Existing comment:
Colonial Settlement: 1687
Farms:
Up river they came -- farmers, planters and millers seeking opportunity in a place called "Ridge of Elk." It was an unsettled valley, rich with game. The powerful river was teeming with fresh and saltwater fish.
Plantations:
Many wealthy planters, in time, built large summer manor houses like Belmont (above) on any airy ridgeline of the Patapsco canyon.
Planters and the Patapsco:
Tobacco was gold in Colonial Maryland. The Patapsco River gave ships access to unoccupied lands that could be cleared for plantations.
A network of rolling roads curved along the ridgeline from the plantations to the deep water port at Elkridge Landing. Large barrels, each holding 1,000 pounds of tobacco, were rolled along the rolling roads using horses and/or oxen for power. At Elkridge Landing the barrells [sic], called hogsheads, were loaded on ships bound for the Caribbean and England.
Inland Seaport - 1697
Elkridge Landing:
The Gateway to the Patapsco Valley:
Located on tidewater below the Falls of the Patapsco, Elkridge Landing grew into a major seaport second only to Annapolis. A 250-foot lagoon let shallow draft ships and barged turn about. The average river depth was 14 feet.
The town started with a customhouse, inspection office and tobacco warehouses and it expanded with private residences, taverns, ships and a church. Enterprising planters and farmers also became merchants, shopkeepers and builders of their own elaborate and ornate town houses. In 1700, the General Assembly was held at Elkridge Landing because of its centralized location.
Goods and household items were exchanged at the wharves for tobacco.
The Landing's commerce was further enhanced with the success of the iron ore industry in 1755. Located 16 miles up river from the Chesapeake Bay, Elkridge Landing had become one of Maryland's major colonial commercial centers.
Iron:
Patapsco's First Industry -- 1750
The early iron furnaces were crude and simple. Water wheels powered large bellows that pumped cold blasts of air into the charcoal burning furnace. The intense heat inside the furnace stack melted the iron ore.
1762: The Dorsey Forge (future Avalon)
1766: The Hockey Forge & Furnace
1744-1810: Elkridge Furnace Inn
1750: The Elkridge Forge & Furnace |