Occoquan - Ellicott mills in Va near DC

John Davis, travelling from England, worked for a few months as a tutor to Nathaniel Ellicott's (1763–1841) children at his home Rockledge and two mills. Davis wrote that he "was nearly stunned by the noise of two huge mills, whose roar, without any hyperbolical aggravation, is scarcely inferior to that of the great falls of the Potomac, or the cataract of Niagara."

Nathaniel was the son of Andrew Ellicott (1733-1809), one of the founders of Ellicott City, and brother of George Ellicott (1760-1832) whose house is opposite the old EC mill on the Patapsco River. All three are buried in the Ellicott family cemetery in Ellicott City.

Mischievous Ellicott boys, the store and electricity

In the 19th century, a few people, including Ben Franklin, experimented with electricity for science or entertainment. Joseph Priestly wrote the book The History and Present State of Electricity, with original experiments in 1769. One image from the book is at left.

An Ellicott descendant related in his 1882 book how some grandsons of the founders set up electrical devices around the stove in the Ellicott's store in order to shock unsuspecting locals.

George Ellicott house

George Ellicott built a large stone house in 1789 across from their flour mill and next to his brother Jonathon. It was actually two houses or a back wing connected and a third portion for the kitchen. An 'observatory' was on the third floor. The first Marylander to write a cookbook (Elizabeth Ellicott Lea) in 1845, was born in this house. Click on the pictures to enlarge.

James Lea grafitti at the B&O railroad station 1838

James Lea (1816-1857) was the son of Elizabeth (Ellicott) Lea (daughter of George Ellicott), and Thomas Lea, of the Lea Brandywine mills.  James was born in Delaware but raised south west of Ellicott's mills at the family farm "Walnut Hill" near Sandy Spring, Md.  He and his brothers took produce and livestock into Ellicott's mills, then visited his grandmother Elizabeth (Brooke) Ellicott who lived by their mill, across the river from the station.

James fought during the Mexican War (1846-48), went overland to California for the 1849 gold rush then ran a hotel until he became ill and returned home. A further reason, when his grandmother Elizabeth (Brooke) Ellicott died in 1853 she left him a portion of her Brooke lands near Sandy Spring, MD if he returned to live in Maryland. He died, unmarried, in 1857.

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.

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. 

Elkridge Quaker meeting house in Ellicott City

The Ellicott family donated four acres for a Quaker meeting house and a cemetery on 'Quaker Hill'. Excerpts from Martha Ellicott Tyson, and an 1891 article about the abandoned meeting house.

Lilly (Tyson) Manly Elliott turned the Patapsco Female Institute into a 60 room home, then hotel

Lily or Lilly Tyson (1852-1924) was a descendant of two prominent Quaker milling and merchant families – the Tysons of Jericho Mills north of Baltimore and the Ellicott founders of Ellicott City. Martha Ellicott Tyson, her grandmother, helped found Swathmore College, wrote a biography of  
Benjamin Banneker and was the daughter of George Ellicott. Lilly bought the old hilltop girls school in 1891.

Benjamin Banneker's almanac and the Ellicotts

George Ellicott, his brother Elias Ellicott and their cousin Major Andrew Ellicott each helped to get Banneker's first almanac published in 1792. The previous post HERE on the biography of Benjamin Banneker has other details of his life and accomplishments.  George taught interested neighbors astronomy using his celestial globe and telescope, and gave some of his books and tools to his friend Benjamin.  Andrew, a famous surveyor who did at least thirteen years of almanacs, passed on Benjamin's well-written letter, and it is preserved in the Historical Society of Pa.  Elias who had moved to Baltimore was also a Quaker, joined the newly formed Md Abolition Society and wrote numerous letters about the almanac.