Martha Ellicott Tyson

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

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
DiedMarch 5, 1873(1873-03-05) (aged 77)
Baltimore, Maryland
Resting placeGreen Mount Cemetery, Baltimore, Maryland
Spouse(s)Nathan Tyson, son of Elisha Tyson
Children12
Parent(s)George and Elizabeth (Brooke) Ellicott

Early life and education

Tyson was born September 13, 1795 to George Ellicott and Elizabeth (Brooke) Ellicott, a well 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, she was born and raised in Ellicott's Mills (now Ellicott City, Maryland),[3] founded by her grandfather, Andrew Ellicott and his brothers. She accounted in her books visiting with chief Little Turtle in 1807 at Christmas when she was the age of twelve.[1][4] Although she never completed formal schooling past primary education, she was well educated at home and fluent in French.[5]

Marriage and children

In 1815, she married Nathan Tyson[6] the son of Elisha Tyson, a Quaker and abolitionist of Baltimore,[7] was the Baltimore Chamber of Commerce's first president.[8] He was also the first president of the Baltimore Corn and Flour Exchange.[9][10] He had a "gracious love story" with his wife and they had a relaxed attitude about some Quaker conventions.[11][lower-alpha 1] Tyson was described as a "woman of much sweetness and dignity of bearing, possessed of an exceedingly cultivated mind and many accomplishments."[11]

They had twelve children,[5] ten of them to adulthood.[2] Eight of their children made it to middle-age.[9] 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, and Lucy Tyson Fitzhugh.[9] 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".[10]

Quaker abolitionist and educator

She 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

A strong supporter of Quaker and coeducation, Tyson was a key founder, along with Lucretia Mott, Edward Parrish, and Benjamin Hallowell, of Swarthmore College.[5] She had tried unsuccessfully for ten years to found a college. Tyson 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]

The college opened in 1869. She began recruiting for women professors with the president of Vassar College in 1863, and she was on Swarthmore's Board of Managers.[6]

Author and editor

Martha Tyson is also well known for her biographical accounts of the scientist, surveyor, and author Benjamin Banneker. As a free African-American, Banneker was a frequent visitor at Tyson's childhood home,[5] sharing a mutual enthusiasm for learning with the family.[6] Banneker, who lived about one mile from the Ellicotts, was mentored by Martha's father. It was rare for a woman to write a biography, and especially rare for a white woman to write a biography of a former slave.[2] Tyson was eleven years old when Banneker died.[6] She conducted interviews and compiled the material for two biographies, the second of which was edited by her daughter Anne Tyson Kirk, who sought advice from Frederick Douglass.[6][15] The two biographies of Banneker are, Sketch in the Life of Benjamin Banneker, published in 1854,[1] and the more complete biography, Benjamin Banneker: The African-American Astronomer, published posthumously in 1884.[5][6]

She also wrote A Brief Account of the Settlement of Ellicott's Mills[16] and was a co-author, with Charles Worthington Evans and G. Hunter Bartlett, of American Family History: Fox, Ellicott, Evans.[17] She also wrote memoirs of family members, like Joseph Ellicott, which was published by the Maryland Historical Society.[18]

Her father and Gerald T. Hopkins went to Fort Wayne, then part of the Northwest Territory, to meet with Native Americans. They were directed by the Baltimore Yearly Meeting of Friends. Hopkins kept a journal of the details of the trip, which she edited in 1862. She also wrote about the meetings that her father had with the United States government regarding the Native Americans.[1]

Death and legacy

After having been ill for three months,[19] Martha Ellicott Tyson died on March 5, 1873[20] at her home at 299 Madison Street in Baltimore. She was buried at Green Mount Cemetery in Baltimore.[19] A poem was written about her and her portrait at Swarthmore College by John Russell Hayes entitled "A Portrait of Martha Ellicott Tyson".[21] She 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]

Notes
  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.[11]

References
  1. "Maryland Women's Hall of Fame: Martha Ellicott Tyson". Maryland State Archive. Retrieved March 7, 2014.
  2. "Life of Ellicott City writer and activist offers enduring lessons about prejudice". The Baltimore Sun. March 31, 1999. p. 27. Retrieved March 10, 2020.
  3. Brick, Cindy (March 15, 2011). Crazy Quilts: History - Techniques - Embroidery Motifs. Voyageur Press. p. 22. ISBN 978-1-61060-005-7.
  4. James Clark Jr. Jim Clark Soldier Farmer Legislator. p. ix.
  5. Swarthmore College: A Community of Purpose. Swarthmore, PA: Swarthmore College. 2014. ISBN 978-0-9748293-1-9.
  6. Schenck, Pat (March 2, 2012). "Biographical profile of Martha Ellicott Tyson, Baltimore Quaker". Friends Journal. Retrieved March 11, 2020.
  7. Stiehm, Jamie (March 31, 1999). "Quaker activist's life, work offers lessons on prejudice; Descendants describe woman who recorded story of black scientist". Retrieved March 10, 2020.
  8. "Engagement Announced". The Baltimore Sun. June 13, 1907. p. 6. Retrieved March 10, 2020.
  9. "Tyson Family Maryland". The Baltimore Sun. January 22, 1905. p. 8. Retrieved March 10, 2020.
  10. "Announcement of death of Nathan Tyson". The Baltimore Sun. January 9, 1867. p. 2. Retrieved March 11, 2020.
  11. "Ellicott - Maryland Heraldry". The Baltimore Sun. March 12, 1905. p. 8. Retrieved March 10, 2020.
  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. Russell, Dick (February 2, 2009). Black Genius: Inspirational Portraits of African-American Leaders. Skyhorse Publishing Inc. p. 353. ISBN 978-1-60239-369-1.
  16. Tyson, Martha Ellicott (1871). A Brief Account of the Settlement of Ellicott's Mills: With Fragments of History Therewith Connected. J. Murphy.
  17. Kusterer, Janet; Goeller, Victoria (2006). Ellicott City. Arcadia Publishing. p. 7. ISBN 978-0-7385-4309-3.
  18. 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.
  19. "Funeral of an Estimable Lady - Martha Ellicott Tyson". The Baltimore Sun. March 10, 1873. p. 1. Retrieved March 10, 2020.
  20. "Martha Ellicott Tyson". Maryland State Archives. Retrieved March 7, 2014.
  21. Hayes, John Russell (1916). The Collected Poems of John Russell Hayes. Biddle Press. pp. 240–242.
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