The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1904-05-21
ANDREW ELL1CorT.

IN the praises it has become the
habit in Washington to bestow upon
the plan which enabled the National
Capital to develop into one of the
most beautiful cities in the world, it
is seldom that the name of Andrew
Ellicott, of Pennsylvania, receives the
credit to which it is entities. The
part which he took in that undertak-
ing has been generally overshadowed
entirely by the posthumous fame that
has been awarded to the creative gen.
ius of the clever but erratic French
engineer, Major Charles Pierre Len
FAINT. The proposition that L Enfant
shall be commemorated in Washing
ton by a statute is fully justified by
the service which he performed in
laying out the city. But in the CRATE
full recognition which is now accord
ed him there should also be room for
a Just consideration of the relations to
it of the Pennsylvania surveyor who
in part cooperated with him in the
task. Indeed the record of the life
of Andrew Ellicott is unfamiliar to
the people of even the State which
gave him birth, and it may not be un-
instructive to touch upon it as an ex-
ample of the scientific merit of man
who held an honorable place in the
respect of philosophers and savants
for his practical application of his
knowledge to the early problems of
American topography. In framing
today brief outline of his career I
have the privilege of access to the
material which Professor Sharpless,
of Haverford College, has collated
and edited and which may ultimately
annAa-es a biography, and I shall
here and there in throwing some light
upon the personality of this now for
gotten Pennsylvania.
Andrew Ellicott was a member of
the Quaker family which was identi-
fed with the formation of the town
in Maryland once known as Ellicott's S
Mills and now as Ellicott City. The
stock, which was originally trans
planted from England to Bucks coun-
ty, in this State, was made up largely
of men of business enterprise, min
gled with no little proficiency in me-
chanical science and with a strain of
inventive talent. Joseph Ellicott, the
father of Andrew, and one of three
brothers who founded Ellicott's Mills,
was, for example, the inventor of a
musical clock, made a small boat
which was operated by steam, about
the same time John Fitch was carry
ing on his experiments, and had in
common with several of his kinsmen
the faculties for the projection of ag-
ricultural and commercial improve
ment. His son, who was born in
Bucks county, in 1854, spent part
| of his youth in the Maryland district
which they developed into prosperity,
and the education of the lad, which
seems to have been acquired outside
of collegiate or school courses, was
aided largely by Professor Robert
Patterson, of the University of Penn
sylvania, afterward Director of the
Mint and president of the American
Philosophical Society, as preceptor,
to whom he expressed his warmest
obligations. In the Revolutionary
War, together with the rest of his
family, he espoused the Continental
cause, and was probably "disowned'
by Friends of Maryland militia. Not
only did he become a fighting Qua.
ker in principle, but his marriage with
Sarah Brown, of Bucks county. had
united him with the cousin of jacob
Brown, who, afterward, became a
general in the United States service
in the war of 1872, despite his ances-
try. In fact, Ellicott's Jealous sym
pathies for the side Of the Revolution
lists seems to have Influenced his whole
career to a considerable degree, tc
have taken him out of active religion:
association with the Society o.
Friends, and finally to have carried
him into a post of military duty
strangely in contrast with his origi
nal training as Quaker lad.
The esteem in which he was held
in Philadelphia, while he was still {
young man, by men of learning. is at
tested by some of the entries which
he made in his journal concerning
visit to this city in 1885 as the gues
of David Rittenhouse. For that EN-
inent man, with whom he maintained
more than an ordinary intimacy, ht
frequently expressed the hig hes
terms of admiration, and Rittenhoust
appears to have maintained for hin
no small measure of reciprocal regard
He was also admitted to the friend
ship of Franklin, then nearing th'
close of his life; on one occasion h'
spent all day with the doctor in hi
house at Fourth and Market streets
and, indeed, on more than one occa
sion he was honored with the olt
philosopher attentions. At the Uni
versity of Pennsylvania he was re
ceived by Provost Ewing and the par
ticular marks of respect; he attended
a meeting of the Philosophical Socie
ty, at which he heard Franklin reat
a paper on navigation, and his repu
| tation as man of science at this tim,