The Townships
Logan: known for covered bridge, gristmill, rich farm lands
By Christopher Miller
Located at Clinton County’s southwest corner, Logan Township is currently home to about 800 people as of the 2010 census.
What is now Logan Township was originally part of Miles Township in Centre County, and was organized prior to Clinton County becoming a county in 1839.
“Nearly the entire township lies between Sugar Valley and Brush Valley mountains, those two ranges forming its northern and southern boundaries,” is what was written in the book Historical View of Clinton County. Actually, and I am sure many might know this tidbit as well, the name Sugar Valley is derived from a very large number of sugar maple trees that formerly existed within its boundaries.
Logan Township was named in honor of Indian Chief Logan who had a path across the valley which was used in passing to and from the hunting grounds of his brother Chieftain Bald Eagle.
Chief Logan’s father, the Cayuga Chief Shikellamy, was converted to Christianity in 1742 by Moravian missionaries. His son, Logan, was baptized and given the name “Logan” after James Logan, the secretary of the Province of Pennsylvania.
“Logan supported his family by killing deer, dressing the skins, and selling them to the settlers,” the book mentioned. “He sold quite a parcel to a tailor, who dealt extensively in buckskin breeches, receiving his pay in wheat.”
Chief Logan ended up moving away to the Ohio river above Wheeling because of the scarcity of game “because of the number of settlers who had settled in the valley,” the chapter mentioned.
John Christopher Culby, one of the earliest settlers of the valley, made his permanent settlement there soon after the American Revolution. He had been a Hessian soldier who deserted from the British to join the American cause. Others slowly started to trickle into the general area, many names of whom are descendants living there today.
Logan Township is home to 2 structures that are listed on the National Register of Historic Places: Logan Mills Covered Bridge and Logan Mills Gristmill. The former was built in 1874 and the latter in 1840.
There are 4 villages in Logan Township today; Tylersville, Booneville, Greenburr, and Logan Mills.
Keep in mind that the book Historical View of Clinton County was published in 1875. It listed Booneville as “a place destined to become an important and flourishing village” as it is surrounded by rich farming lands and pure air and water. “It affords a most desirable place of residence, which fact has already become known to several of the farmers of the neighborhood, who have retired from their farms and built fine houses there in which to spend their days.”
Today Logan Township has a population of about 800 that is spread out with nearly 30% of residents under the age of 18 and nearly 50% between the ages of 18 and 44.
