Centrally located, Clay and Concord townships today have much in common, but have quite different histories.

When Butler County was founded in 1800, Clay Township was not one of the original four townships.

What is now the township’s 25.1 square miles was then part of Middlesex Township. Clay Township didn’t officially exist as a separate entity until it was incorporated in 1854, when the county was subdivided into the 33 townships that exist today.

According to an 1895 Butler County history book, Clay Township was named for former U.S. Secretary of State Henry Clay.

The first settlers arrived in what is now Clay Township just prior to the turn of the 19th century. By 1819, according to the book “A Town Hidden On a Hill,” there were “probably” fewer than 25 families in the area.

For more than a half-century, there was little that existed in Clay Township but farms and a few scattered buildings. But the Muddy Creek Presbyterian Church — which had formed in 1803 — gained a new, modern brick worship house in 1852, and by 1874, the township had six one-room schools.

In the late part of the 19th century, industry began to flourish in Clay Township, thanks to multiple grist and flouring mills. The first, a grist mill operated by William Carruthers along Glade Run, ran until 1851 when it caught fire.

Within Clay Township, small communities began to sprout up. One of these was Euclid, which was centered around a Bessemer and Lake Erie Railroad depot, and also featured a creamery and general store. Euclid also featured a planing mill, which was later converted into a chopping mill before it was destroyed in a fire in 1894.

Another village that emerged was Queen Junction, which came of age around the turn of the 20th century as a quintessential “railroad town.” Queen Junction — named after Emmett Queen, owner of the Western Allegheny Railroad — consisted of dozens of acres of land which were sold to the company between 1905 and 1909.

In 1908 and 1909, advertisements were placed in the Butler Eagle promoting the sale of hundreds of lots to men who would be put to work on the railroads. A station was eventually built at the area which, as the name of the town implied, served as the junction between two railroads — the Western Allegheny and the Bessemer & Lake Erie.

In the early part of the 20th century, the passenger trains were such a major part of life in Queen Junction that some children used them to ride to school. However, the rise of the automobile spelled the end for the Western Allegheny Railroad, which stopped passenger service in 1931.

All passenger service ended at Queen Junction when the Bessemer & Lake Erie sent its last train on May 18, 1953.

Over the years, while other townships have experienced massive population growth and urbanization, Clay Township’s population has risen only steadily. As of the 2020 census, the population has reached 2,547.

This only marks a roughly 150% increase from the 1,076 that was counted in 1890 by the Butler County history book of 1895.

Some of the modern attractions that can be found in Clay Township today include the off-road racing venue SwitchbackMX, as well as the uniquely-shaped toys and games store Playthings Etc.

The history of Concord Township mirrors that of many municipalities in Butler County — centuries of mainly rural bliss interrupted by a short boom period powered by oil.

Like Clay Township, Concord was one of the last set of townships in Butler County to be subdivided in 1854. At the time, according to an 1895 Butler County history book, the newly-formed township consisted of 154 taxable inhabitants.

However, the land which eventually became Concord Township was initially settled in 1796, when scattered groups of settlers made their home there, led by Thankful Aggas and her two children.

The most vibrant and dramatic period in Concord Township’s history, by far, occurred toward the end of the 19th century, when the township was swept up in an oil boom which sprouted new villages overnight.

According to the 1895 history book, the oil frenzy began in August 1872, when an oil well on the S.S. Jamison farm started producing as many as 700 barrels per day.

Soon thereafter, two villages were established within Concord Township to capitalize on the oil boom — Greece City and Modoc. Greece City, in particular, would feature a savings bank, an Episcopal Church, a grist mill, a general store, and a series of oil wells — some of which were described as “gushers” in the 1895 history book.

It wasn’t long before disaster struck. In March 1874, Modoc was gutted by a fire which destroyed 25 buildings within two hours, causing a financial loss of $100,000 — a steep figure in 1874 money.

“It is said that lightning struck one of the oil tanks and caused the fire which almost wiped out the town,” reads the 1895 history.

Months earlier, Greece City met the same fate, when 20 buildings were destroyed in a fire that originated in the Marks and Levy store. Among the buildings destroyed were a billiard hall, multiple hotels, a clothing store, a boarding house, and a blacksmith. Greece City would also be scarred by a series of riots in 1873 involving the Ku Klux Klan.

Another village, Troutman, was also wiped out by fire in April 1877 during an electrical storm.

While the population of Concord Township went as high as 5,000 during the oil boom years, it now sits at 1,411 as of the 2020 census.

Ironically, it isn’t oil that producers are now seeking underneath Concord Township, but natural gas. According to a map from Pennsylvania’s Department of Environmental Protection, there are 23 active “unconventional” oil and gas wells placed throughout Concord Township, at five different locations.