History of Milford

History of Milford. Rotary International Centennial 1905-2005. , The original inhabitants of the area were the Minisink clan of the Lenape people. The Dutch came in the mid-1600s seeking precious metals. The first English settled here in 1731, attracted by the Vandermark and Sawkill creeks as a source of power for mills. The land became part of Pennsylvania in 1737, swindled from the Minisink in the infamous Walking Purchase. This area was the frontier during the French and Indian War (1756-1763) and the scene of nearby raids and skirmishes., The town was formally laid out after the Revolution by Philadelphia circuit judge John Biddis. The original name of the settlement was Wells Ferry, which Judge Biddis renamed after his ancestral home of Milford, Wales. The community became a village in 1796 and incorporated as a borough in 1856., Constantine Pinchot and his son Cyrille, ardent supporters of Napoleon, immigrated here from France in 1819 after the Battle of Waterloo. Cyrille built the Federal style house in 1820 that is now the Milford Community House. His son, James, built Grey Towers, a Richard Morris Hunt chateau on a nearby hillside in 1886. He established the Yale Summer School of Forestry in 1901, with Forest Hall built in 1906 for classrooms and studios for friends from the Hudson River School of painting. James' son, Gifford Pinchot, founded the U.S. Forest Service in 1905 and served two terms as Governor of Pennsylvania in the 1920s and 1930s., By 1900, Milford's many large hotels drew New Yorkers and Philadelphians escaping summer heat. Charles S. Peirce, founder of the American school of Pragmatism, lived outside Milford in the mansion Arisbe until his death in 1914. Milford was the setting for many silent movies in the early 1920s., Grey Towers was given to the U.S. Forest Service in 1963 and President John F. Kennedy spoke at the dedication. Milford borders the Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area, established in 1965, and administered by the National Park Service.