In anticipation of the United States Centennial celebration, on July 4, 1876, a committee of Waverly, NY, citizens nominated prominent lawyer, William Fiske Warner, to write a history of Tioga County, New York. Their grand vision imagined that this work might be a chapter in a larger State and National project to capture the history of all US counties. Warner’s output was published in Tioga County newspapers over a three-month period. Warner’s text is a revealing snapshot of Northern opinions, and ideals, as the nation moves forward, optimistically, with horrific memories of the recent Civil War starting to recede. Warner’s narrative will surprise many readers, in his sympathetic depiction of Native American’s such as Thayendanega (Joseph Brant), as well as his placing several black men among the important residents of the County. Warner’s intimately focuses on Tioga County people, events, and progress giving valuable details regarding the early settlers. He only travels abroad in the earliest days when France and England fought over "the Colonies" and in his imagined battle between the Natives and a marauding band of Conquistadors on “Spanish Hill.” This work is a transcription of Warner’s history, as serialized over a three-month period in the Owego Gazette in 1876 . Some minor edits, for contemporary readers, have been made. 193 maps, sketches and photos, not in the original work, have been added. This is its first publication in book form.