The Borough Of Media.

capable of being warmed at all; accordingly, they are disused during the cold season. Each is lighted by a grated window. There are in the basement of the main building four cells, lined with sheet-iron, which are used for violent patients when necessary. There are no recoveries reported in the poor-house through remedial treatment. 'The most we expect,' said one of the family, 'is to do what we can for their comfort; we have no means for curing them.' The entire establishment seemed excellently conducted, and, but for the difficulty of managing the insane and idiotic, would afford a quiet home for the aged and infirm. It is estimated that there are in Delaware County about seventy cases of insane and idiotic persons. The poor-house farm is large and productive."

The directors of the poor, after a long discussion, in April, 1854, decided to sell the house of employment and property attached, and to purchase the farm of Abram Pennell, in Middletown, as the site for a new building. It was subsequently sold, and after a time torn down, and upon its site was erected the Haldeman House, which became Shortlidge's Boarding-School.

Of the new poor-house in Middletown, which was completed by April 1, 1857, having been begun a year before, it is scarcely our province to speak in this chapter. The principal contractor was Dutton Otley, assisted by Stephen Sager, master-carpenter. The tinwork and plumbing was done by Ralph Buckley, of Media.

Incorporation of Media as a Borough - The Temperance Struggle. - The growth, real and prospective, of the new town led its people to a general recognition of the desirability of establishing a local or borough government in less than eighteen months from the time that it was laid out. The project, which had been informally talked of during the latter part of 1849, first assumed definite shape at a meeting of the lot-owners, held Jan. 10, 1850, at the public-house of Peter Worrall, - the Providence Inn. On this occasion a resolution was adopted asking the Assembly to grant a charter incorporating the town as a borough, "with a section therein prohibiting the sale of ardent spirits within the new borough, and making it a penal offense to sell any kind of intoxicating liquors within said limits."

The fight between the friends and the opponents of temperance, or, more properly, prohibition, which had raged fiercely before, was now renewed with increased fury, and every individual was forced into the ranks of one or the other contending parties. On the 16th the Delaware County Temperance Society held a well-attended meeting at Hinkson's Corner, and as a result of its deliberations there appeared on the 25th a very spirited, yet well-balanced, address to the people of the county, advocating the prohibition of the sale of liquor in its seat of justice. This was signed by the twenty-four members of the central committee, among whom were J. P. Crozer, William T. Crook, Enos Sharpless, Rev. B. S. Huntington, John C. Beatty, Jonathan P. Abrams, Samuel Riddle, Jonathan Esrey, Samuel L. Leiper, Dr. George Smith, Minshall Painter, George G. Knowles, John F. Taylor, James J. Lewis, John F. Vanleer, William T. Pierce, and Rev. James W. Dale. Several more extremely able addresses were issued during the few months succeeding, and a vigorous agitation was kept up by the press and public speakers.

On Jan. 30, 1850, Mr. James J. Lewis, the representative from Delaware County, read before the House a bill to incorporate the borough of Media. Only two days before this, on the 28th of January, at a meeting held at Providence Inn, it had been resolved, on account of the temperance clause, to abandon for the time being the attempt to secure a charter, and a communication was forwarded calling for a postponement of the bill. It was destined, however, to pass, and that, too, with the prohibitory clause. When the decisive time came, on February 13th, the House of Representatives declared in its favor by a vote of 52 to 21. It passed the Senate March 7th, re-