It is not known who was the first settler within the present limits of Reserve. A man named George Brickle was captured by the Indians here, while looking after his cows, prior to the commencement of this century. John Tom was a settler before 1800. John Wilson and George Myers, a deaf mute, were also early settlers.

The township was erected at the October sessions, 1835. At the December sessions, 1834, a "memorial from the citizens of that part of the reserved tract embraced in the township of Ross" was presented to the court, praying for a division of Ross by the north line of the reserved lands. Thomas Temple, James Anderson and William Lecky were appointed commissioners to inquire into the propriety of making the proposed change. A favorable report was tiled in March, 1835; it was "confirmed absolutely" in October following, the new division with great propriety receiving the name of Reserve. Its original territory has been encroached upon from time to time by the city limits, and corresponding changes in the line of Ross township have been made in its favor.

The act of assembly of March 12, 1783, providing for the disposition of public lands in the northwestern part of the state, contained, among other restrictions, a clause "reserving to the use of the state three thousand acres in an oblong of not less than one mile in depth from the Allegheny and Ohio rivers, and extending up and down the said rivers from opposite Fort Pitt so far as may be necessary to include the same." Alexander McClean made the survey in April, 1785. The northern boundary began on the right bank of the Ohio river opposite the mouth of Chartiers creek; thence "east 972 perches to a hickory-tree; north 80 perches to a sassafras; east 229 1/2 perches to a mulberry; north 26 perches to a post and stones on the bank of Girty’ s run," and down the several courses thereof to the Allegheny river. David Redick was employed to subdivide the tract prior to its sale by the state, and in a letter to Benjamin Franklin, president of the supreme executive council, under date of February 19, 1788, makes mention of its characteristics, as they appeared to him, in the following terms:
"There is some pretty low ground on the rivers Ohio and Alleghenia, but there is but a small proportion of dry land which appears anyway valuable either for timber or soil, but especially for soil; it abounds with high hills, deep hollows, almost inaccessible to a surveyor. I am of opinion that if the inhabitants of the moon are capable of receiving the same advantages from the earth which we do from their world — I say, if it be so — this same far-famed tract of land would afford a variety of beautiful lunar spots not unworthy the eye of a philosopher."

Although the undulating character of the township is undeniable, German thrift has done much to surmount the natural obstacles to successful farming, and market-gardening is pursued with better returns and more extensively than in any other part of the county. The population in 1860 was 3,030; in 1870, 1,600; in 1880, 1,786.