Montour County PA Archives History.....BATTLE, 1887: CHAPTER 12: History of Danville
  ************************************************
  Copyright.  All rights reserved.
  http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm
  http://www.usgwarchives.net/pa/pafiles.htm
  ************************************************
  
  File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
  JoWest  

  An html version of Battle's 1887 "The History of Columbia and Montour Counties"
  may be found at:

  http://www.jowest.net/Research/HistoryOfColumbia.htm
  http://www.jowest.net/Research/HistoryOfMontour.htm
  http://www.jowest.net/Research/CCBiosIndex.htm  [Columbia Co.]
  http://www.jowest.net/Research/CCBiosIndex2.htm  [Montour Co.]
  
==================
  
  HISTORY OF DANVILLE
  From "The History of Columbia and Mountour Counties"
  Battle, 1887
  Chapter XII. (pages 75-118)
  
  Old Presbyterian Church Cemetery
  
  Danville - Part I
  
  
      Nestling in the narrow yet rich valley of the Susquehanna is the borough of
  Danville, just now rounding out its first century. In its story is pretty much
  all that is of interest in our country since the establishment of our
  independence, that is, its growth and history are at least cotemporary with
  that of our present form of government. At the foot of the town flows the
  gentle blue Susquehanna, with picturesque Montour's Ridge winding by to the
  north; the stately and venerable Bald Top bracing its rocky supports up against
  the town itself, the Montour Iron Works crawling up partly on its feet, and
  sending its steam and smoke rolling gracefully up the hillside--Titan and
  Cyclops side by side. South of the river rises Blue Hill, and further along the
  river valley is Mahoning creek as it has cut its way through Montour Ridge, and
  empties itself in the river; and across the river to the east, the west, north
  and south, are as fine landscapes, as gentle, wild and varied scenery as the
  eye ever rested upon. Standing close up to the foot of Bald Top (the bare
  pinnacle can only be seen by ascending to it) it looks steep and rugged enough
  for a frowning fortress, grimly watching over the safety of its foster-child,
  Danville at its feet bustling with busy life and roaring and clanging its great
  machinery, while the beautiful valley, with its farms and groves and fruit and
  ornamental trees, stretches away in the distant quiet like a pastoral dream.
  Where, we know not, is there a spot that so combines the useful and the
  beautiful as this? Pass around to the southwest of Bald Top and you see the
  "Dark Ravine," and there is also the precipice that has been called the
  "Lover's Leap;" but as there are lovers' leaps elsewhere, and as lovers even of
  the pale face persuasion are now occasionally leaping for life in front of an
  irate boot or shot gun, the old stereotyped edition of the Indian legend is
  threadbare and tiresome.
  
      The town was founded by Gen. Daniel MONTGOMERY, and at first his store, his
  father's grist-mill, on Mahoning Creek, and the half dozen cabins about it were
  called Dan's town--it thus became eventually Danville proper. The land embraced
  in the original town plat was 120 acres, extending from Chestnut to Church
  Streets and from the river to the base of Montour's Ridge, and was surveyed by
  George JEWEL, April 3, 1769. September 16 of the same year it was purchased of
  the provincial proprietaries by Turbut FRANCIS. In May, 1782, he sold to John
  SIMPSON. April 15, 1783, John SIMPSON and his wife (Ann GRIMES) conveyed the
  tract to William MONTGOMERY, consideration $600. The tract below Chestnut
  Street, including the mouth of Mahoning Creek, contained 180 acres and was a
  part of the proprietary manor (that is, lands reserved as private property by
  the Penns.) This tract was conveyed to Rev. Richard PETERS and John LUKENS.
  
      The Delaware Indians had long hand a village at the mouth of Mahoning
  Creek. The Indian's instinct led him naturally to pitch his village of wigwams
  at what afterward was always an eligible town site for the whites. Nearly every
  great city on the continent was at one time a great Indian rendezvous, extending
  from New York to San Francisco and Vancouver's Island. An ancient and correct
  map of all the Indian places of great councils, dances and gathering place,
  would show a wonderful coincidence in their locations and the present great
  cities of the country. The early Indians were migratory, simply following the
  buffaloes, and to one understanding the habits of these animals, as they would
  gather in immense herds and start on their long voyages, and their peculiar
  maneuvers when coming to a river of stopping here for some time and finally,
  driven by hunger, they would begin circling and bellowing at the water's edge,
  each time as they came opposite the water the inner ones pushing those on the
  outer line nearer and nearer the water until finally into it, when one would
  take the plunge and start for the opposite bank and all would follow; and thus
  it was that the buffaloes were the engineers to the Indians, and the Indians in
  turn performed a like office for the whites.
  
      On the north of the tracts above indicated the land belonged to John
  MONTGOMERY, and that on the northeast to Amos WICKERSHAM. Afterward these
  tracts became the property of the FRAZERS and the YORKS. The lands on the
  southeast belonged to the SECHLERS. These land titles fix pretty definitely the
  first owners of the lands now occupied by the borough, and also indicate some of
  whom were the first settlers.
  
      Phillip MAUS, who came just after the close of the Revolutionary war, has
  left on record his first impression of the place on seeing it. He thought there
  were then about half a dozen cabins at what was then called "Montgomery's
  Landing." Soon after this it came to be known as the "Mahoning Settlement," and
  by this name it continued to be called until after 1792, when Gen. Daniel
  MONTGOMERY laid out the town. The territory embraced in his town plat was that
  now lying between Mill and Church Streets and from the river to the canal. In
  1776 Gen. William MONTGOMERY had built his log house that stood so long as the
  first notable building in the place. It stood near the large stone mansion he
  afterward built that is still standing. In this log house Alexander MONTGOMERY
  was born in 1777, and by a singular coincidence, he died in 1848 in the room
  where he was born.
  
      Jacob GEARHART had at an early day, established a ferry across the river.
  The ferry house stood a little above Ferry Street. This pioneer ferry was the
  first step taken toward building the present splendid bridge that spans the
  river.
  
      John SECHLER, father of Jacob SECHLER, next laid out that part of the town
  above Church Street. The next land added to the town was by William MONTGOMERY,
  that part below Mill Street to Chestnut Street. It was of this addition he
  donated thirty lots for the purpose of an academy. He also donated the ground
  for the court-house. Gen. Daniel MONTGOMERY donated the jail lot.
  
      The town was laid out by Gen. Daniel MONTGOMERY in 1792, as said above. The
  MONTGOMERYs were the sole spirits of its first formation and growth, saving the
  natural accretions of population drawn to this portion of the new purchase
  after that was made in 1868. The coming here of the earliest strong and
  influential men was due mostly to the misfortunes that then overtook nearly all
  the prominent actors in the Revolution, the financial ruin by the depreciation
  of the Continental money. This ill luck was the good fortune of Danville and
  what is now Montour County. When Daniel MONTGOMERY conceived the great idea of
  opening a store here in addition to his father's mill, there naturally opened
  to his mind the equally important proposition of laying off a town. He was then
  a very young man, but his vision was long ahead and clear. He could anticipate
  what was wanted, and set about supplying that want. A mill, a store, a place to
  buy and sell, a place to have bread ground without going all the way to
  Philadelphia or Reading, a trip then more tedious and difficult by far to make
  than to cross the continent now. were strong inducements to settlers. Soon
  after the store and mill were established, their existence here and the fact
  that this was Dantown, had its influence in bringing Mr. DEEN and his
  blacksmith shop--a convenience almost as great to the people as the mill and
  the store. Then the settlers north and south of the river began to make real
  wagon roads to reach the town and their wagons, whereas, before there was
  anything here to sell or any one to buy, they could make their rare trips to
  the place by means of the trails and paths along the devious way.
  
      The mill, the store and the blacksmith shop continued so steadily to bring
  people into the wilderness that we find as early as 1806 the Government
  established here a postoffice. Then surely did the good people felicitate
  themselves--their lucky good fortune was about full and complete. Once a week,
  what a luxury, a pony mail passed to Sunbury and back to the old settlements
  and to Philadelphia and to all the world. The postage on a letter was then 25
  cents. It took two weeks at the shortest to send a letter and get a return from
  Philadelphia or anywhere else, but what a vast improvement was that to these
  people hungry for news from friends, in the wilderness. Gen. William MONTGOMERY
  was the first postmaster. The fame of the new town began to then spread abroad
  in the land. In Scott's geography of 1806, he makes mention of it in these
  words: "A small post-town on the east branch of the Susquehanna, at the mouth
  of Mahoning Creek. A store, a mill, a blacksmith shop and a postoffice! No pent
  up Utica could contract her power," and therefore in 1807 the patriots of
  Danville and vicinity held a great Fourth of July celebration, and
  unconsciously they were blessed by the absence of fire-crackers and brass
  bands. In that day it was only supposed that preachers could speak in public,
  or at least that they were the only men that knew anything to talk about. Hence
  these poor fellows usually had to do all the public speaking, preaching and
  burying, and take their pay in the general gratitude, with a trace of dried
  beans, hickory nuts and coon skins to make caps for the boys of the household.
  But to return to our subject of Danville's first Fourth of July celebration.
  But few particulars of the occasion can now be learned. There was no permanent
  record made of it, and those who were present are now all dead. Gen. Daniel
  MONTGOMERY was president of the meeting; James LAIRD, vice-president, and
  Andrew RUSSELL, secretary. The remembrance of but one of the toasts offered has
  come down to us. This is interesting as indicating something of the politics of
  the early day. Jefferson and Hamilton had then joined issue on very much the
  identical questions that have divided parties from that time to the present.
  The two political parties were the Federalists and Republicans or
  Republican-democrats. In the year 1807 there was a slight defection, or a
  threatened split in the Democratic party in this State over the question of
  supporting Simon SNYDER. some favored SPOYD for the office and these were
  called in derision by the Regulars (now sometimes called Mossbacks or
  Stalwarts) "Quids." James BOYD offered the following toast: "The Quids--a
  jackass apiece to them, and a snail's horn for a spur, so that each mule may
  ride his own ass." (Great applause--all standing.) The string of the sarcasm in
  this was no doubt fully understood by those who heard it read. But this is not
  what we quote it for. It is something of an index of the political feeling here
  at that time. The people were generally Democrats. That is, with Jefferson they
  believed in the divine right of the people to rule themselves. The Federalists
  on the other hand desired to copy more closely after the British form of
  government--in other words, more power in the government--centralization. They
  believed that Jefferson was an irreligious and politically a bad man; they said
  he was fresh from France, where he had become imbued with the ideas of French
  revolutionists, infidels and all that was bad; that the government was at last
  the only safe power to trust, and that it was its province to regulate
  everything in politics, religion and social life. The ADAMSes, of
  Massachusetts, and Jefferson, of Virginia, represented these conflicting
  political ideas. In communities where there was a division on these political
  questions, passions ran high. In an old file of a Pennsylvania paper of about
  1815, the writer of these lines read a long and verbose communication, giving
  an account of the local preaching having read the Sunday previous the
  proclamation of Madison, announcing peace between this These old fellows were a
  very religious, stern and dogmatic people. Their ancestors had been the victims
  of the most awful religious persecutions in the old world; they had been
  fugitives from the dungeons, the gibbets and the stake and faggot--ears cut
  off, tongues cut out, and branded as felons on the forehead--that is, those who
  had not been burned to ashes over slow fires. There was much iron in their
  blood, and almost any of them had been ever ready to die, without wincing, the
  most horrible death for opinion's sake. Their politics were but a second
  edition of their religion. And in either it was nearly impossible for them to
  tolerate any shadow of opposition to their cherished notions. Hence when
  political opinions were once formed they struck their roots deep in their
  strong natures. With an Eastern devotion they worshipped their political idols,
  and their hated enemies were little short of devils incarnate, and for them they
  seized the sword of gideon and smote his majesty hip and thigh. But in all of
  them, thank God, was an intense and consuming hatred of tyranny. This had
  passed down in their blood from father to son through generations, ever growing
  in its intensity and added powers. Here happily for us, for all mankind, were
  the seeds bearing the fruits of our nation's liberties.
  
      We have stated the era of the coming of the mill, the store, and the
  blacksmith shop in the proper order of time and importance to these pioneer
  people. In our chapter on schools it may be seen that the schoolmaster and the
  itinerant preacher preceded even these prime necessaries. The little floorless,
  windowless, brush covered schoolhouse had been built, and here the master of the
  birch and ferule expounded the mysteries of the alphabet. The schoolteacher was
  an awfully great man, but he stood second to the preacher, great as he was. The
  average person at that time was of those who supposed all perfect wisdom was
  lodged in the preacher. Such hallucinations passing through the ages had made
  preachers very dogmatic in expressing their judgments and men very credulous in
  accepting them. The good man stood between God's flaming sword and poor,
  trembling, frightened humanity. By night and by day, on the roadside and in the
  dark wilderness, at all times and everywhere, he pleaded with God to turn aside
  the cup of bitter dregs from the people, and in his sermons he would confess
  with tears in his eyes, and with choking sobs, that God was inappeasable--that
  the furies of hell had been unchained for a thousand years, and they stalked
  over the land gathering human fagots for the eternal fires. Mill and store and
  blacksmith shop and teacher and preacher were all and each important things in
  their day, filling imperative wants in their time. They would all be very
  insignificant affairs now, but in their day and time they well performed the
  great part given them to do. Bless their shades!
  
      Almost the first stroke of the woodman's ax disturbed the malaria of the
  valleys along the streams where it had brooded for perhaps ages, and sent it
  riding upon the wings of the wind carrying disease and death to the helpless
  people, making the doctor, his nauseous medicaments, his bleedings and
  hot-water, toast-water and elm-water a commanding necessity. Dr. FOSTER was the
  first, it seems, to heed the cry of these poor people, and came to Danville. Of
  his descendants are Mrs. Valentine BEST, now of Danville. And side by side,
  even before the first days of the "post town," had been prepared a little plot
  of ground for "the silent city," then a goodly distance from the town, now
  apparently nearly in its very center. Here "the rude forefathers of the hamlet
  sleep."
  
      Before towns, mills, stores, blacksmith shops, schoolhouses or churches are
  provided, in all places in the world, wherever there is resident humanity, among
  the first is always the compulsory law of nature that compels a provision for a
  resting place for the dead. It is so written on the face of nature--the law of
  ceaseless change, from dust to life, from life to dust. Life, existence,
  death--change, change, change. The vast clock of God ticks off those
  inconceivable cycles of time, those immeasurable geological ages in one; the
  changes are the birth, the death, the decay--the smile of happiness, the sob of
  woe, but all is only change, eternal and ceaseless change; that is the economy,
  the very existence of nature, with the same laws everywhere in the universe
  applicable to everything animate and inanimate. It is nature's way as well as
  all creation's highway. Nothing is more common than death; it reaches
  everything, and being so, it cannot be an evil. It is a base and bad education
  that imbues the mind with terrors of its approach, that points it as the king
  of terrors, that thinks of it with loathing and horror. Because it may be sweet
  to live, it does not perforce follow that it is the one supreme bitter to die.
  Nature did not so make it. Anything so common, so universal, could not be so
  made. To the tired and exhausted form, what is so sweet as the approach of
  sleep, and death is but the dreamless sleep that, undisturbed, goes on forever.
  
      [THE OLD PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH CEMETERY]
  
      We communed with the early dead in the old Presbyterian Church Cemetery the
  other day, wandering between the little mounds and the white slabs of marble,
  here and there, where first began to gather the denizens of "the Silent City"
  in this, then far away, wilderness. It was then outside, away out from the
  haunts of the living; now the little three-acre plot of ground is nearly in the
  center of the city of the living. It is now fenced up with a low brick wall upon
  two sides, a barbed wire fence supplanting the brick wall that encloses two
  sides, and a high board wall on the other sides, and the gates are securely
  locked, and no more interments are to be made there. Already some of the scared
  dust has been resurrected and removed to the newer place of burial, still away
  further upon the outside of the towns. Soon, no doubt, all will be removed.
  
      Who was first buried here is not known. It is said the third grave dug in
  the place was to receive the body of poor CURRY, who was so brutally murdered
  by the Indians. The grounds have been well kept by the friends of the dead, but
  the first stones that marked the resting places are gone. The earliest legible
  stone now standing bears the date 1801. There are dates of earlier burials than
  this, but the stones were placed over them recently.
  
      On many of the older stones the lettering is now very dim, and on some
  already illegible. So swiftly does time corrode and destroy the monuments
  builded by the hands. Nations, cities and bronze and granite monuments are but
  ephemeral things, and truly, as Lord Bacon has well said, the impressions of
  the types are the one enduring thing--they are like ships that sail between the
  vast seas of time, making one nation partake of the thoughts and illuminations
  of another. The poems of Homer have come down to us through nearly 3,000 years
  without the loss of even a syllable. The printed sheets of paper, the frail
  records of papyrus outlast the adamant, and are capable of being ever renewed,
  and these alone are self-perpetuating. Frail, valueless sheet of white paper,
  blown about by the winds; a flash of flame, and it is gone like the snowflake
  on the river, yet touched with the type and you are the one human contrivance
  that may outlast all other work of the human hands. Thus how wisely it is
  ordered; the humblest may have to their memory monuments that will outlive the
  pyramids or the costliest mausoleums ever reared to potentate or king.
  
      There were certainly burials here prior to 1784, and yet, as we have said
  above, there is no legible stone in it of an earlier date than 1801, and it is
  not absolutely certain this date can be correctly read. We could find the names
  of but three persons who were present at the Fourth of July celebration, 1807.
  In passing through this old, first graveyard, it was suggested to our minds in
  reading the inscriptions that here we could almost call the roll of that
  meeting, and we noted the following: 
    John SECHLER, died October 5, 1831, aged ninety-two years;
    Christina SECHLER, born January 11, 1750, died October 5, 1825; 
    John SECHLER, Jr., died July 16, 1844, aged seventy-two years;
    Barbara, daughter of Joseph and Elizabeth SECHLER, died January 6, 1807;
    mother Elizabeth SECHLER died February 11, 1846;
    Sarah H. SECHLER, died November 4, 1849;
    Herman SECHLER, born October 4, 1793, died July 20, 1826;
    Jacob P. SECHLER, died July 31, 1842;
    Hannah SECHLER died January 7, 1829;
    Christina, wife of George BERT, died April 29, 1836, aged thirty-three years;
    Peter KOLB died January 5, 1845, aged seventy-four;
    Anna, wife of Thomas D. SIGLAR, died December 7, 1843;
    Rev. John PATTERSON, died May 8, 1843, aged seventy;
      his wife, Rebecca, died January 20, 1842, aged sixty;
      the son, John B. PATTERSON, died September 23, 1832 aged twenty one;
    John BOYD died August 29, 1801, aged twenty-four (the "01" is so indistinct that this is not certain);
    Gen. William MONTGOMERY died May 1, 1816, aged eighty;
    William MONTGOMERY, Jr., born January 8, 1784, died at the age of twenty-two years;
    General Daniel MONTGOMERY died April 30, 1831, aged sixty-five;
      his widow, Christina, died November 15, 1848, aged seventy-seven;
      their daughter, Isabella, born August 1794, died October, 1815;
    Daniel Strawbridge MONTGOMERY, died March 26, 1859, aged twenty-seven;
    Margaret (MONTGOMERY) WOODSIDE, born January 8, 1784, died aged twenty-two;
    Alexander MONTGOMERY, born October 8, 1777, died May 29, 1848;
    Sarah Caldwell WATSON, born May 13, 1815, died March 25, 1849;
    John THOMAS, born May, 1802, died August 7, 1855;
    John RUSSELL died June 6, 1851, aged seventy-three;
      his wife, Catharine F., died April 27, 1846, aged sixty-six; of their children,
      Robert died September 26, 1816;
      James F., died July 11, 1841;
    Daniel Cameron died March 16, 1831, aged fifty-five;
    Catharine Cameron died July 11, 1849, aged ninety-two;
      Mary (CHILDS) CAMERON, relict of Daniel, born July 17, 1795, died July 14, 1873;
    John GULIC died November 2, 1837, aged sixty-six;
      Mary, his relict, died October 2, 1848, aged seventy-four;
    Isaac GULIC died April 29, 1862, aged sixty;
    Margaret, wife of John GULIC, born October 1, 1803, died October 20, 1855;
    Gilbert VORIS died March, 1797;
    Jane VORIS, October, 1816;
    James CHILDS, born June 16, 1793, died January 10, 1871;
    John CHILDS, born February 12, 1798, died December 12, 1867;
    Esther K. CHILDS died May 28, 1849, aged sixty-three;
    Margaret CHILDS died December 1, 1834, aged thirty-four;
    Mary GRAGG, wife of John CHILDS, died July 31, 1846, aged eighty-five;
    Andrew CHILDS died May 7, 1864, aged seventy-four;
    Elizabeth, wife of James CHILDS, born July 10, 1809, died October 11, 1875;
    James KREAPTION, born 1796, died July 13, 1875;
    Thomas JAMES died December 17, 1863, aged seventy-eight;
      his wife, Elizabeth, died October 12, 1865, aged seventy-two;
    James EVERETT died February 18, 1859, aged seventy-eight;
      his wife, Isabella, died January 19, 1849, aged seventy-one;
      their daughter, Fanny, died January, 1829;
    Obed EVERETT, born July 22, 1786, died March 30, 1852;
    Mary born November 20, 1789, died April 14, 1852;
    Daniel BARTON died April 27, 1808, aged seventy-one;
      his daughter, Emele, died November 5, 1819, aged thirteen;
    Thomas COUSART died August 29, 1853, aged fifty-nine;
    Robert CURRY, born December 21, 1775, died December 14, 1857;
      his wife, Mary, died November 21, 1848, aged fifty-seven;
    William CURRY born June 16, 1778, died November 9, 1852;
    Jane CURRY died April 21, 1825, aged seventy-five;
    Jane McWILLIAMS died August 4, 1808, aged thirty;
    Elizabeth McWILL 21, 1867, aged fifty-three;
    Elizabeth McWilliams died January 9, 1813, aged sixty-four;
    Mary, wife of William Caldwell, died December 15, 1853, aged seventy-seven;
    Andrew CLARK, born in 1752, died in 1831;
    Mary, his wife, died August 3, 1806;
      their daughter, Florence, born May 19, 1792, died May 28, 1841;
    Catharine, consort of Orrin Sholes, died June 8, 1826, aged thirty-eight;
    Bridget, wife of Cyrus SHOLES, died February 19, 1820, aged fifty-seven;
    Thomas LEMON died December 9, 1849, aged sisxt-two;
    James LEMON died January 6, 1843, aged thirty-seven;
    James LEMON, Sr., died December 11, 1842, aged eighty-five;
      his wife, Rachel, died August 21, 1840, aged seventy-five;
    William LEMON died January 3, 1847, aged thirty-eight;
    Lucinda LEMON died September 3, 1849, aged twenty-two;
    John McCULLOUGH died November 15, 1832, aged fifty-two;
    Jane (CRAWFORD) MCCULLOUGH died September 12, 1853, aged sixty-six;
    George MILLER died October 20, 1843, aged sixty-three;
    Edward HATHAWAY, born November 1819, died December 8, 1875;
    Peter BLUE died March 19, 1826, aged seventy-four;
    Mary (his wife) died September 28, 1838, aged seventy-nine;
    HON. William MONTGOMERY, son of Edward William, died January 8, 1846, aged seventy-three;
      his wife, Jane, died October 29, 1807;
    Daniel W. MONTGOMERY, son of William, died August 28, 1830, aged thirty-nine;
    Capt. John S. WILSON, died at Vera Cruz, April 12, 1847, aged thirty-five: He was Captain of the Columbia guard;
    Joseph CORNELISON, born May 17, 1789, died August 18, 1851;
    Lettia CORNELISON, born July 7, 1778, died September 16, 1863;
    Sarah CORNELISON, wife of E. ADAMS, died September 13, 1852, aged twenty-seven;
    on a broken stone that lies prone upon the ground is this: "Anna GRIER departed this life September 10, 1828;" [sic]
    Robert C. MCWILLIAMS died March 4, 1832;
    Daniel FRAZER died March 26, 1828, aged seventy-two;
    his wife Isabella, died January 19, 1856, aged seventy-nine;
      Jane died January 2, 1828, age twenty;
      Margaret died March 19, 1824, aged twenty-six;
      James died March 19, 1836, aged thirty-six;
    Jacob SHULTZ died August 13, 1863, aged sixty-nine;
      his wife, Elizabeth, died August 26, 1858, aged fifty-five;
    Elizabeth, wife of Jacob SNYDER, born May 19, 1827, died October 2, 1853;
    Hugh MCWILLIAMS, born 1799, died 1877;
    John SUNDRY, born July 22, 1799, died September 17, 1858;
    Stuart CORNELISON, born May 12, 1831, died July 30, 1881;
    Benj. GEARHART died October 22, 1865, aged sixty-one;
    Mary GEARHART died November 12, 1867;
    Benjamin GEARHART died February 22, 1854, aged forty-four;
    Abner PITTNER died October 21, 1867, aged fifty-three;
      Mary, his wife, died August 22, 1867, aged fifty-eight;
    John T. NERVINE, born July 6, 1829, died November 13, 1872;
    Phoebe Agnes, wife of Isaiah BLUE, died January 28, 1864, aged twenty-nine;
    Lucinda, daughter of John H. RUSSELL, died April 14, 1851;
    Margaret, daughter of Alexander and Jane MONTGOMERY, died March 18, 1876, aged fifty-eight;
    Jane BOYD, relict of Alexander MONTGOMERY, died March 8, 1876, aged ninety-three;
    John BEST, born February 20, 1799, died December 19, 1870;
    Mary, relict of Andrew RUSSELL, died November 11, 1866, aged eighty;
    Robert G. RUSSELL, died August 15 1872, aged fifty-three;
    Valentine BEST, born March 8, 1801, died October 28, 1857;
    John C. BOYD died October 18, 1849, aged fifty-six;
      Hannah M. BOYD, his widow, died December 24, 1864 aged sixty-four;
    Charles R. REYNOLDS, born September 12, 1818, died May 7, 1842;
    Ann Maria REYNOLDS, born September 13, 1820, died January 2, 1839;
    Thomas REYNOLDS, born February 10, 1788, died August 8, 1880;
      Mary M., his wife, born May 20, 1791, died January 6, 1877;
    James N. NOLAN, died March 31, 1857;
    Hannah BLUE, born May 10, 1788, died April 6, 1870;
    John BLUE, born March 7, 1788, died September 25, 1861;
    James VORIS died May 24, 1866, aged seventy-eight;
    Anna Gray VORIS died April 26, 1881, aged ninety-two;
    John VORIS died April 5, 1848, aged thirty-five years, ten months;
    Elizabeth (GULIC) WAGNER died October 27, 1842;
    Abraham GULIC died March 4, 1852;
    Priscilla GULIC died March 4, 1852, aged seventy-five;
    Daniel CAMERON died March 16, 1834, aged fifty-five;
    Catharine GULIC died January, 1840, aged ninety-two;
    Robert MOORE died March 20, 1871, aged sixty-six;
    Hugh McBRIDE died December 2, 1808, aged sixty-eight;
    Mary McBRIDE died December 3, 1818;
    Nathaniel McBRIDE died June 30, 1821, aged fifty-seven;
    William GARRETT, died September 20, 1842, aged fifty-nine;
      Sarah, his wife, died June 5, 1856, aged sixty-six;
    Elizabeth ROSS, born April 11, 1761, died June 26, 1816;
    Jane ROSS, died July 1, 1820;
    David MOORE, born May 10, 1765, died March 12, 1829;
    Mary, born May 7, 1773, died August 16, 1825;
    M. C. GRIER, died December 25, 1878, aged seventy;
    Isabella, J. M., died June 12, 1850, aged thirty-eight; [sic]
    John M. MULFINGER, born 1809, died May, 1869;
    Thomas HAYS, died May 15, 1840, aged thirty-five;
    George GEARHART, son of George and Phoebe, died May 17, 1817, aged seventy-eight;
    Phoebe GEARHART, died June 21, 1845, aged fifty-two;
    Achsa GEARHART, died March 13, 1813, aged thirty-two;
    William C. GEARHART, died September 15, 1834, aged thirty-four;
    John FRAZER, died August 1821, aged seventy;
      Mary, his wife, died 1823;
    Eleanor, wife of George WILSON, died October 1, 1827, aged sixty-six;
    Rudolph SECHLER, born February 22, 1773, diedJune 26, 1857;
    Susanah SECHLER, died September 20, 1871, aged ninety years, nine months, two days.
  
      The first rush of immigration to this portion of Pennsylvania had been
  effectually stopped by the incursions of hostile Indians. The Wyoming massacres
  are a shocking chapter in the history of that time. The first wave of pioneers
  had but touched this outer border when the mutterings of the swarming red
  devils from their hilly fastnesses sent the wildest alarms among the hapless
  and helpless settlers. Danville was perforce deserted, and the most of the
  people went to the forts for protection. This was a serious loss to the people;
  it was precious time to them gone in the clearing of their little truck patches,
  and preparing homes and providing food for their families. It must have taken
  some time to partially make amends for the sacrifices they made. This seriously
  retarded the early growth and building up of the town. Thus the eighteenth
  century passed and the present dawned, and six years of this century had come
  and gone before a postoffice was established in the place. Its growth was
  uncertain and slow until 1828. The produce of the farmer was at low prices and
  far from markets, with but the most primitive means of transportation over the
  most difficult highways. Gen. William MONTGOMERY had had a grate made in his
  house after his own original idea, and was practically showing his neighbors
  that coal could be used as fuel. The avenues of commerce here had not then been
  opened. The people rafted lumber or rather logs down the river, and for some
  time this was practically the only real commerce carried on. Early in the
  twenties the subject of a canal began to be talked about in a vague, indefinite
  way. The people had never heard of a railroad. They had only just heard of the
  steamboat, but their information and ideas of it were vague and nebulous. But
  the canal they understood and fully appreciated. It was the great and perfect
  highway to the markets of the world. The most daring thinkers of them no doubt
  anticipated the day when steamboats would ply the waters of the Susquehanna.*
  [Footnote: In 1824 the "Cordorus," a little steamboat, actually arrived at
  Danville on an experimental trip up the Susquehanna. The town rejoiced, and a
  great holiday was had; the officers were fed and toasted at the old Cross Keys
  Hotel that stood on the bank of the river. Everybody attended, everybody
  rejoined--the long night had broken away. The boat proceeded on her way to
  Berwick, and there exploded her boilers, killing some of the crew. The boat and
  the bright vision of navigating the river were gone, never to return.] But from
  these day dreams they would ever turn to the subject of a canal to Danville.
  This was the golden probability that argued itself into certainty at last.
  About the year 1820 the subject of a canal began to be seriously agitated. In
  1826 the State entered upon a system of internal improvements. Gen. Daniel
  MONTGOMERY, most fortunately, was that year appointed one of the canal
  commissioners, and became president of the board. In 1826-27 the canal was
  surveyed and located, and in 1832 the water was turned in--the canal was
  completed. And the great era in the history of the town then dawned--the year
  1832.
  
      FIFTY-SIX YEARS AGO
  
      Mr. John FRAZER removed from Danville in 1831, and on the fiftieth
  anniversary of his departure for "my own, my native land," he jotted down his
  recollections, and the picture he recalls of the people of that distant day is
  very interesting. The following is the substance of his recollections:
  
      "The population of the village was then 740; the buildings numbered eighty;
  most of these were dwelling-houses on Water, Market and Mill Streets. They were
  bounded by the river, Church Street, Sechler's Run and Factory Street; these
  limits were very much less than the present area of the borough. They were
  chiefly frames, but many of the primitive log buildings yet remained. The brick
  buildings were the courthouse, GOODMAN's Tavern, Dr. PETRIKIN's and Mr. FRICK's
  residences and Mr. BALDY's store. Subsequently many brick structures were
  erected, all, or nearly all of which remain.
  
      "The pursuits of the citizens were confined too the ordinary mechanical
  trades, the professions, and, for so small a population, a large amount of
  merchandising. There was scarcely a germ of the manufacturing interest which
  has grown to be of such vast importance since that day. About 1817, on Market
  Street, near Pine, William MANN manufactured nails in a primitive way by hand.
  The bars or hoops of nail iron were cut by a machine worked by a treadle with
  the foot, and by a second operation the heads of the nails were formed by a
  glow or two with a hammer; by unremitting industry, I suppose a workman could
  produce as many nails in a month as one can now, but the aid of machinery, in a
  single day. And this simple, modest manufacture was the precursor of the immense
  iron manufacturers of the present time, which has earned for the place a high
  reputation excelled by few in that industrial pursuit, and it has been the
  cause of the rapid increase of the population of the place, so that it now more
  than equals all the residue of the county.
  
      "The nucleus of the settlement, around which the accretion of population
  was subsequently gathered, was American, originating during the last two
  decades of the last century by emigration from southeastern Pennsylvania,
  southern New Jersey, Sunbury and Northumberland. To these were added, from time
  to time, European emigrants--chiefly German, British, Irish and Swiss, a few
  French and Dutch, possibly some Danes and Swedes. Of British emigrants up to
  that date I do not recollect a single Welshman, although they soon after became
  a most important element of population employed in the iron manufacture. These
  apparently discordant elements soon yielded too the potent attraction of
  association, so that early in the present century the homgeneity of the young
  and vigorous community was assured. Seldom did any people enjoy a more happy
  harmony. This uniformity extended both to religion and politics. They derived
  their revealed theology from the Bible, as expounded by the followers of Calvin
  and Knox; their moral theology from the Presbyterian pulpit, the Westminster
  catechism, and, to no inconsiderable extent, from Milton's 'Paradise Lost,'
  which was received as a commentary by some, as a supplement by other. With what
  awe they read:
  
            Of Providence, foreknowledge, will, and fate;
            Fixed fate, free will, foreknowledge absolute.
  
      " 'Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress' was also a work of great authority. The
  libraries were very limited; neither Aristotle, nor Pliny, nor Buffon were in
  demand; but 'AEsop's Fables,' 'Weem's Life of Washington,' 'Cook's Voyages,'
  and 'Riley's Narrative' were among the most popular books for miscellaneous
  reading. 'Shakespeare's Plays' were placed on the index purgatorius by some,
  and few advocated their general use. The venerable Dr. NOTT, who was president
  of Union College for the unprecedented term of sixty-two years, used to say to
  the students: 'If you want to get a knowledge of the world and human nature,
  read the Bible; but if you will read any other books, read Homer and
  Shakspeare. They come nearer Moses and Paul than any others I am acquainted
  with.' ;Fox's Book of Martyrs' was esteemed a much more suitable book for
  youthful readers than the great English bard; they were also allowed that most
  captivating of boys' books, 'Robinson Crusoe.'
  
      "All were not Calvinists; yet, under the wise and judicious pastorate of
  that good and faithful shepherd, Rev. John B. PATTERSON, ever honored for his
  blameless life and unostentatious piety, they were kept within one fold and one
  baptism until the close of his long ministry. He was occasionally aided by
  pastors from neighboring towns. I can now recall the names of Rev. Messrs.
  DUNHAM, William SMITH, Nicholas PATTERSON, Isaac GRIER, John BRYSON, and HOOD.
  
      "The Rev. William B. MONTGOMERY and his wife, nee Jane ROBINSON, of the
  Presbyterian Church, the devoted missionaries to the Osage Indians, had
  recently departed for Union Station, the scene of their labors, which then
  seemed to us tenfold more remote than Japan does now, and took a longer time in
  journeying thither. For more than thirty years they labored there, under great
  privations, until they both fell victims to epidemic cholera
  
      "For a number of years the followers of Wesley increased in number, and
  through the zeal and labors of William WOODS, William HARTMAN, William
  WHITAKER, of the village, Judge Jacob GEARHART, of Rush Township, and others, a
  church was established about 1815. It was supplied by itinerant preachers. Of
  these, I can now only recall the name of Rev. George DAWSON. There was a local
  preacher, SIMONS by name, who occasionally exhorted and preached at his own
  house, on Market near Church street. I well remember the appearance of these
  devoted itinerant preachers in their journeys around the circuit, with their
  jaded horses, their portmanteau and umbrella tied on behind their saddle, and
  hat covered with oil cloth to protect it from the storms, and their extremely
  plain garb, such as I saw Lorenzo DOW wear at a subsequent date.
  
      "The Catholics, now so numerous, were scarcely known as sectaries, Michael
  RAFFERTY and Francis TRAINOR being the only two I can recollect. The Rev. Mr.
  KAY, a Socinian or Unitarian, preached at times, but without making proselytes.
  The Rev. Mr. SHEPHERD, a Baptist of the Campbellite portion of that sect,
  preached occasionally. He was an eloquent and popular divine. There were a
  number of Lutherans, to whom Rev. Mr. KESLER, from the vicinity of Bloomsburg,
  preached a long intervals. The Episcopalians were not numerous, and it was
  suggested that they and the Lutherans unite and form a union church; but this
  was impracticable, and the former erected, own, and occupy the church edifice
  on Market Street, on ground included in what at an early day was called Rudy's
  woods. These sectaries were all destitute of church buildings except the Grove
  Church. This was the spacious log church, built more than forty years before
  the time of which I write, in the form of a T, and was amply large for the
  congregation. Besides the sects named I can recall none others of that date.
  The old log church had recently been demolished and F. BIRKENBINE was building
  a brick church edifice under a contract with James DONALDSON, Robert CURRY,
  Robert C. GRIER, Herman SECHLER and John C. BOYD, the trustees, for the
  consideration of $1,775.
  
      "The social relations of the community were eminently pacific and cordial,
  doubtless promoted by the matrimonial unions between members of the several
  very large families of some of the early emigrants. The MONTGOMERYs, of whom
  there were two brothers--Daniel MONTGOMERY the elder, and his brother Gen.
  William MONTGOMERY, whose sons were Gen. Daniel, Col. John, and Alexander. The
  son of the senior Daniel MONTGOMERY was Judge William MONTGOMERY. The WOODSIDE
  family was a large one, consisting of Thomas, Archibald, John, James, Daniel,
  William and Robert; of the MOOREs--Asa, John, Abner, Burrows, Samuel, Charles,
  Andrew Y., Edward S., and several daughters; of the MAUSES--George, Elizabeth,
  Philip, Susan, Samuel, Lewis, Charles, Joseph and Jacob W.; of the SECHLERS, I
  recollect Rudolph, George, John, Jacob, Samuel and Harmon. At a later date came
  Mrs. CORNELISON and her children: Joseph, William, Jacob, Isaac, Cornelius,
  James, Ann and Mercy; of the WHITAKERs--John, Thomas, William H., Irwin, Jane,
  Elizabeth, Polly, Nancy, Fanny and Juliana; William WILSON, the long time
  justice of the peace, with a large family of eleven children and their
  descendants, now numbering about 100. there were also the CLARKs, GEARHARTs,
  GASKINSes, BLUEs, RISHELs, PHILLIPSes, DIEHLs, SANDERSes, FOUSTs, FRAZERs,
  DONALDSONs, WILLITSes, and BREWERs.
  
      "Many of the pioneer customs still prevailed. Manufacturers of the most
  pressing necessity were found in almost every household: the spinning-wheel for
  tow and flax; the big wheel, as it was called, for woolen yarn. These were woven
  in the place, and made into clothing at home, and most of the villagers and
  their children were clad in these domestic suits. The tailor and shoemaker
  itinerated here and in the vicinity and were almost constantly employed. A
  dwelling without a detached bake-oven would have been deemed incomplete; there
  were no bakers by profession, and of necessity each housewife was her own
  baker. The Franklin stove and the six-plate stove were still in use; the
  ten-plate stoves had recently been introduced and were a great improvement on
  the former, as much so as the palace cook and heater are upon the latter. Our
  stoves were then manufactured by Mr. HAUCK, and bore the legend, John HAUCK,
  Catawissa Furnace; and it was one of the mysteries that troubled the brains of
  the boys, how it ever got there in iron letters, as much as did the effect of
  the music of Orpheus, which 'drew iron tears down Plato's cheek.'
  
      "By industry and frugality the people lived in comparative comfort, paid
  their preacher and school-master promptly, and their printer as soon as
  convenient, thereby preserving a good conscience and securing peace of mind.
  
      "The school-master was abroad. Thomas GRIER taught a classical school and
  prepared boys for college. Stephen HALFF also taught a private school, and Rev.
  Mr. PAINTER was principal of the Danville Academy, then a new institution. The
  predecessors of these were Master GIBSON who taught in the old log schoolhouse
  near the first edifice of the Grove Church; Messrs. Andrew FORSYTHE, John
  MOORE, Thomas W. BELL, Don Carlos BARRET, an eminent teacher; John RICHARDS;
  Samuel KIRKHAM, the distinguished grammarian, and Ellis HUGHES, a most
  competent and successful educator, favorably remembered by many of his pupils
  still living.
  
      "The houses were then chiefly on Water, Mill and Market Streets, and with
  scarcely an exception, had gardens attached to them, with a portion of each
  allotted to flowers. The damascene rose, guelder rose, flowering almond, peony,
  narcissus, lilac, lily, pink, and other familiar floral productions were wont to
  ornament it and make it 'unprofitably gay.' The boys, after school hours, often
  reluctantly, tried their 'prentice hands at horticulture, and the most onerous
  part of their labor was the removal of the water-worn stone, rounded by
  attrition in by-gone antediluvian ages, in oceanic currents. They abounded on
  Market Street lots and other elevated portions of the village. Doubtless by
  this time a succession of youthful gardeners have removed them all and made
  horticultural pursuits less laborious.
  
      "Amongst other amusements the boys enjoyed skating, sledding, sleighing,
  nutting, trapping, fishing, playing ball, bathing in the river and in the
  Mahoning; in the latter, west of Factory Street, hard by a buttonwood or
  sycamore, was a famous bathing place. Flying kite and playing marbles in the
  spring, were not forgotten. All these afforded them the needed recreation from
  study and labor.
  
      "But I must not omit the muster days of the military. The old Rifle Blues
  was one of the oldest, if not the oldest, volunteer military organization of
  all the boys of the place, and their parades were gala days. The Columbia
  Guards was a fine company of infantry, numbering over sixty, commanded by
  Captain James CARSON. The train band, Captain YORKS, was also one of the
  institutions of that day. The regimental musters were generally held at
  Washingtonville, and drew together crowds of spectators to witness their grand
  maneuvers, discuss politics and tavern dinners.
  
      "The Watchman was then the only newspaper. George SWEENY, the veteran
  editor, was its proprietor. He had published the Columbian Gazette in 1813,
  which was succeeded by the Express, by Jonathan LODGE in 1815, and afterward by
  LODGE & CARUTHERS. The Watchman was established in 1820. It was published on
  market Street, east of Ferry, and had a sign in front of the office, upon which
  was painted the head of Franklin with the legend from Milton, 'Where liberty
  dwells, there is my country.' There were then few painted signs in the place,
  and this one was very conspicuous. Although the Watchman was not half the size
  of the American it was esteemed a grand journal, and had great influence in the
  politics of the county. It was made up chiefly by copy from other papers, and
  seldom contained editorial articles. Readers were not so exacting then as in
  these ladder days.
  
      "The politics of the village like those of the county, were largely
  Democratic. What Democratic principles were I had no very definite idea, but
  had a vague impression that they were just the reverse of Federal principles,
  and I suppose that this negative definition quadrated with the ideas of the
  dominant party. State politics absorbed the attention of politicians and
  banished from their minds national politics to an extent that must have
  gladdened the hearts of those stolid politicians, the States' rights men. I
  remember how a villager pertinaciously urged the nomination of Gen. Jackson for
  governor, and he honestly believed that the gubernatorial honor was the highest
  that could be conferred upon the old hero.
  
      "The members of the bar were a few in number. Ebenezer GREENOUGH had
  recently removed to Sunbury. Judge GRIER, from his profound legal attainments
  and fine scholarship, stood at the head of his profession. Alem MARR, the
  pioneer lawyer, was a good classical scholar and a graduate of Princeton. He
  represented the district in Congress in 1829. LeGrand BANCROFT was district
  attorney. The other members were George A. FRICK, William G. HURLEY, John
  COOPER, James CARSON and Robert McP. McDOWELL. A short time subsequently John
  G. MONTBOMERY, Paul LEIDY and Joshua W. COMLY were added to the number. All of
  them are deceased except the latter.
  
      "The medical men were not numerous. The first in the place was Dr. FORREST,
  the grandfather of Mrs. Valentine BEST; his successor, Dr. BARRETT; his, Drs.
  PETRIKIN and DANIELS. At the period of which I write there were also Drs.
  McDOWELL and MAGILL. The latter was then a young practitioner in the beginning
  of his long and successful career, and now remains, beyond the age of
  four-score years, the honored head of the profession, which has increased
  fourfold since he became a member of it. And now Danville began to rear medical
  men of her own. Herman GEARHART and Alexander C. DONALDSON were initiated into
  the profession under the tuition of Dr. PETRIKIN. At the same time Samuel
  MONTGOMERY and Matthew PATTERSON were divinity students. John MARTIN was a law
  student in Mr. MARR's office, and subsequently practiced in Clearfield County.
  
      "Gen. Daniel MONTGOMERY was the first merchant, but, having acquired a
  fortune, was now residing on his fine farm a mile or two above town. His
  cousin, Judge William MONTGOMERY, an old citizen, was now the oldest merchant,
  with his store corner of Mill and Market Streets and his residence on the
  opposite corner. He bore his full share in the burden of improving and
  bettering the condition of his fellow-men; was one of the pillars of the church
  and founder of the first Sunday-school when many others, if not opposed to it,
  aided it only in a perfunctory way, and he lived to see it permanently
  established. Peter BALDY, though still a young merchant, was engaged in an
  extensive business and dealt largely in grain. He commenced in the old log
  building which had been occupied by KING & HAMILTON; from thence, he removed
  too his well known store on Mill Street where he continued his business for
  half a century, when he retired, having accumulated a fortune. The other
  merchants were John MOORE, John RUSSELL and William COLT, all old and esteemed
  citizens; and William BICKLEY, BOYD & MONTGOMERY, John C. & Michael C. GRIER,
  and Michael EPHLIN who had more recently engaged in business. Mr. LOUGHEAD had
  retired from business to devote his time to the post-office, and Jeremiah EVANS
  had recently moved to Mercersburg.
  
      "The old Cross-Keys tavern, kept by Mrs. Jemima DONALDSON, was the best in
  the county and it is doubtful whether it has been surpassed to this day. The
  Union Hotel, the first three-story brick building and the best one in the place
  was built and kept by Philip GOODMAN. John IRWIN kept a tavern corner of Market
  and Ferry Streets; and the most ancient hostelry of them all, the Rising Sun,
  the old red house at the foot of Mill Street with the walnut tree at the door,
  and its crowd of devotees of Bacchus who made it resound with
  
            Midnight shout and revelry,
            Tipsy dance and jollity.
  
      "The Ferry tavern by George BARNHART, where I often hurried by, fearing the
  sound of the fiddle, judging that old Satan could not be far distant from the
  violin, thus condemning that first of musical instruments, from its association
  with much that is vile. Then there was the Jackson tavern, Mill Street near
  Mahoning, by William CLARK, a soldier of the Revolution, with the likeness of
  Gen. Jackson painted on its sign, thus superseding that of Washington, as the
  latter in its day had replaced that of George III, tempori parendum. The
  taverns then had a monopoly of retailing intoxicating liquors, dealing them out
  by the gill; and rye whisky was the chief liquor used, and doubtless was less
  hurtful than the villainous compound now sold under that name. Some who then
  indulged in 'potations pottle deep' nevertheless attained a great age; when any
  one of them was warned against indulging too freely in it, as it was a slow
  poison, he replied that he was aware of that for he had been using it sixty
  years and it must be very slow. The coffee-houses, now destitute of coffee, the
  saloons, groceries and other refined modern drinking places were then unknown.
  In addition to these taverns Mrs. SPENCE kept a boarding house, and had for her
  guests some of the most respectable people of the place.
  
      "Amongst the active and industrious citizens were the blacksmiths. John
  LUNGER was one of the earliest, and had a shop on Ferry Street. John DEAN's
  smithy was on Market near Ferry Street, where by many and well-directed blows
  he hammered out a fortune. Joseph CORNELISON's was on Mahoning near Mill Street.
  
      "George McCULLEY was one of the pioneer carpenters and removed to Ohio,
  near Wooster, where some of his descendants still reside. Daniel CAMERON, a
  worthy Scot and the great pedestrian who walked from Harrisburg to Danville in
  a day without deeming it any great exploit, was a skillful carpenter and
  builder. Adam SCHUYLER and George LOTT were also engaged in that business.
  
      "The chairmakers were William HARTMAN who was also a wheelwright, and the
  brothers KIRK. William MANN was also engaged in that calling for a year or two.
  
      "Shoemakers--William WOODS, Gideon MELLON, Henry SANDERS, Thomas WILEY.
  
      "Tailors--William M. WILEY, who removed to Harrisburg; William WHITAKER,
  Amos E. KITCHEN. William INGOLD was a vagrant workman who plied his needle at
  the houses of his employers, and was noted for his quips and quirks and idle
  pranks, whereby he amused and often astonished the boys of the village.
  
      "Honest John REYNOLDS, from Reading, was the veteran hatter, who for long
  years supplied men and boys with hats. Martin McCOLLISTER was a more recent and
  very skillful workman.
  
      "Thomas BLACKWELL carried on the fulling-Mill and saw-mill near what is now
  the junction of Mill and Bloom Streets.
  
      "The first brewer was Richard MATCHIN. The citizens of that day were not,
  as we now phrase it, educated up to a due appreciation of that beverage,
  consequently it proved less profitable than brewing lager, weiss and buck beer
  at the present time.
  
      "George WILSON was the first cabinet-maker, and some of his substantial
  old-style furniture has survived to the present day. Burrows MOORE was long
  engaged in the same business.
  
      "The Scotch weavers had been famous in the early days of the settlement. Of
  those who were engaged in the business fifty years since I can now only recall
  the names of Christopher SMITH and Peter GOODMAN. The latter was a most
  respectable and industrious German from the Fatherland.
  
      "Coppersmiths and tinners--Alexander WILSON, James WILSON, John C. THEIL.
  
      "Watchmaker and Jeweler, Samuel MAUS.
  
      "There were several saddlers--Alexander BEST, Hugh FLACK, Daniel HOFFMAN,
  and possibly others.
  
      "Rifles were in demand, and had always been much used by the pioneers.
  These were supplied by Samuel BAUM and George MILLER; the son of the latter
  succeeded him and still continues the business.
  
      "Of public functionaries, we had but few, and their removals were few and
  far between. In the language of an eminent statesman it might then have been
  truly said: "Few die and none resign." Judge Seth CHAPMAN was long the
  presiding judge of our courts. He was a man of moderate legal attainments, yet
  he made a good presiding officer. He was assisted by his associates, Judges
  MONTGOMERY and RUPERT. George A. FRICK was prothonotary, having been appointed
  to that office by Gov. SNYDER in 1813.
  
      "William WILSON, Rudolph SECHLER and Joseph PRUTZMAN were the justices of
  the peace; Andrew McREYNOLDS, sheriff; Daniel CAMERON, constable. Mr. SECHLER
  was also register and recorder. James LOUGHEAD, a dignified yet popular
  gentleman of English origin, was postmaster, and held the office for the long
  term of fourteen years, twice as long as any other with one exception. The
  office was first established in 1806. Judge MONTGOMERY being the first one
  appointed, and held his commission from President Jefferson, and filled the
  office for seven years. This just and pious man discharged this trust, as he
  did all others, to the entire satisfaction of the Government and the community.
  He was succeeded by that other faithful public servant, Rudolph SECHLER, who
  held it for a like term of seven years, until Mr. LOUGHEAD's appointment. I
  never knew a more honest man than Mr. SECHLER. With him it was innate. He could
  not be otherwise than honest. His countenance, his actions, his words, in short
  everything about him proclaimed his sterling integrity; and what gave a charm
  to it he was quite unconscious of his being more honest than other men. Of his
  large number of connections I never knew one whose integrity was called into
  question. It is highly gratifying to know that in the seventy years the office
  has been in existence, there has never been a defaulter to the National
  Government, and that all of the thirteen incumbents of the office have
  diligently and faithfully discharged the trust reposed in them.
  
      "One of the eccentric characters of the vicinity was Mr. FINNEY, who died
  ten or twelve years subsequent to the period of which I write, almost a
  centenarian. He was a man of gallantry, a kind of Beau Nash of more than
  eighty, with a peculiar child-like tenor voice, who delighted to play the
  gallant with the young ladies of the village, and drive them around the place
  and vicinity in his old-style chaise. Robin FINNEY, as he was always called,
  from his great age and attention to the fair sex, was a great favorite with
  them, and was well known to the people of that day. His chaise and one owned by
  Gen. D. MONTGOMERY and one by Judge MONTGOMERY were the only pleasure carriages
  of that kind in the county. The old time carriage of Philip MAUS, which
  attracted the attention and excited the wonder of the village urchins, and the
  more modern carriage of Gen. MONTGOMERY were the only pleasure carriages of
  that style. Traveling on horseback was then the proper thing for both sexes,
  old and young, gentle and simple, and its general disuse is to be regretted.
  
      "Abe BROWN was an African, or an American of African descent, and the only
  one in the place. He had been a mariner, and after he came here, was a servant
  to Mr. LONGHEAD. He immigrated to Mahoning County, Ohio, where by industry and
  frugality he acquired a competency and enjoys the respect of the community
  where he resides. Jack HARRIS was an octoroon, a fine looking lad, and so
  nearly white that he might pass for an Anglo-American. though not darker than a
  brunette, the rude boys persisted in calling him Black Jack. These boys attended
  the schools and were treated with justice.
  
      "The great flood of 1817, usually called the August flood, surrounded the
  place so that, for the time, it became insular. The only approach was by boats.
  I saw the bridge over the brook on the road, then an extension of Church Street,
  float away with a man on it who secured it before it reached the river.
  
      "The inhabitants were supplied with flour from the mills of John and
  Alexander MONTGOMERY and Joseph MAUS, all propelled by the water of the
  Mahoning. Farmers in the vicinity took their grain in sacks to the mills; the
  miller ground it for a toll of one-tenth. Except for the Baltimore,
  Philadelphia, or Reading markets, it was seldom put up in barrels. Steam power
  had not been introduced in the place or neighborhood, except at BOYD's mill,
  which was then a new one on the left bank of the river above town.
  
      "Whisky was the Archimedean lever that moved the world. Contracts could not
  be made or performed without its potent aid. The merchant kept it on his
  counter, for his customers would not purchase goods without it. It was
  indispensable at musters and elections. The farmer's fields could not be
  cultivated without its use as a motor. Mr. ROBINSON, in the vicinity, offered
  the laborers who were employed in his harvest fields extra pay if they would
  dispense with it, but they refused. The temperance caused was advocated by its
  friends, but its opponents, numerous, defiant and violent, determined that
  their liberties should not be subverted by a few fanatics who were worse than
  the Federals.
  
      "The half century just closed has been an eventful, almost a marvelous one.
  In 1826 we had no railways, telegraphs, type-writers, gas, petroleum, no canals,
  iron furnaces, forges, rolling-mills; no bridge over the river, no fire engines
  of any kind, nor many other indispensable improvements, deprived of which we
  would speedily retrograde to what we were at that period. The population has
  increased more than tenfold, and Danville has kept pace with the rest of the
  world, and shown an energy and perseverance worthy of her, not withstanding the
  many depressions and conflicts incident to her position as a great manufacturing
  center. Her numerous sons, dispersed throughout the great West, and in other
  portions of our vast republic, now in exile from her borders, look with pride
  upon her onward course in material prosperity, and her commendable progress in
  religion, morals, and science, the social virtues and the amenities of life,
  which they trust may continue, and enable her, for all future time, to maintain
  her elevated position in the good old commonwealth.
  
      "There was an old tradition, or rather a prophecy, among the Indians that
  roamed about the Susquehanna, that great floods in this river occurred at
  regular intervals of fourteen years. The first great flood of which we have any
  account was in 1744; the second in 1758; the third in 1772, and that which is
  known as the great 'pumpkin flood' was in 1786--there being just fourteen years
  between each of these floods. The 'pumpkin flood' was in the month of October,
  and was so designated on account of the immense number of pumpkins that floated
  down the stream from the fields above. It began to rain on the 5th of October,
  1786, and rained incessantly for several days. The water rose rapidly and swept
  all before it. Several persons were drowned near the place now called Rupert,
  and at Sunbury houses were overflowed and many people were lost. Northumberland
  was also flooded and much damage was done. This flood was long remembered and
  known among the old settlers as 'the great pumpkin flood.' In the spring of
  1800, just fourteen years after the 'pumpkin floor,' another great freshet
  occurred. It rained three days and three nights, carrying off a deep snow and
  doing much damage. In 1814 there was another destructive flood that caused much
  loss of life and property. Here the old Indian tradition that floods occurred
  every fourteen years failed; for the next was in 1817, after an interval of
  only three years. The next flood of not was in 1847. If there were any from
  1817 to 1847 we have no record of them. Many will remember that of 1859, which
  also raised the water in the North Branch over eight feet above high water
  mark. Still more vividly do they remember the extraordinary flood of March,
  1865. The exciting scenes in Danville on the 17th and 18th of that month will
  never be forgotten. The river began to rise on Friday, and on Saturday the
  water rose to four feet above the highest flood on record. A great portion of
  Danville was overflowed and many families were compelled to leave their homes
  in haste. Women and children were taken from their houses in boats. The whole
  district from Sageburg to Mill Street was covered with water reaching up
  Mulberry Street and to the scales in front of the Montgomery building. The low
  lands along the Mahoning were also under water. On Mulberry as well as on Mill
  Street boats and rafts were moving among the houses and gliding high over the
  gardens. The river bridge was much injured but withstood the onset. Many
  stables and other buildings floated about and found new and strange foundations
  as the water receded without any regard to the side that was up or down. Only
  one man, Peter GREEN, was drowned at this place. He fell into the Mahoning from
  a small raft while attempting to supply his family with coal. His body was
  recovered and properly cared for. Another great flood in the North Branch in
  1875 took the river bridge that had so long withstood the assaults of the angry
  torrent, but when the Catawissa bridge came down and struck it broadside it had
  to yield. It has since been rebuilt more substantially than before. There was
  another great freshet on the 12th of February, 1881."
  
      This account of fifty-six years ago rounds out the first half-century of
  Danville, completing the history to the second and important event in the
  town's history. The opening of the canal started the second era in the town's
  growth and its permanent and solid development. As soon as the building of a
  canal became an assured fact, men of enterprise and capital, anticipating the
  results to flow along with its completion, began to rapidly come to the place.
  Capital was attracted here, labor came where it was sure of ready employment at
  living wages. Iron ore was here in great abundance and the best quality, and the
  canal brought the coal fields almost to our door, and soon the movement was on
  foot that moved with mighty strides to the building of the great factories that
  have made the name of Danville familiar throughout the commercial world.
  
      INCORPORATION AS A BOROUGH
  
      Danville became an incorporated borough in 1849. Its growth from its
  settlement until the building of the canal had been very slow, the improvements
  more than keeping pace with the additions to the population. In 1840 the
  population was 1,100. In the next decade, however, it was increased over 200
  per cent and in the next half-decade, 1855, to 6,000 and in 1857 to 8,000. In
  that day this was unprecedented. The present stationary condition of the town
  shows that the large part of this population was drawn here by the iron
  manufactories. In 1849 it was reaching rapidly its importance and growth as a
  manufacturing town. In the establishment of its manufactories, the public and
  private buildings, and its commerce and increase of capital in every line of
  industry, were then widely known and began to give the place an enviable
  reputation throughout the country.
  
      When made a borough it was divided into two wards. Its official machinery
  was simple, economical and effective. The freshets in the river had suggested
  that the lower parts of the town must be raised to an established grade to
  prevent the injurious overflows. In 1852 Northumberland Street was filled up to
  grade. At different times fills had been made in the low parts of Mill and other
  streets in the near vicinity of the canal. The fills on these streets can be
  readily seen by their present elevation above the tow-path, and here there is
  nearly an average fill of three feet above the natural surface of the ground.
  
      In 1855 the borough limits were enlarged and for the first time accurately
  defined as they exist now. These limits contain 996 acres, lying in greatest
  length along the river and extending back to Montour's Ridge. There were only
  two wards until 1867, when the divisions were made into four wards, and by this
  change twelve councilmen were provided for, or three from each ward. At the then
  following election three alderman were elected in each ward to serve
  respectively one, two and three years, and one to be elected at each succeeding
  annual election to serve three years.
  
      In common with the entire country the business of the place suffered a
  check from the financial panic of 1857. This was especially felt in its large
  iron mills, but was only temporary. It had disappeared in 1859. In the latter
  part of 1860 the portentous war clouds were lowering upon the country, and in
  1861 the storm broke and the Nation trembled in the throes of war. The
  imperative wants of the country had soon set to work the busy machinery of
  Danville, and again the tide ran high in all its lines of industry. The demand
  in the ranks of the army upon employers and laborers was great, but great as it
  was it was met with an enthusiastic rush, and in Danville as everywhere in all
  the land, men were going and coming, the prices of labor and commodities went
  up and up, wants increased, the flow of money from the government center was
  immense, which rapidly circulated among the people and they were exuberant and
  intoxicated with patriotism, and money getting, and this rapidly bread
  extravagant habits in the majority and colossal fortunes in the hands of many.
  The war over and people again settling down to the attempt to try the old
  fashioned anti-war simplicity and sobriety, that had unconsciously passed away
  apparently never to return, and hence to many the times were out of joint, and
  others were at a loss to readjust themselves, or, to use the term that was then
  applied properly only to the revolt States, to put on and wear gracefully the
  new habiliments of reconstruction. The war left the country flooded with cheap
  money and flush times. Men no longer hesitated to go in debt, to pay the
  heaviest discounts upon the glittering but deceptive future. The thinkers of
  pessimistic tendency argued that the war closed, the debris cleared away, that
  the reaction would swiftly come that would engulf every daring adventurer. But
  the war closed in 1865, and a lustrum of years had come and gone and financial
  prosperity only swelled its daily great volume. the reaction had not come. The
  pessimist ceased to warn, the optimist confidently told himself that the
  resistless stream of prosperity could not be stopped or changed in its
  onrushing course. Had not the northern patriots put down at incalculable
  sacrifices the monster rebellion? The South was crushed, pauperized and
  millions of slaves were freed, and no longer did northern labor have to contend
  against the unpaid slave labor of the country. Was not Providence justice? Was
  it a farthing more, indeed, but a pitiful recompense for our great sacrifices
  that this stream of financial and industrial prosperity should flow on forever?
  
      To these golden dreams came the fatal year, 1873. The telegraph flashed the
  simple announcement, but really portentous news over the land, "Jay Cook's
  failure," and in a day the average business man of the country was in fact a
  bankrupt. The sad scenes around the bankrupt courts exceeded even those in
  England when the great South Sea Bubble burst. may a return of the like be ever
  spared our land! We had trampled upon every financial law of political economy,
  and we had to pay the most fearful penalties, compounding the interest to the
  most implacable Shylock that ever demanded the pound of flesh from nearest the
  human heart.
  
      In this financial revolution, following upon the heels of the social and
  moral upheaval of the times, Danville, because of its distance from the great
  cities, probably suffered less severely than the majority of places of its
  size. But still it felt severely the shock. It to-day bears the marks of the
  wounds thus inflicted, although a decade of years have come and gone since the
  great panic passed away. The financial, commercial and industrial history of
  the town from the commencement of the war to the present is contained in the
  history of the country during that period--a history yet to be written, but a
  fruitful and instructive theme indeed, to the historian able to write it.
  
  
  Danville - Part II
  
      INDUSTRIES
  
      Some learned sociologist has concluded that the true measure of a people's
  degree of civilization is the amount of soap they used. The correctness of this
  depends. In many a pioneer settlement of 100 years ago so pinched were the
  people for every necessity of life, that the wild "bee trees" were hunted and
  the only make-shift possible for soap was to use honey; and the advance along
  the line of washing, not barring the pig-tailed Mr. Washee, is the use of
  gasoline now-a-days in washing the belle's kid gloves or her floating
  cloud-like snowy white or delicately tinted party dress. This honey at one end
  of the line, then the thousand substitutes in the middle and gasoline at the
  other extremity--there is no fair standard here to measure either our beauty,
  cleanliness or civilization. Then, too, where this soap philosopher expounded
  his discovery, the world was jogging contentedly along in much simplicity and
  dirt, and in total ignorance of what the near future had in store for their
  children's delectation and advancement. The little rill that is now the great
  swollen stream had just then started on its course too insignificant then to
  attract attention, while now in the language of the western poet when he, like
  DeSoto, first stood upon the bank of the Mississippi River, and his muse fired
  by the grandeur of the view exclaimed: "Great Father of Waters, so wide that
  you cannot hear its roar!" This poetical paradox well expresses the growth and
  extent of modern inventions and improvements in all the arts especially in the
  manufacture of iron, that now has reached that degree of perfection and
  magnitude that the soap sociologist, were he alive, would revise his philosophy
  and say that the true gauge is iron.
  
      In Bucks County in this State those dear old Revolutionary fighting fathers
  got iron and made common balls to fire at the hated red coats. Perhaps just a
  little previously, some ingenious Yankee-Deutcher had succeeded in making a
  heating stove, or at least a kind of iron box to put fire in, perhaps the
  primitive idea of the old foot stove only a little changed and enlarged; and
  thus, making stoves to warm ourselves and cannon balls to warm the Hessians,
  commenced in this country the little rill that is now the stream "so great that
  you cannot hear its roar." The camping hunter had not then discovered for us the
  fact that the "black rock" would burn, but the discovery of coal as a fuel
  quickly followed the making of the first stove and the casting of those holy
  cannon balls, and at that very hour Fulton was brewing in his great brain the
  steamboat that in 1809 made its immortal trial trip on the Hudson. Then, too,
  Benjamin Franklin was flying his kites, himself, as he says, "holding the end
  of one string and another goose holding by its neck the other string," when the
  lightning, realizing its great master had come, playfully and in "sportive
  twists" ran down the wrong string and "liked to have killed the wrong goose."
  Thus, link by link the great chain was forged and welded from the outcropping
  iron ore that has made this the age of iron, the era of
  civilization--wonderful, incomparable! These are the true children of
  immortality. The thoughts and inventions of genius alone are immortal, they
  endure forever. Like the laws of nature their work goes on perpetually, ever
  increasing, ever growing, multiplying in compound ratio like the unseen drops
  of water and particles of gases in the bowels of the earth that ignite and
  produce the earthquake--self increasing, self perpetuating, casting their seeds
  in the minds of other men, encircling the globe, widening, deepening,
  strengthening forever. What are the stupid imaginings of the fabled gods? What
  the world's common accepted ideas of its great benefactors, great men, compared
  to these immortal inventors and thinkers? Place the fame and glory of Napoleon
  by the side of that nameless hunter who discovered the use of coal, then think
  of the agony, destruction and woe that came into this world with the great
  warrior, and remember what has come of the results of the simple hunter's
  observations about his lonely camp fire--how mean and horrible the one, how
  grand and great and good the other. The one only destroyed, the other
  created--the one was only evil, and like all evil things has passed away in its
  effects; the other was only good, and like all good, lives and grows through all
  time. When our schools and churches have time to look about them, to behold this
  vast sweep of growth of this century, it is to be hoped they will begin to
  impress upon the young and growing minds the heaven sent truth that generally
  the world's heroes and great men are but unspeakable shams and frauds--send
  them to the dust bins, spit upon them--the whole horde of humbugs and windbags!
  Away with them, with whips of scorpions pursued them and their miserable
  memories from the world!
  
      The pioneer here in the production of iron was Mr. Bird PATTERSON. He built
  a charcoal furnace in 1838. It stood near where the Catawissa railroad now
  passes, just beyond the Mahoning steam mill. With the introduction of
  anthracite coal as a fuel in iron manufacture it was abandoned and eventually
  fell into ruin. This, in order to designate the different furnaces, was called
  "No. 1."
  
      Montour Iron and Steel Works.--About 1840 CHAMBERS & BIDDLE built Nos. 2
  and 3--the twin furnaces, and these were the first in the country that used
  anthracite coal. It is said that Benjamin PERRY was the leading spirit in the
  production of anthracite iron. Furnace No. 4 was built in 1845. These were the
  Montour Iron Company's works, for some time in their early history represented
  by the firm of MURDOCK, LEAVITT & Co., the firm consisting of U. A. MURDOCK,
  Edward LEAVITT, Jesse OAKLEY and David WETMORE. The superintendent was Henry
  BREVOORT. The rolling-mill was built in 1844. (A. G. VORIS was a general agent
  and builder, who was for many years connected with the works, as builder,
  purchasing material, selling iron and having renting of the dwellings in
  charge.) T. O. VanALLEN built the store-house, now known as the company store,
  in 1844, and conducted the store and the flouring-mill until about 1850 when he
  sold to CONELY, GROVE & Co. He was also resident agent for a time. The
  rolling-mill was completed in 1845 and here the first T rail was made. The U
  rail had been made before this date; but to Danville belongs the honor of
  having on the 8th of October, 1845, produced the first T rail that was ever
  made in this country--a rail that now connects the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans
  and checkered with iron roadways every civilized country in the world. In 1843
  the furnaces were leased to Benjamin PERRY, Alexander GARRETSON, Cornelius
  GARRETSON and William JENNISON. Their contract was for two years. HARRIS was
  the manager at the rolling-mill in its first operation and was succeeded by M.
  S. RIDGEWAY, the manager at the present time. The foundry and machine shop was
  established by HEYWARD & SNYDER in 1839, but they were purchased by the company
  in 1852. From 1847 to 1849 the rolling-mill was operated by RIDGEWAY, VAN ALLEN,
  HEATH and STROH. The resident agent of the company at that time was Warren
  MURDOCK. He occupied the position until the advent of the GROVE Bros., about
  1850 or 1851. Peter and John GROVE managed the works until 1857. During their
  regime the new mill was built, adding much to its extent and capacity, which is
  now 45,000 tons of iron rails per annum. In 1857 the entire works passed into
  the hands of I. S. WATERMAN, Thomas BEAVER, William NEAL and Washington LEE, as
  trustees for the creditors of the Montour Iron Company. They operated the works
  as trustees until 1859 when the entire interest in the whole concern was
  purchased by WATERMAN & BEAVER. They also purchased the real estate with all
  the franchises of the company, and changed the name to the Pennsylvania Iron
  works. They operated the works with great success and general satisfaction. In
  1868 Thomas BEAVER, Dan MORGAN, C. MULLIGAN, George F. GEISINGER and Dan
  EDWARDS operated and shared the profits of the works. This combination was
  successful and continued until 1874. In 1876 Thomas BEAVER sold his interest to
  I. S. WATERMAN, retaining by purchase the mansion house on the hill, with twenty
  acres of ground.
  
      In 1880 Mr. WATERMAN sold the plant to the Philadelphia & Reading Railroad
  Company. The name of the works was then changed to Montour Iron and Steel
  Works, with W. E. C. COX, president; E. P. HOWE, manager, and S. W. INGESALL,
  treasurer. As some evidence of what the little first old charcoal furnace had
  grown into, it may be stated that the railroad paid $450,000 in cash for the
  entire plant. In its line of manufacture this was the pioneer establishment
  east of the Alleghenies, producing a superior rail that supplied roads in all
  parts of the country, extending to the Pacific Ocean. The excellent quality of
  block iron mined here, from its hardness, made a top for the rail that was a
  valuable desideratum, and commanded sales of all the works could produce. The
  size of the mail building, 343x290 feet; northeast wing, 116x89 feet; northwest
  wing, 116x60 feet; size of No. 2, 234x136 feet; wing, 28x67 feet;
  blacksmith-shop, 26x57 feet; brick-house, 39x31 feet; pump-house, 20x15 feet;
  oil-house, 32x32 feet. This structure contains 15 heating furnaces, 27 single
  puddling furnaces, 1 16-inch train of rolls and 2 trains of 20 inches. These
  rolls are driven by three large engines, combined, 700 horse-power. There is
  also a vertical engine which runs the squeezer, and one that runs the saws and
  machinery for punching and straightening the rails. A powerful vertical engine
  drives the fans for blasts for the heating furnaces, and pumps water; another
  supplies the blast for the puddling-mill, and pumps water for the boilers in
  the puddling furnaces, and this drives the machinery for cutting old rails for
  the heating furnaces preparatory to re-rolling. Puddling mill No. 2 is
  similarly constructed and contains 14 double puddling furnaces, 2 squeezers, 1
  rotary, 1 crocodile and 1 train of 20-inch rolls. The rollers are driven by a
  Corliss engine of 100 horse-power. There are other appliances for the
  successful operation of the mills. M. S. RIDGEWAY is the superintendent. These
  give employment to about 1,000 men when in full operation, and can turn out
  4,000 tons of rails, and have made as high as 200 tons of finished rails in a
  day. The blast furnaces have a capacity of 24,000 tons of pig iron per year.
  The blast is supplied by two engines of 400 horse-power each, and employ 600
  men in full operation. These are superintended by Daniel MORGAN. The foundry
  and machine shops are superintended by F. H. VARMEN. They consist of a building
  40x75 feet, two stories, the upper floor occupied for pattern rooms. These are
  filled with all the machinery for making steam-engines, locomotives, etc., and
  give employment, when in full work, to seventy-five men. The foundry is 60x90
  feet, and, provided with a cupola capable of making a casting weighing ten
  tons, also with air furnaces, core oven, cranes, etc. Here sixty-five men can
  be employed, and can turn out about 200 tons of castings per month. The boiler
  shop is 60x70 feet.
  
      These are of the iron works proper and rank among the largest iron works in
  the world owned by private capital. The company owns extensive ore mines, 2,000
  acres of land which are connected with the furnaces by a narrow gauge railroad
  about seven miles in length, equipped with engines and rolling stock, with a
  branch road to their limestone quarry. In the mining of their ore and quarrying
  rock they give employment to 150 men. The company put up about 300 dwellings, a
  large grist-mill and a general store. At Kingston, on the L. & B. Railroad,
  sixty miles from Danville, the company purchased a valuable coal property.
  
      Grove's Furnace.--Among the best known of the furnaces in the State these
  have long ranked in the front. They are cold and idle now and have been for
  some years, standing there a mute monument to the skill and executive ability
  of the GROVE Brothers, as among the early and successful manufacturers of
  pig-iron in Pennsylvania. These furnaces are on Mahoning Street, are solidly
  built and furnished with every modern appliance for the effective fulfillment
  of the purpose for which they were built. The first furnace was put up in 1840,
  and the additional stack was built in 1859-50. the blast for both furnaces is
  supplied by a 400-horse power engine. They gave employment to seventy-five men,
  and had a capacity of 12,000 tons per annum. The firm purchased coal mines above
  Pittston, on the Lackawanna & Baltimore Railroad; also ore lands about Danville,
  and in Huntingdon, Berks and Lancaster Counties in this State, and also in
  Virginia, Maryland and Canada.
  
      The original brothers who came here and built up this great industry have
  passed away, leaving a large fortune to their heirs. Among other of the
  evidences of their great wealth is the extensive GROVE's residence, one of the
  most expensive private residences at the time of its building in the State. The
  present owners of the property are apparently content with what they have and
  are not anxious to add to their great worldly possessions.
  
      The Co-operative Iron and Steel Works.--This is a joint stock company,
  chartered December 31, 1870, whose stockholders are largely interested as
  workmen in its mill. It is thus far a successful experiment in co-operative
  industry and is being watched with great interest throughout the country as an
  exponent of a principle somewhat novel, yet apparently founded on solid grounds
  of social economy. The company having purchased six acres of land adjoining the
  canal, and having $75,000 capital distributed among forty stock-holders,
  commenced the erection of their mill in April, 1871, and had it in operation by
  November 13 of the same year. The mill is constructed after the most approved
  plans, and its internal arrangements are very complete. It is 75x153 feet, and
  contains eight puddling furnaces-one train of eighteen inch rolls driven by an
  engine of 100 horse-power, one forty horse-power engine, "crocodile squeezer,"
  etc. The company have a neat office building adjoining the works. The present
  officers are Perry DEEN, president; L. K. RISHEL, secretary and treasurer, and
  John GROVE, W. M. GEARHART, Samuel MILLS, D. L. SECHER, A. J. AMERMAN, L. K.
  RISHEL, Perry DEEN, J. C. RHODES, P. BALDY, Jr., D. M. REESE and E. J. CURTIS,
  directors. The company at present manufacture pig iron into puddle bar at their
  own mill, and have it manufactured into rails from sixteen to fifty pounds per
  yard. The erection of a rail-mill is contemplated. Value of product, per year,
  about $300,000. The company pay out as wages $4,000 per month, in cash, making
  nearly $50,000 per year put in circulation among the business men of Danville
  by their establishment alone.
  
      Enterprise Foundry and Machine Works.--These works were established in 1873
  by Messrs. CRUIKSHANK, MOYER & Co. The firm is composed entirely of practical
  men, who give their personal attention to every branch of the business. The
  establishment consists of a machine-shop, 45x50 feet, stocked with lathes,
  planers, bolt-cutters, etc., of approved patterns; foundry, 45x50 feet,
  containing a cupola of seven tons capacity, and a large crane capable of
  hoisting ten tons--this foundry can turn out castings of any desired weight or
  pattern; pattern-shop, 45-40 feet. The machine-ship is under the direct
  supervision of J. W. MOYER and Thomas CURRY, both members of the firm and
  practical machinists. The foundry is in charge of James CRUIKSHANK, a practical
  molder, also one of the firm. The office and business department is presided
  over by R. MOORE, the remaining partner. The firm manufacture steam engines,
  rolling-mill, blast furnace, saw and grist-mill machinery, railroad and bridge
  iron work of all kinds. The works are located on Ferry street, near the L. & B.
  Railroad.
  
      Danville Iron Foundry.--The foundry was established in 1872. It is located
  in East Danville, and is 56x84 feet, solidly constructed, with slate roof. It
  contains a cupola capable of melting seven tons at one heat; core-oven, crane,
  etc. There is also a blacksmith-shop and pattern-shop attached, the latter
  under the charge of E. E. Brown, an experienced pattern-maker. The foundry
  turns out stoves, plows, agricultural implements, corn-planters, etc. Daniel
  DeLONG is the proprietor.
  
      National Iron Foundry.--This foundry, near the Columbia furnaces, was
  originally built by Peter BALDY, Sr., about 1839, and was first operated by
  BELSON, WILLIAMS & GARDLEY. For some cause they failed and it passed into the
  hands of O'CONNOR & RICE. They also failed, and R. C. RUSSEL took charge of the
  work. After a brief period of time he sold to HANCOCK & CARR, who soon
  transferred it to John HIBLER. The several parties named conducted the
  establishment for twenty-five years. In 1854 Samuel HUBER, who had acted as
  foreman in the Eagle Foundry for a number of years, leased the National Iron
  Foundry and operated it until 1859, when it was totally destroyed by fire. In
  the spring of the same year he had taken Samuel BOUDMAN into partnership, and
  who after the fire abandoned the enterprise. But Mr. S. HUBER bought the ground
  of Mr. BALDY, rebuilt the foundry more complete than it had been before, and
  again embarked in the business, successfully conducting it alone, until the 1st
  of April, 1868, when his son, J. S. HUBER, became a partner under the firm of S.
  HUBER & Son. They carried on the business with entire satisfaction until the
  19th of January, 1877, when C. C. HUBER, another son, was taken into the firm,
  and then it became S. HUBER & Sons. Subsequently W. H. HUBER, the third son,
  was also added to the firm, and so it remains to the present time.
  
      Some years ago Mr. S. HUBER, the senior member of the firm, turned his
  attention to the construction of an improved plow, in which he was completely
  successful. His invention was patented and the HUBER plow, made at this
  foundry, is now a popular favorite over a wide region of country.
  
      Glendower Iron Works occupies the ground of the old Rough and Ready
  Rolling-mill, and was originally built by Bird PATTERSON. In 1847 William
  HANCOCK and John FOLEY changed it into a rolling-mill for the manufacture of
  merchant-iron. In 1850 they converted it into a rail-mill, and then for the
  first time they met with great prosperity. After eight years of great success
  Mr. FOLEY retired, Mr. HANCOCK becoming sole proprietor in 1858. During the
  late war Mr. FOLEY re-entered the firm. In 1866 he again sold his interest to
  Mr. HANCOCK.
  
      The first of the Danville furnaces was built in 1870 by HANCOCK &
  CREVELING. The second and larger furnace was subsequently erected. These
  furnaces were superintended by George W. MILES. The capacity of the Danville
  furnaces is 15,000 tons per annum.
  
      In 1867 the National Iron Company was formed, superseding the Rough and
  Ready. Of this company William HANCOCK was president at first and afterward
  William PAINTER; P. C. BRINK, was vice-president and Benjamin G. WELCH was
  secretary, treasurer and general manager.
  
      This organization continued until 1871, when the Danville furnaces were
  purchased. The new rolling-mill had been erected in 1870. George W. MILES
  continued the superintendence of the furnaces under the National Iron Company.
  John G. HILER was manager at the new rolling-mill, and Joseph H. SPRINGER at
  the old Rough and Ready rail-mill. In 1873, owing to large expenditures and
  heavy losses, the company was compelled to go into bankruptcy. After the works
  had lain idle some time they were purchased by the heirs of William HANCOCK,
  deceased, in 1874, under a mortgage sale; upon which the HANCOCK Iron & Steel
  Company was organized. Dr. J. D. GOSH was chosen president and B. G. WELCH,
  secretary, treasurer and general manager. This company existed only about six
  months, when the works were again idle until 1877, when they were leased by A.
  CREVELING, who operated them until June, 1879, when A. CREVELING and George W.
  MILES purchased the works--the old Rough and Ready property--John ROACH
  purchasing the part lying north of the canal. A. CREVELING and George MILES
  then organized the Glendower Iron Works, with A. CREVELING, president; H.
  LEVIS, treasurer, and George W. MILES, secretary and general manager. The
  capacity of the works is 20,000 tons.
  
      The works were kept in successful operation, but quit making rails, and
  were devoted entirely to making what is called scalp iron. In the early part of
  September, 1886, the men organized a strike and the mills are now closed with no
  immediate prospects of opening again.
  
      The Atlas Manufacturing Company was chartered in 1881, and commenced
  business in Espy, Penn. The first officers were James McCORMICK, president; W.
  J. McCORMICK, secretary and treasurer. In the spring of 1884 the works were
  brought to Danville, and the company leased VORIS, HAIGH & GREGG's
  planing-mill, going extensively into the manufacture of wood, household
  novelties and making a specialty of the "Atlas Step-ladder." The latter is now
  exported in quantities to Europe and Australia. We are told this is the largest
  factory for making this specialty in the world. The present officers are William
  ANGLE, president and manager, and F. C. ANGLE, secretary and treasurer.
  
      Danville Nail and Manufacturing Company.--The works were erected and the
  machinery started in August, 1883. They are very complete in all their
  appointments for the purpose intended, namely the manufacture of muck bar nails
  and tack iron, with a capacity of 900 kegs of nails a day. When started there
  were fifteen nail machines; now there are eight machines, run to their full
  capacity, and by January 1, 1887, they had 100 of these machines running. The
  nail plates are heated by gas for making nails. The first electric light plant
  ever put up in Danville was used for lighting the works in this mill, and was
  used for the first time on Saturday, November 6, 1886. The officers are D. M.
  BOYD, president; R. M. GROVE, treasurer; W. C. FRICK, secretary and manager.
  
      Chulasky Furnace.--These works are on the dividing line between
  Northumberland and Montour Counties. The offices and residences of T. J. MILES
  & Co., lessees, are all in Danville. These works were erected in 1846, by
  Samuel WOOD. There is one stack 42x11, with a capacity of 6,500 tons net per
  annum. They make soft gray forge pig iron. The works were started up after
  being some time idle, in November, 1886.
  
      Danville Stove Works were chartered in 1882, and the works were in
  operation the same year. The organizers were the present officers: Henry
  VINCENT, president; James FOSTER, secretary W. J. BALDY, treasurer. At first
  the capacity of the works was eleven molders, and this was increased to a
  capacity of fifty-six molders. The company is now making preparations for a
  thirty-ton cupola and to double the present capacity. Forty-seven sizes and
  kinds of stoves are now made, and their trade is to all parts of the country.
  
      CHURCHES
  
      Grove Presbyterian Church, once called the Mahoning Presbyterian Church,
  now the Grove Presbyterian Church, is the oldest religious organization in the
  county. It was built when this was called Mahoning settlement. The first
  preacher was Rev. John BRYSON, preaching at first in the dwelling of Gen.
  MONTGOMERY, and afterward, when the house was too small for the growing
  congregation, in the General's barn. The first log house church was built in
  1778 or 1779. The logs were scored and hewn by George MAUS, Isaac BOUDNAM and
  Thomas HUGHES. This building was used in 1826, when a brick building of larger
  dimensions was erected. The congregation was organized in 1785. The earliest
  church records are not now to be found, which is regretted. But one single
  document has been preserved and that was a subscription paper; the names of the
  signers to this are given in Chapter II, this Part. In 1793 the salary of the
  preacher was fixed at L75, and the following parties signed a paper
  guaranteeing the sum to be paid. These names included the heads of certainly
  all the Presbyterians then here, and when we remember that at the first coming
  nearly every-one was a Calvinist, it may be assured that it was very nearly all
  then here: Joseph BIGGERS, Hugh CALDWELL, Thomas GASKINS, James STEPHENSON,
  William DONALDSON, John EMMETT, Sr., Robert DONALDSON, John DONALDSON, Joseph
  WILLIAMS, John WOODSIDE, George CALDWELL, John JONES, William COLT, John
  MONTGOMERY, Daniel BARTON, Christian CAMPBELL, Robert WILLIAMS, Alex.
  McMUNIGAL, William MONTGOMERY, Jr., John MOORE, Daniel MONTGOMERY, Robert
  MONTGOMERY, John CARR, James LOUGHEAD, Robert CAMPBELL, Thomas BEST, James
  CONSART, Gilbert VORHEES, James CURRY, Peter BLUE, Andrew COCHRAN, M. GULICK,
  Richard ROBINSON, Jacob GEARHART, Jr., Frederick BLUE, John EMMETT, Jr., John
  YOUNG, Elias HARRISON, Isaac WOODRUFF, Stephen HUNT, Albert AMMERMAN and Philip
  YOUNG. This congregation, as stated, was organized in 1785. Gen. William
  MONTGOMERY was chosen an elder at the same time, and continued an active and
  faithful officer until his death, which occurred in 1816.
  
      The brick church built in 1826 was a neat and plain structure, presenting
  quite a picturesque appearance, embowered as it was in a grove of forest trees.
  The new church is a massive and handsome structure of artistic stone-work in the
  Gothic order of architecture, and was dedicated in 1875. It occupies the site of
  the old brick church on the Knoll, surrounded by the remaining forest trees and
  a grove of beautiful young maples that were planted to take place of the
  ancient oaks that are rapidly passing away. The building of this magnificent
  temple was superintended by Joseph DIEHL, a master mechanic and builder, whose
  handiwork is seen on many a public and private building in this region. As
  previously stated, Rev. BRYSON was the first pastor of Mahoning, now the Grove
  Presbyterian Church, and with the aid of the old pioneers he laid the
  foundation deep and strong for a lasting church, a religious home to bless the
  passing generations for centuries to come. Rev. PATTERSON was a worthy
  successor. His ministration was long and abundantly blessed. Rev. DUNLAP
  succeeded him in the pastorate of Mahoning Church, and he was followed by Rev.
  HALLIDAY.
  
      Then came Rev. Dr. YOEMANS. He died in this place. During his pastorate,
  about 1849 or 1850, the question of a new church edifice was agitated. There
  was some division of sentiment in reference to its location. A portion favored
  the erection of the new church on the south side of the canal, and others
  adhered to the old site in the grove, now rendered doubly dear as the place
  where their fathers and mothers had worshiped. The former succeeded. A new
  church was built on Mahoning Street, and Rev. Dr. YOEMANS continued his
  ministry in the new church. the adherents to the Grove were without a regular
  pastor, as the organization, with the pastor, had gone with the new church. In
  1855, however, presbytery organized a new congregation in the old church, and
  called it "Mahoning Presbyterian Church North." But this title was considered
  too cumbrous, and through the efforts of Rev. C. J. COLLINS and others it was
  changed to the more convenient and more euphonious name of "The Grove
  Presbyterian Congregation." Rev. C. J. COLLINS was the first pastor. He
  remained some ten years and resigned. He was succeeded by Rev. Dr. J. Gordon
  CARNACHAN. He left this place to take charge of a pastorate of the Grove
  Church, by Rev. Reuben H. Van PELT. Rev. W. A. McATEE was next called to the
  charge of the Grove Church. After his resignation Rev. John B. GRIER became the
  pastor, the youngest son of M. C. GRIER, who was long an elder in that church,
  and lately deceased. Among the families connected with the old church, and
  whose descendants still worship in the Grove, mention is made of the
  MONTGOMERYs, MAUS, CURRYs, YORKs, DIEHLs, GRIERs, McMAHANs, MAGILLs, WALTZes,
  CATCHCARTs, BOUDMANs, MOOREs, GEARHARTs, and RUSSELs. The Grove Church contains
  a large organ. The present pastor is Rev. J. M. SIMONTON.
  
      The Mahoning Presbyterian Church was built in 1853, on Mahoning and Ferry
  Streets the congregation, as before stated, retaining the name and the
  organization of the original church. The building is handsome and well
  arranged. It is surmounted by a steeple containing a bell and a town clock.
  Some years ago a storm blew down the spire, which was never replaced. There is
  a fine memorial window in the rear of the pulpit, placed there by E. B.
  REYNOLDS, in memory of his mother, who had been a member of the congregation
  for many years. Rev. Dr. YOEMANS, who was the pastor in the old church,
  continued his ministrations in the new for a number of years, and died greatly
  lamented by the community, as well as the members of his own religious
  household. His reputation extended all over the country and his ability was
  acknowledged by making him Moderator of the General Assembly.
  
      Rev. IJAMS succeeded to the pastorate of Mahoning Presbyterian Church after
  the death of Dr. YOEMANS. He was eloquent, and, withal, rather dramatic. Rev.
  IJAMS resigned, and Rev. A. B. JACK was called to the charge of Mahoning
  Presbyterian Church. After officiating for several years, he resigned. Rev. F.
  R. BEEBER succeeded him. Rev. R. L. STEWART then entered upon his work in this
  place and is the present efficient pastor.
  
      Christ's Episcopal Church.--the corner-stone of the Protestant Episcopal
  Church was laid October 28, 1828. A few members of that church had held
  occasional meetings in their private dwellings, and then they worshiped a short
  time in the court-house, under the ministrations of Rev. James DEPEW, of
  Bloomsburg, who became their regular pastor as soon as the church was built.
  The lot on which the church and parsonage were built is on Market Street, now
  occupied by the present elegant stone edifice. This first building was of
  brick, 45x60 feet, and cost about $6,000. The following gentlemen composed the
  vestry at the period when the corner-stone was laid: Joseph MAUS, John
  REYNOLDS, Jacob SWISHER, Peter BALDY and Michael SANDERS, George A. FRICK and
  B. APPLEMAN, not one of whom was a communicant of the Evangelical Lutheran
  Church at that time. Mr. SANDERS adhered to the Lutherans subsequently, but Mr.
  BALDY became an Episcopalian. Some of the founders proposed to devote the new
  church building to the use of both the Lutherans and Episcopalians; but they
  soon discovered its impracticability, and all finally agreed that the church
  should be devoted to the exclusive use of the Protestant Episcopal service. On
  the 25th of October, 1829, just one year after the corner-stone was laid, the
  first communicants of the church, ten in number, were confirmed by the Rt. Rev.
  Henry W. ONDERDONK. Rev. James DEPEW labored faithfully among them, and under
  his pastoral charge the foundations of a permanent congregation were laid. He
  was last heard of in Nebraska. Rev. Mr. DRAKE, of Bloomsburg, supplied the
  pulpit occasionally after the departure of Rev. Mr. DEPEW. Rev. A. LAUDERBACK
  was the next rector. He remained for about five years. He at the same time had
  charge of the church at Sunbury. He removed to Iowa. The next in order was Rev.
  R. M. MITCHISON, who remained only about six months and was succeeded by Rev.
  Milton C. LIGHTNER, who assumed the charge in 1842. He officiated in Christ's
  Church for about seven years. He removed to Manayunk, and Rev. Mr. ELSEGOOD,
  formerly a minister in the Methodist denomination, took his place in Danville.
  At the end of two years Rev. Mr. ELSEGOOD removed to Easton and was succeeded
  here by Rev. Mr. PAGE, of New York, who also remained two years. In February,
  1855, Rev. Edwin N. LIGHTNER, brother to Rev. Milton C. LIGHTNER, succeeded to
  the charge of Christ's Church, and continued its rector until May, 1870, when
  the loss of health compelled him to resign the charge. He ministered to the
  congregation about fifteen years. He resides in Riverside. In September, 1870,
  Rev. J. Milton PECK was called to the rectorship of Christ's Church. In 1845
  some improvements were made in the church buildings, and in 1856 the
  congregation spent nearly $3,000 in improving and beautifying both the interior
  and the exterior of the building. Rev. Mr. PECK remained in charge until 1882,
  when he resigned and removed to Malden, Mass. His successor was Rev. George
  BREED, who ministered to the flock one year. He was succeeded by Rev. George C.
  HALL, who remained in charge from march, 1884, to January, 1886, when the
  present minister in charge, Rev. James L. MAXWELL, came and commenced his work
  April 2, 1886. The chief support of the church during all these years was Peter
  BALDY, Sr., one of the founders, who at the time of his death, in 1880, left to
  the congregation $50,000 to build a new church. The executor not only carried
  out the bequest, but gave such energy to the movement that the present splendid
  stone church was erected, costing about $100,000, and is much the costliest
  church edifice in Danville. Spacious and solid, it looms up grandly--its
  exterior showing outlines of graceful elegance, its interior richly and
  ornately finished.
  
      Shiloh German Reformed Church.--The German Reformed congregation was
  organized in 1858, under the pastoral charge of Rev. D. W. WOLF. Services had
  been held in the court-house for some time, and the young congregation,
  composed of twenty members, was organized. In 1859 a new church was built on
  Bloom Street, though it remained unfinished for some years and was not
  dedicated until December 20, 1862. Rev. D. W. WOLF resigned in 1861, and on the
  1st of may, 1862, Rev. J. W. STEINMETZ assumed the pastoral charge of the
  congregation. The church is of brick, 60x40 feet, with a pleasant basement. The
  congregation now numbers more than 200. Rev. J. W. STEINMETZ resigned the
  charge. He was succeeded by Rev. Mr. SHAFFER. the present pastor is Rev. J. A.
  PETERS.
  
      St. Paul's Methodist Episcopal Church.--The precise period when the first
  Methodist preacher arrived at this place is not now known; but they were the
  second religious body organized here. The first regular conference appointment
  for Danville was in 1791. This place was then included in Northumberland
  Circuit, which extended from Northumberland up the North Branch of the
  Susquehanna to Wyoming Valley, and up the West Branch to Great Island. The
  distance traveled by the circuit rider in making his round was 300 miles, which
  was accomplished in six weeks. This territory for many years was supplied by
  only two or three ministers, and it included present circuits and stations of
  Williamsport, Newbury, Muncy, Milton Circuit and Station, Northumberland,
  Mifflinburg, Lewisburg, Catawissa, Bloomsburg, Berwick, Bloomingdale,
  Orangeville, Sunbury and parts of Bellefonte District. Previous to 1804
  Danville and the circuit in which it was located belonged to the Philadelphia
  Conference. In that year it was transferred to the Baltimore Conference. In
  1807 it was returned to the Philadelphia Conference. In 1810 it was included in
  the new Genessee Conference, and in 1820 it was re-assigned to the Baltimore
  Conference, of which it still continues to be an appointment.
  
      In 1791, of the first preachers to minister of the Methodist Episcopal
  Church in Danville were Revs. Richard PARROTT and Lewis BROWNING.
  
      Berwick Circuit was formed in 1831, but Danville was still in the
  Northumberland Circuit. Danville Circuit was formed in 1836 and embraced
  Montour, Bloomsburg and Orangeville Circuits.
  
      In 1846 Danville was erected into a station, and then appointments were
  regularly made for this place as follows: 1846, John GUYER; 1847, Philip B.
  REESE; 1849, Thomas MITCHELL; 1850, Joseph FRANCE; 1853, James BRADS; 1855,
  Thomas M. REESE; 1856, J. WILSON; 1857-58, William HARDEN; 1859-60, B. B.
  HAMLIN; 1861-63, J. H. C. DOSH; 1864-65, A. M. BARNITZ; 1866-67, J. McK.
  REILEY; 1868-71, F. HODGSON; 1872-73, S. CREIGHTON; 1874-75, F. B. RIDDLE;
  1876-78, W. A. HAUCK; 1879-80, J. MAX LANTZ. Rev. Richard HINKLE is the present
  pastor.
  
      Trinity Methodist Episcopal Church.--This church was built north of the
  canal to accommodate that portion of the congregation which was becoming too
  large for the one church building. The lot was purchased on Centre and Ferry
  Streets, opposite the Catholic Church. Capt. LOVETT and M. S. RIDGEWAY, though
  not members, were the most active and the largest contributors in erecting the
  building. Then Thomas BEAVER contributed several thousand dollars. A building
  was put up costing about $30,000. It was so deeply in debt that it was sold at
  sheriff's sale, and Mr. BEAVER became the purchaser for $8,000. Rev. I. H.
  TORRENCE purchased one-half of Thomas BEAVER's interest for $4,000. Mr. BEAVER
  then donated his other half to the church; afterward it was sold again and Rev.
  TORRENCE, to protect himself, became the sole owner and continued to give the
  free use thereof to the congregation.
  
      Rev. McCORD was the first minister; succeeded by Rev. VanFOSSEN, who
  afterward studied law and became a practicing lawyer in Colorado. Rev. J. P.
  MOORE was then in charge; he was succeeded by Rev. STEPHENSON and he by Rev.
  STRAWINSKI. Then Rev. KING ministered to the congregation. The present pastor
  is Rev. James HUNTER.
  
      PRIMITIVE METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH.--This is a substantial brick
  building; was erected in 1848; no stationed pastor at the present time.
  
      Baptist Church.--Baptist Church of Danville, was organized on the 13th of
  November, 1842. The meetings were held in the court-house for about a year
  subsequent to the organization, during which period a frame church was built on
  Pine Street, not far from the river. It was dedicated on the 5th of January,
  1844. In 1863 it was removed to give place to the new brick church, which is a
  large and elegant building. As near as can be ascertained, the pastors in their
  regular order of service, were Revs. J. S. MILLER, W. T. BUNKER, John H.
  WORRALL, A. D. NICHOLS, Ira FOSTER, O. L. HALL, A. B. STILL, T. JONES, G. W.
  SCOTT, I. C. WINN, John S. MILLER (the second time), J. John MOSTYN, J. E.
  BRADLEY, ____ SWEET. The present pastor is Rev. Green MILES.
  
      Evangelical Lutheran Church.--Their present brick building was erected in
  1858, on Pine Street.
  
      The oldest Lutheran Church organization in this portion of the State was in
  Mahoning township; its home in that day was in what was called Ridgeville. A
  minister named SHELHART visited this place prior to 1800. The record of the
  organization is dated 1803 and the first regular pastor was Rev. Johann Paul
  Ferdinand KRAMER. The record shows he was present two years. In 1810 Rev. J. F.
  ENGLE was in charge. He remained until April, 1816. Then there was no pastor
  until 1820. The next eight years Rev. Peter KELSER was in charge. The Lutherans
  joined with the Episcopalians in building a church, but this joint ownership
  soon ceased and the congregation returned to their worship in the court-house.
  About 1830 Rev. Jeremiah SHINDEL preached. He remained five or six years. they
  were without a pastor until 1843, when Rev. Elias SCHWARTZ assumed charge. At
  this time the membership was reduced to twenty. Mr. SCHWARTZ pushed the work so
  vigorously that at a meeting he received into the church between forty and fifty
  new members. Soon thereafter they commenced to build a church. The first was
  built and dedicated in June, 1845, but this involved them in debt and Rev.
  SCHWARTZ resigned. It was then attached to the Milton charge. Rev. M. J. ALLEN
  then became pastor and served until 1848; no pastor for the next two years,
  when Rev. P. WILLARD, of Gettysburg, came. Number of members in 1850 was 142. A
  lot was this year purchased for a cemetery, and in 1853 a parsonage was
  purchased. In 1854 the church was too small and the subject of a new site
  roused up some warm contentions that ended by the German portion going to
  themselves, and Rev. P. WILLIARD was dismissed. In 1856 Rev. J. M. STOVER came.
  He threw oil on the waters, it seems, and the new church was finally built as
  above stated. He was succeeded by Rev. E. HUBERT; he by P. P. LANE, who
  remained two years, when Rev. E. A. SHARETTS assumed charge. The REV. N.
  GRAVES, who stayed two years, when Rev. M. L. SHINDELL, the present pastor,
  took charge.
  
      Trinity Lutheran Church was built in 1861 the congregation being formed
  from the old church. It is a large and elegant building, originally finished
  with a tall spire, which was blown down by a storm and never rebuilt. There are
  nearly 300 communicants. The first pastor was Rev. D. M. HENKEL, succeeded by
  Rev. M. C. HORINE; present pastor is Rev. C. K. DRUMHELLER.
  
      Congregation B' Nai Zion, was chartered November 1, 1854. their frame
  building on front Street is 30x60 feet, and was built in 1871. Jacob LOEB,
  president; H. L. GROSS, secretary; trustees, Jacob MAYER, Moses BLOCK, A.
  WERMSER. They have no resident rabbi.
  
      Emanuel Evangelical Church.--Mission was established in Danville in 1860,
  by Rev. M. STOKES; he preached some time in Thompson's Hall. Afterward Rev.
  DAVIS succeeded to the charge. A congregation was organized and a frame church
  built in 1869. The two ministers succeeding Mr. DAVIS were Revs. DETWILER and
  BUCK. Then came Rev. RADEBAUGH, then Rev. ORWIG and again Mr. RADEBAUGH; then
  Rev. HUNTER and finally Rev. HORNBERGER. The last named published the
  Temperance Star.
  
      St. John's Evangelical Lutheran Church is a German Lutheran Church on
  Market Street. It is a small brick structure, with a fair attendance of
  members, and a good Sunday-school. The present pastor is Rev. J. R. GROFF.
  
      Welsh Churches.--Congregational Church, Chambers Street, is a brick edifice
  built in 1835.
      Welsh Calvinistic Methodist Church, near Catawissa Railroad, was built in
  1845.
  
      African Methodist Episcopal Church on York's Hill has no parlor.
  
      Roman Catholic Churches.--St. Joseph's Roman Catholic Church is on corner
  of Centre and Ferry Streets. This church has sprung from a mission begun by the
  Rev. J. P. HANNIGAN, in 1847, when the frame church now used as a hall for
  church and church society meetings was built. In September, 1857, the lot upon
  which the present church is built was purchased, but the building was not
  commenced until 1866, and was finished in 1869. It is of brick, 61x117 feet,
  with tower 170 feet high, surmounted by a cross. The style of architecture is
  Romanesque. the number of communicants is 2,200. There is a Sunday-school with
  400 scholars, superintended by the pastor. The value of church property is
  $75,000. The pastors have been Revs. J. P. HANNIGAN, Joseph O'KEEFE, Hugh P.
  KENNEY, Michael SHERIDAN, Edward MURRAY, Arthur McGINNIS (died while pastor),
  and Thomas McGOVERN, the present pastor.
  
      St. Hubert's Catholic Church (German), Bloom Street, built in 1862, is a
  neat, brick edifice. Rev. F. X. SCHMIDT is the pastor; number of communicants,
  700. The Sunday-school, superintended by the pastor, contains eighty scholars.
  Value of church property, $10,000. Revs. FROESCH, KOCH and SCHMIDT, the present
  pastor, constitute the pastoral succession of this church since its organization.
  
      SOCIETIES
  
      Free and Accepted Masons.--Danville Lodge, No. 224, chartered in 1847. The
  officers are T. E. ELLIS, W. M.; Jared N. DIEHL, S. W.; Francis M. GOTWOLD, J.
  W.; M. L. FISHER, Sec; David RUCKLE, Treas.
  
      Mahoning Lodge, No. 516, chartered September, 1872. Officers: John W.
  FARNSWORTH, W. M.; George MAIERS, S. W.; Samuel RUSSELL, J. W.; N. HOFER,
  treas.; Alexander J. FRICK, Sec.
  
      Danville Chapter, No. 239, R. A. M., organized in may, 1872. M. E. H. P.,
  John W. FARNSWORTH; K., A. STEINBRENNER; S., David RUCKEL; Treas., David CLARK;
  Sec., Alexander J. FRICK.
  
      Cavalry Commandery, No. 37, K. T.: E. C., John W. FARNSWORTH; G., David H.
  GETZ; C. G., Elliott R. MORGAN; Treas., D. S. BLOOM; Rec., A. J. FRICK. The
  commandery was removed from Catawissa to Danville in 1874.
  
      Independent Order Red Men.--Mahoning Tribe, No. 77, was organized in 1867,
  with thirty-seven charter members. Officers: Sachem, Charles CHALFANT; Senior
  Sagamore, Henry SNYDER; Jr. S., John F. GULIC; Prophet, C. C. HERR; C. of R.,
  Reece EVANS; Treas., S. G. THOMPSON.
  
      Knights of Pythias.--Blucher Lodge, No. 314, was organized September 1,
  1872. The officers are George HARTLEIN, C. C; A STEINBRENNER, K. of R. and S.;
  John JACOBS, Treas. There are thirty-three members in the order. The first
  officers of the organization were Nicholas HOFER, C. C.; A. STEINBRENNER, K. of
  R. and S.; John JACOBS, Treas.
  
      Beaver Lodge, No. 132, was organized in 1869. The officers are Charles J.
  GROVE, P. C.; Samuel T. JACKSON, C. C.; Evan BEAVER, B. C.; W. WILLIAMS, P.;
  William SMITH, M. at A.
  
      Independent Order of Odd Fellows.--Montour Lodge, No. 109, organized April,
  1845. Number of present membership is eighty-five. The officers are D. M.
  SHULTZ, N. G.; Charles C. RAUCH, V. G.; J. SWEISFORT, Sec.; Philip WELLIVER,
  Asst. Sec.; W. H. AMMERMAN, Treas.
  
      Calumet Lodge, No. 279, number of members 106. E. LEWIS, N. G.; Andrew
  HEATH, V. G.; D. R. WILLIAMS, Sec; Abram LAREW, Asst. Sec.; Henry EARP, Treas.
  
      Danville Lodge: Charles CHALFANT, N. G.; Clarence RANK, V. G.; Reece EVANS,
  Sec.; B. H. HARRIS, Asst. Sec.; Henry HERRING, Treas.
  
      Celestia Lodge, No. 67, D. of R., chartered September 5, 1872, fifty
  members: Henry EARP, N. G.; Mrs. Jacob HARRIS, V. G.; J. SWEISFORT, Sec.; Mrs.
  Sarah EVANS, Asst. Sec.; Mrs. J. P. BARE, Treas.
  
      Myrtle Lodge, No. 858, Philip SMITH, N. G.; David Chesnut V. G.; M. W.
  SMITH, Sec.; Mr. SWANK, Asst. Sec.; George MILES, Treas.; J. W. SWEISFORT,
  Dist. Deputy.
  
      Menoloton Encampment, No. 40, chartered August 7, 1856, number of members
  thirty-seven. W. B. BALDY, C. P.; Charles CHALFANT, H. P.; Angus WRIGHT, S. W.;
  John BUGLER, J. W.; J. A. FAUX, S.; S. M. TRUMBOWER, Treas.
  
      [The I. O. O. F. Cemetery Company, of Danville, was chartered in 1873 and
  fully organized in January, 1874, the grounds secured at a cost of $3,000 and
  at once put in good order. Nine trustees are elected every three years. Present
  ones are as follows: from Montour Lodge, D. L. ANTRIM, J. SWEISFORT and S. M.
  TRUMBOWER; from Calumet Lodge, Jacob HARRIS, George A. BROWN and James
  WOODSIDES; from Danville Lodge, Reece EVANS and J. P. BARE. The officers are
  President, G. A. BROWN; V. P., J. P. BARE; Sec., J. W. SWIESFORT; Treas. D. L.
  ANTRIM. The first interment in this cemetery was William JAMES, September 1,
  1873. He was killed by an explosion in the Montour Iron Works.]
  
      Grand Army of the Republic.--Goodrich Post, No. 22, of Danville, named in
  honor of Lieut. M. B. GOODRICH, who died of wounds received in the battle of
  the Wilderness. As early as 1867 the returned soldiers formed themselves into a
  brotherly band called the Boys in Blue. In June, 1870, this organization became
  the Danville Grand Army of the Republic. This organization was kept effective
  until June, 1873, when it was disbanded. April 22, 1879, it was reorganized and
  its charter bears that date. The following were the officers elected at that
  time: Com., James M. GIBBS; Sr. V. C., A. B. PATTON; Jr. V. C., Joseph H.
  JOHNSON; Sergt., Charles WOOD; Officer of the Day, Benton B. BROWN; Officer of
  Guard, George S. TILLSON; Chaplain, Robert MILLER; Q. M., W. C. DAVIS. Charter
  members: S. M. WAIT, Samuel HERR, Robert G. MILLER, Samuel R. LUNGER, Joseph H.
  JOHNSON, Samuel C. RUNYON, George TILLSON, Alfred L. GERRICK, Jonas FOSTER,
  William WYATT, J. M. GIBBS, A. B. PATTON, W. L. JONES, Alex J. RAINER, W. C.
  DAVIS, Levi M. MILLER, Lewis BYERLY, W. H. ROOK, P. H. SHERIDAN, Thomas M.
  THOMAS, Peter MOYER, Jonathan SWEISFORT, William GOOD, Alexander WAIT, Joseph
  H. RAMSEY, John W. W. KLASE, Robert FIELDS, James JONES, John McELRATH, Michael
  SHIRES, A. C. ANGLE, Benton B. BROWN, H. C. SNYDER, Jacob SLACK, Thomas V.
  PENSYL, William HENRY, John MOORE, Samuel THOMAS, Edward D. SMITH, John A.
  WEIMER, Michael RILEY, John RILEY, John MARSHALL, John KIME, Alex J. HOFFNER,
  Charles SPICER, Charles WOODS, Arthur W. BEAVER, Samuel BAILEY, H. F. FREEZE,
  George C. WILLIAMS, William EARP, John EVERETT. Present officers: A. B. PATTON,
  Com.; George GARDNER, V. C.; R. W. EGGERT, Jr. V. C.; Michael SHIRES, CHAMPLAIN;
  A. C. ANGLE, Officer of the Day; F. E. HILDERBRANDT, Officer of the Guard; W. G.
  KRAMER, Sergt. Major.; W. T. WYATT, Outside Guard; Samuel LUNGER, Inside Guard;
  Lyman MILROY, Ord. Sergt. Present membership, 164; society in every way
  prosperous.
  
      B' Nai Berith.--Herman Lodge, No. 32, I. O. B. B., organized in 1857;
  number of membership, twenty-nine. Gustave WEIL, Pres,; Joseph WERMSER, V. P.;
  A. LANG, Sec.; W. L. GROSS, Treas.
  
      Young Men's Christian Association was organized in the Mahoning
  Presbyterian Church on the 21st of June, 1872. The officers elected were
  President, S. G. BUTLER; vice-president, John SWEISFORT; Secretary, John R.
  ROTE, and librarian, H. H. YORGY. The managers first chosen were James M.
  COULTER, William McCORMICK, C. F. LLOYD, J. SWEISFORT and C. P. BRADWAY. The
  organization at present is as follows: President, James M. COULTER;
  vice-president, J. S. HUBER; secretary, George SWARTZ; treasurer, George M.
  GEARHART; general secretary, D. C. HUNT; financial secretary, H. H. YORGY. The
  association numbers eighty-one members.
  
      FREE LIBRARY
  
      Thomas BEAVER Free Library, now (October, 1886) in the course of
  construction, is the contribution of its namesake, Thomas BEAVER, and when
  completed and furnished will be the most attractive public building in the
  county. Its fronting is 48 feet on Market Street and 78 feet on Ferry Street,
  standing back from either street 10 feet, for lawn. The front recedes 5 feet
  from each side of the main entrance, the first floor elevated 4 feet above the
  pavement. The massive base and broken outline give its three tall stories an
  imposing appearance. The whole is of light gray stone, with granite trimmings,
  and Scotch granite columns. Stone newels and marble tiling flooring is an index
  of the inside finish. The internal arrangements and rooms are spacious and
  arranged in perfect order for the intended purposes. In the rear of this, as an
  annex, is that portion of the building donated to the Young Men's Christian
  Association. This occupies 70 feet on Ferry Street; the main building to be 38
  feet front on Ferry Street and 64 feet deep, all especially arranged and
  finished for the uses of this organization, the basement with bath rooms,
  lavatory, lockers, dressing rooms, boiler room and gymnasium. It has main
  entrance, vestibule hall, members' parlor, secretary and committee rooms, and
  instruction room and entrance to gymnasium, etc. The lecture room is to have a
  seating capacity of 400; the exterior to be the same stone and finish as the
  library. The total frontage on Ferry Street is 150 feet.
  
      Mr. BEAVER provides for the completion of the entire building, and for the
  endowment of the library, and furnishes a library costing $10,000. The property
  is placed when completed in the hands of trustees, with perpetual succession,
  the first trustees, three of whom are named by Mr. BEAVER and then one from
  each and every church organization (including the Synagogue) in Danville, to be
  selected and chosen by the different organizations.
      The entire amount of money it will require to compete the donation can not
  be exactly told now, but Mr. BEAVER supposes it will be about $100,000.
  
      WATER WORKS
  
      With the growth of the town and its factories came the important question
  of a supply of good water. The subject received general consideration as early
  as 1867 and the more it was discussed the more determined became those citizens
  of spirit and enterprise to devise some way to meet the long felt want. The
  water in the town wells, found at a depth of twenty to twenty-five feet, or at
  the strata of rock forming the river bed, which was never first rate, was
  growing positively bad. In 1871 the Danville Water Company was formed, but it
  seems it ceased to live after its formal organization. A committee was
  appointed in 1872 consisting of George W. REAY, J. W. SWEISFORT, William
  BUCKLEY, and M. D. L. SECHLER, which visited several cities for the purpose of
  investigating fully the subject. Upon their recommendation the present place
  was adopted and the water works constructed, the Holly Company's system being
  deemed the best and cheapest. The works are located on the bank of the river
  just below the bridge, a filter is constructed some distance in the river and
  the water forced by powerful engines through the pipes to all parts of the
  city, there being nearly twelve miles of water mains, costing about $100,000;
  the engines and pumps costing $36,000. The works give entire satisfaction in
  their operation and such is their capacity and facilities that upon a few
  moments' notice they can increase the force of the water sufficiently to drown
  almost any conflagration that might occur.
  
      POSTOFFICE
  
      The Danville postoffice was established in 1806, about a quarter of a
  century after people had settled here, and who could during all that time, only
  send or receive letters from friends or upon business as they were carried by
  the chance traveler from place to place. To us now it seems a long time between
  mails-twenty-five years- but these good people struggled along well content if
  heaven only spared their lives. When in a long time the mail did come, the
  postage on a letter was 25 cents, and very aged people can tell you of
  instances where a family would be notified there was a letter for them, and the
  postage not being paid, they would sorely troubled for many days to raise the
  money to secure it.
  
      Gen. William MONTGOMERY was the first postmaster in Danville. When he
  resigned, his son Daniel succeeded him. They together kept the office until
  1813, when Rudolph SECHLER was appointed April 3, of that year. The latter
  continued in office until James LOUGHEAD was appointed November 24, 1820, who
  held the office fourteen years, when David PETRIKIN was appointed February 1,
  1834. He was succeeded by John BEST, march 21, 1837, who served until the
  appointment of Sharpless TAYLOR march 25, 1841. The next was Alexander BEST,
  appointed November 9, 1842. Gideon M. SHOOP was appointed April 11, 1849, and
  served until November 26, 1852, when Thomas C. ELLIS was appointed; he was
  succeeded September 1, 1853, by Thomas CHALFANT. During his term in 1856 the
  Danville postoffice became a presidential office, and Mr. CHALFANT was
  reappointed, February 21, 1856, and served until May 28, 1861, and was
  succeeded by Andrew F. RUSSELL; the latter was reappointed July 14, 1865, and
  served until Ogden H. OSTRANDER was appointed April 16, 1867, who served two
  years. Charles E. ECKMAN was appointed April 5, 1869, and reappointed March 18,
  1873, and again reappointed April 7, 1877. Mr. ECKMAN continued in office until
  a Democratic president, Cleveland, was inaugurated, when he resigned the place
  he had filled so long and so well and removed to Reading. He was succeeded by
  Thomas CHALFANT, who it seems had simply stepped down and out during the
  Democratic interregnum, but who returned to office with his party to power, and
  is now filling the position to the entire satisfaction of the community.
  
      BOROUGH OFFICIALS
  
      By an act of the Legislature Danville was organized as a borough on the 7th
  of February, 1849.
  
      The first burgess was Dr. Wm. H. MAGILL. The first town council, composed
  of five members, as follows: George S. SANDERS, George BASSETT, Valentine BEST,
  Frank E. ROUCH and E. H. BALDY. The first council meeting was held in the office
  of E. H. BALDY, and the first business transacted was the election of him as
  clerk of the council. Edward YOUNG was chosen street commissioner at a salary
  of $20 a year; Thomas JAMESON, constable. On the 22d of may, in that year, the
  first dog tax was levied in the borough of Danville. The Friendship Fire
  Company represented to the council that the hose was old and rotten, and
  requested 700 feet of new hose, which was ordered.
  
      A contract was also made with James F. DEEN for an engine capable of
  supplying the Friendship Hose Company. The price was to be $800. It was
  constructed and ordered to be given in charge of the company. At this period
  the fire apparatus came under the general direction of the borough.
  
      On the 24th of December, 1849, the council passed a resolution making
  application to the State Legislature for the erection of a new county, to be
  called Montour, with the county seat at Danville. It was also resolved to
  furnish the new county with necessary buildings.
  
      On the 29th of March, 1850, a new council was organized. Dr. W. H. MAGILL
  was rechosen as burgess and Valentine BEST as a member of the council. The new
  members were Dr. Isaac HUGHES, George B. BROWN, Thomas WOODS and William
  MORGAN. Valentine BEST was chosen clerk, and M. C. GRIER was elected treasurer.
  
      Edward YOUNG was the tax collector for 1850.
  
      On the 4th of April, 1851, the council met for organization. At the
  previous March election Thomas CHALFANT had been chosen burgess, and the
  following returned and took their seats as members of the council: James F.
  DEEN, John ROCKAFELLER, J. C. RHODES and A. F. RUSSEL. William CLARK was
  appointed high constable, and B. W. WAPPLES, street commissioner.
  
      In the spring of 1852 Thomas JAMESON was elected burgess, with the
  following council: George S. SANDERS, John DEEN, Jr., G. W. BOYER, and George
  W. BRYAN. The latter was chosen clerk. In this year Sydney S. EASTON filled up
  Northumberland Street.
  
      In 1853 Joseph D. HAHN was elected burgess; council, Daniel RAMSEY, P.
  HOFER, David JONES and James GASKINS; William G. GASKINS, clerk.
  
      Robert MOORE was chosen burgess in 1854; council, John DEEN, Jr., John
  TURNER, William HANCOCK, James G. MAXWELL and Robert McCOY.
  
      In 1855 William HENRIE, burgess; council, Smith B. THOMPSON, David JONES,
  Isaiah S. THORNTON, Frank E. ROUCH, Isaac AMMERMAN. A census was also ordered
  by the council, under which the inhabitants were enumerated, and the same was
  reported at the close of the year. Population, 5,427.
  
      1856--David CLARK, burgess; council, Jacob SECHLER, John BEST, John ARMS,
  William MOWRER and Paul LEIDY, Esq.
  
      1857--Jacob SEIDEL was chosen burgess; council, Jacob SECHLER, Charles
  LEIGHOW, Joseph R. PHILIPS, Samuel HAMOR and John PATTON.
  
      1858--Dr. Clarence H. FRICK, burgess; council, William MOWRER, David JONES,
  Gideon BOYER, George S. SANDERS and Frederick LAMMERS.
  
      1859--Christian LAUBACH, burgess; council, D. N. KOWNOVER, Joseph DIEHL, B.
  K. VASTINE, D. M. BOYD and William COOK.
  
      1860--J. C. RHODES, burgess; council, William COOK, W. G. PATTON, B. K.
  VASTINE, Emanuel HOUPT and Michael C. GRIER.
  
      1861--E. C. VORIS, burgess; council, Reuben VORIS, David JAMES, Joseph
  FLANEGAN, William MORGAN and D. M. BOYD.
  
      1862--Isaac RANK, burgess; council, Jacob ATEN, William MOWRER, Charles W.
  CHILDS, David GROVE and James L. RIEHL.
  
      1863--B. K. VASTINE, burgess; council, James L. RIEHL, William TWIST,
  William LEWIS, John G. HILER and John ROCKAFELLER.
  
      1864--E. W. CONKLING, burgess; council, James L. RIEHL, John G. HILER,
  Joseph DIEHL, C. LAUBACH and William LEWIS.
  
      1865--John G. THOMPSON, burgess; council, Henry HARRIS, Dan MORGAN, D.
  DeLONG, William HENRIE and Jacob ATEN.
  
      1866--Dr. R. S. SIMINGTON, burgess; council, Dan MORGAN, Francis NAYLOR, D.
  DeLONG, William HENRIE and Charles H. WATERS.
  
      1867--George BASSETT, burgess. [Previous to the election the borough had
  been divided into four wards, the First, Second, Third and Fourth. Before that
  time there had been two wards, the South and the North, with five members of
  council, each elected for one year. The change provided for four wards and
  twelve councilmen, three from each ward, one-third of them to serve one year,
  one-third two years and the other three years, and also providing for the
  election of one councilman each year from each ward]. Council, James
  CORNELISON, John A. WINNER, C. W. CHILDS, William HENRIE, David CLARK, James
  KELLY, Samuel LEWIS, M. D. L. SECHLER, Joseph SECHLER, Thompson FOSTER, John G.
  THOMPSON and E. THOMPSON.
  
      1868--Robert McCOY, burgess; new members of council, James L. RIEHL, C. S.
  BOOKS, George W. REAY and David GROVE.
  
      1869--A. J. AMMERMAN, burgess; new members of council, William HENRIE, J.
  S. VASTINE, John R. LUNGER and Franklin BOYER.
  
      1870--D. S. BLOOM, burgess; council, William BUCKLEY, Hickman FRAME, M. D.
  L. SECHLER and Samuel LEWIS.
  
      1871--Thomas MAXWELL, burgess; with new councilmen, H. M. SCHOCH, G. W.
  MILES, George LOVETT and Jacob SWEISFORT.
  
      1872--Oscar EPHLIN, burgess; new members of council, George W. REAY, Henry
  VINCENT, Jacob SCHUSTER and J. L. RIEHL.
  
      1873--Edward YOUNG, burgess; councilmen, William BUCKLEY, N. HOFER, Joseph
  W. KEELY and Thomas COXEY.
  
      1874--J. R. PHILIPS, burgess; new councilmen, James VANDLING, James AULD,
  W. D. WILLIAMS and David CLARK.
  
      1875--Charles KAUFMAN, burgess; new members of council, M. D. L. SECHLER,
  William T. RAMSEY, J. R. PHILIPS and J. W. Von NIEDA.
  
      1876--Henry M. SCHOCH was elected burgess; new councilmen, J. D. WILLIAMS,
  David RUCKLE, Wm. K. HOLLOWAY and William R. WILLIAMS. Isaac AMMERMAN was
  elected at a special election to fill the vacancy occasioned by the resignation
  of James AULD, who had been chosen county commissioner.
  
      1877--William C. WALKER, burgess; new councilmen, David CLARK, C. A. HEATH,
  A. B. PATTON and John A. WANDS.
  
      1878--James FOSTER, burgess; new councilmen, J. W. KEELY, Stephen JOHNSON,
  James WELSH and Thompson FOSTER.
  
      1879--Jas. FOSTER, burgess; new councilmen, William ANGLE one year; P.
  JOHNSON three years, and S. TRUMBOWER, Jacob GOLDSMITH, H. B. STRICKLAND and
  Lewis RODENHOFER one year.
  
      1880--Joseph HUNTER, burgess; new councilmen, Wm. ANGLE, Wm. KEINER, Hugh
  PURSEL, Nicholas HOFER.
  
      1881--Joseph HUNTER re-elected burgess; new councilmen, A. G. VORIS, -- P.
  KEEFER, Henry L. GROSS, Jas WELSH. William G. GASKINS was clerk to the council
  for twenty years and was succeeded by Capt. George LOVETT in 1874. In 1879 J.
  SWEISTORT was chosen clerk and he was succeeded by Charles M. ZUBER. Among the
  street commissioners were Emanual PETERS, Daniel McCLOW, William C. WALKER,
  Oliver LENHART and Mr. FAUX. The street commissioner is also ex officio
  collector of the market tax, and presumedly a sort of inspector of that
  institution.
  
      1882--Joseph HUNTER, burgess; new councilmen, B. R. GEARHART, I. A. YORKS,
  D. B. FETTERMAN, F. C. DERR.
  
      1883--S. G. THOMPSON, burgess; councilmen, J. K. GERINGER, Hugh PURSEL,
  Henry DIVEL, David GROVE.
  
      1884--S. G. THOMPSON, burgess; councilmen, H. M. TRUMBOWER, J. H. MONTAGUE,
  W. K. HOLLOWAY, H. A. KNEIBLER.
  
      1885--Joseph HUNTER, burgess, councilmen, Jacob MOYER, George EDMONSON,
  George MAIERS, Edward HOFER.
  
      1886--Joseph HUNTER, burgess; councilmen, John W. SHERIFF, W. C. WALKER,
  Henry L. GROSS, S. A. YORKS.
  
      Clerk of the town council, Adolf STEINBRENNER; attorney, James SCARLET;
  treasurer, Geo. P. BROWN; surveyor, Geo. W. WEST; high constable, Dan LOW;
  street commissioner, J. R. PHILIPS; chief of fire department, W. W. DAVIS;
  chief police, W. S. BAKER.
  
      Officers of the water department are Swartz MILLER, superintendent;
  receiver of rents, Adolf STEINBRENNER; water commissioners, James CRUIKSHANK,
  Joseph H. BARRY, John W. FARNSWORTH.