AREA HISTORY:  Hellam, Topography, York County, PA

Contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by Kathy Francis

Copyright 2006.  All rights reserved.
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History of York County, Pennsylvania.  John Gibson, Historical Editor.
Chicago: F. A. Battey Publishing Co., 1886.
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TOPOGRAPHY – Page 600

Gradually new township were formed, and Hellam was reduced to its present size by the erection 
of Spring Garden, in 1822, out of the western part of this township and the northern part of 
York Township.  Hellam is bounded on the north and east by the Susquehanna, on the south by 
Windsor and Lower Windsor, and on the west by Spring Garden.  Extending through the entire 
northern part of the township is a wooded ridge, known as the Hellam Hills, parts of which 
furnished timber for charcoal used at the forge, once located at the mouth of the Codorus, 
whose history will be found on page 484 in this book.  The greater portion of Hellam is fertile 
and highly productive.  It is crossed by the limestone belt, which enters it from Lancaster 
County, making the beautiful Kreutz Creek Valley, one of the garden spots of Pennsylvania.  
Upon these valuable lands the prudent German emigrant located, and soon felled the huge trees 
of the forest and began to cultivate the cleared tracts which ever since have been continually 
increasing in value.  The use of lime as a fertilizer began here as early as 1825.

The winding stream which drains this fertile and historic valley, is now known as Kreutz Creek, 
which seems to be a corruption of the German word “Kreuz” meaning “Cross.”  It is mentioned in 
legal documents at the time of the early settlement and for nearly half a century later, as 
Grist Creek and the valley as Grist Valley, after one of the first English settlers, John 
Grist, who located near the head of the stream prior to 1721, together with John Powell and a 
few others, before the proprietaries of the province, authorized settlements to be made west of 
the Susquehanna.  By the time this township was erected in 1739, the entire valley was thickly 
settled, mostly by industrious Germans, some of whose descendants now own and occupy these 
valuable farms.  The population, in 1880, was 1,963, the value of real estate for the year 
1884, was $1,531,480.