The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1904-05-21

seems to have been sufficient to at
tract the attention of poor John Fitch,
who was then making his experiments |
in the Delaware. "I am now poster
ed" he said in one of his notes, "by
a gentleman by the name of Fitch.
He has the model of a machine for
working boats by steam - but Eli
colt apparently, like nearly everybody
else in Philadelphia, had little faith
in the luckless inventor, or at least
offered him no encouragement, al
though it was not long afterward that
his father began to make similar ex-
periments in Maryland.
The public service in which Andrew
Ellicott was then engaged and which
caused him to be the special object of
the attentions of Philadelphia men of
science, was the adjustment of the
boundaries of Pennsylvania and Vir-
ginia, involving the rectifcation OF
the famous Mason and Dixon's line.
In the commission to which this work
was entrusted he represented Virgin
ia, together with DIR. James Madison,
Robert Andrews and John Page, while
Rittenhouse and Ewing, together
with John Lukens and Thomas
Hutchins, represented Pennsylvania.
His share in the work, which was
arduous and prolonged, necessitating
much travel and exploration in the
wilderness of South and West Penn
sylvania and what is now west Vir-
ginia, was performed with such satis-
faction to the State which had ap-
pointed him that William and Mary
College conferred upon him an hon
orary degee. Another of the impor-
tant duties with which he was charg-
ed by the general government was the
running of the boundary line between
Pennsylvania and NewYork, in which
he was assisted by his younger broth
er, Joseph, of Bucks county, and in
the course of which, after encounter
ing many perils and hardships, he
succeeded in making the first accurate
mathematical measurement OF the Nj
agara river between the lakes and of
the height of the great cataract and
the descent of the rapids. At this
time his appointment to the office OF
Surveyor General of the Western
Territory and Geographer of the Uni
ted States was contemplated and sub
sequently he became Surveyor -Gener-
al under the administration of Wash
ington. His brother, Joseph, while
on this expedition, was much inn
pressed, as he himself was, with the
future of Lake Erie in the commercial
development of the infant republic
he afterwards became one of the pro-
jectors of the Erie Canal, having sur
veyed and laid out the plans of Buffa-
10, and to this day his name is re-
membered there as that of founder
of the city.
When the capital of the United
States was ordered to be removed
from Philadelphia to the District Of
ca upon at the ,nstaflee uf Presl0ehI
Washington and Thomas Jefferson, as
Secretary of State, to make survey
of the new district in conjunction
with Major L'Enfant. Privately his
opinion of the territory that had been
selected was far from fattering, al
though his respect for the President
restrained him from publicly express
ing it. This country" he wrote to
his wife, intended for the perma-
nent residence of Congress. bears to
the country about Philadelphia, Ger
mantown, etc., for either wealth or
fertility, the relation that sand hill
does to stall fed OK. :" The splen-
didly conceived plans of the FEEDER
al City," as it was called, had been
drawn by L Enfant, but the irascible
French engineer, whose confidence in
his own superior judgment often led
him into his eccentricities of conduct,
together with the interference of a
commission with which he and Eli
colt came in conflict, early disturbed
harmony of action. The major re-
fused to prepare or produce map
which was essential to the sale of lots
in the projected city, and Washington
earnestly labored to reconcile the
parties in dispute. In the course Of
a letter he pointed out the need of ad-
| justing the personal difficulties amica-
bly,, sayinging that from "a source
even less productive than L Enfant's S
may flow ideas, and l have heard
that Ellicott, who is also man of
uncommon talents in his way and of
a more placid temper, has intimated
that no information has been required
either from him or L Enfant on some
point or points which they thought
themselves competent to give" But
the French engineer, refusing to be
conciliated, was dismissed from the
service; Ellicott superseded him, and
the plan of the city was at once SUBJ
| jected to revision. "That many al
terations have been made from L En-
fant's plans by Major Ellicott, wrote
Washington, ''is not denied; that
some were essential is avowed, and
had it not been for the material which
he happened to possess, it is probable
that no engineering from L Enfant's S
drafts would have been exhibited to
the public, for, after the disagreement
took place between him and the COM
missioners, his obstinacy threw every
obstacle in the way of its accomplish
ment." Ellicott proceeded with the
work of surveying the district, but
also eventually fell under the dis
pleasure of the commissioners there
was controversy, in which he was
finally vindicated, over a charge Of
neglect of duty until the principal
parts of the survey and the plan had
been substantially completed. A
comparison which has been made OF
L'Enfant's original plan and the one
which was finally authorized by the