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The act of the Legislature authorizing the formation of Tioga county from Lycoming county in the year 1804, was not fully complied with until the year 1813, when the first court was held at Wellsboro. The formation of the township of Delmar in the year 1808, was by the authority of the court of common please of Lycoming County and the assessment was not made and returned to the county of Lycoming until the year 1815. Tioga township was organized also by the same authority in 1808 and these two townships were the original townships from which the twenty-six other townships have been formed.
Delmar township is situated nearly in the geographical center of the county and its mean altitude is about 1,550 feet above tide. Its surface is diversified by valleys, hills and plateaus. It is supplied with living springs of water and numerous creeks. Pine Creek a stream navigable for rafts of lumber or timber during a freshet, washes its southwestern boundary. The early settlers in Delmar (before the borough of Wellsboro was formed) were from Delaware, Maryland, Virginia and Philadelphia. The first settlers in the township were Benjamin Wistar Morris, John Norris, David Lindsey, Alpheus Cheeney, David Kelsey, William Wells, Gideon Wells, James Iddings, James Dixson, Richard Jackson and Rev. Caleb Boyer. This was in the years 1801 and 1802. In christening the township, out of compliment to the states from which they had emigrated they called it Virdelmar, the abbreviations of Virginia, Delaware and Maryland. When it was incorporated as a township the abbreviation "Vir" was omitted and it went upon record as Delmar. Notwithstanding the edict of the court several of the settlers who had acquired the custom of calling it Virdelmar persisted in thus naming it. Benjamin W. Morris was a Philadelphian and was the leading spirit in the settlement. He had met with reverses in Philadelphia, and came into the wilderness of Northern Pennsylvania to hide his chagrin or recover his former financial standing. William Wells was from Maryland and located about two and one half miles southwest of the spot where Mr. Morris had located. He brought several slaves with him which in a few years he manumitted, giving them his Delmar property, house, lands and personal effects.
The assessment in the year 1815, the first that was returned to the commissioners of Tioga County and which then was embraced in the township of Delmar, covering the territory now composed of Delmar, Charleston, Middlebury, Shippen, Clymer, Gaines, Elk, Morris, Duncan, a portion of Liberty with the borough of Wellsboro. The names of these taxables appear: John Allington, Roswell B. Alford, Caleb Austin, Asahel Anderson, Rosel Bailey, William Babb, William Bache, Gideon Briggs, David Brant, Alpheus Cheeney, Jediah Carpenter, Timothy Culver, Jas. Dickinson, J. G. Dartt, Justus Dartt, Jr., Asaph Ellis, Consider Ellis, Richard Ellis, Chas. Daniels, Justus Dartt Sr., Peter Fulkrson, Aaron Furman, Jos. Irish, Sam’l W. Fisher, David Greenleaf, Isaac Greenleaf, Richard Gooden, Jacob Hines, Reuben Harrington, David Henry, Samuel Hampson, William Hill, William Hoadley, J. R. Harrison,George Haven, Hezekiah Haven, James Henry, Roswell Ives, Ezekiel Jones, Lorentus Jackson, Ebenezer Jackson, Luther Johnson, Sarah Kelsey, B. W. Morris, James Madison, Eben Murray, Samuel Miller, Morderica Moore, Aaron Niles, Nathan Niles, Jr., Richard Phillips, John Phenix, Daniel Phillips, Thomas Printer, James Porter, James Porter, Jr., Elias Spencer, Orange Hotchkiss, Robert Hale, Peter Shumway, Elijah Starkweather, Daniel Wilson, J. W. Whitman , Samuel Whitman, Daniel Warner, Elijah White, Oliver Willard, Josiah Wilson, O. Wheeler, Andrew Whitmore, J. N. Kilbourn, David Kilbourn, Francis Conkright, William Conkright, William Dickson, Morderica Jackson, John Smith, D. H. Baker, Joseph Brown, Henry Hulburt, Joseph Trimbler, Daniel Salmon, Thompson Alden, Gordon Benjamin, Samuel Dill and James Tremain.
Alvin Willard, assessor; Hopestill Beecher, Justus Dartt and John Knox, county commissioners; David Lindsay, clerk; Nathan Niles and Caleb Austin, collectors. Rate of tax one per cent.
The first teacher in Delmar was Beadle Skull.
There are twenty-five school houses in Delmar.
Israel Stone was one of the pioneers in Delmar.
John McEwen was one of the pioneers in Delmar.
The family of Bacons were pioneers in Delmar township.
Delmar is one of the best cultivated agricultural townships in Tioga County.
Robert Campbell, one of the most successful farmers in Tioga County, settled in Delmar, in the year 1837.
Robert Karr, a native of Wilmington, Delaware, settled in Delmar near Stony Forks in the year 1836. He died July, 1875, aged 75 years.
David Heise, a native of Germany, a celebrated land surveyor, settled in Delmar in the year 1820. He used the compass over sixty years.
Erastus P. Deane, a teacher, surveyor and farmer, settled in Delmar in 1834. He was one of the most accurate and well known land surveyors in Pennsylvania.
William Eberenz, a native of Germany, settled in Delmar in the year 1817. He became one of the prominent citizens of the township and left a fine estate. He died June 7th, 1880, aged 79 years.
