Virtual Museum of Art | Virtual Museum of History | Virtual Public Library | Virtual Science Center | Virtual Museum of Natural History | Virtual War Museum
   You are in: Virtual War Museum >> Revolutionary War Hall >> Andrew Ellicott





The Seven Flags of the New Orleans Tri-Centennial

For More Information go to New Orleans 300th Birthday


 


Andrew Ellicott

1754-1820

Suryeyor who complete L'Enfant's plan for Washington DC

Andrew Ellicott  - A Klos Family Project

 

ELLICOTT, Andrew, civil engineer, born in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, 24 January 1754; died in West Point, New York, 29 August 1820. His father and uncle, who were Quakers, purchased a large tract of wild land on the Patapsco River in 1770, and in 1774 founded the town of Ellicott's Mills, now Ellicott City, where Andrew passed his youth in the study of science and practical mechanics. His scientific attainments soon attracted attention, and he enjoyed the friendship and confidence of Washington, Franklin, and Rittenhouse. He was appointed commissioner at various times for marking the boundaries of Virginia, Pennsylvania, and New York, and about 1785 removed to Baltimore, where he was elected to the legislature. He was selected by Washington in 1789 to survey the land lying between Pennsylvania and Lake Erie, and during that year he made the first accurate measurement of the Niagara River from lake to lake, with the height of the falls and the descent of the rapids.

In 1790 he was employed by the government to survey and lay out the City of Washington, and in 1792 was made surveyor general of the United States. He superintended the construction of Fort Erie, at Presque Isle, now Erie. Pennsylvania, in 1795, and was employed in laying out the towns of Erie, Warren, and Franklin. Washington appointed him in 1796 as U. S. commissioner under the treaty of San Lorenzo el Real, to determine the boundary separating the United States from the Spanish possessions on the south. The results of this service, which embraced a period of nearly five years, appear in his " Journal" (Philadelphia, 1803). Upon its completion he was appointed by Governor McKean, of Pennsylvania, secretary of the state hind office, but resigned in 1808, and in 1812 became professor of mathematics at West Point, where he remained till his death.

He went to Montreal in 1817, by order of the government, to make astronomical observations for carrying into effect some of the articles of the Treaty of Ghent. He was an active member of the American philosophical society, contributed to its transactions, and corresponded with many of the learned societies of Europe. With the exception of his "Journal" and a few other writings, his works are still in manuscript.

His brother, Joseph Ellicott, engineer, born in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, 1 November 1760; died in Batavia, New York, 19 August 1826, received a common school education, and subsequently studied surveying and engineering, He was engaged as all assistant to his brother Andrew in the survey and plotting of the City of Washington, and in running the boundary line between New York and Pennsylvania. In 1797 Mr. Ellicott was employed by the Holland hind company to survey the tract in western New York known as the "Holland purchase," and, on the completion of the survey in 1800, was appointed local agent of the company, with headquarters at Batavia, New York, which he had located, and toward whose early development he contributed largely.

The company among the first to recognize the possibility of building a great City at the foot of Lake Erie on the lands owned Mr. Ellicott that he represented. His influence was largely used not only in promoting settlements in the vicinity of the present City of Buffalo, but also in assisting in its growth and development. Mr. Ellicott has justly been called the "Founder of Buffalo." He surveyed and laid out the City on its original plan. He was a zealous advocate of the projected Erie Canal, and corresponded with Governor De Witt Clinton concerning the project. He opposed Clinton's plan of sending to England for engineers, insisting that there was abundant home talent for the work, and succeeded in convincing the governor that he was right. He served for some time as canal commissioner, but held no other public office. After serving the Holland land company twenty years, during which time most of the vast tract of land owned by it in western New York was disposed of to actual settlers, Mr. Ellicott retired from active pursuits.

 


Start your search on Andrew Ellicott.


The Congressional Evolution of the United States Henry Middleton


Unauthorized Site: This site and its contents are not affiliated, connected, associated with or authorized by the individual, family, friends, or trademarked entities utilizing any part or the subject's entire name. Any official or affiliated sites that are related to this subject will be hyper linked below upon submission and Evisum, Inc. review.

Research Links

  • Declaration of Independence
  • Constitution of the United States of America

    Copyright© 2000 by Evisum Inc.TM. All rights reserved.
    Evisum Inc.TM Privacy Policy

  • Search:

    About Us

     

     

    Image Use

    Please join us in our mission to incorporate The Congressional Evolution of the United States of America discovery-based curriculum into the classroom of every primary and secondary school in the United States of America by July 2, 2026, the nation’s 250th birthday. , the United States of America: We The People Click Here

     

    Historic Documents

    Articles of Association

    Articles of Confederation 1775

    Articles of Confederation

    Article the First

    Coin Act

    Declaration of Independence

    Declaration of Independence

    Emancipation Proclamation

    Gettysburg Address

    Monroe Doctrine

    Northwest Ordinance

    No Taxation Without Representation

    Thanksgiving Proclamations

    Mayflower Compact

    Treaty of Paris 1763

    Treaty of Paris 1783

    Treaty of Versailles

    United Nations Charter

    United States In Congress Assembled

    US Bill of Rights

    United States Constitution

    US Continental Congress

    US Constitution of 1777

    US Constitution of 1787

    Virginia Declaration of Rights

     

    Historic Events

    Battle of New Orleans

    Battle of Yorktown

    Cabinet Room

    Civil Rights Movement

    Federalist Papers

    Fort Duquesne

    Fort Necessity

    Fort Pitt

    French and Indian War

    Jumonville Glen

    Manhattan Project

    Stamp Act Congress

    Underground Railroad

    US Hospitality

    US Presidency

    Vietnam War

    War of 1812

    West Virginia Statehood

    Woman Suffrage

    World War I

    World War II

     

    Is it Real?



    Declaration of
    Independence

    Digital Authentication
    Click Here

     

    America’s Four Republics
    The More or Less United States

     
    Continental Congress
    U.C. Presidents

    Peyton Randolph

    Henry Middleton

    Peyton Randolph

    John Hancock

      

    Continental Congress
    U.S. Presidents

    John Hancock

    Henry Laurens

    John Jay

    Samuel Huntington

      

    Constitution of 1777
    U.S. Presidents

    Samuel Huntington

    Samuel Johnston
    Elected but declined the office

    Thomas McKean

    John Hanson

    Elias Boudinot

    Thomas Mifflin

    Richard Henry Lee

    John Hancock
    [
    Chairman David Ramsay]

    Nathaniel Gorham

    Arthur St. Clair

    Cyrus Griffin

      

    Constitution of 1787
    U.S. Presidents

    George Washington 

    John Adams
    Federalist Party


    Thomas Jefferson
    Republican* Party

    James Madison 
    Republican* Party

    James Monroe
    Republican* Party

    John Quincy Adams
    Republican* Party
    Whig Party

    Andrew Jackson
    Republican* Party
    Democratic Party


    Martin Van Buren
    Democratic Party

    William H. Harrison
    Whig Party

    John Tyler
    Whig Party

    James K. Polk
    Democratic Party

    David Atchison**
    Democratic Party

    Zachary Taylor
    Whig Party

    Millard Fillmore
    Whig Party

    Franklin Pierce
    Democratic Party

    James Buchanan
    Democratic Party


    Abraham Lincoln 
    Republican Party

    Jefferson Davis***
    Democratic Party

    Andrew Johnson
    Republican Party

    Ulysses S. Grant 
    Republican Party

    Rutherford B. Hayes
    Republican Party

    James A. Garfield
    Republican Party

    Chester Arthur 
    Republican Party

    Grover Cleveland
    Democratic Party

    Benjamin Harrison
    Republican Party

    Grover Cleveland 
    Democratic Party

    William McKinley
    Republican Party

    Theodore Roosevelt
    Republican Party

    William H. Taft 
    Republican Party

    Woodrow Wilson
    Democratic Party

    Warren G. Harding 
    Republican Party

    Calvin Coolidge
    Republican Party

    Herbert C. Hoover
    Republican Party

    Franklin D. Roosevelt
    Democratic Party

    Harry S. Truman
    Democratic Party

    Dwight D. Eisenhower
    Republican Party

    John F. Kennedy
    Democratic Party

    Lyndon B. Johnson 
    Democratic Party 

    Richard M. Nixon 
    Republican Party

    Gerald R. Ford 
    Republican Party

    James Earl Carter, Jr. 
    Democratic Party

    Ronald Wilson Reagan 
    Republican Party

    George H. W. Bush
    Republican Party 

    William Jefferson Clinton
    Democratic Party

    George W. Bush 
    Republican Party

    Barack H. Obama
    Democratic Party

    Please Visit

    Forgotten Founders
    Norwich, CT

    Annapolis Continental
    Congress Society


    U.S. Presidency
    & Hospitality

    © Stan Klos

     

     

     

     


    Virtual Museum of Art | Virtual Museum of History | Virtual Public Library | Virtual Science Center | Virtual Museum of Natural History | Virtual War Museum