History of Millsborough, Washington Co PA
Millsborough
Was incorporated as a borough on April 16, 1840. Its population in 1860 was 292. It is 21 miles distant from Washington, and is situate in East Bethlehem township, and was laid out by Jesse Bomgarner in the year 1770 (the land being patented June 3, 1769) on the north bank of Tenmile Creek, at its confluence with' the Monongahela River, at which there is a ferry. The streets are 50 feet wide—lots, 60 by 180 feet. The houses, generally frame, and some brick; yet a few of the old landmarks (log houses) still remain to remind the inhabitants of the days of " Auld Lang Syne." There are sixty dwelling-houses and three churches, viz., a Cumberland Presbyterian, under the care of Rev. J. S. Gibson ; a Methodist Episcopal, under charge of Rev. Mr. Hill, and a Methodist Protestant Church; two cabinet-makers, five stores, two cooper shops, one blacksmith shop, two foundries, one hotel, one wagon manufactory, a steam grist-mill, a saw mill, and one rectifying distillery in this borough. Mill Street is the principal street, being 60 feet wide, while the remaining streets, Ferry, Walnut, Water, and Morgantown, are but 40 feet. Three of these run east and west, and the others intersect them at right angles.
Millsboro' has two school-houses with 82 scholars, 34 males and 48 females; cost of tuition per month is $1.09; amount of taxes levied for school purposes, $2.77 ; State appropriation, $36.66.
Half a mile from the town, on the opposite side of the river, is a rock of about twenty feet square, upon which are curious hieroglyphics which can scarcely be deciphered. The rock is of a sand-stone character, and upon it are impressions of Indians, animals, pipes, feet, heads, claws, &c.
The Monongahela River at this place is slack water, twenty miles up the river from this point, as far as Geneva. Steamboats ply this river and carry freight to and from Pittsburg, and supply this and the adjoining counties and West Virginia. An old water grist-mill still remains, to which the inhabitants in the old times came fifty miles.
[Source: History of Washington County By Alfred Creigh 1870 - Contributed by Brenda Wiesner]