04/14/2021
Facts I have found so far:
*Township was incorporated on October 19, 1848.
*Encompasses 23.42 square miles
*The original Township building was what is now known as Kaufman’s Gun Shop on Independence Road, near its intersection with 151.
*The township had six one-room schools—- Gorsuch, Butler, Backbone, Independence, Hardscrabble and Bocktown.
* occupies land patented to Thomas Shannon and Thomas McCormick
* In 1803 McCormick laid out the land. The lots cost anywhere between $8.00 to $20.
* From the time the village was founded it had been called “Williamsburg,” for William McCormick, but when it got a post office, that had to be changed, since it had already been taken by a town in Blair County
***Information found at
Independence Township was erected out of Hopewell Township May 18, 1853. It is bounded on the north by Jefferson and Cross Creek, south by Donegal, east by Cross Creek and Hopewell and west by West…