AREA HISTORY:  Codorus and North Codorus Townships, York County, PA

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History of York County, Pennsylvania.  John Gibson, Historical Editor.
Chicago: F. A. Battey Publishing Co., 1886.
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CODORUS AND NORTH CODORUS TOWNSHIPS – Page 698

The word Codorus is of Indian origin, but its signification is unknown.  All 
attempts to give its meaning are purely conjectural.  There seems to have been a 
small tribe of the Susquehannock Indians, who bore that name, yet there are no 
authentic records to establish it as a fact.  In the earliest official records, 
and in the writing of missionaries and adventurers who first visited what is now 
York county, the names “Coddorus,” “Codores” and “Kothores,” etc., are used to 
designate the winding stream, which drains a large part of York County, now 
bearing the beautiful name of Codorus.  The township which was given the same 
name, was organized under the authority of the Lancaster Court in 1747, two 
years before the erection of York County.  Some of the land in the southern part 
of the township, was taken up about 1732, under Maryland titles, before the 
temporary line between Pennsylvania and Maryland was run.  A year or two later a 
number of Germans began to take possession of the fertile spots in the northern 
part of the township, and what is now North Codorus.  There was a colony of 
German Baptists (Dunkers), who located in this section before 1750.  (See page 
383 in this book.)  George Lightner, in 1749, was the first township constable; 
Casper Cooper succeeded him in 1751; Peter Brillhard, in 1752, and Peter 
Bingley, in 1765.

The present township of Codorus is bounded on the north by North Codorus, on the 
east by Shrewsbury and Springfield, on the south by the State of Maryland and on 
the west by Manheim.  It is drained by different branches of the Codorus Creek.  
The Hanover & Baltimore Railroad extends along its western boundary; the Hanover 
Branch Railroad along a portion of the northern boundary and the Northern 
Central Railway along a portion of the eastern boundary.  Most of the land is in 
an excellent state of cultivation and yields abundant cereal crops.  Its 
population in 1880 was 2,261; valuation of real estate in 1884 was $6??,605, and 
number of taxables 680.

North Codorus was formed out of Codorus in 1840.  It is bounded on the north by 
Jackson and West Manchester, on the east by York and Springfield, on the south 
by Codorus and on the west by Heidelberg.  A portion of the township is composed 
of chestnut timber land.  The farming land is fertile.  The population, in 1880, 
was 2,550; valuation of real estate for 1884, was $1,099,696, and number of 
taxables 726.  The Hanover Branch Railway traverses the southern part of the 
township and the Northern Central the eastern.