Ellicott

I grew up in Western New York and the name Ellicott is very familiar: Ellicott Creek, the Ellicott Square Building, Ellicottville, Ellicott Street, the Ellicott Complex at UB... you get the idea. I never really thought about it until today, but all those places must have been named after some Mr. Ellicott. I came across a video about the Holland Land Company today and learned what an important person he was to the Western New York area.

I followed up with some more reading on Joseph Ellicott, and it was all pretty interesting - among other things, he was the person that actually standardized the 12-inch ruler in the U.S. Why didn't they teach about this stuff when I was in school? We learned about Chinese dynasties and Medieval Europe - I think it would have been nice to include a section on local history. I wouldn't feel so stupid about not already knowing the stuff I learned today.

The Holland Land Company original building is still in existence. It's in Batavia and used as the Holland Land Office Museum. I've driven past it many times on my way to visit my sister. I'm going to make a point of visiting next time I'm out that way.

Here's the video I saw that started out my history lesson today. It's a little long, but it's so interesting, I didn't even notice!





I also want to mention that I ordered some more stamps online. Last time I ordered stamps this way, it took almost a week for them to get to my house. The stamps I ordered Wednesday night arrived in my mailbox this morning! What a difference :)