The Townships

By Christopher Miller

In the beginning, there was Bald Eagle Township. And it was one of the largest townships in Pennsylvania, if not in the United States…back in the day.
Supposedly it’s true.

The territorial area of the township was a part of Northumberland County long before Clinton or Lycoming or anything else west was established, now divided into a dozen or more counties.
Today, the township has shrunk from its original size, but history does not forget the once vastness of this mighty little area.

Throughout the chapter on Bald Eagle Township in Historical View of Clinton County, the author writes back and forth on how the land may or may not be suitable for farming because of the mountainous and rocky terrain.
The Tangascootac region was once known as “a howling wilderness” because it was almost entirely covered with timber such as pine, oak, and other indigenous varieties.

A tract of land was granted in 1782 to Samuel Atlee, and then purchased in 1796 by George Bressler of Lancaster County. “Bressler’s purchase included nearly all the land now occupied by the village of Mill Hall, and the flats extending to the bridge across the Bald Eagle Creek.”

Something that is interesting to note – when Lycoming County was struck off from Lycoming in 1800, the dividing line ran through the house of Mr. James Carskaddon, “but he was allowed the privilege of choosing in which county he would hold citizenship, and selected Lycoming, as it was more convenient for him to attend to his business at Williamsport, the county seat of Lycoming, than at Bellefonte.”

This did not end the stories of the early Carskaddon family in Bald Eagle Township.

“On one occasion, as John Carskaddon was on his way to a neighbors, a distance of a mile or two, he was attached by a pack of wolves…he barely had time to take his position against a tree, when he killed several of them with his gun, which he happened to have with him, before he succeeded in escaping to the house.”
Working was not only meant for the men in the early days of Bald Eagle Township, but for the women as well.
“It has been said that the matrons of Balt Eagle Valley, in early times, employed themselves during the winter in spinning and weaving linen and “tow” cloth for summer use, and in the summer in manufacturing woolen fabrics for winter wear.”

And then, in the summer of 1845, it was the army worms that came to town.

Mr. J. D. L. Smith had a farm next to the canal that he sowed with oats. After they had reached full height and were close to being harvested, something called the army worm devoured every blade of grain that could be found. And then they moved on to a corn field when Mr. Smith put a stop to their progress. “A ditch was dug which they plunged in wriggling, crawling masses…the ditch was then filled with straw and set on fire killing the millions and millions of army worms in their tracks.” Strangely, no other farm in the vicinity was visited by the army worm that season.

The principal village in Bald Eagle Township is the present Borough of Mill all which was founded in the early 1800s by Nathan Harvey who came from Philadelphia. The name Mill Hall was given to the village after the number of mills that were located there, Harvey’s being a stone grist mill.

At its birth in 1850, Mill Hall was well supplied with manufacturers and places of business. In the 1870s, Mill Hall was home to “a flouring mill, axe factory, cement works, two wagon shops, foundry, two furniture manufacturers, blacksmith shop, general stores, shoemakers, tailors, a dentist, photographer, and a physician,” to name a few. It is safe to say that Mill Hall now, as back then, is still a primary area of commerce serving the greater Clinton County area.