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/315

276 duration. No sooner was the county seat re­ moved than Danville’s partisans and leaders began a movement for a division of the county, with Danville as the county seat. Valentine Best* one of the earnest advo­ cates of retaining the county seat at Danville* was elected State senator from Columbia and Luzerne counties in 1850. He made his duty, chiefly* the distinctive one o( the formation of Montour county. He was a newspaper publisher in Danville, and a warm partisan of the borough in all questions affecting that place as the county seat* and when Blooms­ burg carried off the prize, he, among others, only redoubled exertions to score even with the people of the northern part of the county who had carried the day in the long contest* and left Danville to weep over her dq>arted official eminence. H e was an out-and-out Democrat of the Jeffersonian kind. When he took his scat in the Senate— a position he had won on the county seat question, and by his own tireless energy and good judgment— he found that (here w as some fine work to be done in order to carry through the sole measure fo r which he had gone to the Sct* ate* forming a new county. H e perceived the relation of the two political parties w as such that without his vote there w as a tic. The W higs were ready to vote for his new county i f they could gain any of their ends by such combination. He closed at once with them, and by their votes and his own he was elected sneaker* and thus he was enabled to push through triumphantly the bill fo r the erection of Montour county. By Act of .Assembly of May 3, 1850* the county of Montour was form ^. Section 2 provides as follows: "That all that part of Columbia county in­ cluded within the limits of the townships of Franklin* Mahoning* Valley. Liberty. Lime­ stone. D e n y, Anthony and the borough of Danville, together with all that portion of the townships of Montour* Hemlock and M ad­ ison lying west of the following line, b a n ­ ning at I^eiby’s sawinill on the bank of the Susquehanna: thence by the road leading to the Danville and Bloomsburg road, at or near Samuel I.azarus’ house; thence from the Dan­ ville and Bloomsburg road to the Rock val­ ley at the end of the lane leading from said road to Obcd Everett's house; thence by said lane to Obed Everett's house; thence northw'ani to the schoolhouse near David Smith's in Hemlock township; thence by the road lead­ ing from said schoolhouse lo the State road at Robin's mill to the end of the lane leading

from said road to John K in n ^ 's house: thence by a straight line lo John Townsend's, near the German meetinghouse; thence to Hcnr^* Johnson’s near M illville; thence by a s t r a i t line to a post in the Lycoming county line, near the road leading to C raw ford's mill, to­ gether with that part of Roaringcreek town­ ship lying south and west of the line bc^iining at the southeastern corner of Franklin township: thence eastward by the southern i>oundar)' hue of Catawissa tow*nship to a point directly north of John A'eager's house; thence southward by a direct line, including John Yeager's house* to the Schuylkill county line at (he northeast corner of Barr>* township.” The Act then proceeds to provide that never* no, never* shall any portion of North­ umberland county be annexed (0 said county of Montour without the unanimous consent of the voters of Northumberland. Then there occurs a clause fixing DanWlte as the county seat. Section X provided that the people of Dan­ ville should pay all the costs of the courthouse and jail* and annexed the county of Montour to the Eighth Judicial district of the common­ wealth. Section 14 provides that all that portion of Madison tow*nship lying in the new county shall be erected into a new* township called Madison. • • • That the portion of Hemlock tow'nship in the new county shall be erected into a new township caltecl West Hemlock. ♦ • • A ll that portion of Mon­ tour township in Ihe new county shall be a new township called Cooper. * • • That part of Roaringcreek township in the new county shall be called Roaringcreek township. These new townships were made election dis­ tricts. elections to Ik held in Madison at the house of John W elliver; West Hemlock* Bur(is A m w in c; Cooper* Jacob R ish el: Tliomas R itte r; Roaringcreek, l 5avid Yeager. T he Act appointed commissioners to locate the lioundaiy line of the county a s fo1low*s: Abraham Stroub* David Rockefeller and Isaiah B. Davis. On Jan . 15, 1853* the Assembly j>asse<l an act to change the location of the line betw*een the counties of Columbia and Montour. Sec­ tion 1 provides as follow*s: T hat Roaring­ creek tow*nship* in Montour county, and such fiarts of the townships of Franklin* Madison and West Hemlock* in said county, that lie east of the adjusted line of Columbia and Montour counties shall be. and the same are hereby, rcanncxed to the county of Columbia