The Borough Of Media.

Name. - Both before and after the incorporation of the borough, when the name Media was bestowed upon it in lieu of Providence, there was a lively discussion carried on as to the most suitable name for the county-seat. One writer argued strongly in favor of "Pennrith," explaining in his newspaper communication that Penn in the Welsh language meant a hill, and "rith" John, so that the two together would signify John Penn, which was the name of William Penn's father, and, at the same time, "Penn," signifying a hill, would be descriptive of the locality. Some of the citizens were in favor of "Numedia," - that is, New Media, - in contradistinction to ancient Oriental Media, but the majority favored Media, after it had been suggested by Minshall Painter. This name was vigorously combated by the friend of "Pennrith," who signed himself "John o' the Hill." He wrote as follows: "To say that it was called after the ancient country of Media would place us in a purely ridiculous position. To derive it from the Latin adjective, converting it into a noun, as the name of a place, would give it, if it were etymologically defensible, an origin so feeble as to ally it very closely to contempt." The name had, however, been adopted at a meeting held at the Providence Inn, Jan. 10, 1850, and "John o' the Hill's" communications failed to induce a change. For a number of years several newspapers and many of the people, among them the borough clerk, spelled the name Medea, as if they supposed the town named after the Asiatic queen, but gradually the present spelling was substituted for the old, and thus the word became what it was no doubt at first intended to be, a term significant of the central location of the place to which it was applied.

The Charter House. - This house, one of the notable institutions of Media, is at once a place of happy entertainment for "the wayfarer and the stranger," and a monument to those zealous friends of temperance who triumphed after a hard fight and made the prohibition of the liquor traffic one of the provisions of the town charter. It is, therefore, properly treated in this connection, for it followed as a result of the borough charter, and is deserving of more than a passing notice. The story of the building of this temperance hotel is briefly as follows: Only a few months after the incorporation of the borough, on Tuesday, Aug. 13, 1850, at a temperance harvest-home held at Media, it was resolved, at the suggestion of Rev. James W. Dale, to raise subscriptions to build a temperance hotel. This was an immense assemblage, the largest of the kind (according to the newspapers of the day) ever held in Delaware County. The people were flushed with the victory they had obtained in securing a charter which contained a prohibitory clause, and hence it was not strange that the sum of four thousand dollars should have been subscribed on the spot for the purpose of raising a tangible memorial of the battle which had been won. It was decided that the prospective building should be called the Charter House, and that it should not cost over five thousand dollars.

At a meeting held in Temperance Hall, Sept. 9,