AREA HISTORY:  Things of the Past, Lower Chanceford Township, 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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THINGS OF THE PAST – Page 746

Before 1835 most of the wheat consumed in Lower Chanceford, was brought from near 
York.  Frederick McSherry introduced the one horse tread threshing-machine in 1842.  
Before this date all the wheat of the township was threshed with the flail or by 
tramping with horses.  In fact very little wheat could be raised in the “lower end” 
before this date.  In 1846 there were four such machines in Lower Chanceford.  Every 
reader who is familiar with the fertility of the soil at present, and the abundance 
of the crops of this prosperous township, knows what important changes have taken 
place since 1840.  It was about that year, possibly a little earlier, that William 
Cowan, Peter Smith, Robert Smith, John Kilgore, Nathaniel Scott and others 
introduced lime as a fertilizer.  The limestone was brought down from the valleys 
above, on the Susquehanna Canal, then just completed.  It was burned in kilns built 
on the farms.  Of late phosphates and other fertilizers have wrought a marvelous 
change.  “Sixty year ago,” says an old citizen, “people went to Chanceford church on 
ox carts and two horse wagons.  The church woods on Sabbath day were full of such 
teams.  There were very few fences there.”  In 1830, a “Yankee” clock peddler 
visited the neighborhood with a “fancy buggy.”  Its appearance created a great deal 
of interest, because of the novelty.  Rev. Dr. Martin, about this time, bought a 
gig, which was then a new vehicle to the sturdy Scotch-Irish.

Shad fishing was a very prosperous business half a century ago along the 
Susquehanna, where it borders on Lower Chanceford.  There were a number of good 
fisheries.  William Cowan recalls the time when he saw 3,000 shad captured at one 
“haul,” with a large seine, at “Jackson Battery,” near Culley’s Falls.  Immense 
numbers of them were caught in former times, and some are still caught at McCall’s 
and Shank’s Ferries, and other points.  The shad season was a rich harvest for 
rivermen, some fishermen, as employes, were known to make $300 in one season of six 
weeks, and rested the remainder of the year.  Hundreds of teams came to the river, 
near these fisheries, to purchase shad and haul them south and west to dispose of 
them.  “In fact,” says an intelligent old citizen, “the shad fishing industry is 
what greatly helped to support the people of Lower Chanceford before 1840.”  Since 
that year the business has greatly declined.  At Indian Steps, Fulton Rock, and at 
York Furnace many have been caught in large “scoop nets,” an imitation of the nets 
by which this palatable fish was caught by the aborigines.  In 1825 about 800 were 
caught in one day in that way at Fulton Rock Fishery, now owned by John Bair of York 
Furnace.