A Growing Middleton

By Feburary 1866 a post office was established in Old Middleton. Tom Johnston advised his brother in Missouri of his new mailing address in 1869: Dixie Slough, Middleton, Idaho Territory.

For the settlers of the Franklin/Marble Front area it was a full day's trip to Middleton for supplies. They would go by wagon to Canyon Hill, over and down to the toll ferry (started in 1869 by Perry Munday)...

...cross the river and come three miles up the river to Middleton. After a stop at the general mercantile store, perhaps a stop at the blacksmith's, and flour from the Middleton Mill, they returned via Munday's Canyon Toll Ferry.

The ferry was necessary three months of the year. The other nine months the river could be forded safely.