Lou’s View

By Lou Bernard

So, I hear Gallagher Township is turning 175 years old! I mean, I read about it in the newspapers. Nobody invited me to the celebrations. Why should anyone invite me? I’m just the county historian. It’s not like my feelings are hurt. I mean, Porter Township had me give a speech for their anniversary, and the county had me impersonate Jerry Church. But I’m okay.

To show there are no hard feelings, I decided to write a column on Gallagher Township’s history. And there’s some pretty good stuff there! Gallagher has some neat history to it, which I was not invited to give a speech on. Not that I am bitter.

So Gallagher Township was founded 175 years ago—September 18, 1849, to be precise. It’s also been spelled “Gallauher” and “Gollauher,” because they didn’t have much int eh way of standardized spelling back then—People just wrote down what they thought they heard. It’s one of the reasons our census records can be such a mess.

It was named after Judge Gallagher of Pine Creek Township, who probably also spelled his name a couple of different ways, and was heavily involved in the creation of the township. John Gotschalk was the first settler in 1835, building a cabin along the Coudersport Pike. At that time, the area was unsettled, and there weren’t many communities within any reasonable reach. In his book, John Blair Linn refers to it as a “howling wilderness,” which is both dramatic and accurate enough.

Linn details some of the animal issues in those days. In 1867, Patrick Douling found a bear in his hog-pen and had to drive it out, which was frightening. James Hennessy, not long after, was walking along when he was attacked by a wildcat for no discernable reason. (Though Linn usually discusses the post office of every area in great detail, he makes no mention of one in Gallagher, which may explain why my invitation got lost in the mail.)

One of the things that always fascinates me about an area are the graves and cemeteries, and Gallagher Township really comes through on that level. I wrote a few years back about Valentine Cryder growing a tree with the purpose of making it into his casket and being buried on his own property, which is exactly what happened.

There’s another mystery grave out there—In 1893, while berry-picking, some people found what appeared to be a grave that was a few weeks old in the northern part of the township. They reported it to the authorities, who, in typical government fashion, acted so quickly that the whole thing is still a mystery, a hundred and thirty-one years later.

Some years ago, in the fall, I was asked if I knew where to find the Brown Gravesite. I said,”This time of year, they’re all brown gravesites.” But the asker was referring to an area called Brown’s Valley, where Harrisburg journalist William B. Brown was buried near a boulder on his property with no marker. (I have to thank the Clinton County Genealogical Society for coming up with all this information, and publishing it, and also for inviting me to all of their events.)

Near the Carrier Road, there’s another old cemetery that I wrote about a few years ago. Three children are buried in the Cryder Family Cemetery from the 1850s. Joseph and Caroline Cryder were babies, and seem to have died from being babies, which was often terminal in those days. Solomon Cryder, aged nineteen, died during the Civil War as a member of Company F, 148th Regiment.

Gallagher Township is a neat place, with a fascinating history, and I’m on board as it celebrates its 175th. Hey, Gallagher Township—-No hard feelings, okay? You know where to find me.