Martha Ellicott Tyson

Martha Ellicott Tyson (September 13, 1795 – March 5, 1873) was an Elder of the Quaker Meeting in Baltimore, an anti-slavery and women's rights advocate, historian, and a co-founder of Swarthmore College. She was married to Nathan Tyson, a merchant whose father was the emancipator and abolitionist Elisha Tyson. She was the great-great grandmother of Maryland state senator James A. Clark Jr. (1918–2006). She was inducted into the Maryland Women's Hall of Fame in 1988.

Martha Ellicott Tyson
Martha Ellicott Tyson (1795-1873), Quaker elder, co-founder of Swarthmore College, and author
Born	(1795-09-13)September 13, 1795 Ellicott's Mills, Maryland, US
Died	March 5, 1873(1873-03-05) (aged 77) Baltimore, Maryland, US
Resting place	Green Mount Cemetery, Baltimore, Maryland
Spouse(s)	Nathan Tyson, son of Elisha Tyson
Children	12
Parent(s)	George and Elizabeth (Brooke) Ellicott

Early life and education

Martha was born on September 13, 1795, to George Ellicott and Elizabeth (Brooke) Ellicott, who were members of a respected family of Maryland Quakers, the Ellicotts.^[1] The family homestead was a stone house built in 1789 near the Patapsco River and the family's mill.^[2] Her father often welcomed Native Americans to their home.

One of seven children, Martha was born and raised in Ellicott's Mills (now Ellicott City, Maryland),^[3] which her grandfather, Andrew Ellicott and his brothers had founded. Her books recounted a Christmas visit with chief Little Turtle in 1807 when she was twelve years old.^[1][4] Although she never completed formal schooling past primary education, she was well educated at home and fluent in French.

Marriage and children

In 1815, Martha married Nathan Tyson, the son of a Baltimore Quaker and abolitionist Elisha Tyson.^[2][5][6] During his lifetime, Nathan Tyson served as the Baltimore Chamber of Commerce's first president and as the first president of the Baltimore Corn and Flour Exchange.^[7][8][9] He had a "gracious love story" with his wife and they had a relaxed attitude about some Quaker conventions.^[10][a] Tyson was described as a "woman of much sweetness and dignity of bearing, possessed of an exceedingly cultivated mind and many accomplishments."^[10]

The couple had twelve children, ten of whom reached adulthood and eight of whom reached middle-age.^[1][2][8] Their children included James Tyson (died by or in early 1905), Elizabeth Brooke Tyson Smith, Henry Tyson, Isabella (died by 1905), Frederic Tyson, Robert Tyson, Lucy Tyson Fitzhugh and Anne Tyson Kirk.^[8][11] Tyson ensured that both her sons and daughters received a good education.^[1]

Nathan died on January 6, 1867,^[12] and his funeral was held January 9, 1867. Leaders of the Baltimore Corn and Flour Exchange said of him, "the deceased presented to us, in his daily conduct, his known integrity, his uniform courtesy and goodness of heart".^[9]

Quaker abolitionist and educator

Martha was a member of the Little Falls Meetinghouse in Harford County.^[13] At the age of 35, Tyson was chosen as an Elder of the Baltimore Quaker Meeting.^[1] When she was 66, she was appointed as a minister, although she had been working in that capacity informally for years.^[6] Tyson worked to improve educational opportunities for enslaved people and women^[14] and, with her husband, helped found the Fallston Public Library.^[6] At her suggestion, a committee on education was established at the Baltimore Yearly Meeting to prepare teachers and to focus on higher education of Quaker children.^[6] She was an abolitionist.^[14]

Swarthmore College

As a result of her dedication, support and interest in education, Martha became a co-founder of Swarthmore College.^[1][6][15] She had tried unsuccessfully for ten years to found a college. Martha and her husband tried a new approach when they hosted a meeting in their home of Quaker leaders from New York, Pennsylvania, and Maryland. This meeting of 30 leaders propelled the movement to start the second coeducation college in the United States, providing new educational opportunities for women.

Founded in 1860 just prior to the American Civil War, Swarthmore College was established to provide: "A better educated generation that could achieve freedom, peace, prosperity, and righteousness."^[1] Martha, who was a member of the college's Board of Managers, recruited for women professors by writing a letter to the president of Vassar College in 1863 that encouraged the hiring of women professors at the new institution.^[6] The college opened after the War in 1869.^[6]

Author and editor

Martha authored two biographical accounts of Benjamin Banneker, a free African-American farmer who became an almanac author and surveyor and acquired knowledge of astronomy, mathematics and natural history.^[16] Banneker was a frequent visitor at Martha's childhood home, sharing a mutual enthusiasm for learning with the family.^[6] Martha's father, George Ellicott, befriended and mentored Banneker, who lived a 1 mile (1.6 km) up a hill from the Ellicotts in what is now Oella, Maryland.^[2][17]

Martha was eleven years old when Banneker died.^[5][6] She conducted interviews and compiled the materials for her two biographies, the second of which was edited by her daughter Anne Tyson Kirk, who sought advice from Frederick Douglass.^[6][18] The two biographies of Banneker are Sketch in the Life of Benjamin Banneker, published in 1854,^[1][5][19] and the more complete Benjamin Banneker: The African-American Astronomer, published posthumously in 1884.^[5][6][20]

Martha also wrote A Brief Account of the Settlement of Ellicott's Mills^[21] and was a co-author, with Charles Worthington Evans and G. Hunter Bartlett, of American Family History: Fox, Ellicott, Evans.^[22] She also wrote memoirs of family members, including one of Joseph Ellicott that the Maryland Historical Society printed.^[23]

Encouraged by the Baltimore Yearly Meeting of Friends, Martha's father and Gerald T. Hopkins went to Fort Wayne, then part of the Northwest Territory, to meet with Native Americans. Hopkins kept a journal of the details of the trip, which Martha edited in 1862. She also wrote about the meetings that her father held with the United States government to discuss Native Americans.^[1]

Death and legacy

After experiencing declining health for about three months, Martha died on March 5, 1873, at the age of 77 years while surrounded by family members.^[24][25] She was buried at Green Mount Cemetery in Baltimore.^[24]

In 1910, John Russell Hayes wrote a poem entitled A Portrait of Martha Ellicott Tyson, which memorialized a work of art hanging on a wall at Swarthmore College.^[26] Martha was inducted into the Maryland Women's Hall of Fame in 1988.^[14]

Martha Ellicott Tyson came from a tradition that encouraged and appreciated the intellectual accomplishments of the family's women. During her life, Tyson, continued to encourage and support the rights of women and slaves to achieve the freedom necessary to reach their full potential. As a pioneering spiritual leader and minister of the Society of Friends, her life was moved by a desire to do good.

— Maryland Women's Hall of Fame^[1]

Footnotes

1. Throughout every spring, he picked crocus flowers and presented them to her. It was said that "Wherever you find a descendant of Martha Ellicott Tyson you will find one who cherishes the crocus." She met Nathan, eight years her senior, at the Friend's school at Ellicott's Mill. He was charmed by her and asked her over their childhood to marry him. When she was 20 years of age, she said yes. When they had the ceremony to read the bans, followed by their marriage, she wore beautiful clothing rather than the plain garb of the Quakers and had an elaborate wedding.^[10]

Notes

1. "Maryland Women's Hall of Fame: Martha Ellicott Tyson". Maryland State Archives. Retrieved January 16, 2021. October 24, 2020, at the Wayback Machine.
2. Stiehm, Jamie (March 31, 1999). "Life of Ellicott City writer and activist offers enduring lessons about prejudice". The Baltimore Sun. p. 27. Retrieved January 18, 2021 – via Newspapers.com. January 18, 2021, at the Wayback Machine.
3. Brick, Cindy (March 15, 2011). Crazy Quilts: History - Techniques - Embroidery Motifs. Voyageur Press. p. 22. ISBN 978-1-61060-005-7.
4. Clark Jr., James (1999). Jim Clark: Soldier, Farmer, Legislator: A Memoir. Baltimore, Maryland: Gateway Press. p. ix. ASIN B004R9J6AK. LCCN 99072964. OCLC 44803221.
5. Bedini, 1999, pp. 308—309.
6. Schurman, Virginia (March 1, 2012). "Martha Ellicott Tyson". Friends Journal. Retrieved January 16, 2021. September 19, 2020, at the Wayback Machine.
7. "Engagement Announced". The Baltimore Sun. June 13, 1907. p. 6. Retrieved March 10, 2020.
8. "Tyson Family Maryland". The Baltimore Sun. January 22, 1905. p. 8. Retrieved March 10, 2020.
9. "Announcement of death of Nathan Tyson". The Baltimore Sun. January 9, 1867. p. 2. Retrieved March 11, 2020.
10. "Ellicott - Maryland Heraldry". The Baltimore Sun. March 12, 1905. p. 8. Retrieved March 10, 2020.
11. Tyson, Martha Ellicott (1884). Kirk, Anne Tyson (ed.). Banneker, the Afric-American Astronomer. From the posthumous papers of M.E. Tyson. Edited by her daughter. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: Friends' Book Association. LCCN 04013085. OCLC 79879919. Retrieved January 16, 2021 – via General Catalog of the American Antiquarian Society. Title page from Bedini, 1999, p. 314 — via Internet Archive. June 5, 2020, at the Wayback Machine.
12. "Death notice - Nathan Tyson". The Baltimore Sun. January 8, 1867. p. 2. Retrieved March 11, 2020.
13. "Little Falls Meeting celebrates 275 years in Fallston - Martha Ellicott Tyson". The Baltimore Sun. June 7, 2013. p. D5. Retrieved March 10, 2020.
14. "Five inducted into Maryland Women's Hall of Fame". The Star-Democrat. March 5, 1998. p. 15. Retrieved March 10, 2020.
15. (1)Turner, Sue Thomas (2004). "The Sense of the Meeting". In Youman, Roger (ed.). The Meaning of Swarthmore. Swarthmore, Pennsylvania: Swarthmore College. ISBN 0974829307. OCLC 56364110. Retrieved January 16, 2021 – via Internet Archive.
    (2) Densmore, Christopher (Curator, Friends Historical Library) (January 2012). "150 Years Ago: Martha Ellicott Tyson proposes a new school". Swarthmore College Bulletin. Swarthmore, Pennsylvania: Swarthmore College. Retrieved January 17, 2021.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) September 28, 2020, at the Wayback Machine.
16. Bedini, Silvio A. (1999). The Life of Benjamin Banneker: The First African-American Man of Science (2nd ed.). Baltimore: Maryland Historical Society. ISBN 0-938420-59-3. LCCN 98022848. OCLC 894558859. Retrieved January 17, 2021 – via Internet Archive.
17. Bedini, 1999, pp. 74—75.
18. Russell, Dick (February 2, 2009). "Chapter 18: Ancestors——The Astronomer/Surveyor: Benjamin Banneker". Black Genius: Inspirational Portraits of African-American Leaders. Skyhorse Publishing Inc. p. 353. ISBN 978-1-60239-369-1. LCCN 2008045975. OCLC 788625200. Retrieved January 18, 2021 – via Google Books.
19. Tyson, Martha Ellicott. A sketch of the life of Benjamin Banneker: from notes taken in 1836: read by J. Saurin Norris, before the Maryland Historical Society, October 5th, 1854. Baltimore, Maryland: Printed for the Maryland Historical Society by John D. Toy. LCCN rc01003357. OCLC 85794847. Retrieved October 7, 2017 – via Internet Archive.
20. Tyson, Martha Ellicott (1884). Kirk, Anne Tyson (ed.). Banneker, the Afric-American Astronomer. From the posthumous papers of M.E. Tyson. Edited by her daughter. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: Friends' Book Association. LCCN 04013085. OCLC 79879919. Retrieved January 16, 2021 – via General Catalog of the American Antiquarian Society. Title page from Bedini, 1999, p. 314 — via Internet Archive. June 5, 2020, at the Wayback Machine.
    • Hartshorne, Henry, ed. (June 21, 1884). "Book Notice: Banneker, the Afric-American Astronomer. From the posthumous papers of M.E. Tyson. Edited by Her Daughter. Phila. 1020 Arch Street. 1884". Friends Review: A Religious, Literary and Miscellaneous Journal. 37 (46). Philadelphia: Franklin E. Paige: 729. Retrieved January 16, 2017 – via Google Books.
21. Tyson, Martha Ellicott (1871). A Brief Account of the Settlement of Ellicott's Mills: With Fragments of History Therewith Connected. J. Murphy.
22. Kusterer, Janet; Goeller, Victoria (2006). Ellicott City. Arcadia Publishing. p. 7. ISBN 978-0-7385-4309-3.
23. Bartlett, George Hunter; Ellicott, Joseph; Hodge, William; Ellicott, Benjamin (1922). The William Hodge Papers: The Writer's Memories of His Father, William Hodge Sr., and of Their Pioneer Days in an Outlying Part of the Present Buffalo, from 1805 T0 1885. p. 32.
24. "Funeral of an Estimable Lady - Martha Ellicott Tyson". The Baltimore Sun. March 10, 1873. p. 1. Retrieved March 10, 2020.
25. "Martha Ellicott Tyson". Maryland State Archives. Retrieved March 7, 2014.
26. Hayes, John Russell (1916). "Verses of Quakerism (1910): A Portrait of Martha Ellicott Tyson (At Swarthmore College)". The Collected Poems of John Russell Hayes. Philadelphia: The Biddle Press. pp. 240–241. LCCN 18008767. OCLC 893940655 – via Internet Archive.

References

Bedini, Silvio A. (1999). "Chapter XI: The Man Remembered". The Life of Benjamin Banneker: The First African-American Man of Science (2nd ed.). Baltimore: Maryland Historical Society. pp. 287–320. ISBN 0-938420-59-3. LCCN 98022848. OCLC 894558859. Retrieved January 17, 2021 – via Internet Archive.