AREA HISTORY: Lower Windsor Township, York County, PA Contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by Abby Bowman Copyright 2004. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/pa/york/ _______________________________________________ History of York County, Pennsylvania. John Gibson, Historical Editor. Chicago: F. A. Battey Publishing Co., 1886. _______________________________________________ Pages 729-730 THE TOWNSHIP OF LOWER WINDSOR This township was formed in 1838, by a division of Windsor, of which it formed a part for a period of eighty years. Lower Windsor is bounded on the north by Hellam, on the east by the Susquehanna, on the south by Chanceford and on the west by Windsor. It slopes gently eastward, and is drained by various small tributaries of the Susquehanna. The farming land in the greater part of the township is very valuable, and there are still tracts of excellent woodland. The valley which extends across the entire township in an east and west direction, is fertile with historical associations of the colonial period, and the times of the first settlements west of the Susquehanna. It was then called the Conojohela* Valley, a beautiful Indian name which, on account of its euphony, should not be lost to history or literature. It has been, however, within the past half century, corrupted into "Jockly," "Canojockly" "Canodocholy," etc. The original name should be revived. It was in this valley that some of the first "squatters" on the west side of the Susquehanna located, and were driven to the east side by the Provincial authorities, before the time of authorized settlements, the incidents of which are related in the first part of this book. It was on the opposite side of the river, at the site of the village of Washington, that James Patterson, the Indian trader lived and flourished when the territory of York County was yet owned by the red man. As early as 1722 he used a portion of the Conojohela Valley as a public pasture ground for his horses. At his store the surveyors who laid off Springetsbury Manor met. Gov. Keith and the Hon. John Penn stopped there and met representatives of the native tribes of the Susquehannocks. One of the volumes of the Pennsylvania Archives record the fact that in the year 1722, some Indian squaws had gathered apples in this valley, and were about to take them across the river to their settlement at Indian Town, when the white "squatters" took the apples from the Indians and abused them, on account of which, complaint was made to the authorities. Inasmuch as apples are not indigenous to America, this fact would seem to indicate that this fruit was introduced in York County by our aborigines before the time of the settlement by the whites. At the base of the Conojohela Valley, near the mouth of Cabin Branch Creek, was the site of what was known as the fort of Col. Thomas Cresap, the hero of the Maryland Intruders. The thrilling incidents which caused so much commotion on account of the encroachment of the Marylanders, will be found in the chapter entitled "Border Troubles" in the first part of this work. *The meaning of this word is unknown.