• Milford was originally settled in the 1750s as part of a proprietary tract owned by Colonel John Reid of New York, but Reid never actually lived in Milford. Reid owned a saw mill on a creek in Milford which burned in 1769. This event led to the village being named Burnt Mills. In 1774 Reid hired local resident Daniel McDonald to rebuild the mill and to move the existing mill dam. After the construction was complete, Reid sold the entire property to John Starke Robertson of New York.
  • By 1760 Milford served as an active ferry crossing, providing transportation to and from Pennsylvania. That activity and the existence of industrial facilities made it a viable river community and it soon attracted land developers. On July 18, 1795 Colonel Thomas Lowrey purchased the 333 acre Burnt Mills tract from Robertson. He later purchased additional land, expanding the tract.
  • In 1798 Lowrey hired Thomas Elliot to build a grist mill along the Delaware River. He paid for the construction by selling 1000 acres south of Milford to Paul Prevost, a former French army officer who had fled France during the French Revolution. In honor of Prevost the residents named the new village Frenchtown. The grist mill was completed in within a year and was followed by a second sawmill. Around that time Lowrey renamed the village after himself, calling it Lowreytown, a name which lasted only until 1804 when the village was renamed Millsford.
  • Thomas Lowrey also built several homes in Milford, the first being the Gibson House which was completed in 1796. His wife Esther disliked the structure so a second home was built in 1800. The two houses were among the first in the county to contain carpeted floors.
  • The Gibson House became Milford’s first hotel and early in the 19th century logging had become so prevalent in the Delaware valley that Milford served as a major resting point for log raft crews heading to Philadelphia. Many of these loggers stayed at the Gibson House. Other loggers stayed in Frenchtown as well. Log rafting on the Delaware River ended in 1903 after rafts destroyed several bridges on the river during the Pumpkin Freshet. One of the bridges which sustained damage was the Milford covered bridge, which lost one of its three spans.
  • In the 1850s Milford was popular among loggers, but it also became a railroad town leading to a boom in local economic growth. In 1853 Milford became the third stop of the Belvidere Delaware Railroad and the station remained under that railroad until 1976 when it was transferred to Conrail. In 1995 the Belvidere & Delaware River Railway was formed, but within four years the tracks in Milford had to be abandoned due to poor condition. The existence of the railroad encouraged commercial and industrial growth. For instance, in 1907 the Riegel Paper Corporation was built and immediately became Milford’s largest industry. The mill remained in operation for almost a century until 2003, when its parent company Curtis Paper, Inc shut it down and later declared bankruptcy. During the Riegel era the entire community revolved around the paper mill with the company sponsoring community events, providing a community center, and serving as Milford’s main employer.
  • Four years after the paper mill was constructed Governor Woodrow Wilson signed legislation incorporating Milford as a borough and separating it from Holland Township which had separated from Alexandria Township decades earlier. In June 1911, one month after the borough’s incorporation, the Milford Fire Company was incorporated. In November the first borough council members and the first mayor, Wilson Egbert Thomas, were elected. However, this election was technically illegal because the town founders had failed to file the necessary documents with the county for the formation of an election district and did not do so until 1925. Mayor Thomas was a well known member of the community and he served as the local bank president. The Thomas family had been prominent Milford residents since they purchased the grist mill which had been originally owned by Thomas Lowrey. That mill had been Milford’s main industrial facility prior to the paper mill. Therefore, Mayor Thomas brought much of Milford’s history to the new municipal government through his family connections.
  • Milford’s people, like Mayor Thomas and Thomas Lowrey, were as significant in importance as its buildings and events. For instance, Milford has been home to veterans from every war in which U.S. military engagement. Among these veterans were numerous Civil War soldiers like Edwin Ulmer and Wilson Housel. During the World Wars, many of Milford’s residents served in combat, but many also served at home by constructing munitions and raising funds to support the soldiers.