Page:Historical and Biographical Annals of Columbia and Montour Counties, Pennsylvania, Containing a Concise History of the Two Counties and a Genealogical and Biographical Record of Representative Families.pdf/314

 COLUMBIA AND MONTOUR COUNTIES as honest as they were fearless! They ate heavily o f a diet that w*as mostly meat. They were rugged men and women* to whom life and their Christian duties w^crc stem realities. They knew nothing of the refinements and ef­ feminacy o f modem tim es; had these liecn brought to them, they would have despised them. T hey had mostly fled from the dire religious persecutions of the old world* had felt the heaviest hand o f persecution* the cold dungeon and had approached the stake and (he fagot. These they had left behind them to brave the solitudes, the malaria, the wild beasts and vipers* and the yet more deadly (Omahaw*k and scalping knife of the cruel and pitiless savages of the forest. What a school in which to rear this new* race of nation builders! l«ook out over the fa ir face of the earth to-day and behold what these simple children of the early days have given us. (he magtdficence and magnitude of I heir work and the poverty and paucity of the means at their command. No men the world ever pos­ sessed had more thoroughly the courage of their convictions. T heir faults and frailties 'leaned to virtue's side.” A s severe as they were in their judgments, the same castiron grooves they gave to others* they applied with even less charity to themselves. T hey came o f a race of religious fanatics and m artyrs, and the eld­ est of them were bom in Europe when even the most highly civtHze<l portions of the world were in the travail of the ages—the age of iron and blood; an age when shoemakers rose from their benches, tailors from their lioards, and coopers dropped their hoops and staves, and unfurled the banner of the C ro ss: and gathering their followers about them* seized the greatest empire in*the world* and chopped off the king's head w*ith no more awe than per­ forming the simplest daily d u ty: an age when all men were intensely* savagely religious. Great w*ars had been fought for religion. Gun­ powder had been invented w*ith its civilizing explosive powers. Marching* fighting armies, when not fighting* held religious meetings: and illiterate corporals mounted their rude pulpits and launched their nasal thunders o f God's wrath at the heads of their officers. Men kneeled dow*n in the streets and prayed and gathcrtxl crow*iLs and preached their fiery ser­ mons to eager listeners. T he churches were filled three times a day on Sunday with ear­ nest* solemn people, and prayers and singing of psalms were the only sounds to he heard in the towns or* fo r that matter, in the coun­ try. N early cvcr>* man was a church police­ man or a minister o f CkKl. his baton or license

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ticaring no great red seal o f state or churah or institution; but, inspired o f heaven, he became a flaming sword at the garden's gale against the entrance o f all sin. .And yet* out of these stem and unyielding and perhaps bigoted men, there developed those qualities of sturdy hon­ esty. and sterling integnty and implicit faith in .Almighty God, which combined to make the snow and ice o f Valley F o rge; and that later struck the shackles from the arms of the dusky slave and still later consecrated to (*od and freedom the soil o f Pennsylvania, on the bloody field o f G ettysbu^. T he contest for (he rem oral of the county scat from Danville to Bloomsburg became more bitter as the years rolled on. There w'crc then planted the seeds o f hatred and jeatoiuiy which even yet are bearing fruit. Col. lohn G* Freeze* in his H istory o f Colum­ hia (Tounty, say*s: “ It is hardly worth while to write up the history o f that long and bitter contest. Its track is strewed with the wrecks o f unfortu­ nate local politicians who had mistaken the temper of the people, or were themselves the mere tools o f more designing intriguers. Party politics were lost sight o f in the election of county officers, and year after year removal and anti-removal candidates tested the strength of the respective localities.” .Attempt a fte r attempt was made to have the I.egishturc change the county seat, but with­ out success. These efforts ceased with the session o f 1822* and no further attempts were made in the T.egislature until about (833 or In November o f 18 33 the grand ju ry re­ ported that the public records were in great danger o f dcsiniction by fire and recom­ mended the immediate erection o f fireproof offices. T his action again aroused the peofde who had clamored for removal, and a new movement started. Rills were introduced into the I.cgislature at various sessions, only to he defeated. .At last, on the 24th o f Fehniary* 1845, the legislatu re passed an act submitting the ques­ tion o f removal to a vote of the people* and in October o f that year a vole w as taken which resulted as follow s: F o r removal 2.913, against removal 1,579* making a m ajority for removal o f 1,334. A t once public buildings were erected at Bloomsburg, and in November o f 1847 the records were removed to that place and the first court held in Ja n iu iy, 1848. Danville's smart at defeat was o f short
 * >atriotism that walked with bleeding feet the