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By Joetta M. Cramm

Baltimore Sun

Published: Feb 27, 2001 at 12:00 am

Long ago, herds of elk roamed the ridge of land overlooking the Patapsco River that people came to call the “Ridge of Elk.” By far this is the oldest settled part of Howard County, reaching back to the late 17th century. More than 150 years before the new county, Howard, was formed in 1851, what is now Elkridge was part of upper Anne Arundel County.

Tax records of 1702 mention an “Elk Ridge Hundred,” designating about 100 families for tax purposes and protection by a militia. This may be the first formal use of the name “Elk Ridge.”

This early period of county history is fascinating because it is so elusive. Few records were kept, and fewer survive. It is a puzzle with many missing pieces.

Elk Ridge Landing in the early 1700s was a busy tobacco-shipping port on the Patapsco River, rivaling Annapolis before Baltimore Town developed. To assure that the exported tobacco was of a quality to bring the best prices in England, in 1753 the State Assembly called for an inspection house at the Landing.

The public warehouse would sit in the center of the town. Adjacent to the warehouse sat the wharf with a 100-foot front which, in 1798, was in the possession of James Hill, and described as very old and out of repair. Its value was $300.

Early records include the land patents, or deeds, of John Foster and Michael Cussacks. Foster’s patent recorded “Foster’s Fancy,” 100 acres, in 1670. Cussacks’ patent recorded “Cussacks Welfare,” 104 acres, in 1680, and “Cussacks Forrest,” 596 acres, in 1685. Foster and Cussacks appear to have died without heirs, and the properties “escheated,” or returned, to the Lord Baltimore to be granted again.

The same land was resurveyed in 1729 and repatented “Hanover,” 679 acres, by Dr. Charles Carroll and John Lawson. The name is still used for the land along the railroad southeast of Elkridge. In 1742, Carroll sold 15 acres to blacksmith Thomas Johnson. Carroll retained access to iron ore in the area, with the provision that no damage be done to Johnson’s dwelling house.

A village was forming. In 1756, Nicholas McCubbin, merchant, held a mortgage for Jacob Holland Jr., planter. The collateral included one slave, Ceasar; a white convict servant woman, Margery; household goods including a feather bed, sheets, bedstead, curtains, 18 rush-bottom chairs, oak desk, pewter dishes; a number of horses and one lot of land.

The growth of the town appeared to parallel the success of the Elkridge iron furnace (which began operating in the mid-1750s) and shipping from the Landing. In 1733, the State Assembly had voted to lay out a town at the Landing to be called Jansentown. But that name was never used. Many towns were mandated to encourage development, but most were never built.

But a “New Town,” retaining the name Elk Ridge Landing, developed according to a plat drawn in 1764 by Richard Shipley, probably a surveyor. By this time, Charles Hammond Jr. owned the land near the Landing and subdivided it according to Shipley’s plan into approximately 50 lots of about one acre each. Lot buyers included Joshua Dorsey, John Dorsey, Joshua Griffith, Francis Streeb, Philip Waters, William Townsend, Nicholas Ridgely, Patrick MacGill and Nicholas McCubbin.

In a will dated May 13, 1768, Charles Hammond left his properties to his grandson, Patrick MacGill. According to the 1798 Federal Direct Tax Assessment, MacGill owned and occupied five lots. There were four framed dwelling houses on his properties. In addition, there were two hen houses, one log stable, one log smoke house and one framed milk house. The value of these structures totaled $1,350.

By 1798, there were three brick houses in the town, owned by Stephen West, Seth Barton and Edward Dorsey, Caleb Dorsey’s son. There were 14 framed dwellings and three log dwellings. Two log dwellings owned by Samuel Pierce were valued at $10. The third log cabin, owned by John McCubbin’s heirs, was valued at $120.

In the 1930s, using state land records, surveyor J. E. Dempster drew the plat of Shipley’s plan for Hammond’s land. The lots in Dempster’s drawing of 18th-century lower Elkridge, along the river, do not correspond to the way the lots are laid out today.

On the old plat, the Old Post Road bisected the town. The wharf and the inspection house stood on that road. Today, the Old Post Road may be Paradise Avenue. In the 1700s, Hill, Fish and Market streets ran parallel to the Patapsco. Today, Market Street is likely Furnace Avenue. Little remains of the New Town, 18th-century Elk Ridge Landing.

Joetta M. Cramm, a local historian, has researched documents in the Maryland State Archives in Annapolis. This is the second of two installments about 18th-century Elkridge. The excerpts are from her unpublished manuscript.