Bedford and Barre Townships had been formed within Cumberland County in 1767. In 1771, when Bedford County was erected out of Cumberland, Bedford and Barre retained their names and physical boundaries. Four years later, coinciding with the beginnings of the American Revolutionary War in 1775, a new township was formed primarily out of the western arm of Barre, but also from the northernmost part of Bedford. The new township's name was Frankstown, bestowed in honor of Stephen Franks, and his trading post located to the east of present-day Hollidaysburg in Blair County. At the time it was formed, Frankstown Township encompassed the region between the Allegheny Mountain range on the west and the Tussey Mountain on the east. It stretched from the point where Evitts Mountain merges with Dunnings Mountain in the south to the southern end of Bald Eagle Mountain in the north ~ with the long Dunnings Mountain dividing it vertically. It retained those boundaries for ten years before the increasing population called for changes.
In 1785, the township of Frankstown was divided roughly in half by a north-south line that followed the summits of Lock Mountain and the east branch of Brush Mountain. The eastern part that was removed from Frankstown received the name: Woodberry Township. The new township could have, and perhaps should have been given the name: Morrisons Cove Township because the region it encompassed was primarily that cove.
In 1787, the county of Huntingdon was erected out of Bedford County by the plotting of a roughly southeast to northwest diagonal line. The eastern starting point of that dividing line began on the summit of the Tuscarora Mountain just a short distance to the east of Burnt Cabins and Fort Littleton. The line was plotted in the northwest direction through the gap defined by Dunnings Mountain and Short Mountain, once known as Frankstown Gap, but later McKee Gap. It then extended on westward through Blair Gap in the Allegheny Mountain. The erection of Huntingdon County divided Woodberry Township in two. That portion of Woodberry Township which lay north of the present-day towns of Martinsburg and Roaring Spring, Blair County would retain the name of Woodberry and would, in 1787, become part of Huntingdon County. The southern half also retained the name of Woodberry Township within Bedford County.
Thirteen years later, in 1798, Woodberry Township in Bedford County was divided by a north-south line which ran along the ridge of Dunnings Mountain. The portion which lay to the east retained the name of Woodberry. The western half of Woodberry Township was named Greenfield Township. Forty years would pass before any further changes were called for.
In 1838, the township of Woodberry in Bedford County was divided into South Woodbury and North Woodbury. Although the exact date is unknown, the change in spelling of the name Woodberry to Woodbury probably came about at that time.
In 1844, the region that is encompassed by the present-day Woodbury and Bloomfield Townships was organized as Middle Woodberry Township within Bedford County. In 1842 a group of inhabitants of both North and South Woodberry Townships petitioned the Court of Quarter Sessions to form a new township out of the two.
At a Court of Quarter Sessions of the Peace held at Bedford, in and for the County of Bedford on the 27th day of January Anno Domini 1843. Upon the petition of Sundry inhabitants of the townships of North and South Woodberry in Said County, being read setting forth, That they labor under great inconvenience in attending to the affairs of their respective townships on account of Said townships being too large, and praying the Court to appoint proper persons to view and lay out a new township out of parts of Said townships to be called "Middle Woodberry" according to the following boundaries to wit Beginning at the Road where it crosses the Mountain at the division line of North Woodberry and Hopewell townships thence by a straight line past the School House at Daniel Holsingers to a point in the line between North Woodberry and Greenfield townships Said line to form the northern boundary of the township proposed to be erected the lines on the West and East to remain as they now are, and the line forming the Southern boundary to commence near Samuel Burgets thence by a straight line past Jacob Hipples house leaving it to the North to a point in the line between Hopewell and South Woodberry Townships. Whereupon the Court on due consideration do order and appoint Michael Reed James Piper and Daniel Washabaugh to be commissioners to view and examine the lines and boundaries of the Said township prayed for, and to consider the propriety of the erection of a new township as aforesaid who are to make Report of the proceedings thereon to our next Court of Quarter Sessions of the Peace. And if they lay off a new township that they return a plot or draft thereof with their said Report. By the Court
On 26 August 1843, Michael Reed, James Piper and Daniel Washabaugh returned their report to the Court of Quarter Sessions. The Court considered the report of the commissioners and on 05 March 1844 stated: "The above Report Read and confirmed, and township established to be called 'Middle Woodberry'."
For a period of two years there existed, within Bedford County: North, Middle and South Woodbury Townships. Then in 1846, Blair County was erected out of the western half of Huntingdon County. At that time, a portion of the northern third of Bedford County was removed and attached to Blair. Greenfield Township in the west along with North Woodbury in the east now came under the jurisdiction of Blair County. That left South Woodbury and Middle Woodbury in Bedford County.
The last division of what was, in 1785 defined as Woodberry Township came nearly a century later. In 1876 the township of Middle Woodbury, situated north of South Woodbury, was divided approximately in half by a surveyed north-south line running through the valley between Dunnings Mountain in the west and Tussey Mountain in the east. The word ‘middle’ was dropped from the name of Middle Woodbury for the eastern half, and the western half was given the new name of Bloomfield.
[As a side note, it might be mentioned that within Blair County, in 1842, at a time when North Woodbury Township, Bedford County was still in existence, the township of Huston was formed in the southern half of Woodbury Township, Huntingdon County. Four years later, when Blair County was erected, North Woodbury Township, Bedford County was re-designated as North Woodbury Township, Blair County. The two previous Huntingdon County townships of Woodbury and Huston retained their names, resulting in the oddity that in present-day Blair County, North Woodbury Township lies south of Woodbury Township.]
Those early Euro~American settlers who came to the Morrisons Cove gave it a new name when, in 1785, a new township was carved out of Frankstown. Woodberry is not an Amerindian name. Nor is it, like the family whose surname is spelled 'Woodbury', derived from the Old English/Saxon word wudu, meaning 'wood' combined with byrig, meaning 'fortified place'. And why would it not have the same origin as the surname? Primarily because the surname began as Woodbury, not Woodberry, as this township's name. The change in spelling was probably a very innocent and natural one. Many Bedford Countians, even today pronounce 'berry' as rhyming with 'jury' or 'worry'. But regardless of how the change in spelling came about, the fact of the matter is that the original name was spelled 'Wood-b-e-r-r-y' and not vice versa. The surname's spelling, on the other hand, had to start as 'Wood-b-u-r-y' for it to have been derived from the Old English / Saxon. In fact, in the earliest sources of the name of the township, it is given as two words Wood and Berry. So the next question is what was a 'wood berry'? There is huckleberry, blackberry, raspberry, strawberry, blueberry, cranberry and a number of other 'berries', but the name wood berry does not appear in our current dictionaries. There is, though, Fragaria vesca L., the wild strawberry. Its common name in the past was the 'Wood Strawberry'. It is the only berry that was ever given the prefix 'wood'. There is the possibility that the early settlers found many wild strawberry plants in the region and perhaps they called them simply 'wood berries'.
