The Townships

By Christopher Miller

Is it Gallagher, or Gallauher? I have seen both of those spellings and perhaps more when it comes to the topic of this week’s Townships historical section. I give you: Gallagher Township!

In an old, almost unmarked newspaper scrapbook at the Ross Library sits a collection of long-forgotten clippings related to recorded history and remembrances of the Clinton County area. The title of this one read, “Gallagher Township Home of Hardy Settlers” and the author, Mrs. Alva S. Fritz, a name once locally known in that area.
It was September 18, 1849 that Gallagher Township, named for a Judge Gallagher formerly of Pine Creek Township, who was instrumental in this township’s organization, was formed. It appears that organizing townships was at one time a good resume builder and profession.

Hugging the Lycoming County line, Gallagher “is well supplied with water, having within its territory the tributaries of Rattlesnake Run, Lick Run, Queens Run, Plum Run, and Chathams Run,” this article said.
What I find very interesting about Gallagher is the turnpike, now Coudersport Pike, was built by…the Turnpike Company, a very appropriately-named entity back then, and was at one point a toll road – cue the Turnpike Commission to investigate that opportunity…preferably not.

This location was also where many canal workers decided to make their homes and was formerly known as “Irish Settlement” because many of those who settled there were of that nationality. Names such as Lovett, Nolan, Hennessy, and Welsh graced this area from the Irish old country. (Happy Saint Patrick’s Day, to anybody reading this!)

Early settlers did not have a road easily accessible to them to get their grain to the mill, so they would carry it on their backs, the women of the area often helping, a distance of 5 miles or so to Chathams Run Mill which is still in business today. At some time later a stagecoach was added on this route that connected travelers from Coudersport to Jersey Shore, a good distance of 77 or so miles today on good ol’ Route 44.

“The region was indeed wild,” read the book Historical View of Clinton County. “For the howls of the wolf, the screech of the panther, and the cry of the wild cat were heard on every hand, but the sturdy settlers braved all dangers.”

Perhaps the first settler, John Gotschalk, settled within the area around 1835. “Not long after he took possession of his forest home, probably the following winter, there was a heavy fall of snow which covered the ground to great depths that it was impossible for him to get out to obtain supplies that his family would have perished had it not been for James McKinney, Esq. who led a team the distance of 9 miles to his dwelling, and assisted him in getting food for his family and livestock.”

There are some readers out there who may remember Clara Lucinda (Crider) Fritz who used to write ‘Out Caldwell Way’ in a local news publication up until her death in 1965. She grew up and lived in Caldwell, now a small village of a church and a few homes and camps tucked away into the woods. “Mrs. Fritz looked with a keen and observant eye on every facet of life, and wrote about it from a warm heart and imaginative pen,” read part of her obituary. “Readers learned about the farm, what Ada and Clifford and Alva were doing, who dropped in when sauerkraut was cooking, the bear that came into the cornfield…” and other stories very similar to the late Mrs. Clifford (Betty) Cole who penned the column Hammersley Fork News.

Today all that really remains within the confines of Gallagher Township are the little communities of Caldwell and Haneyville to the north. In 2000 the township had a population just shy of 300 people not including the various hunting and weekend camps to be found there. Most of the township is as wild today as it was more than 150 years ago.