Representative Ner Middleswarth

Ner Middleswarth (December 12, 1783 – June 2, 1865) was an American politician and public servant from New Jersey and Pennsylvania who served as a Whig member of the U.S. House of Representatives for Pennsylvania’s 10th congressional district from 1853 to 1855. Over the course of a long career in state and national politics, he was a member of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives for more than a quarter century, including two terms as speaker, and later served in the Pennsylvania Senate and as an associate judge.

Middleswarth was born on December 12, 1783, in New Jersey, of Dutch ancestry, the son of John and Martha (Reed) Middleswarth. His family descended from the Van Middleswaert line, which emigrated from the Netherlands to New Amsterdam, then to Flatbush, and finally to Somerset County, New Jersey, in the 1690s. The family history reflected the Dutch patronymic naming system, in which the first name of the father became the family surname. An early ancestor, Teunis Nyssen, who came to America from Utrecht (Bunnik), Netherlands, used the names Nyssen or DeNys; his son Jan Teunis Nyssen, baptized in 1654, adopted the surname Teunison and eventually the form Van Middleswart. Ner’s father, John Middleswarth, who was baptized on April 12, 1745, in Somerset County, New Jersey, served as a quartermaster sergeant in Colonel Sylvanus Seely’s regiment of the New Jersey militia during the American Revolutionary War, providing a family example of military and civic service that would influence Ner’s later life.

In 1792, when Ner was still a boy, he moved with his parents to Northumberland County, Pennsylvania, to a farm in what later became part of Snyder County. He grew up there with his brother Abraham and four sisters—Mary, Martha, Rachel, and Rebecca. The family homestead was in a frontier area where Native Americans were still present; Indians were known to visit the spring near their home to cure meat and game. Middleswarth had only about three months of formal schooling, but he was largely self-taught and became fluent in both English and Pennsylvania German. Described as a strong man of about 200 pounds and possessed of a pronounced sense of duty to his friends and neighbors, he married Christine (Christina) Schwartzkop, with whom he raised a large family of twelve children.

Middleswarth’s public career began with military service during the War of 1812. In 1812 he raised a company of volunteers and entered the war as a captain attached to the Pennsylvania Riflemen. In 1814 he again raised a company, which was attached to General Thomas McCall Cadwalader’s division and served under Colonel Uhl during the Niagara campaign. His leadership in the militia and his wartime service helped establish his reputation in his community and provided a springboard for his entry into elective office.

At the completion of his military service in 1815, Middleswarth was elected to the Pennsylvania House of Representatives. He served in the state House from 1815 to 1841, being re-elected for thirteen terms during the period from 1815 to 1842. During this lengthy tenure he became one of the more experienced legislators in Harrisburg. He was chosen speaker of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives twice, first in 1828 and again in 1836, presiding over the chamber during periods of significant political and economic change in the Commonwealth. His legislative work during these years reflected the evolving party system of the early nineteenth century; he was associated with the Whig Party and later aligned with the emerging Republican Party as national politics realigned in the 1850s.

After his long service in the lower house, Middleswarth continued his state-level political career in the Pennsylvania Senate. He served as a member of the Pennsylvania Senate for the 15th district from 1853 to 1854, participating in the upper chamber at a time when issues of internal improvements, banking, and the growing sectional tensions over slavery were prominent. His experience in both houses of the state legislature made him a familiar figure in Pennsylvania politics and prepared him for service at the national level.

Middleswarth was elected as a Whig to the Thirty-third Congress and served as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives for Pennsylvania’s 10th congressional district from March 4, 1853, to March 3, 1855. His single term in Congress occurred during a significant period in American history, marked by debates over the Kansas–Nebraska Act, the expansion of slavery into the territories, and the shifting party alignments that would soon lead to the rise of the Republican Party. As a Whig representing a Pennsylvania district, he participated in the legislative process and represented the interests of his constituents during this turbulent time. Although he did not return for subsequent terms, his congressional service capped decades of involvement in public affairs.

Following his term in Congress, Middleswarth remained active in local public life. In 1858 he served as an associate judge of his county, a position that marked his final formal role in public service. Outside of government, he engaged in business and was at one time quite successful. However, he lost a substantial portion of his wealth in a failed iron enterprise known as the Beaver Furnace, located near Paxtonville, Pennsylvania, reflecting the risks associated with mid-nineteenth-century industrial ventures in the region.

Ner Middleswarth died on June 2, 1865, at the age of 81. He was buried alongside his wife, Christina Schwartzkop, in Beavertown Cemetery in Beavertown, Snyder County, Pennsylvania. His long life spanned from the early years of the new republic through the end of the Civil War, and his career encompassed military service, extensive legislative work in Pennsylvania, a term in the United States Congress, and judicial service at the county level.