MIDDLETOWN, mid'l-town, Conn., city, county-seat of Middlesex County, on the Connecticut River, and on the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad, about 18 miles south of Hartford. It is opposite Portland, where are valuable brownstone quarries. The places are connected by a long drawbridge. The city was founded in 1650 and the next year was incorporated as a town under the name of Mattabeseck. Two years later the name was changed to Middletown. It was granted a city charter in 1784. For a number of years there was considerable trade with the West Indies, and until 1886 Middletown was the port of entry. In that year the custom-house business was removed to Hartford. Middletown is in an agricultural region in which tobacco is one of the principal products. Abundant water-power has aided in making the place a manufacturing city. The chief manufactures are pumps, bone goods, cotton webbing, hammocks, rubber goods, silks, toys, shoes, chemicals, harness trimmings, locks, marine hardware and silver-plated ware. The educational institutions are the public and parish schools, the Wesleyan University (q.v.), the Berkeley Divinity School (P. E.), opened in 1854, and the Russell Free Library. It is also the seat of the State Hospital for the Insane, and the State Industrial School for girls. The charter of 1882, under which the government is administered, provides for a mayor, who holds office two years, and a city council. The subordinate officials are chosen by the mayor and council. Pop. about 14,000. Consult Adams, 'Middletown Upper Houses' (New York 1908) ; Whittemore, 'History of Middlesex County, Conn. (New York 1884).

Source:  "The Encyclopedia Americana: A Library of Universal Knowledge"