2/23/2024 0 Comments Hamilton township paIn 1814, Northampton County divided the township once again, renaming Lower Smithfield Township as Smithfield Township. Because of the growing population in the area, the municipality was separated into Upper and Lower Smithfield Townships in the 1760s. Smithfield Township’s borders were not settled, and the municipality was again divided when Northampton County was formed from the northern portion of Bucks County in 1752. Four years later, the residents presented a petition to the Bucks County Commissioners to create a new Smithfield Township with updated boundary lines, proposing that the land should "begin at the gap in the mountains where the River Delaware runs through and from thence five or six miles northwest and then by a straight line to the Delaware." It wasn’t until 1748, after a second petition with different boundary lines was presented, that the courts granted the creation of this early township above the Blue Mountains. In 1742, the Bucks County courts designated a large area of land the size of present-day Smithfield and Middle Smithfield Townships combined as “Smithfield Township ” this act officially brought the region’s settlers under Bucks County’s jurisdiction. Smithfield Township is Monroe County’s earliest township.įormed in 1682, the area now known as Smithfield Township was once part of Bucks County and was considered the northern extension of the County’s frontier. However, the first permanent European settler was Nicholas DePui who purchased 3,000 acres of land along the Delaware River in present-day Shawnee-on-Delaware. Smithfield Township was founded in 1748 and is named for John Smith, an early colonist who owned large tracts of land in the area. Part 2 of a series of articles commemorating the 175th anniversary of Monroe County
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