McHenry Township is one of the later townships to be erected and was taken from a part of Cummings and Porter. It was organized August 21, 1861, and was named for Alexander McHenry, of Jersey Shore, a well known surveyor of his day. It is third in size in the county and has an area of 42,920 acres. There are some good farming lands along the bottom of Pine Creek, which runs through it, but most of the land is mountainous.

Notwithstanding the wildness of the region, it was settled early by such men as Claudius Boatman, Comfort Wanzer, Abraham Harris and others. Boatman came from the Buffalo Valley, where his daughter, Rebecca, was scalped by the Indians, but under the careful nursing of her mother she recovered. Boatman’s wife was very useful in the settlement, as she was both a nurse and a physician.

Lumbering was the principal industry of the township until the timber became exhausted and a number of sawmills were operated along Pine Creek. There are no other business enterprises within the limits of the township. There are two small villages, Jersey Mills and Cammal, the latter a contraction of the name Campbell, and both are United States postoffices. Jersey Mills was established January 19, 1855, with Levi Gisk as first postmaster, and Cammal September 16, 1884, with James Lamison as the first incumbent. There are both good schools and churches in the township and the population in 1920 was 268.