AREA HISTORY:  Paradise Township, 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 PARADISE – Page 683

THIS township, which originally included Jackson, was erected under the act of 
the provincial assembly of 1739, and laid off in 1747 by Joseph Pidgeon, a 
surveyor who lived in Philadelphia County.  Doubtless the wooden hills which are 
partly in its southern limits, were named after him.  Its original shape was 
rectangular, with irregular lines for its boundaries.  The word Paradise is 
significantly interesting.  A township by same name had been organized in 
Lancaster County, in the beautiful Pequa Valley, a few years before.  These two 
township are the only ones in America so highly honored, though a number of 
villages have assumed the name.  Possibly the beautiful surroundings or the 
enchanting view from the summit of the hills, afforded to the early settlers or 
the surveyor, led them to appropriate this significant word to designate the 
name of their new township.  The land was mostly taken up by Germans.

In 1783 Paradise had 141 houses, 116 barns, estimated area 19,344 acres of 
settled land, five mills and a population of 943.  A considerable portion of the 
township, which is now fertile, was a woody swamp, hence called by the first 
German settlers “Holzschwamm.”  In early days it was not thickly settled.

The population in 1880 was 1,372; the number of taxable inhabitants in 1883 was 
426; valuation of real estate, $765,890.

The township, since the formation of Jackson from it, is an irregular 
parallelogram, its length more than equal to twice its breadth.  Dover joins it 
on the north, Jackson on the east, Heidelberg on the south, and Adams County on 
the west.  The soil is in general sandy; the northern part is red shale.  The 
York & Gettysburg Turnpike diagonally crosses it.