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.

Revolutionary War rations - bread with water

Lea flour mills along the Brandywine near Wilmington, Del. provided flour for Washington's soldiers.  Thomas Lea married George Ellicott's daughter.  Soldiers received a pound of flour per day ration, but bakers could add more water to make a pound loaf of bread, and keep the excess flour.

Davy Crockett amid flour barrells near Ellicott's Mills

Before Davy Crockett (1786-1836) became a US Representative and then fought (and died) at the battle of the Alamo in 1836, he went through Ellicott’s mills in a wagon laden with flour barrels enroute to Baltimore.  He recounted his misadventure in his 1834 autobiography.  After running away from Kitchen’s school at a very young age, he went with a waggoneer to Gerardstown (Virginia, now WV) where he worked until he decided to accompany a man to Baltimore with the load. The horses bolted and he was in a "devlish flouncing about of flour barrels" in the back of the wagon.  He survived - "if he is born for a seat in Congress, even flour barrels can't make a mash of him."

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.

1851 Businesses and professionals in Howard County

The following list from Thomson's Mercantile and Professional Directory 1851-52. (Baltimore: 1851) gives names and businesses in mid century Howard district of Anne Arundel county. 

The first Patapsco Bank building is on the hill by St. Paul's (and now part of it) south of the B&O train station.  Two later buildings are next to each other on the north side of Main St. - 2d 1887 (8090 Main) and 3rd 1905 (8098 Main)

1871 Businesses and farmers in Howard County

The State Gazette and Merchants and Farmers' Directory for Maryland listed about 150 businessmen and 70 farmers in Howard County.  The book described the county and some of the towns.  Ellicott City was one of "the most romantic cities" in the US with "some of the largest cotton factories in the country."

Trying to tame the floods - Stormwater Staircase; Tiber branch, Hudson branch, New Cut

The Hudson and Tiber 'branches' (more like streams in dry weather) join in parking lot D behind the visitor's center (old post office).  The Tiber branch enters from the pipe on the left, and the Hudson branch flows under Main St. then under the building in the upper right. They become the Tiber branch as it proceeds east, joined by New Cut stream, then flows into the Patapsco River.

The Pioneer - the first railroad passenger car - on a stamp

In 1830, the first horse drawn passenger car was used on the B & O rail road from Baltimore to Ellicott's Mills.  To celebrate the 125th anniversary of the B & O, a postage stamp was released showing the Pioneer, Tom Thumb (first steam engine) and a 1952 modern locomotive.

Wealthy Kraft family's butcher shop on Main Street OEC

8081 Main St., a fine stone building, was built c1833 as a home then became a store.  In 1881 Dorothy Kraft bought the building for Kraft's Meat Market. The Kraft meat sign is seen on the first building.



Andrew Kraft (1836-1881) and Dorothy (1839-1916) were both from Germany - he arrived at age 15, she at age 6 and started working at the mills.  He worked for a butcher, then started out on his own. They married in 1858 and had a large family which continued the business after she died in 1916 as "one of the richest women" in the county leaving "$300,000 worth of property" to her family.