Plunketts Creek Township is a township in Lycoming County, Pennsylvania. The population was 771 at the 2000 census. It is part of the Williamsport, Pennsylvania Metropolitan Statistical Area.
Plunketts Creek Township is bordered by Sullivan County to the northeast, Shrewsbury Township to the southeast, Mill Creek and Upper Fairfield Townships to the south, and Eldred, Gamble and Cascade Townships to the west.
Plunketts Creek Township was formed from parts of Franklin Township, Lycoming County and what is now Davidson Township, Sullivan County by the Pennsylvania General Assembly during its December sessions of 1836. The township was once much larger in size, more than a few townships in both Lycoming and Sullivan Counties have been carved from what was once Plunketts Creek Township. The township is named for Plunketts Creek which is a tributary of Loyalsock Creek. The creek is in turn named for Colonel William Plunkett who was a frontier doctor and militia officer during the pre-Revolution years in the Province of Pennsylvania. He was noted for his skill in dressing the wounds of pioneers who had been scalped by both the French and Indians during the French and Indian War. Plunkett was also a veteran of the Pennamite-Yankee War which pitted settlers from Connecticut to the Wyoming Valley of Pennsylvania against those who had been established in Pennsylvania prior to the Connecticut settlers arrival. He received title to land at what is now the mouth of Plunketts Creek. Therefore the land surrounding the creek was generally known as "Plunketts Creek." The township was to originally be called Plunkett Township. Some residents of the township did not approve of this name. They questioned William Plunkett's loyalty for he had remained largely "passive" regarding the American Revolution. Some believed that he sympathized with the cause of the Tories during the Revolution. A compromise was reached by naming it Plunketts Creek Township. While others wanted to honor one of the first and most important settlers to the area.
The first white man to live in Plunketts Creek Township was a man with the surname of Paulhamus. Tradition states that he was deserter during the Revolutionary War. He fled from the Red coats and cleared a small piece of land in the wilderness along Loyalsock Creek near the mouth of Bear Creek. Paulhamus was a squatter on the land from 1770 until 1776 when it is thought that he was forced to rejoin the British Army. Permanent settlers did not arrive in Plunketts Creek Township until 1818. Three men Donelly, Smith and Payne found the cabin that had been abandoned by Paulhamus. They expanded Paulhamus' improvements and began farming, fishing and hunting in the area.
Logging was the principal industry in Plunketts Creek Township during the mid to late 1800s. Thousands of acres of virgin forest were harvested and floated down Loyalsock Creek and its tributaries to one of the many sawmills that had sprung up throughout Lycoming County. There were several sawmills in Barbours, a village along Loyalsock Creek, in Plunketts Creek Township.
Thomas E. Proctor operated a tannery along Loyalsock Creek in what is now known as Proctorville. The tannery, opened in 1868, was rather large. It employed several hundred workers at its peak operation.
