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Liberty township is one of the southern tier townships of Tioga County, bounded on the south by Jackson township in Lycoming County, on the west by Morris township, on the north by Bloss and east by Union townships. It was formed from Covington and Delmar in the year 1823. Liberty and Nauvoo are its principal villages, with Barfelden, Veeltown and East Point, hamlets.
Liberty is a thriving village, situated upon Block House Creek, adjoining the Lycoming County line. Nauvoo is situated on Zimmerman Creek in the southwestern portion of the townships.
Its mean elevation above tide is about 1,600 feet.
The inhabitants are chiefly engaged in farming. It stands fifth in point of valuation of the several townships of the county. The Williamson road which was made in 1792, passes north and south through the township.
Joseph Reed settled in Liberty in 1821.
Felix Costerison was the first merchant.
John F. Hart settled in Liberty in 1824.
Frederic Harrer settled in Liberty in 1830.
Great fire in Liberty village December 5th, 1879.
Horace Fellows settled in Liberty in the year 1840.
Jonathan Sebring died in February, 1879, aged 96 years.
Isaac Foulkrod taught the first school in Liberty in 1821.
C. A. Miller & Co. erected their brick block in the year 1880.
William Dieffenbacher erected the first woolen mill in Liberty.
John Sebring was a soldier of the war of 1812. He came to Liberty in 1820.
John Neal came to Liberty in 1822; he was a soldier of the war of 1812.
There are now twelve school buildings in Liberty township where thirteen teachers are employed.
Mrs. Lydia Jane Pierson, a poetess, settled in the western portion of Liberty township in the year 1821.
A post route was established between Painted Post, N.Y., and Williamsport, Pa., via Liberty, in the year 1816.
Leonard Miller came to Liberty in the year 1825; was a soldier under Napoleon, and received a medal for his bravery.
Isaac Foulkrod settled in Liberty in the year 1821. He was a man of letters. His father, Jacob Foulkrod was a revolutionary soldier.
Isaac Werline settled in Liberty in 1829. He erected the first tannery in the township, was killed by the falling of a tree in the year 1846, aged 53 years.
John Sheffer, Jr., of Liberty, in the years 1816-17=18, when only thirteen years of age, carried the U. S. Mail from Williamsport to Painted Post, a distance of eighty miles.
April 20, 1861, the news of the firing upon Fort Sumpter was received; it was on Sunday morning. Major, afterwards General R. Cox, started that day for Wellsboro to organize companies. A band of martial music paraded the streets of Liberty village; the ministers dismissed their congregations.
Block House Lodge, No. 398, I.O.O.F., was instituted February 25th, 1850. December 5th, 1879, a fire destroyed the lodge, books and regalia; new ones were immediately purchased.
A colony of settlers came into Liberty and vicinity, about the year 1813, among whom were George Miller, Jonathan Sebring, ____Keagle, Peter Secrist, Jacob Beck, Frederic Bower, Peter Moyer.
"Block House" erected in 1792, in the present village of Liberty, by Robert and Benjamin Patterson, who were conducting General Williamson’s party of five hundred German and English emigrants or settlers to Bath, N.Y.
A man by the name of Anthony kept a hotel in the "Block House" about the year 1800, and was succeeded by his sons. It was a disreputable place. In 1813 Jonathan Sebring came into possession and was a very respectable and honored citizen.
The early settlers of Liberty were Joseph Opdegraff, Isaiah Thompson, Leonard Harrer, Peter Sheik, Samuel Keagle, Frederic Harrer, John Harrer; Fred Schambacher, Isaac Foulkrod, James Merrell, Jonathan Sebring, Daniel Hartsock, Michael Linck, John Sheffer, Felix Costrison, Charles A. Hensler, Brown Miller, Jacob Benner, John Sebring, John Keller, Robert C. Sebring, George Bastian, George Wheeland, Leonard Miller, John Lovegood, Daniel Spangler, Casper Moyer, Harvey Root, John Marquot, Solomon Roup, Christian Carson, Jacob Shraner, Isaac Werline, John Neal, James McEvoy, John C. Beiser, George Hebe, John F. Hart, Thomas Black, Samuel Hartman, Jeremiah Black, ____Zimmerman, Caleb Comstock, John ridge, Horace Fellows, Charles J. Minnich, Jacob Mannaval, John Cochran, John Lenhart, John Herman, Abram Kohler, William Cox, Robert C. Cox, George R. Sheffer.
