The Townships

By Christopher Miller

The history of Crawford Township cannot be told without briefly talking about the history of Nippenose Valley. Crawford Township was organized in 1841 and shares a border with Lycoming County on its easternmost side.

“The name is corrupted from an old Indian called Nippenucy…limestone abounds here in great quantities, and the valley underneath is evidently filled with fissures and caverns to a great extent,” was recorded in the book Historical View of Clinton County.

The first “improvements” of the area (homes, buildings) were made in 1776 by a gentleman by the name of John Clark, who was later driven out of the area during the war. In 1790, after returning, John and a neighbor by the name of William Winlin began to sink a well.

“After digging some distance they came to a flat rock that resisted all further progress…one of the workmen commenced striking upon it with a sledge, when a hole was broken through, and there appeared to be a large cavern underneath.”

Now something called a “plummet” was let down in the hole about a distance of 30 feet without finding the bottom. The workmen became alarmed and filled the hole again, unfortunately, but it would have been neat to explore those deep passages.

Crawford Township was once known, and perhaps still is known, for an abundant supply of trout. “They are constantly fished for, and great numbers caught, yet the supply seems inexhaustible,” the book reported. At the time of the publication of this book, the principal timber of the mountain portion of the township was pine, oak, chestnut and others, but the valley, at the time, was almost entirely cleared except for an occasional small tract of land being reserved for ordinary home uses.

Another piece of information that was found through the Clinton County Genealogical Society website was that “valuable beds of iron ore exist within the limits of the township.” “Considerable prospecting has been carried out for coal…nickel has been discovered, and if the search were prosecuted, would likely be found to exist in pay quantities.”

Now I do not want to incite a fever or rush for precious metals, and I cannot verify where the information was originally found, but…”gold, silver, and plumbago (some sort of flower) have been found in small quantities.”
The namesake of Crawford Township was that of the Honorable George Crawford, one of the first associate judges of Clinton County, and a member of the state legislature from the original district the county was formed from.

Judge Crawford’s obituary was published in the Clinton Democrat on June 22, 1876. In it, it describes the condition he was suffering from, “dropsy,” which is known in modern times as Edema.

“He held the office of Associate Judge of the District Court for two terms,” and was associated with gentlemen of notable names such as Fleming and Woodward.

“He belonged to that class of sturdy characters – the men of sterling worth – who have given to the past century that full measure of glory over which we now rejoice, and who leave us wondering to ourselves whether we shall ever see the like again.”

The only village, at the writing of this book, within Crawford Township, is Rauchtown which still exists today, and was founded by Peter Rauch who came from Union County and purchased a tract of 200 acres.

By 1883 there were two wagon shops, three blacksmith shops, two shoe shops, one hotel, and about 30 dwellings in Rauchtown.

As of the year 2000, there were 848 people residing in the township making Crawford one of the smallest townships in the county. Census data always says that more than 75% of the township, in the year 2000, was under the age of 65 years old.

Crawford Township is also home to Ravensburg State Park located in a gorge with 78 acres of wooded land surrounded almost entirely by Tiadaghton State Forest.