eighty-seven, in the presence of nearly all the members of the Convention to form the Constitution of the United States.

This fact is asserted by the certificates of Dr. Johnson, of Virginia, David Rittenhouse, John Ewing, and Andrew Ellicott,* and others, two years previous to the time stated in the paper referred to, that John Ellicott’s steamboat was supposed to have had a triumphant success.
* From the well known force of steam, I was one of the first of those who encouraged Mr. Fitch to reduce his theory of a steamboat to practice, in which he has succeeded far beyond my expectations. I am now fully of the opinion that steamboats may be made to answer valuable purposes in facilitating the internal navigation of the United States, and that Mr. Fitch has great merit in applying a steam engine to so valuable a purpose, and entitled to every encouragement from his country and countrymen. Philadelphia, December thirteenth, seventeen hundred and eighty-seven. Andrew Ellicott"
Stuart, Charles Beebe. Lives and Works of Civil and Military Engineers of America. NY: 1871

And Robert Fulton? In 1807 Fulton (1765-1815) launched the first successful commercial steamboat.

Further info from Fox, Ellicott, Evans book:

"JOHN ELLICOTT, youngest child of John and Leah (Brown) Ellicott, was born September 16, 1769, and resided at Ellicott's Mills. He was very circumspect and exemplary, of mild and obliging manners, and enthusiastic in the pursuit of objects connected with natural philosophy. He was perhaps the first person to suggest that transportation on land would be performed by steam, and predicted, as early as 1789, that not only could steamboats be navigated through the water, but that the time would come when roads would be so constructed and adapted to machinery, that steam cars would roll their rapid wheels from city to city.

It was about the year 1789 that he made a small boat which was run by steam on the mill race at Ellicott's Mills, to the great wonder of the neighbors, the majority of whom looked upon it as a work of magic and enchantment.

John Ellicott was not entirely satisfied with the result of his steamboat experiments. He determined to bring the matter still further towards perfection, and from time to time tried various experiments with the steam boiler and its appended machinery. In this he was much discouraged by his elder cousins, who saw the danger to which he was exposed, and who were constantly in fear lest he should bring upon himself some fatal event. He became, therefore, more reserved and secret in his experiments.

One night, it was Christmas eve, 1790, having previously had his boiler placed upon the fire hearth of the blacksmith's shop, he repaired thither while all the families around were in profound sleep. He had attached heavy machinery to the boiler, and his object was to test to the uttermost, in its application to that machinery, the power of steam. Having fixed his boiler upon the hearth, and placed the fire and coal underneath, he set the bellows in motion. He did not anticipate such an event as the bursting of the boiler, because he had provided it with a safety valve, nor did he think of the possibility of that safety valve becoming by accident obstructed. Yet such proved to be the case; all vent for the escape of the steam was stopped by some extraneous matter, and he, ignorant of the fact, was pushing at the bellows handle, when suddenly the boiler bursted with a tremendous explosion.

Fortunately, the main part of his body was out of reach of the danger, being behind the chimney, but his right arm, which held the bellows handle, was exposed. This was instantly torn off by a fragment of the broken boiler. The noise aroused the inhabitants of the village, and the men instinctively knowing whence the sound proceeded, rushed to the shop, where they found him faint from loss of blood which flowed from the stump of his bleeding arm. With much difficulty they so bound it up as to prevent his bleeding to death... John was taken at once to his home.

It is mentioned as an extraordinary instance of presence of mind, in the midst of the most violent pain, that as he passed by the mill he suddenly roused up and exclaimed that the mill had run dry, which on examination proved to be true, and which he discovered both by the sense of smell and hearing.

…Having been thus arrested in the full career of steam experiment by what he perhaps considered a judgment of Providence, having lost the use of his right arm, and meeting on every side discouragement from his relatives and friends, he determined to abandon forever all further practical inquiry into the nature and power of the new element, and its adaptation to the wants and comforts of mankind. The broken boiler, the boat model, and all, were laid aside, and he became thenceforward content with mill machinery and water power. He still insisted, however, that what he had been thus prevented from discovering and perfecting, would in a short time be discovered and perfected by others…

Most of this memoir of John Ellicott is quoted in part from the Howard District Press, published at Ellicott's Mills in 1847. John Ellicott married, January 19, 1814, Mary Kirk, daughter of Timothy and Mary Kirk. They lived in the same house at Ellicott's Mills which he had built, and in which he had kept bachelor's hall. She died within a few years after their marriage.

John Ellicott, after he had lost his arm by the explosion of steam, learned to write with considerable facility with his left hand, and was a very active and public spirited man. He died in October, 1820, leaving two children, a son Samuel, and a daughter Rachel." ...

[1791 description by Ferdinand M. Bayard from France:]

The grain is raised by a machine, the movement of which is hidden, and distributed in the most elevated part of the mill, from whence it descends upon the mill-stones. The meal falls into a place below, and is conducted by machines to the place where the barrels are filled. These barrels are lowered by the same machine which raises the bags of grain, and are loaded into the wagon. I have seen a man with one arm [John Ellicott], who received and discharged all the grain conducted to the mill, very frequently."
Evans, Charles W. Biographical and Historical Accounts of the Fox, Ellicott, and Evans Families. Buffalo: 1882

©2026 Patricia Bixler Reber
Forgotten history of Ellicott City & Howard County MD