History of Newport

Three hundred million years ago tectonic plates smashed together and created the Pennsylvania Ridge and Valley Region. Over the eons, tributaries fashioned the Juniata River. In what is now Newport, an alluvial plain developed between the Little Buffalo and Big Buffalo creeks. Eventually, Native Americans lived along the Juniata and claimed the area as homeland.

With the 1754 Treaty of Albany, the region opened to colonial settlement. However, there was active resistance by the Lenni Lenape (Delaware) and Shawnee tribes. When frontier violence diminished during the 1760s, land speculator David English Sr. claimed the area between the two creeks and built grain mills. The location served as outlets to river markets.

Paul Reider purchased the English properties in 1789. In 1804, his sons divided the land into the lots and streets that exist to this day. Informally known as Reiderville, the town extended from Mulberry Street north to Oliver Street and from the Juniata River to Second Street. In 1828 the Reider family subdivided more property extending the village boundaries.

Even before the advent of the 1829, Pennsylvania Canal the town was called Newport. The Borough was incorporated in 1840 with a population of 423.

In November 1829, a canal boat loaded with elected officials arrived in Newport from Mifflintown. With a band playing and a cannon roaring, the canal era in Newport officially opened. This event, despite floods and national depressions, initiated a 90-year period of economic expansion. The Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR) purchased the state-owned, financially struggling canal in 1857. In 1889 a flood so damaged the Newport portion of the canal that it was never repaired. The Canal Company officially ceased operations in 1901.

The PRR reached Newport in 1849 and Newport area business and population increased. By the late 1800s as many as seven passenger trains a day stopped in Newport. The PRR sliced through the town using 3^rd Street as an artery until 1905. Between 1903 and 1905 hundreds of PRR contactors worked to relocate the tracks to a new roadbed over the abandoned canal.

Throughout the years a variety of businesses and industries have called Newport home. Today, small businesses, the public school, state, and local governments provide employment for Newport residents. Many of Newport’s residents commute less than 30 miles to Harrisburg and Carlisle for work.

For more information on the early history of Newport, the History of Perry County, Pennsylvania by H. H. Hain is available at Google Books.

Curious about the canals in Perry County? Towpaths and Aqueducts–The Canals of Perry County details the rich history of the Pennsylvania Canals. Author Dennis J. Hocker, Ph.D. selected NRPS as the beneficiary of sales by donating $10 per book to this organization. Find out more about this title and other books by Dennis at www.perryheritage.com/aqueducts.html