Top: Picnic with people, adults and children, near the Conodoquinet Creek at Bellaire Park (00127A#01 - Purchase Print);
Middle Top: Cave Hill Ice Skating on the Conodoguinet Creek (28-30-01 - Purchase Print);
Middle Bottom: Ellen and Velva Henry on horseback with snow on the ground and a stone barn in the background (27D-01-10 - Purchase Print);
Bottom: Horse-drawn binder machine operated by Ellen, Emma, and George Henry. Print mirrored. (27D-01-13 - Purchase Print).
North and South Middleton Townships received a charter of incorporation in 1810 dividing what was originally Middleton Township.1 This area in the twenty-first century is composed of residential and commercial interests and a few farms. The first settlers were making their way into the valley by the early eighteenth century when Samuel Blunston, a surveyor, was issuing his pre-warrant licenses.2 The Conodiguent Creek was a major source of water plus numerous natural springs.
The ethnic make-up of the first white settlers was Scotch-Irish from Northern Ireland. Presbyterianism was the predominate faith of these people. Located a mile west of Carlisle in North Middleton Township is Meeting House Springs Presbyterian cemetery. This worship site was one of eight churches constructed between 1736-1739 located in the Cumberland Valley running from Silver Springs to Falling Springs (Franklin County).3 Meeting House Springs had several missionary ministers who would visit from the Donegel section of Lancaster County (near Mount Joy). The first resident pastor was Samuel Thompson (1687-1787) who arrived in 1739 and remained until 1749. His first wife was Janet Holmes Thompson (1711-1744) whose tombstone was the earliest one found in the cemetery.4 The graveyard contains three tombstones with a coat-of-arms etched upon them: Thompson, Chambers and McFarland.5
A significant site located in North Middleton Township is the Carlisle Barracks established by the British Army on May 30, 1757 when Colonel John Stanwix arrived. Colonel Henry Bouquet visited the small base during his expedition to fight native Indians during the French & Indian War. Originally the base was known as “the camp near Carlisle” and towards the end of the Revolutionary War was called Washingtonburg in honor of General George Washington.6
When the war of American Independence broke out a magazine was erected in 1777 (now the Hessian Powder Magazine Museum). In 1778 Captain Isaac Coren established the school of artillerists.7
The post site was officially purchased by the federal government in 1801 and became known as the Carlisle Barracks in 1807. The base served many purposes for the United States Army from 1838 until 1861 when it functioned as the School for the Cavalry.8 From 1879 to 1918, the Carlisle Indian School was used to train and educate native Indian children. From 1920 to 1946 the barracks became the home of the Medical Field Service School. Since 1951, the base has been the home of the United States Army War College.9
Another prominent site in North Middleton Township is the Carlisle Water Works that began in 1853. The original site was located along the Conodoguinet Creek just north of Carlisle at the farm and mill previously owned by Ephraim Blaine in the eighteenth century. The water works was started by John Hays (1837-1921) an industrialist and a great-grandson of Blaine.10 Hays had several disputes with customers and the Borough of Carlisle. The operation was eventually sold by John’s son George M. Hays in 1925 to the Leigh Power Securities Corporation.11
The Cumberland County Nursing Home (Claremont) is another North Middleton edifice (after 1859 it became Middlesex Township) that has historical significance. The original land owner Jonathan Holmes (1715-1803) arrived from Northern Ireland in the early 1740’s following his brother-in-law the Reverend Samuel Thompson pastor of Meeting House Springs Presbyterian Chruch.12 In 1773 Jonathan sold the property including 188 acres to his brother John Holmes (1725-1805) High Sheriff of Cumberland County.13 John in turn sold the property to Thomas Duncan (Pennsylvania Supreme Court Justice) in 1789. Thomas Duncan gave the property to his daughter Ann Duncan Stiles wife of Edward Stiles. The farm’s mansion contained many federal architectural features similar to the Duncan-Stiles House located in Carlisle on the corner of East High and South Bedford Streets owned by Ann’s brother Stephen Duncan. In 1829, the estate was sold to the county for the purpose of having a permanent Alms House.14
The township of Middlesex lies along the northerly half of the west side of the Stony (“Stoney”) Ridge, a geological trap dike (older than the North or South mountains) which formed the original boundary between the west and east divisions of Pennsborough Township (established in 1735) as early a
1 Genevieve Blatt, Secretary, Incorporation Dates for Pennsylvania Municipalities, (Harrisburg: Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Department of Internal Affairs, 1965), p.52.
2 Lenore E. Flower, Blunston Licenses and Their Background, (Carlisle: The Hamilton Library and Historical Association of Cumberland County, 1961) p. 3.
3 William T. Swaim, “The Evolution of Ten Pre-1745 Presbyterian Societies in the Cumberland Valley”, (Carlisle: CCHS, volume 2, # 2, Summer, 1985) pp 26-7.
4 Richard L. Tritt, Here Lyes The Body: The Story of Meeting House Springs, (Carlisle: First Presbyterian Church, 2009) p. 97.
5 William Henry Egle, Notes and Queries, Fourth Series, volume I, (Baltimore Genealogical Publishing Company, 1970) p. 193.
6 Thomas G. Tousey, Military History of Carlisle and Carlisle Barracks, (Richmond: The Dietz Press, 1939), p. 84
7 Ibid., p. 79.
8 Ibid., p. 184.
9 “A Tour of Historic Carlisle Barracks”, (US Government Printing, 1981), p. 3.
10 Raphael S. Hays, II, John Hays, (Cumberland County, PA, 250th Anniversary Committee, 2000), p. 4.
11 Ibid., p. 41.
12 Carlisle Weekly Gazette, Carlisle, June 29, 1803.
13 The Sentinel, Carlisle, October 3, 2004.
14 Conway P. Wing, D.D, History of Cumberland County, Pennsylvania, (Philadelphia, James D. Scott, 1879) p. 121.