HOWARD COUNTY, MARYLAND

HISTORICAL CHRONOLOGY

1781, April 17-19. Marie-Joseph Paul Yves Roch Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de LaFayette's French troops encamped at Elkridge en route to Yorktown.

1791. Benjamin Banneker (1731-1806) published Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, and Virginia Almanack and Ephemeris....

1791-1792. Andrew Ellicott (1754-1820), aided by Benjamin Banneker and Joseph Ellicott, surveyed federal Territory of Columbia.

1798. Ellicotts fund Friends Meeting House at Ellicott Mills.

1822. Savage Mill began operation.

1830-31. Baltimore & Ohio Railroad's Ellicott's Mills Station, the nation's first railroad terminal, constructed.

1835. Baltimore & Ohio Railroad's Thomas Viaduct, first multispan masonry railroad bridge in country, crossed Patapsco River from Elkridge to Relay.

1837. Patapsco Female Institute opened at Ellicott's Mills.

1839. Founded by James S. Gary on the Patapsco River, Alberton Cotton Mill opens.

1843. Courthouse constructed at Ellicott's Mills.

1848, May 7. Edwin Warfield (1848-1920), Governor of Maryland, born at "Oakdale," near Elkridge.

1851, July 4. Constitution of 1851 (2nd State constitution) adopted; Howard District recognized as Howard County; named for John Eager Howard (1752-1827).

Howard County Courthouse (from Court Ave.), Ellicott City, Maryland, 1999. Photo by Diane P. Frese.

1861, May 5. Union Maj. Gen. Benjamin F. Butler stationed troops at Camp Essex in Elkridge to guard Thomas Viaduct, only rail link from north to Washington DC.

1861, Sept. 25 Union Patapsco Guards organized at Ellicott's Mills.

1863, June 29. Confederate cavalry under Maj. Gen. James Ewell Brown (J.E.B.) Stuart skirmished with Maryland militia near Cooksville.

1867. Ellicott's Mills renamed Ellicott City.

1868, July 24. Floods destroyed businesses and properties along the Patapsco River. Losses included Granite Manufacturing, Patapsco Flour Mill, Patapsco Factory, and extensively damaged Ellicott City and Baltimore.

Bollman Iron Truss Bridge (semi-suspension bridge, adjacent to Savage Mill), 1869, built by Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, 8600 Foundry St., Savage, Maryland, January 2005. Photo by Diane F. Evartt.

This bridge is an example of the bridging system invented by Wendel Bollman, Baltimore engineer, in 1850. It spans the Little Patuxent River.

1879. Maryland House of Correction opened at Jessup.

1885, Sept. 18. Nicholas Snowden lynched in Ellicott City.

1895, May 28. Jacob Henson, Jr. lynched in Ellicott City.

1941. Women's Prison of the State of Maryland (now Maryland Correctional Institution for Women) opened at Jessup.

1946, Aug. 21-22. First Howard County Fair began at Brendel's Manor Park, just west of Ellicott City.

1959. Maximum Security Hospital (now Clifton T. Perkins Hospital Center) established at Jessup.

1963, Oct. James W. Rouse announced plan to build Columbia in Howard County.

1967, June 21. Opening of Columbia, a planned community incorporating one-tenth of Howard County land area.

1967, July 14. Merriweather Post Pavilion opened, Columbia.

1968, Nov. 5. Howard County voters adopted charter form of government with a County Executive and County Council.

1969, Jan. 28. Howard County's first County Executive and County Council sworn in.

1969-1974. Omar J. Jones (Democrat), County Executive.

1970, Oct. Howard Community College opened at Columbia.

1972, June 22. Hurricane Agnes flooded Ellicott City.

1974-1978. Edward L. Cochran (Democrat), County Executive.

1975, Sept. 30. Hurricane Eloise flooded Ellicott City.

1978-1986. J. Hugh Nichols (Democrat), County Executive.

1986-1990. Elizabeth Bobo (Democrat), County Executive.

1990-1998. Charles I. Ecker (Republican), County Executive.

1998-2006. James N. Robey (Democrat), County Executive.

2004, March 2. Electronic voting system used during primary elections at polling places and for absentee ballots in all counties and Baltimore City.

2006, Dec. 4 - 2014, Dec. 1. Kenneth S. Ulman (Democrat), County Executive.

2007, March 19. Maryland House of Correction closed at Jessup.

2014, Dec. 1 - 2018, Dec. 3. Allan H. Kittleman (Republican), County Executive.

2016, July 30. Ellicott City flooded when torrential rains caused Patapsco River and Tiber River to overflow.

2018, May 27. Ellicott City again flooded when torrential rains caused Patapsco River and Tiber River to overflow.

2018, Sept.-Oct. Bloede Dam demolished. Built in 1907 on the Patapsco River between Baltimore and Howard counties, it was the world's first underwater hydroelectric plant.

2018, Dec. 3-. Calvin B. Ball III (Democrat), County Executive.

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