Old Lycoming Township
Old Lycoming Township is a township in Lycoming County that is actually older than the county. It was formed as part of Northumberland County on August 22, 1785, ten years before the formation of Lycoming County. The original boundaries of the township encompassed much of the territory that was previously governed by the Fair Play Men. The land between Lycoming and Pine Creeks was outside of the legal boundaries of Pennsylvania until 1784 and the second Treaty of Fort Stanwix. The Fair Play Men operated a system of self-government from 1773 to 1785. Their claims to the land had no legal bearing in the state of Pennsylvania when it was finally legally part of the state. These men had some troubles gaining the title to the land that they had cleared and defended for so long. Some of them were able to keep their lands and others chose to move further west.
Most of the settlers, who fled during the Big Runaway, did not return to their farms until after Sullivan's Expedition had driven off the Indian and Loyalist threat. John McMeens a native of South Carolina was one of the first to return to the area. He had settled along the river in 1776. He fled during the Big Runaway and returned in 1791. McMeens rose to a position of prominence in Lycoming County. He was a county commissioner, state commissioner and served on the initial committee that explored to possibility of building the Pennsylvania Canal that improved navigation on the Susquehanna River. McMeens also represented the area in the Pennsylvania General Assembly from 1814 to 1818.
Derick Updegraff arrived in Old Lycoming Township from York County in 1787. He settled on land that had previously been improved during the Fair Play Men era. He was not able to claim legal control of his 500 acres (2 km²) until 1793 as the result of a law suit over the land filed by the man who had previously claimed it. Updegraff and his sons improved the land by clearing more land and building what was one of the largest barns in Lycoming County.
Today Old Lycoming Township includes the census designated area of Garden View. Garden View serves as a suburb to Williamsport with many family homes and an extensive stretch of commercial and light industrial development along Lycoming Creek Road.
Read more about this topic: History Of The Townships Of Lycoming County, Pennsylvania
Famous quotes containing the word township:
“The most interesting thing which I heard of, in this township of Hull, was an unfailing spring, whose locality was pointed out to me on the side of a distant hill, as I was panting along the shore, though I did not visit it. Perhaps, if I should go through Rome, it would be some spring on the Capitoline Hill I should remember the longest.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)