While much has changed in Clinton Township since its formation in the 1850s, a visitor would see echoes of its past.

The township, 23.8 square acres, was created in 1854 out of portions of Buffalo and Middlesex townships. It was named for a region in County Down in Ireland.

And while there has been plenty of growth — there were about 1,000 residents in the 1860 census, six years after the township was incorporated, compared to slightly fewer than 3,000 residents in the 2020 census — population density has remained low and much of the township has retained its rural feel.

The names of early settlers may sound familiar to present-day residents: Anderson, Harvey, Lardin, McGregor, Wood, Watson, Riddle and Byrne.

Despite the expanses of rural farmland and rough roads, 19th century residents of the township enjoyed educational, religious and social opportunities, according to the “History of Butler County, Pennsylvania,” published in 1895.

Students met in uncomfortable log schoolhouses, prompting “fathers of the district” to discuss improvements in the 1850s. By 1894, the township boasted “six schoolhouses, six teachers, 116 male and 124 female pupils, an average attendance of 163, and a total revenue … of $8,021.12.”

An unpublished memoir, donated to the Spring Valley Park Advisory Board as part of a history project, documents the life of the late Nancy Ann Boyd McCaslin, who was born in what's now Clinton Township in 1851.

In the memoir, which also includes her adult life and travels in the West, she talks about growing up with her parents, John Robert Boyd and Lydia Young Boyd, on a farm.

“When I was about 8 years old, I had to hoe corn and clean all the weeds out of it,” she wrote. “We walked 2 miles to do it, hoed all day, and walked back. And we done it every summer.

“When I got a little stronger and a year or two older, I had to go to the timber and help Daddy chop down trees and make rails, grub out stumps, cut sprouts off the stumps thicker than my wrist. Helped to build fences and when harvest time came, I went out and took a man's place.”

Presbyterianism churches ruled the day in early Clinton Township, according to the History of Butler County. Among the early churches of the district were Westminster Presbyterian Church, organized in 1835 with 19 members; United Presbyterian Church, organized in 1845; and Oak Grove United Presbyterian Church, organized in 1878.

In 1886, Clinton Township veterans organized a chapter of the Grand Army of the Republic, a fraternal organization of those who had fought in the Civil War. Harvey Post, Number 514, G.A.R., included charter members such as William Harvey, John S. Love, J.B. Cunningham, and others.

In addition to farming, industry has long been a part of the economic base, with industrial facilities still operating in the northern part of the township.

That industrial heritage helped create what the township calls its hidden jewel — Spring Valley Park.

For decades, there was a U.S. Steel sintering plant in Clinton Township. In 1999, the company donated part of the land associated with the by-then-closed plant to the township.

Over the next several years, township officials raised money and applied for state grants. The end result was Spring Valley Park, a more than 70-acre park in what was once an industrial brownfield.

After several years of planning, work started in the early 2000s on the park, which features a playground, a picnic area and a hiking trail.

In the time since the park opened, several Eagle Scouts have helped install upgrades. In 2017, Cameron Szish installed markers along the trail and Parker Myers built a deck overlooking the pond in the park.

Armstrong also offered an upgrade to the park by installing free Wi-Fi.

A new Clinton Township Historical Committee was organized in 2023 to preserve the area's history, one sprinkled with the efforts of hardworking men and women, Township Supervisor Kathy Allen told the Butler Eagle in December.

The committee will tap into the knowledge of longtime residents who know the history of the township, according to Supervisor William Duncan.

The group reported progress on plans to install grant-funded historical markers at the board of supervisors meeting in August.

While maintaining its rural charm, the township continues to pursue improvements to infrastructure through grant applications and small businesses.

Supervisors are also collaborating with PennDOT to assure the expansion of Route 228, an important transportation corridor through the township, is “as smooth as possible,” Allen said.

The future of the community requires planning and resourcefulness, she said, with revisions to the township’s comprehensive plan underway.

“Our vision for the township is to maintain its rural, agricultural profile while adopting common-sense plans for business and energy development,” she said.

“Wind, solar and fuel cells are part of that future,” she said, “and we want to meet it in an organized, constructive way.”

Jamie Kelly is a correspondent for the Eagle. Katrina Jesick Quinn is a professor at Slippery Rock University. She is an editor of “From the Arctic to the Orient: Adventure Journalism in the Gilded Age” (McFarland) and “The Civil War Soldier and the Press” (Routledge).