2 centuries of progress in Middlesex
The story of life in Middlesex Township began in 1793 when several men, including Revolutionary War veteran Thomas Martin, claimed land and settled in a piece of Pennsylvania once visited only by frontier scouts and hunters.
Seven years later, when Butler County was officially incorporated, Middlesex Township was one of the four original townships, along with Buffalo, Connoquenessing, and Slippery Rock. By then, Middlesex had already gained its first school, general store, tannery, distillery, grist mill, and saw mill.
The borders of Butler County’s townships were slightly different when they were first established in 1800. For its first 54 years, Middlesex Township also contained parts of present-day Penn Township.
In 1853, leaders from Middlesex, Buffalo, and Cranberry townships submitted petitions to the state to redraw the township boundaries to what they are today. These petitions were signed into law in March 1854.
Two years later, there was an attempt to carve out an entirely new county — Madison County — out of parts of Butler, Allegheny, Armstrong, and Westmoreland counties. Middlesex Township would have been part of Madison County had it gone through. Ultimately, Butler’s representatives in the state Legislature acted against the idea.
By 1866, there were six one-room schoolhouses dotting the township. Around this point, three residents formally petitioned to create an independent school district around the village of Glade Mills, which consisted of a two-room school off Route 8 which housed grades one through 12.
For a time, Middlesex was home to a reserve of oil and gas, which was discovered sometime during the 1870s or slightly earlier. By 1886, farms across the township had turned into oil fields, many of which were producing over 350 barrels per day. This led to the growth of the Cooperstown and Glade Mills villages, which gained population, industry, and social customs which they have both since lost.
Cooperstown — named after tavern owner James Cooper — gained a reputation for being a hub of sin and gambling. At its peak, the village featured three billiard parlors and no full-time church. A Butler Eagle article from 1893 detailed a raid on a set of speak-easies — establishments selling alcohol without a license.
During Middlesex’s brief oil boom, the most prolific oil producers of them all were the Burton family on Sandy Hill Road, who pumped out 700 barrels per day on average. Eventually, the oil and gas boom subsided, and by 1962, production at the Burton farm had fallen to one barrel per day. The families of both villages departed for greener — or blacker — pastures, and industry gradually disappeared.
Cooperstown and Glade Mills still technically exist on maps today, but as unincorporated communities. Today, some industry remains in Glade Mills, including the H.P. Starr Lumber company and Schubert Equipment.
While Middlesex today is served by the Butler Eagle, the township previously had a newspaper of its own: the Middlesex Monitor, a monthly paper which started publication in the early 1960s. By 1973, the paper was staffed entirely by volunteers and reached 80% of households in the township. According to local historian Bill May, the paper was no more by the end of the decade.
After the oil boom came and went, agriculture became the dominant industry in Middlesex Township. Outside of the area around the Route 8 corridor, urban development was comparatively slow to enter the township by the 1970s.
In the coming years, Middlesex may see an increase in urban development, thanks to the spillover from more highly-populated areas to the west such as Cranberry Township, Adams Township, and Mars. In recent months, the township has passed amendments to its zoning ordinance, clarifying its stance on certain types of developments such as agritourism, short-term rentals, and distilleries, among other topics.
