Despite its local reputation as an “affluent suburb” of Pittsburgh, Cranberry Township comes from humble beginnings — with explosive results.

“If you go back before the ’60s, we were primarily just an agricultural community,” said Thomas Cully, program director for the Cranberry Township Historical Society.

Founded in 1804, the area was one of the county’s 13 original provinces according to James McKee’s “20th Century History of Butler and Butler County, Pa.”

The township’s name, Cully said, came from the swampy cranberry bogs that once surrounded Brush Creek.

And as of the 21st century, the fate of those bogs remains somewhat of a mystery.

There are some theories, however, according to Cully.

“It was farmers moving into this area.” he said. “Well, farmers want good land, nice ground to grow off of. They would drain where the boggy stuff was and, of course, would kill off the wild cranberries.”

In a story passed down to him by the society’s former, late president Connie Volz, Cully, described one of the farmers’ efforts.

Living along Brush Creak near the intersection of Rochester Road and the Pennsylvania Turnpike, he said, the farmer visited a one-time general store that sold dynamite.

“The farmer went over to that store and took sticks of dynamite and stuck them in the marshy areas,” Cully said. “Quarter sticks of dynamite, he blew trenches so the water would drain off that property so he could do something better with it.”

The resulting explosion, he said, shattered windows miles away.

And while farmers eventually — explosively — made use of the township’s sprawling pastures, Cully said early settlers were unwelcome until the Battle of Fallen Timbers in northwestern Ohio.

With a United States victory in 1794, he said Native Americans were forcefully displaced from the area.

“It wasn’t until around the 1800s itself that you could finally settle around this area,” he said. “It was unsafe, you could get attacked.”

One of the first settlers — and ultimately the founder — of Cranberry Township was Matthew Graham in 1796, according to McKee.

“Matthew Graham was our founder,” Cully said. “He came up with his brother and he was 16 years old, trapping animals. He was our first, what you would call, settler here.”

The namesake of Graham Park in the township, Cully said the young man made a lucrative profession trapping predators in Cranberry’s fundamental years, helping cement and protect the area as an agricultural settlement.

“Matthew built a number of houses for his family,” he said. “Most of them still stand.”

As American agriculture took hold in the early 19th century, with the help of early settlers like Graham, residents flocked to the growing community.

By 1810, the population of the township was 513.

“David Garvin in 1811 started his family tavern, even though he had his license in 1804,” Cully said. “Matthew Graham opened up the Black Bear Tavern in 1813, Robert McKee opened up a wagon shop in 1830 and in 1831 Matthew Graham built a sawmill, and then he built a grist mill two years later in 1833.”

From there, churches, schools, stores and post offices peppered the newfound town, and by 1908, it became part of the region’s electric railway.

“The Harmony Line as they called it — or Harmony Route — ran through the North Hills of Pittsburgh,” Cully said.

Starting in Harmony Borough, he said the railway ran through Evans City Borough and Cranberry Township before heading south to Pittsburgh. The system was in operation for 23 years, ending service in 1931.

“It was getting a little more expensive to run, people were slowly starting to buy cars and buses were coming out at the time and killing a lot of lines,” Cully said. “It just wasn’t economical.”

In 1942, the old Sample Schoolhouse — relocated to the current municipal building in 1999 by the historical society — became the headquarters of the municipality.

By 1945, Davis Acres opened in the township, becoming the first housing plan on record for the township.

Five years later, Franklin Acres followed, raising the township’s population to 1,045.

“But the housing that put us on the map was definitely the Dover Company from Ohio coming in and building Fernway,” Cully said. “The Fernway plan opened in 1957.”

By that year, the township’s population had risen to 2,000.

Throughout the late 1900s, the township then established its full-time police department, saw Interstate 79 split it in two and state Route 228 split it further.

“It really didn’t really take off until the ’80s,” Cully said. “Late ’70s, early ’80s.”

At the township’s bicentennial in 2004, the population was over 25,000 — boasting a bustling commerce sector, fire stations, a water park and an ever-increasing number of building permits.

Despite a current population of 31,560 — and experiencing an influx of big-city industry and corporations — the township has not lost its roots, according to Cully, as a municipality made for the people by the people.

“I think the township did a very nice job of making sure the infrastructure was as solid as it could be for the citizens,” Cully said. “They did a great job making sure that we had parks for both recreations and sports utilities.”

Cranberry Township Historical Society

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The Cranberry Township Historical Society is actively seeking members to carry on the histories and traditions of the township. Membership dues at $15.80 and require no major obligations.

For more information, visit explorecranberry.org or call (724) 720-6465.