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Where was Borough Township and how did it get named? Most county residents never heard of it but we had a Borough Township most of Beaver County's history. A borough and a township are two different things; how could there be a Borough Township?
It started in the first years of Beaver County's existence. Under state law of the time, when Beaver Borough was incorporated, it was stiff part of South Beaver Township for tax purposes (At that time, South Beaver included all of present day Beaver County north of the Ohio and west of the Beaver.)
Beaver residents were reportedly unhappy about paying taxes to maintain roads as far away as Darlington or Koppel (these towns weren't there yet). So the court was petitioned to form a new township, coextensive with the Borough of Beaver- When approved, it was named, logically, Borough Township.
It wasn't too long, however, before Beaver decided to reduce its boundaries (which it did several times over the years). For the first time there was land in Borough Township that wasn't in Beaver Borough. Soon after, a village grew up in that area, and it was informally called Vanport, after the then-president Martin Van Buren. Soon everyone knew where Vanport was, but its official name was a well kept secret. It wasn't until 1970, finally, that Borough Township officially changed its name to Vanport Township.