Patapsco Female Institute
Classes and Camps
The stabilized ruin above you - the Patapsco Female Institute - served the young ladies of the North and South from 1837 to 1891. Amelia Hart Lincoln Phelps, a renowned author and educator, headed the school between 1841 and 1855. Concerned with the increasing division of the country during the period, she hoped to bring young women together in friendship. In 1850, she wrote, "my daughters, do something for your country by using the influence within your sphere, to allay the strife and contention which endangers its prosperity, honor, and the stability of the government." Although Phelps was a slave owner who chided the "fanaticism" of the abolitionists, she also ardently supported the Union. A son, Charles E. Phelps, and a stepson, John W. Phelps, served in the U. S. Army during the war and became generals; the former also received the Medal of Honor.
During the fall of 1862, the 12th New Jersey Infantry Regiment camped in these hills to protect the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. Capt. Richard S. Thompson described the hostile reception citizens sometimes gave his troops. "Go out for skirmish drill on the four hundred acres of the pompous Major Peters. This singular specimen of long drawn meat ordered us off his place. ... We did not see it in that light and continued our drill. But by December, when the unit received orders to "strike tents and prepare to leave ... the people in Ellicotts Mills manifest[ed] much sorrow at our departure."
Marker can be reached from Church Road 0.1 miles north of Sarahs Lane.
Courtesy hmdb.org
