Markleton derived its name from the paper company of Cyrus P. Markle & Sons of West Newton in nearby Westmoreland County. C.P. Markle & Sons purchased 5,000 acres along the Casselman River in 1881 and constructed a paper mill in order to harvest the abundant trees of the mountainside and manufacture paper products.
Markleton Sanatorium
A health sanatorium was built at Markleton in the early 1890s. This initiative was lead by William J. Hitchman of Mount Pleasant, Pennsylvania, Dr. Matthew B. Gault of Clifton Springs, New York, Rev. John Morrison Barnett of Washington, Pennsylvania, and their Markleton Hotel Company. Dr. Gault had been appointed the first medical director of the Clifton Springs Sanitarium in 1875. Rev. Barnett was a Presbyterian minister and a financial administrator at Washington & Jefferson College. Some of the other figures who were important to the sanatorium's establishment were William Borland Neel, Emer Judson McElwee, Oliver Perry Shupe, James J. Neel, Dr. James A. Loar, and Johnston Borndallar Jordan, all of Mount Pleasant; Dr. J.C. McClanathan of Connellsville; and Dr. Shoemaker of Dawson. Dr. M. Annie Howe-Anthony, a graduate of the Woman's Medical College of Baltimore, spent a year at the Markleton Sanatorium, where she was the only female physician; "The year at Markleton was an interesting and happy one, for there a woman physician was always honored and treated with the greatest respect." Dr. Hugh S. Maxwell, a 1904 graduate of Rush Medical College in Chicago, was an assistant physician for part of 1905. William Page McIntosh, a 1910 graduate of the University of Pennsylvania's medical school, served as a medical director of the Markleton Sanitarium, and Isaac Slaymaker Diller, a 1912 graduate of the same school, worked at the sanitarium as an assistant physician. According to the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad's Resorts and Springs guide for Summer 1905, the sanitarium had a capacity for 150 guests and charged rates from $2.50 per day to $60.00 per month.
U.S. Army General Hospital No. 17
At the conclusion of World War I, the federal government operated the former sanatorium building as U.S. Army General Hospital No. 17. The hospital was designated by Army Surgeon General Merritte W. Ireland as specializing in the treatment of soldiers suffering from tuberculosis. The patients and staff of the hospital published a semi-monthly newspaper entitled Star Shell. Some of the U.S. Army medical personnel who were assigned at various times to the Markleton hospital included Lieutenant J.B. Stenbuck, Lieutenant Urban Henry Reidt, Captain H. Kennon Dunham, Major Benjamin Franklin Van Meter, and Major Henry Williamson Hoagland.
After serving as U.S. Army General Hospital No. 17, the building then became U.S. Public Health Service Hospital No. 47, beginning on November 22, 1919. However, this role did not last for long; Public Health Service Hospital No. 47 was closed about a year later. Some believed that it was not best suited for the purpose of treating tuberculosis patients, and federal officials agreed. Without the flow of people brought in by the sanatorium / hospital, the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad closed its ticket agency at Markleton on Jan. 9, 1924.
Shoo Fly Tunnel
A view of the nearby Shoo Fly Tunnel appeared in a collection of photographs from along the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad's rail lines that was published in book form in 1872 and digitized by the DeGolyer Library, Southern Methodist University. The Shoo Fly Tunnel was daylighted in 2012 as part of the National Gateway project.
Geography
Markleton is located along the southeastern edge of Upper Turkeyfoot Township. It lies along Markleton School Road, to the east of Pennsylvania Route 281, south of the village of Kingwood and north of Fort Hill. Mount Zion Cemetery is located on top of the hill above Markleton. Markleton has a post office with ZIP code 15551. The post office is on the western bank of the Casselman River, nestled between the river and CSX Transportation's Keystone Subdivision rail line. Across the river from the post office is a trail access area for the Great Allegheny Passagerail trail. This is the only trail access area with parking between Fort Hill to the southwest and Rockwood to the northeast.
