Barree Township was one of the five townships formed out of the Albany Purchase within Cumberland County in 1767. Two years after the erection of Bedford County, in October 1773, the township of Hopewell was formed out of a portion of Barree Township.
Hopewell Township encompassed, in 1773, the territory that would become Carbon, Cass, Hopewell, Lincoln, Penn, Todd, Union and Wood townships within Huntingdon County when it was erected out of Bedford in 1787. Remaining within Bedford County, Hopewell Township encompassed the region that would become Broad Top, Hopewell and Liberty Townships.
On 16 April 1838, the township of Broad Top was formed out of Hopewell.
Liberty Township was formed out the northern half of the remaining region of Hopewell Township in 1845. The Bedford County Court of General Quarter Sessions received a petition from some inhabitants of Hopewell Township during the November 1844 session for the division. According to their petition, the inhabitants requested that the township of Hopewell "be divided by a line commencing at or near Riddlesburg on Raystown branch of Juniata thence a straight line to the top of Tusseys Mountain."
The new township was formed by order of the Court on 05 February 1846.4 It should be noted that the clerk who recorded the formation of the new township wrote the wrong date and it states '1845' despite being recorded in the docket after the November 1845 entries.
At a Court of Quarter Sessions of the Peace held at Bedford on the 5th day of February Anno Domini 1845, before the Judges of the same Court. The persons appointed at November Sessions 1844 to view the lines proposed for the division of Hopewell Township having reported that in pursuance of said order, we have reviewed the same, and that in our opinion a division is necessary we have laid out and retain the following line for a division, beginning at a locust on the banks of the West side of Riddelsburg on the Raystown branch of the Juniatta, thence North eighty seven degrees West four Miles and sixty perches to the top of Tussey's Mountain, to intersect the line between the Hopewell and Woodberry Townships. A plot or draft whereof is hereunto annexed. And the said report having been referred back to same Commissioners with instructions to return a draft or plot of the whole Township made report as follows ~ Beginning at a locust on the banks of the West side of Riddelsburg on the Raystown branch of Juniatta, thence North eighty seven degrees West four Miles & sixty perches &c. A plot or draft whereof is to the said report annexed, which report being made in the mari[illegible] and at the time prescribed by law, the Court approves of and confirms the same and divides said Township accordingly. And the Court order and direct that that part lying on the North in the draft returned by the commissioners be erected and established as a new township to be called "Allegripus" and that part on the South in said draft be erected and established as a new township to be called "Hopewell". By the Court
Local historian, Jon Baughman made the statement that "'Proclaim Liberty throughout the land' was a popular theme during, and after, the Revolutionary War. Thus, the residents who petitioned for the formation of Liberty Twp, believed that was an appropriate name." The phrase, derived from the Bible (Leviticus 25:10), was indeed popular during the American Revolutionary War. It was part of the inscription cast onto the Liberty Bell. But the American Revolutionary War was sixty-some years in the past when 1844 rolled around. In the meantime, the fledgling United States had experienced the Barbary Wars, the Quasi-War with France and the War of 1812. Relations were becoming strained between the United States and Mexico as a result of the Texas Revolution of 1836. Then, through 1844, the annexation of Texas to become the 28th state would have generated patriotic feelings throughout the land. Documentary evidence for the actual reason for the name does not exist. So while Mr. Baughman's suggestion is a good one, it is also possible that the national feelings and hopes for Texas might have motivated the choice of the name for the new township.
