Fawn township was erected March 28, 1858, by decree of court. The proceedings in this case were begun at the October term, 1856, when C. Snively, Henry Chalfant and George G. Negley were appointed to report upon the advisability of dividing East Deer, which then extended a distance of fourteen miles along the Allegheny river. The division was confirmed agreeably to their recommendation.

The earliest settler was Ezekiel Miller, a native of Cumberland county, who, in 1794, built a cabin at the village which bears his name. He was a lame man, and always traveled on horseback, to which circumstance he owed the preservation of his life when attacked by the Indians. He fled to Crawford’s fort, a stockade on the south side of the Allegheny river above the mouth of Puckety creek, built by Col. William Crawford. In 1796 he returned to his former residence with his family. Three other settlers arrived in the same year — John Harbison, Daniel Howe and Benjamin Coe. They had previously served as spies in St. Clair’s army, and in return for this service were allowed four hundred acres each from the "depreciation lands." Harbison entered the army in March, 1792, and was wounded at St. Clair’s defeat. His family was also subjected to a most barbarous experience at the hands of the Indians. His wife and three children were living at the time near Freeport, Armstrong county. On the morning of May 22d, only two months after the departure of her husband, Mrs. Harbison was roused from sleep by the forcible entrance into her house of a party of savages, said to have been thirty-two in number. She was forcibly dragged from her bed, and compelled to leave the house with scarcely time to provide the necessary clothing. She carried the youngest child in her arms, and the eldest was placed upon a horse; but the other, a little boy of three years, cried and resisted, whereupon he was killed in a most inhuman manner before the eyes of his mother. The other child fell from his horse in descending the bank of the river, and when the party had crossed to the island upon which Freeport is built, his cries were speedily terminated by a blow from a tomahawk. The next day, as the brave was stretching the scalp over a hoop, Mrs. Harbison, horrified at the sight, attempted to kill him with his own tomahawk; but failing in the effort, she was severely punished. A favorable opportunity of escape was presented on the third day of her captivity. The party were all out hunting, leaving but one Indian to guard the prisoners. While he was asleep she removed the thongs from her wrists and ankles, and, taking her one remaining child in her arms, fled. After three days of wandering she was at length rescued.

Of early families in what is now Fawn township the names are remembered of Painter, Martin, Gibson, McGoldrick, Gravatt, Donald, Smith, Maizland, Jillett, Hill, Thompson, Hunter, Young, McCall, Critchlow.

Fawn is an exclusively agricultural township. There is a small hamlet in the western part, on Bull creek, which bears the name of Millerstown, but no villages of importance. Fawn postoffice existed from February, 1877, to July, 1879.

There are three churches — Cumberland Presbyterian and Methodist in the western part of the township, and Center Methodist Episcopal. The population in 1860 was 1,654; in 1870, 681, and in 1880, 636.