Gallagher Township begins 175th Celebration, deemed the ‘Demisemiseptcentennial’

GALLAGHER TOWNSHIP – History was made and history was celebrated Sunday afternoon at the Caldwell one-room school and Gallagher Township Municipal Building as 40 or so people gathered to learn about the past and the future of Gallagher Township.

“Today is just the beginning of what we, the people of Gallagher Township, want to do,” Gallagher Township 175th Anniversary Steering Committee and Caldwell School Committee Chairperson Loretta Coltrane said. “I have often felt that you have to know your history, your foundation, to know where you come from, where you have been, and maybe where you need to head in the future. Today we are in this historical building, and later maybe you will see the municipal building and take a tour of that, which is just a good contrast between then and now.”

The program and 175h anniversary officially kicked off Sunday with “Remembrances of Attending Caldwell School,” an oral history question and answer session with former one-room school student Warren Gottshall, 89 years old, who attended grades 1-8 at the former school from 1944 to 1952.

A full recap of Mr. Gottshall’s early school reminiscences will be reported on in a later issue of The Record and therecord-online.com.

While the inaugural 175th anniversary event kicked off a year-long celebration of all things Gallagher Township, it also had a focus on the historic school building which is on the property of the township building.

A sign above the door reads “Caldwell School, circa 1890,” while the interior, worn from time and the weather, still boasts the days of school lessons of days gone by. From the deteriorating chalk board at the front of room, the patched hole in the front of the building where the coal stove once sat, the sole heat source for the school, and the pile of old, tattered school books and “readers,” the Caldwell School Committee is reaching out to the general public to take a Project Survey on the future of the school.

“The Caldwell School Project Committee was formed to study possible future use of the old one-room Caldwell school building. We are hoping to preserve the structure and maintain it as a historically significant part of our community. We would appreciate comments from our Gallagher Township residents and community about their preferences for what should be done to the building and how it might be used to benefit our community,” reads the questionnaire.

The questionnaire will be available for download from the township website in the near future.

State and local government officials were also on hand to present Gallagher Township and the Steering Committee with proclamations on the anniversary.

More is in store for Gallagher Township, such as a 175th Photo Contest open to amateur photographers where all photographs submitted must have been taken from within the confines of the township, and the Big Community Festival being planned for October 5, 2025.

Gallagher Township was organized on September 18, 1849 and was named for Judge Gallagher of Pine Creek Township.

The early Gallagher Township was little more than a forest, far removed from other roads or towns and most likely inhabited by more wild animals than people. The first known settler was John Gotschalk who cleared land and built a log house around 1835. Shortly after, five Irish men settled in the township in an area which became known as Irish Settlement.

Early families in Gallagher Township history include the names Gottschalk, Gottshall, Nangle, Glover, Green, Springer, Crider/Cryder, Copenhaver, Fritz, Brock, and Focht.