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Welcome to a Free Reading from Washington History: Magazine of the Historical Society of Washington, D.C Welcome to a free reading from Washington History: Magazine of the Historical Society of Washington, D.C. We hope this essay will help you fill idle hours and provide food for thought and discussion. Benjamin Banneker, the African American mathematician, scientist, and author of almanacs, helped to create Washington, D.C. in 1791. He and his role continue to intrigue Washingtonians more than two centuries later. This essay brings to light the actual records documenting his work on the survey of the District of Columbia that permitted Peter Charles L’Enfant (as he signed his name) to design the city. “Survey of the Federal Territory: Andrew Ellicott and Benjamin Banneker,” by Silvio A. Bedini, first appeared in Washington History Special Bicentennial Issue, vol. 3, no.1 (spring/summer 1991) © Historical Society of Washington, D.C. Access via JSTOR* to the entire run of Washington History and its predecessor, Records of the Columbia Historical Society, is a benefit of membership in the Historical Society of Washington, D.C. at the Membership Plus level. Copies of this and many other back issues of Washington History magazine are available for purchase online through the DC History Center Store: https://dchistory.z2systems.com/np/clients/dchistory/giftstore.jsp ABOUT THE HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON, D.C. The Historical Society of Washington, D.C., is a non-profit, 501(c)(3), community-supported educational and research organization that collects, interprets, and shares the history of our nation's capital in order to promote a sense of identity, place and pride in our city and preserve its heritage for future generations. Founded in 1894, the Historical Society serves a diverse audience through collections, public programs, exhibitions, and publications. It welcomes visitors to its new home, the DC History Center, on the second floor of the historic Carnegie Library. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the DC History Center is currently closed. The Historical Society staff is working remotely to keep you connected to D.C. history. We are eager to welcome you back once the danger has passed. * JSTOR is an online resource that digitizes scholarly research. Academic institutions typically provide organizational access to all of JSTOR’s holdings through their libraries. The Historical Society Membership Plus conveys access to our publications only. April 27, 2020 Benjamin Banneker and Andrew Ellicott are poised to begin the survey of the federal territory in this twentieth-century mural by William A. Smith. Courtesy, Maryland House on the John F. Kennedy Highway, Aberdeen, Maryland. 76 The Survey of The Federal Territory Andrew Ellicott and Benjamin Banneker by Silvio A. Bedini Some time last month arrived in this After three months of inactivity, however, town, Mr. Andrew Ellicot, a gentleman he had already become restless and was of superior astronomical abilities. He was ready for new challenges. During the past employed by the President of the United year a site had finally been selected for a States of America, to lay off a tract of permanent seat of government for the land, ten miles square on the Potomack, United States, soon to be identified as the for the use of Congress; is now engaged Territory of Columbia. By means of a letter in this business, and hopes soon to ac- dated February 2, 1791, from Secretary of complish the object of his mission. He is State Thomas Jefferson, Ellicott was in- attended by Benjamin Banniker, an formed that he was "to proceed by the Ethiopian, whose abilities, as a surveyor, first stage to the Federal territory on the and an astronomer, clearly prove that Potomac, for the purpose of making a sur- Mr. Jefferson's concluding that race of vey of it." The prospect of shaping a ten- men was void of mental endowments, mile square for the establishment of a na- was without foundation. tional capital city was an exciting one, and - Georgetown Weekly Ledger, March he responded promptly in the affirmative. 12, 1791. l His brothers would be able to complete what remained of the New York survey, was just two hundred years ago, and accordingly he began to plan for the while Major Andrew Ellicott was at assistance and equipment he would re- home in Philadelphia, that the sum- quire in the federal territory.2 mons arrived. After having completed The selection of Ellicott for this historic several months of strenuous work in the undertaking was not accidental. He had field on a survey in western New York emerged as probably the foremost profes- State, the onslaught of winter weather sional surveyor of that period, personally forced the camp to close and now he wellwas known to both President Washington relaxing with his family until the survey and Secretary of State Jefferson. He had could again be resumed in the spring. considerable experience in the field, and unlike other surveyors of his time, worked Notes begin on page 137 full time at this occupation. As a boy Elli- 77 Washington History, Spring/ Summer 1991 cott had learned mechanical principles the Baltimore press for "either a clock or and the rudiments of clockmaking from MATHEMATICAL INSTRUMENT MAKER." It his father Joseph Ellicott of Bucks County, was during this period that Ellicott began Pennsylvania. A talented millwright and to expand his scientific activities by calcu- one of the founding brothers of Ellicott' s lating ephemerides or celestial positions Lower Mills (now Ellicott City, Maryland), for almanacs, the first of which was pub- Joseph Ellicott was also a skilled clock- lished in the United States Almanac for the maker who produced more than three year 1781. He continued to produce ephe- hundred tall case clocks in his lifetime. merides for almanacs for the next 12 After attending the Society of Friends years.4 school in nearby Solesbury, young An- drew was enrolled in an academy newly In the fall of 1784 an opportunity came established by Robert Patterson, who tolater Ellicott that would mean a major career became professor of mathematics at change the and would establish the future di- University of Pennsylvania. From Patter- rection of his life. He was appointed one son, Andrew received training in mathe- of the commissioners representing Virgin- matics, astronomy, and other sciences.3 ia in running the boundaries through an untraveled wilderness between that state Andrew continued to work with his fa- (the part now known as West Virginia) ther, and in 1775, after his marriage andto Pennsylvania. The boundary had al- Sarah "Sally" Brown, he moved with Jo- ready been established but required more seph and his family to Ellicott's Upper precise definition. Four commissioners Mills, a new settlement established by Jo- from each state were appointed. Among seph Ellicott along the Patapsco River those representing Pennsylvania was three miles from Ellicott's Lower Mills. He David Rittenhouse. It was a rewarding ex- assisted his father in management of the perience for young Ellicott, and in the mills and in his clockmaking enterprise. course of this work he developed a strong Three years later he advertised in the Bal- friendship with Rittenhouse, an associa- timore newspapers for "a person ac- tion that was to assist him later in his work quainted with the Clock-making Business, and was to last their lifetimes. At the end and able to work by directions." Mean- of the year, in acknowledgement of his en- while, the winds of war were blowing deavors on behalf of Virginia, Ellicott re- closer to Baltimore County, and in the ceived an honorary Master of Arts degree same year that the Elkridge Battalion offrom the College of William and Mary.5 the Maryland militia was formed, he joined with the rank of captain. This was a Returning home after the survey ended serious step because it violated the princi- in the late autumn, Ellicott found his fami- ples of the Society of Friends, of which hely in extremely poor health and his second and his family were members. Within son, a George, near death. Soon thereafter year, Governor Thomas Johnson promot- his son died. Embittered by his loss, and ed him to the rank of major, a title he re- convinced that living along the Patapsco tained during the remainder of his life. was unhealthy and responsible for his son's death, Ellicott leased the mills and In 1780 the unexpected death of An- moved with his family to Baltimore in drew's father required him, as oldest son, April 1785. It was during sojourns at home to assume the management of the mills betweenin surveys that Ellicott constructed Ellicott's Upper Mills as well as continue several of the instruments required for the clockmaking business. Needing assis- field use, among them an astronomical tance once more, he advertised again regulatorin (a tall case clock of great preci- 78 The Survey of the Federal Territory sion), a portable quadrant, and a transit accepted the commission as Pennsylva- and equal altitude instrument. From Rit- nia's representative for the survey, which tenhouse he obtained a six-foot zenith sec- took him away from home from early June tor and a smaller portable version, both ofto mid-October 1786. In the following year which he then modified to his own specifi- he was appointed to continue the survey cations. It was not long before he was from the 90th milestone to Lake Erie, and sought out once more to undertake a state in 1788 made a survey of the islands in the boundary survey.6 Alleghany and Ohio rivers within the The next year the state of Pennsylvania boundaries of Pennsylvania.7 commissioned Ellicott, Rittenhouse, and Because most of his friends and inter- Andrew Porter to complete the previous ests were in Philadelphia, in 1789 Ellicott Andrew Ellicott first learned mechanical moved there from Baltimore with his fami- principles in his father's clockmaking ly.
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