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HISTORY OF
LEHMAN TOWNSHIP
From D.A. Waters, Dallas, PA History 1976.
Present northeastern Pennsylvania was claimed by Connecticut under the Royal Charter
of 1662, various older grants and patents, and under a purchase by some hundreds of
persons, as individuals, from the Iroquois at Albany, N.Y., July 11, 1754.
Pennsylvania claimed under a charter of 1681 and a purchase from the Iroquois in
October 1768, both later by several years than the corresponding documents advanced
by Connecticut. In the meantime however, while Connecticut claims were dormant for
about ninety years, a strip of New York had been recognized west of the home state
and Pennsylvania had been actively settling other sections.
By the mid 1700s Connecticut was becoming crowded and the " Susquehanna Company " was
formed by several hundred individuals at Windham, Connecticut on July 18, 1753 with
the avowed purpose of establishing a settlement along the banks of the Susquehanna in
furtherance of the Connecticut claims. All the records of meetings and land transactions
of the company including the controversy between Pennsylvania and Connecticut are
included in the " Susquehanna Company Papers ".
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In 1774, Douglas Davidson laid out the Certified Township of Bedford adjoining Plymouth
and Kingston Townships on their northwest sides, in a rectangle, 8 miles long and 3.15
miles wide, containing 16,002 acres, 25 square miles, surrounded by unsurveyed wilderness
on three sides. Lots were laid out on both sides of a center line, not exactly parallel
with the side lines, numbered on the south side, beginning at a point near the new Dallas
School, southwest ward beyond Lake Silkworth, then back along the north side. Two lots,
numbered 27, total 800 acres, were reserved for support of the public schools, and one
lot, number 32, 353 acres for a parsonage.
Bedford included all of the present Township of Lehman except a small portion toward
Harveys Lake, all of Dallas Borough, and adjoining parts of present Dallas Township. There
was much buying and selling of lands. Titles were confirmed by Act of Assembly in
Pennsylvania in 1810.
In August 1810 surveys were made, and in 1812 patents were issued for most lots, except:
25, 41, and 43. The following list of claimants and lots in Bedford from Waters
" Dallas, Pennsylvania History ", comprises those lots which were included in
Lehman Township in 1829:
Page 2 or skip to Timeline
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