This past weekend the historic downtown of Ellicott City, Maryland was again inundated with a flash flood destroying property and taking a life. Ellicott City is a part of greater Baltimore. Readers may be wondering why this column, written by the historian for the town of Elliott in Chautauqua County, New York, is writing about Ellicott City, Maryland. There is a connection dating back into the 1700s.

Andrew Elliott arrived in America from Devonshire, England, with his father, in 1731. They settled in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. Andrew married, had five sons, but died in 1741 leaving the five young sons. Three were apprenticed out and the younger two stayed with their mother. One of the sons, Joseph, was apprenticed to a weaver. Although a good weaver, Joseph, known as Jo, had a mind for mechanics, which he later used learning to repair gristmills. After his marriage, he convinced his brothers and a neighbor to build their own mill. The mill prospered but the turning point in their lives was an inheritance from a grandfather in England. Jo, with a considerable inheritance, was able to purchase many clocks, watches, and tools while he was back in England. After his return to Bucks County, he began building clocks but he and his four sons were ready for more than clockmaking. With the milling experience they began looking for opportunities for mills. This they found in Maryland only a few miles from Baltimore, Maryland. They purchased a mill site and the work began. The farms of the area had been growing tobacco and the Ellicotts realized the soil was becoming depleted for growing tobacco and convinced farmers to grow wheat. This crop was successful and provided wheat to be ground at the mills owned by the Ellicotts. During this time and for decades later the area was referred to as Ellicott’s Mills. Over time, the population grew and it became Ellicott City.

Jo and his wife had four sons and five daughters. All the sons had an aptitude for mathematics and science as did their father. But none of the sons became millers or clockmakers. They ended up becoming surveyors. Andrew, the oldest son, was part of the surveying crew that extended the Mason-Dixon Line. He also fixed the southwestern boundary of New York state and was the surveyor chosen by President George Washington to lay out the the federal capital, Washington, District of Columbia, as designed by Pierre L’Enfant. Andrew brought his brothers in to help with the surveying. Joseph, a younger brother, later began surveying the lands in northwestern Pennsylvania, purchased by the Dutch bankers who would also purchase the 3.3 million acres of Western New York. The Dutch bankers formed the stock company known as the Holland Land Company.

Joseph Elliott not only became the head surveyor for the Holland Land Company, he was hired as the resident agent, to sell the land in western New York. He established the land office in Batavia and began selling land in 1800. Before selling the land he, with his younger brother Benjamin, had headed the surveying parties laying out the township and range lines, dividing the 3.3 million acres into townships and later into lots.

As population grew in the area of western New York, the need to establish additional counties and towns to better serve government processes, was addressed. In 1812, a law was passed establishing the town of Ellicott, from the previously established town of Pomfret in Chautauque county. The name was chosen to honor Joseph Elliott, the resident agent of the Holland Land Company. The town was organized in 1813 with James Prendergast elected as the supervisor. The newly established town of Ellicott included what is today, the towns of Ellicott, Poland, Carroll, Kiantone, the east part of Busti, and the city of Jamestown. The same family from the 1700s, lent its name to both Ellicott City, Maryland and the town of Ellicott, Chautauqua County, New York.