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.

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. The family homestead was a stone house built in 1789 near the Patapsco River and the family's mill. 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), 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. 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. 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. He had a "gracious love story" with his wife and they had a relaxed attitude about some Quaker conventions.

The couple had twelve children, ten of whom reached adulthood and eight of whom reached middle-age. 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. Tyson ensured that both her sons and daughters received a good education. 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". At the age of 35, Tyson was chosen as an Elder of the Baltimore Quaker Meeting. 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." Banneker was a frequent visitor at Martha's childhood home, sharing a mutual enthusiasm for learning with the family.

Martha was eleven years old when Banneker died. The two biographies of Banneker are Sketch in the Life of Benjamin Banneker, published in 1854, and the more complete Benjamin Banneker: The African-American Astronomer, published posthumously in 1884.

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

Encouraged by the Baltimore Yearly Meeting of Friends, Martha's father and Gerard 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. She was buried at Green Mount Cemetery in Baltimore.

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. Martha was inducted into the Maryland Women's Hall of Fame in 1988.

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