In 1762, David English, Sr., a yeoman farmer from what is now Dauphin County, began to claim land that later became part of Miller and Oliver Townships and Newport Borough. He built grist mills on the Little and Big Buffalo Creeks, major tributaries of the Juniata River, and in 1766 paid the transatlantic transportation for two male indentured servants who were legally bound to work for years. In 1775, he filed a patent on the alluvial land between the Little Buffalo and Big Buffalo Creeks and acquired ownership of the property. Under financial stress, heir David English, Jr. sold this property in 1789 to Paul Reider, whose sons laid out and sold lots in what became Newport Borough in 1840. A wooden bridge was built over the Little Buffalo at 2nd Street in 1834, followed by an iron bridge about 1875, and the current stone bridge was built in 1902. A mill stood for more than two centuries on what became the corner of 2nd and Dock Streets in Oliver Township, but after Hurricane Agnes damaged the surviving structure in 1972, it and the mill race were razed, and a grassy knoll now covers the site of David English's 18th century pioneering industry.