Bastress Township is one of the smallest in the county in point of area and the second smallest in point of population. It is the thirty-eighth in size, has an area of 6,400 acres and a population of 203. It was taken from Susquehanna Township by order of court December 18, 1854, and was named for Solomon Bastress, of Jersey Shore.

Bastress Township is located on the mountain top and slopes of the Bald Eagle range and would seem to give little promise of productivity, but the sturdy Germans who settled in it have been able to wrest a comfortable living from its soil. It was settled in 1888 by a colony led by Rev. Nicholas Steinbacher, a German Catholic priest. In 1840 a church was built in the southern part of the township far up on the mountainside, from which one of the finest views in this section of Pennsylvania may be obtained. The church has a grotto cut out of the solid rock and a statue of the virgin. The congregation is large and prosperous. There are good schools in the township, but no other place of worship.