AREA HISTORY:  The Township of Hopewell, York County, PA

Contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by Kathy Francis

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History of York County, Pennsylvania.  John Gibson, Historical Editor.
Chicago: F. A. Battey Publishing Co., 1886.
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THE TOWNSHIP OF HOPEWELL – Page 748

HOPEWELL was formed by a division of Shrewsbury.  A petition was presented to the court at 
York, in April 1767, which stated that “the inhabitants of Shrewsbury are under disadvantage on 
account of the great extent of the township, the same being by a moderate computation twenty-
five miles long and sixteen miles in breadth.  We therefore request a division of the township 
by a line commencing at William Sinclair’s mill; thence up the Codorus to the Fork; thence 
leading the branch of the Codorus past Charles Diehl’s mill; thence in a straight line to the 
head branch of Deer Creek, continuing along it to the provincial line.”  The petitioners asked 
that the new township be called “Hopewell.”  William Earhart, Peter Brillhart, John Orr, 
Michael Geiselman, William Gemmill and William Nelson, were appointed commissioners to make the 
division.  They reported to the court on the 23d of June, 1767, making the division as 
requested by the petitioners.  The report was confirmed during the July session of that year, 
by Justice John Blackburn and his four associated justices.  This township was erected the year 
before Mason and Dixon’s line was run along its southern boundary.  The name, Hopewell, is 
given to a number of other townships in the Middle and Southern States.

This township as organized in 1767 by the provincial court until 1885, had its original limits 
and is the largest township in York County.  During the summer of 1885, a majority vote of the 
electors decided in favor of dividing Hopewell into three townships.  The court appointed B. F. 
Koller, M. H. McCall and Thomas G. Cross, commissioners to lay off the new townships.

The northwestern part of the township is drained by the tributaries of the Codorus; the 
northern and eastern part by the Muddy Creek, and the southwestern part by the head waters of 
Deer Creek.  The surface is undulating, though certain parts are quite level.  There is yet 
considerable woodland, and here and there scattered over the cultivated land and along the 
roadside, giant oaks and chestnuts, which the intelligent farmer delights to let stand.  The 
soil in general now is exceedingly fertile and productive, and the land valuable, though a 
century ago (as will be seen by the assessed valuation of 1783 given below), was then estimated 
at a low rate.  Hopewell, for the year just named, contained 136 dwelling houses, 91 barns, 4 
grist-mills, 15,223 acres of cultivated land, 10 negro slaves, and a population of 866.  The 
original settlers were generally Scotch-Irish Presbyterians.  A few Germans settled in the 
northern part a few years later.  The population in 1880, including the boroughs was 4,275; 
real estate valuation in 1883, was $1,130,976.