History of the Townships of Lycoming County, Pennsylvania

Lycoming County was formed from Northumberland County on April 13, 1795. At the time is was formed the county was much larger than it is today. It took up most of the land that is now north central Pennsylvania.

As of 2007, Lycoming County has forty-two townships. Lycoming County's townships include one census-designated place (CDP) and fifty villages. CDPs are geographical areas designated by the U.S. Census Bureau for the purposes of compiling demographic data. Villages are marked with signs by the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation.]

Plunketts Creek Township

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 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. The township was to originally be called Plunkett Township. The residents of the township did not approve of this name. They questioned William Plunkett's loyalty. It was said the he sympathized with the cause of the Tories during the Revolution. A compromise was reached by naming it Plunketts Creek Township. 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.

Porter Township

Porter Township named for David R. Porter Pennsylvania governor (1839-1845), was formed from part of Mifflin Township on May 6, 1840.

Dr. James Davidson, a veteran of the American Revolution, served as a doctor for General Anthony Wayne's army, was one of the first and most successful settlers in the Porter Township area. He settled in the Sunbury just after the Revolution. After several years in that vicinity he bought a farm along the West Branch Susquehanna River in what is now western Lycoming County. Here he farmed and also served as the only doctor in the area for many years. Dr. Davidson built one of the first brick houses in the West Branch Susquehanna Valley. He also served as a judge for Lycoming County after it was formed in 1795.

hrewsbury Township

Shrewsbury Township was formed from part of Muncy Township by the Pennsylvania General Assembly in 1804. It was originally much larger in size and included a large part of what is now Sullivan County until 1847. It is named for Shrewsbury Township, New Jersey. Some of the first settlers, The Little and Bennett families, migrated to Lycoming County from New Jersey and wanted their new home to have the same name as their old home. Peter Corson, also from New Jersey was one of the first settlers to establish a home in the area and he was quite successful. Corson and his wife had 5 sons and 3 daughters and within less than 100 years they had descendants that were numbered by the hundred.

In the late 1800s, Highland Lake, in the northern part of Shrewsbury Township was popular summer vacation destination. There were three large hotels on the lake as well as several summer cottages. The cottage holders included Pennsylvanians from as far away as Philadelphia which is approximately 100 mi (160 km) southwest of Shrewsbury Township.

Industry and farming are and always have been very limited in Shrewsbury Township. It is a very mountainous area. The population as of the 2000 census has declined to 433 residents from 570 at the census of 1890.

usquehanna Township

Susquehanna Township was established during the December 1838 sessions of the Pennsylvania General Assembly. It was formed from parts of Nippensoe and Armstrong Townships.

Susquehanna Township was first surveyed in 1769. The surveyors named it "Upper Bottom" to distinguish from a piece of land further to the east that was named "Lower Bottom", present day Duboistown and South Williamsport. The first settlers arrived in 1801 and cleared the alluvial plain near the West Branch Susquehanna River and began farming. The village of Nisbet, a collection of about a dozen homes, rose up around the railroad station of the same name. Two grist mills and a small textile mill were built on Mill Run during the early days of Susquehanna Township.

Susquehanna Township has grown somewhat since it was founded. The village of Nisbet underwent an expansion during the 1950s and 1960s and now serves as a bedroom community for Williamsport and Jersey Shore. Much of the land on the alluvial plain is still farmed. Farmer rent out small portions of their property for the docking of recreational boats on the West Branch Susquehanna River.

Upper Fairfield Township

The history of Upper Fairfield Township begins in 1851 when some dissatisfied citizens of the southern portion of Fairfield Township asked to be separated from the neighbors to the north. The citizens of the northern portion were strongly against division, but the township was divided against their wishes on September 12, 1851.

Upper Fairfield Township called Pollock Township during its first two years of existence. It was named for Judge James Pollock, who was the president of district court that ordered the township to be divided. Since the citizens of Upper Fairfield Township where against the division in the first place, they were less than pleased with the name of their new township. Pollock was a controversial figure in the early days of Upper Fairfield. The citizens asked the court that the named be changed and the Pennsylvania General Assembly ordered that Pollock Township's name be changed to Upper Fairfield Township on January 29, 1853.

Washington Township

Washington Township was formed as part of Northumberland County in 1786. It originally extended from White Deer Hole Creek north to the West Branch Susquehanna River with its eastern boundary also formed by the west branch. The western limit was ambiguous, but most historians assumed that the western boundary followed a line that extended to the south opposite the mouth of Pine Creek in what is now eastern Clinton County. Washington Township is older than Lycoming County. Therefore it was one of the original townships in Lycoming County. Seven additional townships were created from land that was originally part of Washington Township. They are Armstrong, Bastress, Brady, Clinton, Limestone, Nippenose, and Susquehanna Townships. The township is named for the hero of the American Revolution and the 1st President of the United States, George Washington.

Historically, two paths of the native indigenous peoples ran along parts of White Deer Hole Creek in Washington Township. Settlers arrived by 1770, but fled in 1778 during the American Revolutionary War during The Big Runaway. They returned and the creek served as the southern boundary of Lycoming County and Washington Township when it was formed in 1795. A logging railroad ran along the creek from 1901 to 1904 for timber clearcutting and small-scale lumbering continues.

The Great Island Path was a major trail that ran north along the Susquehanna River from the Saponi village of Shamokin at modern Sunbury, fording the river there and following the west bank of the West Branch Susquehanna River north until White Deer Hole valley. The path turned west at Allenwood and followed White Deer Hole Creek until about the present location of Elimsport in Washington Township. There it headed northwest, crossed North White Deer Ridge and passed west through the Nippenose valley, then turned north and crossed Bald Eagle Mountain via McElhattan Creek and ran along the south bank of the river to the Great Island (near the present day city of Lock Haven).

Beginning with the first settlers, much of the land along White Deer Hole Creek in Washington Township was slowly cleared of timber. Small sawmills were built in the 19th century, and a much larger lumber operation was run by the Vincent Lumber Company from 1901 to 1904. They built a narrow gauge convert|42|in|mm|0 railroad from Elimsport convert|5|mi|km|0 west into timber, and a line east to Allenwood in Union County and the Reading Railroad there. The lumber railroad ran parallel to the creek, with the end of the track near the Fourth Gap. It was incorporated on June 24, 1901 (around the time of construction) as the "Allenwood and Western Railroad". The lumbering operation ceased in 1904 when the forests were gone. The railroad was torn up, and its one second-hand Shay locomotive was moved to the Vincent Lumber Company operation at Denholm (in Juniata County).cite book | author=Taber, Thomas T., III | year=1987 | title=Railroads of Pennsylvania Encyclopedia and Atlas | publisher=Thomas T. Taber III | id=ISBN 0-9603398-5-X]

From 1900 to 1935, much of what is now Tiadaghton State Forest was purchased by Pennsylvania from lumber companies that had no further use for the clear-cut land. In the 1930s there were seven Civilian Conservation Corps camps to construct roads and trails in the forest.cite news | authorlink = Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources | author = Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources | Bureau of Forestry | title = A Public Use Map for Tiadaghton State Forest | format = Map / Brochure | date = November 2004]

Small-scale lumbering continues in the Washington Township, but the forest is certified as well-managed "in an environmentally sensitive manner" and lumber from it qualifies for a "green label". A sawmill owned and operated by Amish is on Pennsylvania Route 44 in Elimsport. It burned down on May 10, 2006 (causing $500,000 in damages) but was expected to be back in operation in a month. [cite news | first = Philip A. | last = Holmes | title = Fire claims Route 44 sawmill
url = http://64.233.161.104/search?q=cache:HX09odwgqCEJ:www.sungazette.com/articles.asp%3FarticleID%3D4540+elimsport+amish&hl=en&gl=us&ct=clnk&cd=7 | publisher = Williamsport Sun-Gazette | date = May 13, 2006
accessdate = 2006-11-20] Despite this small-scale lumbering, as of 2006 the forests have grown back and are mixed oak, with blueberry and mountain laurel bushes. White Deer Hole Creek and its tributaries also have stands of hemlock and thickets of rhododendron along them.cite news | authorlink = Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources | author = Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources | Bureau of Forestry | title = Central Mountains Shared Use Trails System: Union, Lycoming and Clinton Counties, Bald Eagle and Tiadaghton State Forests | format = Map / Brochure | year = 2002]

Watson Township

Watson Township was formed in January 1848 from parts of Porter and Cummings Townships. It is named for Oliver Watson who was the president of a bank in nearby Williamsport at the time.

Watson Township is and always has been a largely unpopulated area. It is mountainous and covered with a thriving second growth forest. During the late 1800s much of the land was stripped of its virgin forests. At the time central Pennsylvania, and the city of Williamsport was the center of the lumber industry in the United States. Trees were cut down and floated down Pine Creek, which flows through Watson Township. There were several sawmills along Pine Creek in the township. Other early attempts at industry included an iron forge. There were several deposits of iron ore in Watson Township. The ore proved to be of low quality and the investors in the iron furnaces struggled to turn a profit. The furnaces were abandoned and little evidence of their existence remains.

Wolf Township

Wolf Township was formed from part of Muncy Township by the Pennsylvania General Assembly in September 1834. The township is named for George Wolf who was the governor of Pennsylvania from 1829 to 1835. The boroughs of Hughesville and Picture Rocks are on land that was taken from Wolf Township.

Wolf Township today has grown to a population of 2,707 residents as of the 2000 census. This is up from 734 residents at the census of 1890.

The geology of Wolf Township played a role in its history. Limestone was quarried west of Hughesville for use as lime. Lime is used in large quantities as building and engineering materials (including limestone products, concrete and mortar) and as chemical feedstocks, among other uses. Lime industries and the use of many of the resulting products date from prehistoric periods in both the Old World and the New World. Wolf Township was also the home to several Pennsylvania Bluestone quarries. Pennsylvania Bluestone has many uses, from cut dimensional stone used in patios, walkways and stair treads to architectural stone used in buildings. It is also used for wallstone, decorative boulders, natural steps and other landscape features. The name "Pennsylvania Bluestone" is due to its predominantly blue color and because the majority of stone is quarried in Pennsylvania.

David Aspen was the first white settler to live within the borders of what is now Wolf Township. He was scalped during the Big Runaway, when his and other settlements throughout the Susquehanna valley were attacked by Loyalists and Native Americans allied with the British. Abraham Webster was another of the early settlers to be attacked, only he survived and returned to Wolf Township twelve years after the Big Runaway. His entire family had been killed but he returned with a new wife and re-established his home.

The earliest industrial venture in Wolf Township was a gristmill constructed in 1816. A wool carding mill was built in 1842. There were also several sawmills in the township that were part of the lumber industry that covered much of Pennsylvania during the late 1800s.

Woodward Township

Woodward Township was formed on November 23, 1855 by dividing Anthony Township. It is named for Apollos Woodward who was an associated judge in Williamsport at the time. The population of Woodward Township has grown to 2,397 as of the 2000 census. This is up from 817 during the 1890 census. The township which is bisected by Quenshukeny Run semi-rural in nature. The northern parts of the township less heavily populated than the southern parts which lie on U.S. Route 220 and serve as a suburb for Williamsport and Jersey Shore.

When Woodward township was first settled by migrants from Europe it was outside the boundaries of the Province of Pennsylvania. These settlers were not under the rule or protection of the colonial government in Philadelphia. Together they formed their own form of government that was administered by a group of pioneers known as the Fair Play Men. These early settlers banded together to provide law and order to a land that was wild and dangerous.

Brattan Caldwell, a native of County Kildare, Ireland, migrated to the Thirteen Colonies in 1770. He arrived in Philadelphia and from there moved to Lancaster County. He joined with other pioneers and they followed the Susquehanna River and West Branch Susquehann River into the frontier. Brattan Caldwell and the other settlers arrived in what is now Woodward Township in 1772. They cleared land along the river's tributaries. Caldwell married Elcy Hughes in the winter of 1775 on the south side of the river in Nippenose Township. This part of the West Branch Susquehanna River Valley was under the jurisdiction and protection of the colonial government of Pennsylvania. The Hughes' were married by a Northumberland County Justice of the Peace. It was the first marriage to take place in the settlements west of Lycoming Creek. Brattan Caldwell and his family fled to Lancaster County during The Big Runaway of the American Revolution and did not return to their land until after Sullivan's Expedition. Caldwell obtain legal rights to the land he has settled in 1784 following the Treaty of Fort Stanwix.

Linden is the only village in Woodward Township. It sprung up as a shanty town during the construction of the Pennsylvania Canal. The contractors building the canal built the shanties for the laborers who were building the canal.

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