The North Mountain Historical Society

Meeting: April 2002

April 15, 2002

The History Buffs met on Monday, April 15, at 8:30 AM at the Brass Pelican. Jim Vance chaired the meeting. There were 45 present. Pastor Howard Leh gave thanks for the privilege of meeting together and the food that was prepared for us.

Our speaker for the day was Professor George Turner. He had kindly consented to fill in when Mrs. Hippenstiel was forced to cancel. His topic was "How Bloomsburg came to be the County Seat of Columbia County.

In 1813 Columbia County was carved of from Northumberland County. At this time the area included what is now Montour County and Danville was designated as the County Seat. At that time it was in a fairly central part of the county. Later as different areas were parceled off Danville was in the southwestern comer leaving Bloomsburg the largest town in the central part of Columbia County. There was much political maneuvering behind the scenes in order to get the County seat moved to Bloomsburg. At that time it was a distinct financial advantage for a town to be the County Seat. Being the County Seat meant more business for stores and because of Court being held in the town, hotels and eating places were busier. So there was quite a rivalry between the two towns Finally the Courthouse at Danville was pronounced unsafe for storing county records. Bloomsburg promised to provide a handsome new building and a fireproof vault for storing records at no cost to the taxpayer. Land was donated and funds provided for a new courthouse and Bloomsburg became the county seat of Columbia County.

The people in the northern part of the county were very pleased. They could now do business in the county seat without driving through Bloomsburg and on to Danville. Later a new county was formed to make Montour County the smallest County geographically in Pennsylvania but Danville was now a county seat.

Our thanks to Professor Turner for so graciously filling in at the last minute with such an informative presentation. The next meeting will be May 20 when Mr. Wilson Ferguson will speak on the history of the Tioga turnpike.