Lykens Township was officially created on 3 September 1810. Its original area (green on map above) included several other townships which were later divided from parts of Lykens Township. Present-day Lykens Township is within the black boundary-lines marked as such on the above map, with the exception of Gratz Borough which was incorporated as a separate entity in 1852.
The following explanation is from William Henry Egle‘s History of the Counties of Dauphin and Lebanon of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, published in Philadelphia in 1883 by Everts and Peck:
Upon the petition of inhabitants of Upper Paxtang [Paxton] Township asking for a division of said township, the court issued an order at their January sessions, 1810, to three commissioners to inquire into the propriety of granting said prayer, and to make a plot or draft of the township, etc. The commissioners reported in favor of a division of the township by the following line, to wit:
“Beginning at a pine tree in the Halifax Township line on the summit of Berry’s Mountain at Peter Richert‘s Gap; thence north ten degrees east along and near a public road which leads from Halifax to Sunbury through Hains’ Gap, four hundred and sixty perches to a post on the north side of the Wiconisco Creek near the said road; thence north eighty perches to a pine; thence running along the public road aforesaid north five degrees west four hundred and seventy perches to Buffington’s Church, leaving the said church on the westward; thence a course north ten degrees west, leaving the dwelling of John Hopple westward eleven hundred and fifty perches to Mahantongo Creek,” etc.
The report then follows the lines around the two divisions of Upper Paxtang [Paxton] Township as they were after taking off Halifax Township (running the lines across the river). It is therefore unnecessary to follow them here, as the line given above shows the division of what was then Upper Paxtang [Paxton] Township. This report was confirmed by the court on 3 September 1810, and it was ordered that the eastern division be called Lykens Township.
Lykens Township was reduced in 1819 by the formation of Mifflin Township from Upper Paxtang [Paxton] Township and Lykens Township, and further in 1840 when that portion south of the north side of Coal or Thick Mountain was erected into Wiconisco Township.
This township and the valley is named for Andrew Lycans, one of the earliest pioneers of this section….
Note: When Mifflin Township was created it 1819, it included what is presently Washington Township. And, when Wiconisco Township was created in 1840, it included what is presently Williams Township.