From Indiantown to Manor Township: The Evolution of a Community

Manor Township derives its name from the Manor of Conestoga, a tract originally surveyed and reserved for William Penn in 1719. However, historical evidence suggests that William Penn visited this area prior to 1690, long before European settlement.

At that time, the land was part of Native American territory, inhabited primarily by the Susquehannocks, the largest tribe in the Susquehanna Valley. The heart of their community was located in what is now the Turkey Hill area.

In 1719, the Quaker government, under Penn’s direction, had surveyors delineate a substantial tract of land. This area was bounded by the Little Conestoga Creek near present-day Millersville, the Susquehanna River, and the Conestoga Creek. The resulting 16,000-acre reserve called the Manor of Conestoga, was likely intended as a domain where Native Americans could continue to live and hunt. The land was prized for its flat, well-watered terrain and its rich, fertile soil, which made it ideal for agriculture.

Within this tract, William Penn reserved a specific 3,000-acre site on the eastern bank of the Susquehanna River, just north of Turkey Hill, as the proposed location for a settlement he envisioned as New Philadelphia. This city would have been situated at the terminus of the present-day Blue Rock Road. Blue Rock Road itself was a significant thoroughfare, originally an ancient Native American trail. Today, the road is known as Route 999 as it departs Millersville, crosses the Little Conestoga Creek, and leads to the Susquehanna River, south of Washington Boro. Around 1730, the Blue Rock Ferry began operating at the river’s edge, cementing the road’s importance as one of the earliest “gateways to the west.”

Following William Penn’s death, control of the Manor passed to three of his sons in the early 1730s. At this time, Swiss-German Mennonites were among the first Europeans to settle on subdivided parcels of the Manor. A map attributed to H. Frank Eshleman, dated circa 1730, lists 28 property owners and identifies settlements within the Manor, including Washington Boro, Creswell, Safe Harbor, Windom, Letort, Millersville, and Rock Hill. The map also marks the 3,000 acres retained by the Penn family, approximately 4,000 acres of unoccupied land, and a section identified as Indiantown—a reservation for the remaining Native Americans. Common family names among the early settlers included Patterson, Shank, Shenk, Funk, Stoner, Bachman, Hostetter, Herr, Martin, Leaman, Kilhaver, Oberholtzer, and Hamilton.

In 1759, the Manor of Conestoga was officially renamed Manor Township. However, one feature that set the Manor apart from other areas in Lancaster County at the time was the existence of Indiantown, the Native American reservation established by William Penn. Tragically, this reservation’s history ended in December 1763, when the Paxton Boys—a vigilante group—invaded the reservation and brutally massacred the remaining Conestoga people, marking one of the most somber chapters in the region’s history.

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Resources

• Manor Township History