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TYLERSVILLE - In 1826, Barnet "Barney" Rockey (1773-1847) uprooted his family from the western Brush Valley area of Centre County and crossed the mountain to settle in Sugar Valley in what would become Clinton County's Logan Township in 1839.

His one son, Michael D. Rockey (1815-1906), bought an acre of land a half-mile west of his father's place and built his own residence in 1842, the first dwelling in what would become the village of Tylersville.

Squire Michael D. Rockey - he would be a justice of Logan Township for 25 years - is credited with naming the emerging hamlet of Tylersville at the beginning of the 1840s, in honor of the 10th U.S. president, John Tyler (1790-1862). Tyler served as president from 1841 to 1845.

Squire Rockey, in his younger days, was a mail carrier on a long route between Jersey Shore and Aaronsburg, Centre County. Reputedly a very strong runner, Rockey gained renown for supposedly once running all the way from Tylersville to Kleckner's Tavern in Loganton - a distance of about 8 miles - in one hour, with his mailbag on his back.

Even earlier than the 1820s, settlers arrived near where Tylersville would arise. Most also arrived over the mountain from Brush Valley along what is now Route 880, or the Rebersburg Mountain Road.

Henry Spangler, the son of George Christopher Spangler (d. 1802), built a place not far from the future Tylersville around 1800. As of 1811, Spangler's sawmill was the only one in Sugar Valley.

Paul Frantz (1789-1864) actually sold Squire Rockey the 1 acre of land on which he built his residence. The land had been a part of Frantz's 400-acre farm.

Frantz was the father of Isaac K. Frantz (1823-1897), who erected a sawmill and a gristmill on Fishing Creek and who also became an associate judge of the Common Pleas Court in 1881, serving a five-year term.

Records show that a one-room log schoolhouse existed in the Tylersville area as of 1828. Another, called the West End School, was in operation by the late 1830s and ran until 1933.

The community continued to educate its children from grades one through eight until 1955-56.

Churches, of course, became an important part of the developing 19th-century community. In 1835, Paul Frantz donated ground to the Lutherans.

Construction began in 1840, with the completion of Tylersville's German Reformed and Lutheran Church in 1841. Early member families included the Ilgens, Spanglers, Ruhls, Becks, Glantzes, Bierlys, Mechtleys, Smiths and Rockeys. The church lasted until 1964.

An Evangelical Association (Methodist) church arose in 1871. It was dismantled in 1936 by F.D. Miller, who used the materials to build a private residence.

In 1894, after the "congregation-splitting turmoil of 1890," residents erected the Bethel United Evangelical Church in Tylersville. When it closed in 1964, the congregation went to the nearby village of Greenburr for services.

Finally, in the first decade of the 1900s, Reformed Lutherans built a house of worship in Tylersville. In 1957, they merged with the Congregational Christian Church to form the United Church of Christ.

In addition to its schools and churches, 19th-century Tylersville boasted quite a few businesses. There was David Gingerich's tavern and hotel. He was a one-armed Civil War veteran, wounded at the siege of Petersburg, Va. (June 15, 1864 April 3, 1865).

James S. Bierly had the largest cigar plant in the valley, employing a good number of men and boys. He also ran a blacksmith shop.

Andrew Albright had another blacksmith shop; Samuel Spangler another tavern - actually the first in Tylersville; and Barnet Raff, the first general store. Raff also was Tylersville's first postmaster, from the post office's establishment on June 16, 1854, until Sept. 9, 1858.

Other general store owners in the 1800s were Jacob Spangler, who also ran a water-driven saw and shingle mill south of the village; Jonathan Shaffer; Samuel Greninger (1870s); and William Harter. The latter was postmaster for two terms (1870-97 and 1902-14).

E.M. Grimes arrived in about 1852 from Centre County and operated a tailoring establishment and confectionery shop. His assistant was Andrew Mechtley.

Dr. J.D. Hubler (1831-1906), who married a daughter of Squire Michael D. Rockey, was the village dentist after the Civil War years.

Samuel Glantz ran a funeral parlor.

Reuben McKee (1845-1915), arguably Sugar Valley's most skilled potter, built his crockery plant near Squire Rockey's Tylersville homestead. McKee was considered to be an expert glazer and to have an outstanding "eye for form."

Unfortunately, the clay in the Tylersville area was not the best quality. It was said that McKee considered himself a failure.

In his 1875 book on Clinton County's history, local historian D.S. Maynard wrote that Tylersville consisted of "about 30" private dwellings that year.

Entering the 20th century, Tylersville organized a branch of the Patriotic Order Sons of America (POS of A) on March 9, 1901. It was designated Washington Camp No. 418.

Proof of William Bletz's flourishing water-powered sawmill in the gap above Tylersville came in an article in a 1905 issue of the Sugar Valley Journal, published in Loganton.

It reported: "Cleve Rishel and William Barner have finished hauling 150,000 feet of logs to Williams Bletz's sawmill."

On March 15, 1950, the Tylersville Community Club was organized, with Sugar Valley teacher Anita M. Currin (1912-2000) elected its first president. With its 28 charter members and two "juniors," this group focused on service to the community, raising money for donations to various organizations, high school graduate awards and needy individuals.

In 1960, the Pequea Fishing Tackle Works came to Tylersville from Loganton, where it had been since 1945. In Tylersville, the business employed "three or four girls" under manager Helen Holdren.

Tylersville still had a post office in 1965, and Beck's Grocery store was doing business.

Today, only two centers of activity exist in the greater Tylersville area. One is the state Fish and Boat Commission's Tylersville Fish Culture Station along Fishing Creek, about a mile west of Tylersville off Narrows Road. In earlier days it had been the site of J. Ruhl's saw and shingle mill.

Employing nine full-time and two seasonal workers under manager Ed Marcinko, the spring water-fed facility spawns both brook and brown trout and obtains golden rainbow trout from Benner Spring State Fish Hatchery in State College.

Raising all three species in its 10 raceways, the Tylersville station ships them by truck from March to May to stock waterways mostly in northeastern Pennsylvania.

Statistically, according to foreman Doug Desmond, the facility "shipped out over 400,000 this year."

"Probably about 8 percent" of the fish in the raceways are "lost to osprey, egrets and herons," some of which dive down into the waters to catch and fly off with their young trout victims.

The other center of activity is Tylersville's St. John's United Church of Christ. Pastor Ed Fisher, who just completed a six-month assignment at the church, tended to a congregation of just under 80 members.

According to Fisher, the church is known for its exceptional 12-member choir. Lorraine Tressler provides piano accompaniment for it.

The church also has its own Web site - www.stjohnsuccoftylersville.net - where it posts a monthly newsletter and weekly bulletins, among other items.

Upcoming events noted on the site are a Bible School July 19-23 at the Booneville Campground and the church's annual chicken barbecue on Sept. 20. The church has an adjacent eight-picnic table pavilion.

The Tylersville Community Cemetery consists of two locations separated by a couple hundred yards. Interred inside are the remains of old settlers, including village "founder" and namer Michael D. Rockey (1815-1906); his father, Barnet Rockey (1773-1847); John Bierly (1778-1870); noted hunter Philip Schreckengast (1779-1861); Judge Isaac K. Frantz (1823-97); Dr. J.B. Hubler (1831-1906); and members of the Greninger, Mechtley, Glantz, Ilgen, Rishel, Caris, Spangler and Moyer families, among others.

In the easternmost cemetery, a memorial stone remembers World War II Logan Township veterans. The honor roll has about 100 names on it. Next to it is a bell from Philadelphia, with a date of 1856 on it.

Tylersville - at the intersection of Narrows Road, Old Hill Road and Route 880, or the West Valley Road, at the western end of Sugar Valley - doesn't have much to offer.

But it is "a very close-knit town," according to Fisher, with quite a few descendants of early settlers.

It is yet another of Clinton County's small communities, all rightly proud of their sawmill and gristmill beginnings,that they have survived.