A petition was presented to the Court of Quarter Sessions in November 1854, requesting a division of the Hopewell Township.

"The court appointed as viewers Lysander Patterson, John Cole, Esq., and William Gillespie.

The matter was continued from term to term until February sessions of 1856, when the court ordered the division and the erection of a new township, to be called Independence, elections to be held at the house of William White.

"[5] The Isaac Manchester House was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1975.

On the east it is bounded by Hopewell Township; on the south by Donegal, from which it is separated by Buffalo Creek.

The two creeks above mentioned (Cross and Buffalo), forming respectively the north and south boundaries of Independence, are the only streams of any size or importance belonging to the township.