The purpose of Historic Hellam Preserve is to protect and preserve for future generations the architectural and cultural heritage of the Germans who participated in the settlement of Lancaster County’s eastern frontier, the Kreutz Creek Valley, on the western shore of the Susquehanna River. To put the German settlement into historical context, we share this helpful background on Hellam's early history.
Hellam's Early History
by June Evans, PhD.
Thousands of years before European immigrants settled in the Hellam area, Native Americans roamed its hills and valleys. Remnants of their settlements and hunting camps, found along the Susquehanna River and numerous streams, testify that those earlier settlers recognized and made good use of the abundant game and fertile soils of this area.
Earliest Europeans in the Hellam area were itinerant trappers and traders, but by the early 1700s people east of the River crossed to the western side and began to settle in the Kreutz Creek Valley, farming the fertile limestone soils. Most early settlers were English but were soon outnumbered by German immigrants.
In 1736 William Penn negotiated a treaty with the Native Americans to obtain these lands; soon after this, official Pennsylvania warrants were being issued for land tracts in the Hellam area. From 1736 -1739 the area west of the river was under the authority of Hempfield Township on the east side of the river.
In 1739 the Provincial Assembly passed a special act to empower Lancaster County Court to lay out townships west of the Susquehanna, and an unsurveyed area that was about the size York County is today was designated Hellam Township. It was settled mainly by Germans, many emigrating from the Palatinate region in the 1750’s. These industrious German farmers brought with them their distinctive style of house architecture and highly functional Sweitzer -style bank barns.