Lying alongside of Williamsport, and stretching from Loyalsock Creek on the east to Lycoming Creek on the west, lies the largest township in point of population in the county. Some portions of it are built up solidly and at the lower end are two important suburbs of the City of Williamsport, both of them directly on the Susquehanna Trail at the eastern end of Washington Boulevard. They are known as Faxon and Kenmar and are rapidly being built up with attractive homes.

It was erected from a part of Muncy Township before Lycoming was erected as a separate county, by order of the court of Northumberland County in 1786. It extended back from the river above and below Williamsport for an indefinite distance, and that portion of it to the north was wholly uninhabited. It was named for the stream at its eastern end, which signifies in the Indian language "Middle Creek," it being midway between Muncy and Lycoming creeks. It was originally, next to Muncy, the largest township in the county, but has been gradually shorn of much of its territory to make room for other townships. It is now seventeenth in size in the county and contains 15,360 acres.

The character of the topography is hilly and rolling, but there is much good bottom land along the two creeks and much of this territory is devoted to trucking and gardening. Three-fourths of the township was taken for the location of what is now the City of Williamsport. The names of the early settlers were largely those who afterwards became identified with the general history of the county, such as Smith, Covenhoven, Thomson, Wychoff and others.

Between the years 1825 and 1830 Isaac McKinley and son built a forge on Lycoming Creek a few miles above its source and called the place Heshbon, by which name it is known to this day. Subsequently they built a furnace and rolling mill and made ten-plate stoves. The business afterwards passed into other hands and was continued down to the year 1865, when the great flood of that year so badly damaged the buildings that they were never repaired. Below the City of Williamsport, in this township, during the lumber days, were located along the river, the sawmills of Elias Deemer & Company, with an output of 4,000,000 feet annually; J. B. Emery & Company, with a capacity of 15,000,000 feet, and Ezra Canfield, with a capacity of 20,000,000 feet. The Canfield mill stood almost on the exact spot where James Brady, the gallant son of Capt. John Brady, was killed by the Indians.

There are a number of splendid schools in the township, and it is well supplied with churches. Edgewood Cemetery, just above Loyalsock Creek, is one of the oldest in the county, and in it are buried most of the prominent people who lived in the township, and also many from Montoursville. John Kidd, the first prothonotary of the county, is buried in this cemetery. The burial ground originally stood down on the flat, but was removed to its present location, high up. on the hill, when the Reading Railroad was built through it.

The Williamsport cemeteries are nearly all located in Loyalsock Township and will be considered in connection with the history of that city. There are no towns in Loyalsock Township, but it is almost continuously built up along the Susquehanna Trail from Williamsport to Montoursville, a distance of four miles. In 1920 Loyalsock Township had a population of 5,268, but since then a large slice has been taken off and made a part of the City of Williamsport.