AREA HISTORY:  Eib’s Landing, Manchester Township, York County, PA

Contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by Kathy Francis

Copyright 2005.  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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EIB’S LANDING – Page 614

Among the early settlers west of the Susquehanna was Peter Eib, who took up the 
fertile land forming a delta between the mouths of the Conewago Creek.  As the 
lumber interests up the river were developed, a section of his farm, now owned 
by George W. Ilgenfritz, of York, became one of the most important landing 
places for this valuable product along the stream.  There was a demand for pine 
timber, and from this landing place York, and a broad expanse of country, were 
largely supplied for more than half a century.  But the glory of Eib’s Landing 
declined when the steam saw-mills were built at York Haven and at Goldsboro, and 
when the Northern Central Railway was completed.  Old citizens of the 
neighborhood recalled the time when as many as seventy-five teams were in 
waiting to load lumber in one day.  For one mile along the bank were continuous 
piles of boards and building timber.  The price, on account of the abundance, 
was very low in comparison with present prices.  Excellent shaved shingles could 
be purchased at $6 per 1,000, and a fine quality of boards at $8 and $10 per 
1,000 feet.

During the spring and early summer, business was most flourishing.  For many 
years there were three hotels, to accommodate teamsters and lumbermen – 
“Yankees,” as they were termed, who brought the rafts of lumber down the 
Susquehanna.  At times ardent spirits flowed profusely, and occasions of 
boisterous hilarity were very frequent.  Much sawed timber was conveyed in teams 
by merchants who owned lumber yards in York, Hanover, Abbottstown, East Berlin, 
and as far away as Frederick, Md.  There is nothing now left to mark this, 
probably the most historic spot in Manchester Township, except the dilapidated 
remains of a few old buildings at a place where millions of feet of lumber were 
annually sold.