Cumberland Valley Township was one of the original five townships formed in the year 1767 while the region was under the jurisdiction of Cumberland County. The Cumberland County Court of General Quarter Sessions defined Cumberland Township as:
Bounded by Coleraine Township as above the Provincial Line to the Allegeney Mountain & along the Allegeney Mountain to the Top of the Ridge that Divides the Waters of Wills Creek from those of Juniata to Strike Dunnings Mountain Thro Luns Gap Thomas Coulter Constable
The name given to the new township at first was simply: Cumberland. Available records do not reveal exactly when, or for what reason, the name was changed to Cumberland Valley. The earliest extant record in which the name 'Cumberland Valley' appeared is the tax assessment return for the year 1776. In that return, the name was spelled: Cumberland Valey. The name might have appeared earlier, but between the years 1767 (when the township was formed and named simply, Cumberland) and 1776 (when it appeared on the return as Cumberland Valey), the returns for the years 1769, 1770 and 1771 carried the heading simply as Cumberland. The returns for the years 1772, 1773, 1774 and 1775 are no longer extant and maintained in the Archives of the Bedford County Court House. So the alteration of the name might have taken place during 1772 through 1775, but in the complete absence of the original documents, we will never know. The only thing that we can know for sure is that by 1776, the name had changed.
The removal of the western half of Cumberland Valley Township to form Londonderry in 1785 was the only division of the original township area within Bedford County.
The township was named for the valley stretching northward from Cumberland, Maryland. Cumberland was named for Prince George's son, the Duke of Cumberland. It was through that valley stretching northward from the town of Cumberland that many of the earliest Euro~Americans traveled in their search for arable land on which to settle. The available roads in Maryland and northern Virginia led to Cumberland. The road cut between Fort Cumberland and Fort Bedford by Bouquet's and Washington's troops during Forbes' Campaign provided a route into the wilderness that was Bedford County after the French and Indian War.
