Middletown Township.

25, 1705, Richard and John Crosby in open court acknowledged a lease to James Cooper for twenty-one years. This may have been the James Cooper of Darby, for in 1715 a fulling-mill was on the property. Some difficulty must have occurred, for the lease was rescinded.

On Aug. 26, 1715, Richard and John Crosby sold "all those water mill or grist and fulling mills," to Job Harvey, cloth-worker, of Darby, or "Stoffer." He was a son-in-law of John Bethel, who owned the Darby Mill, one of which was a fulling-mill, which Job Harvey had operated for some years prior to 1705, as in that year he purchased a part interest, and remained at Darby until the purchase of this property. Job Harvey retained ownership of the Middletown Mills until April 10, 1729, when he sold to his son, Josiah Harvey, also a cloth-worker. This deed describes the land as being in three tracts, one of fifty-two acres, one of eight and a half acres, and one of three acres, making sixty-three and a half acres.

Josiah Harvey sold the grist-mill, fulling-mill, and three tracts of land, Nov. 10, 1731, to William Pennell and Frederick Engle. On Dec. 30, 1734, Engle released his rights in the property to William Pennell, who owned it until April 2, 1740, when he sold the same property to his son, Thomas Pennell. In 1766, and up to 1774, Caleb James was assessed on a grist-mill, and on April 25, 1775, he sold the same-described property that Josiah Harvey sold to Pennell and Engle in 1731, and two more tracts to Isaac Levis, of Upper Darby; part of the land was in Upper Providence. Soon after his purchase, Isaac Levis erected upon the estate a saw-mill, on which he was assessed until 1790, between which time and his death, which occurred in 1794, he erected a paper-mill. In 1798 the mill property passed to Seth Levis, the eldest son of Isaac. On May 23, 1807, Seth sold one-half interest to his brother-in-law, Edward Lewis, who married his sister. This deed, in mentioning the mill land, recites that "Isaac Levis erected thereon a paper-mill." These mills were conducted by Levis & Lewis until the death of Seth Levis, and his interest passed to Edward Lewis about 1825. In 1826 it is mentioned as being a two-vat paper-mill, and manufactured twenty-four reams of imperial and thirty reams of royal printing-paper per week. The grist and saw-mills were also in operation. The paper-mill was washed away in 1843, and was not again rebuilt. In 1845, Edward Lewis erected at this site a tilt-mill, which was rented to William & Thomas Beatty, who manufactured edge-tools at this place until 1850, when they moved their works to Springfield, on Crum Creek, above the paper-mill of J. Howard Lewis. The mill-property, on April 1, 1861, was conveyed by William Levis Lewis and Edward Lewis, heirs of Edward Lewis, to Lewis Palmer, who on May 11, 1871, sold to Edward A. Price and others, by whom the property was conveyed December 26th, in that year, to the borough of Media. The corporate authorities fitted the property for use as water-works for the borough, retaining the grist-mill, which is still used for milling purposes. It is stated by Miss Sarah Miller, of Media, that while the mills were in the possession of Isaac Levis, the lumber used in the construction of St. Mary's Catholic Church, in Philadelphia, was sawed there.

Painter's Clover- and Saw-Mills. - On Dismal Run, prior to this century, Enos Painter built a clover-mill and saw-mill, which, in 1826, were reported as old mills. Thomas Chalfant had charge of these mills from 1825 to 1831, and after that date, Benjamin Robinson ran the clover-mill. It has years ago disappeared. The saw-mill was run by John Heacock, who manufactured pails or buckets there, and Hugh Jones made chair-backs. It was burned about 1860.

The Pennsylvania Training-School for Feeble-Minded Children. - This institution, the third of its kind in order of establishment in America, is deserving, by reason of its noble aim, splendid growth, and colossal accomplishment in lessening the sum of human sorrow and misfortune, of an extended sketch in this volume, and we venture to say that there are many, even in the township in which the training-school is located, to whom its history is by no means familiar.

A few words about the institutions in this country which chronologically stand ahead of this one, may not prove amiss in this connection. In the United States the first school for the training of the feeble-minded was opened in Barre, Mass., by Dr. H. B. Wilbur, in July, 1848. Now there are no less than thirteen similar institutions in the country.

The movement here in this direction began almost contemporaneously with that in Europe.¹ Those most prominent in the earliest measures resorted to in this country were Dr. Frederick Backus, of Rochester, N. Y., and George Sumner, of Boston, "who were soon seconded by the enterprise, courage, and philanthropy of Drs. Henry B. Wilbur and Samuel George Howe, whose names must be yoked together with equal honor, the first as the founder of the Barre School."

The State of New York established an experimental school at Albany, in 1851, which was soon followed by a permanent State institution at Syracuse under the superintendence of Dr. Wilbur, who had as co-adjutors such men as John C. Spencer and Governor Marcy.