Mifflin Township is a

township A township is a form of human settlement or administrative subdivision. Its exact definition varies among countries. Although the term is occasionally associated with an urban area, this tends to be an exception to the rule. In Australia, Canad ...

Lycoming County Lycoming County is a county in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. As of the 2020 census, the population was 114,188. Its county seat is Williamsport. The county is part of the North Central region of the commonwealth. Lycoming County compris ...

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania, officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a U.S. state, state spanning the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern United States, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes region, Great Lakes regions o ...

, United States. The population was 1,088 at the 2020 census. It is part of the Williamsport Metropolitan Statistical Area.

History

Mifflin Township was formed in 1803 by dividing Lycoming Township. It is named in honor of

Thomas Mifflin Thomas Mifflin (January 10, 1744January 20, 1800) was an American merchant, soldier, and politician from Pennsylvania, who is regarded as a Founding Father of the United States for his roles during and after the American Revolution. Mifflin sig ...

, the first

governor of Pennsylvania The asterisk ( ), from Late Latin , from Ancient Greek , , "little star", is a Typography, typographical symbol. It is so called because it resembles a conventional image of a star (heraldry), heraldic star. Computer scientists and Mathematici ...

Early settlers

When colonial settlers first arrived in what is now Mifflin Township, they were outside the western boundary of what was then the

Province of Pennsylvania The Province of Pennsylvania, also known as the Pennsylvania Colony, was a British North American colony founded by William Penn, who received the land through a grant from Charles II of England in 1681. The name Pennsylvania was derived from ...

. These settlers were not under the jurisdiction or protection of any type from any of the

Thirteen Colonies The Thirteen Colonies were the British colonies on the Atlantic coast of North America which broke away from the British Crown in the American Revolutionary War (1775–1783), and joined to form the United States of America. The Thirteen C ...

. They became known as the

Fair Play Men The Fair Play Men were illegal settlers (squatters) who established their own system of self-rule from 1773 to 1785 in the West Branch Susquehanna River valley of Pennsylvania in what is now the United States. Because they settled in territory clai ...

. These men established their own form of government, known as the "Fair Play System", with three elected commissioners who ruled on land claims and other issues for the group. In a remarkable coincidence, the Fair Play Men made their own

Declaration of Independence A declaration of independence is an assertion by a polity in a defined territory that it is independent and constitutes a state. Such places are usually declared from part or all of the territory of another state or failed state, or are breaka ...

from

Britain Britain most often refers to: * Great Britain, a large island comprising the countries of England, Scotland and Wales * The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, a sovereign state in Europe comprising Great Britain and the north-eas ...

on July 4, 1776, beneath the "Tiadaghton Elm" on the banks of Pine Creek. Mifflin Township is located within the

Larrys Creek Larrys Creek is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map , accessed August 8, 2011 tributary of the West Branch Susquehanna River in Lycoming County in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania. ...

watershed Watershed may refer to: Hydrology * Drainage divide, the line that separates neighbouring drainage basins * Drainage basin, an area of land where surface water converges (North American usage) Music * Watershed Music Festival, an annual country ...

. This area was densely covered with trees and brush until about 1790, when the first settlers attempted to clear some of the land that surrounds Larrys Creek. John Murphy was the first settler to establish a permanent homestead. He cleared some land along the creek and built a home. His daughter, Sarah, is thought to have been the

first white child The birth of the first white child is a concept that marks the establishment of a European colony in the New World, especially in the historiography of the United States. Americas Snorri Thorfinnsson is the first person of European descent bel ...

to have been born in Mifflin Township. Murphy was soon followed by other settlers who also built cabins, cleared some land for farming and built

sawmill A sawmill (saw mill, saw-mill) or lumber mill is a facility where logging, logs are cut into lumber. Modern sawmills use a motorized saw to cut logs lengthwise to make long pieces, and crosswise to length depending on standard or custom sizes ...

s. Lumber was soon to become the dominant industry in Mifflin Township.

Lumber industry

As timber and

lumber Lumber is wood that has been processed into uniform and useful sizes (dimensional lumber), including beams and planks or boards. Lumber is mainly used for construction framing, as well as finishing (floors, wall panels, window frames). ...

became a major industry in the mid-19th century, Larrys Creek was a source of power for sawmills and other mills. The first sawmill on the creek was built in 1799. The relatively low flow of water in the creek did not allow rafts of logs to be floated downstream to the river and the lumber boom at Williamsport. This and the lack of logging railroads along the creek led to the development of many small sawmills. Twelve sawmills were on the Second Fork, six on the First Fork, one each on Canoe Run, and the rest were on Larrys Creek itself. By 1903 just two mills were still standing and only one of those was operating. Lumbering removed the tree trunks, but left many flammable limbs, branches, and stumps behind. On May 2, 1872, a large

forest fire A wildfire, forest fire, or a bushfire is an unplanned and uncontrolled fire in an area of combustible vegetation. Depending on the type of vegetation present, a wildfire may be more specifically identified as a bushfire ( in Australia), dese ...

destroyed the villages of Carter and Gould, north of Salladasburg on Larrys Creek in Mifflin Township. Presently there are large tracts of second-growth forest, and small lumber companies still operate in the township.

Geography

Mifflin Township is in western Lycoming County and is bordered by Cogan House Township to the north, Anthony Township to the east, Woodward Township at one point to the southeast, Piatt Township to the south, Porter Township to the southwest, and Watson and Cummings townships to the west. Mifflin Township surrounds the

borough A borough is an administrative division in various English language, English-speaking countries. In principle, the term ''borough'' designates a self-governing walled town, although in practice, official use of the term varies widely. History ...

of Salladasburg, a separate municipality.

Pennsylvania Route 287 Pennsylvania Route 287 (PA 287) is a state highway in the Tioga Valley of Pennsylvania, United States. PA 287 runs from an intersection with U.S. Route 220 (US 220) in the community of Larrys Creek in Piatt Township, Lycoming County, no ...

passes through the township and Salladasburg, leading north to Hoytville and south to

U.S. Route 220 U.S. Route 220 (US 220) is a spur route of US 20. It runs in a north–south layout in the eastern United States, unlike its parent route as well as conventionally even-numbered highways, which run east-west. US 220 extends for ...

at the

West Branch Susquehanna River The West Branch Susquehanna River is one of the two principal branches, along with the North Branch, of the Susquehanna River in the Northeastern United States. The North Branch, which rises in upstate New York, is generally regarded as the ex ...

Pennsylvania Route 973 Pennsylvania Route 973 (PA 973) is a highway which runs for , generally east–west in Lycoming County, Pennsylvania, Lycoming County in north central Pennsylvania in the United States. Its western terminus is on the east bank of Pine C ...

crosses PA-287 in Salladasburg and leads east to Hepburnville and southwest to

Pennsylvania Route 44 Pennsylvania Route 44 (PA 44) is a -long state highway in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania. The route, which is signed north-south, is designated from Interstate 80 in Pennsylvania, Interstate 80 (I-80) and Pennsylvania Route 42, PA 42 in Buckhor ...

in the valley of Pine Creek. Williamsport, the Lycoming

county seat A county seat is an administrative center, seat of government, or capital city of a county or parish (administrative division), civil parish. The term is in use in five countries: Canada, China, Hungary, Romania, and the United States. An equiva ...

, is to the southeast via Routes 287 and 220. According to the

United States Census Bureau The United States Census Bureau, officially the Bureau of the Census, is a principal agency of the Federal statistical system, U.S. federal statistical system, responsible for producing data about the American people and American economy, econ ...

, Mifflin Township has a total area of , of which are land , or 0.36%, are water.

is the main waterway through the township, flowing southward to the West Branch Susquehanna River in Piatt Township.

Demographics

As of the

census A census (from Latin ''censere'', 'to assess') is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording, and calculating population information about the members of a given Statistical population, population, usually displayed in the form of stati ...

of 2000, there were 1,145 people, 438 households, and 335 families residing in the township. The population density was . There were 470 housing units at an average density of 16.9/sq mi (6.5/km²). The racial makeup of the township was 98.78%

White White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no chroma). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully (or almost fully) reflect and scatter all the visible wa ...

, 0.17%

African American African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from an ...

, 0.26% Native American, 0.17% Asian, and 0.61% from two or more races. There were 438 households, out of which 34.7% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 63.9% were

married couples Marriage, also called matrimony or wedlock, is a culturally and often legally recognised union between people called spouses. It establishes rights and obligations between them, as well as between them and their children (if any), and b ...

living together, 8.4% had a female householder with no husband present, and 23.3% were non-families. 18.3% of all households were made up of individuals, and 7.3% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.61 and the average family size was 2.95. In the township the population was spread out, with 25.2% under the age of 18, 5.9% from 18 to 24, 30.7% from 25 to 44, 27.4% from 45 to 64, and 10.8% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 38 years. For every 100 females there were 100.9 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 98.8 males. The median income for a household in the township was $36,205, and the median income for a family was $42,125. Males had a median income of $30,484 versus $21,319 for females. The

per capita income Per capita income (PCI) or average income measures the average income earned per person in a given area (city, region, country, etc.) in a specified year. In many countries, per capita income is determined using regular population surveys, such ...

for the township was $15,941. About 7.0% of families and 8.8% of the population were below the

poverty line The poverty threshold, poverty limit, poverty line, or breadline is the minimum level of income deemed adequate in a particular country. The poverty line is usually calculated by estimating the total cost of one year's worth of necessities for ...

, including 7.8% of those under age 18 and 9.7% of those age 65 or over.

References

External links

* {{Authority control Townships in Lycoming County, Pennsylvania Populated places established in 1790 1790 establishments in Pennsylvania