The Townships

By Christopher Miller

This week I’ve arrived at Grugan Township, a rural and sparsely populated township of about 51 people, per 2018 records.

This township was formed in 1851 from Colebrook and Chapman and is named in honor of one of its most prominent families…you guessed it, the Grugan’s. One member of this family, the Honorable Coleman Grugan, was an associate judge of the county way-back-when.

Judge Grugan lived what seemed to be an interesting life for the time, though it was fraught with both good luck and misfortune as was the norm “back then.”

“I had rafted and saved a little over a hundred dollars and owned a fine flintlock gun. My idea was to work my way to the Rocky Mountains and join the trappers. I had relatives on Sinnemahoning Creek and concluded to stop a day or two with them. While there, through persuasion, and it being quite late in the fall, I decided not to go farther west until spring. So I hired to teach school for twelve dollars per month.”

After his wife died after only two years of marriage he removed himself to the family neighborhood in Glen Union, Grugan Township.

In his autobiography, Judge Grugan listed the many first’s he engaged in during his life.

“I am the only man ever raised in Grugan Township who ever attained to the dignity of school teacher (during those days). I was the first to bring the township a cultivator for working corn, first to bring a two horse wagon, first to own a buggy, first to assist in building a house and painting it – white, first to draw a check for $2,000 (and lose every cent of it), first elected associate judge from up river, first to build a brick house in Chapman Township…I mention these, not to boast, but to show that I have at least tried to accomplish something.”

The township was greatly logged and lumbered, having consisted largely of pine and oak of the “choicest kind.” As well, there was great mineral wealth in the forms of coal, iron ore, and fireclay.

Though Grugan Township is one of the most rural townships in the state today, history books back in the day said that “it possesses many advantages, it having water power sufficient to run a vast amount of machinery, at least six months of the year.”

During the times of lumbering the local fish populations had disappeared, but at one time the streams abounded with trout.

A date of “first settlement” in the township is a bit sketchy, but the earliest obtainable record of a tract of land called “Indian Coffin” was surveyed to John Baker Atkins on October 9, 1785 and included the lands lying around the mouth of Baker’s Run. Coincidence?

Grugan Township was home to many firsts, as Coleman Grugan pointed out earlier. As well, most likely the first grist mill west of Sunbury was also located within the township.
At the time of the publishing of this historical book, Historical View of Clinton County, this was written about the elk. “It was in this township, it is said, that the last elk in Clinton County lost his life.” Lo and behold only 30 or so years after this book was published elk were imported here from Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming.

Grugan Township was home to a few small villages back in the day, those being Glen Union, Whetham, and Ritchie.

Now not much was written or recorded about Whetham or Ritchie, but Glen Union – heck, that was the metropolis of Grugan Township.

There was at one time a long cable hoist across the river for transporting. On February 12, 1891 the time came to test it, and so that was done with the use of local politicians. Yes – I kid you not, the cable hoist across the river was tested by using politicians! A county judge, an ex-judge, and an ex-commissioner were the first to test the hoist across the river…which was deemed a complete success. The official test of the cable hoist (not using local politicians) was done only days later in front of spectators and notable persons. “It takes five minutes to cross the river on the cable hoist, a distance of 735 feet from tower to tower.” Also in the same newspaper under Glen Union Items was that William Grugan or Whetham will begin husking corn this week. I wish you luck in your endeavor, Mr. Grugan.

In an article I was not able to find but read about on a card file was that in 1928 the buildings within Glen Union were razed and the lumber was floated to Lock Haven, some 17,000 feet, was used to construct houses there which “would help supply greatly the increasing demand for houses.”

Though Glen Union is certainly not the happening village it used to be, it is home today to a few camps and an old school house.

The saws have stopped cutting, the lumbermen have stopped milling, and the miners have stopped mining. Grugan Township is as wild and free as any other rural township in north central Pennsylvania. During its heyday the township was home to close to 300 people (1870) and consisted of a sawmill, train station, hotel, and homes.

Now that I have awakened the sleepy little township back into public view it is time to let it slip back into its slumber. Remember Grugan Township when you check out the map of Clinton County or drive past the “Grugan Township” sign on Renovo Road. It’s a lot more than just another sign post.