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Lycoming County, PA
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Created on April 13, 1795, from part of
Northumberland County and named for Lycoming Creek. The
name is derived from a Delaware Indian word meaning
“sandy or gravelly creek.” Williamsport, the county seat
was laid out in 1795, incorporated as a borough on March
1, 1806, and became a city on January 15, 1866. There
are various theories about the origin of the city’s
name: that it was so called for Judge William Hepburn;
that Michael Ross named it for his own son William; or
that William Ross, a boatman, used it as a port years
before the town was founded.
 Native
American groups had many communities in this area. Part
of the county was obtained by Pennsylvania from Indians
at the Fort Stanwix Treaty of 1768 and the remainder at
Fort Stanwix in 1784 (the “Last Purchase”). A mapping
ambiguity in the 1768 deed left an independent
settlement area—a “no-man’s land”—known as the “Fair
Play tract” which lasted until the 1784 deed clearly
made it Pennsylvania’s land. Heroic fighting against
Native Americans occurred during the Revolution,
especially the exploits of the Bradys. Lumber was the
backbone of the economy from the start. There was good
access from major roads, and the West Branch Canal
reached to Williamsport in 1833, but production really
soared after the Susquehanna Boom was built at
Williamsport, between 1846 and 1851, giving greater
control over the lumber that was floated down river to
its markets. A “Millionaires Row” of houses arose in
Williamsport. But the 1889 flood destroyed the boom,
much of Williamsport, and all the sawmills. A paper box
industry later rose, relying on wood pulp, and Muncy
became a manufacturing center. Today, Williamsport makes
electronics and metal products. Only one-fifth of the
county is farmed, largely along the river, but Lycoming
is in the upper half of Pennsylvania counties in value
of total farm products. Dairy products and mushrooms are
the specialties of greatest economic value. |
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