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 |>atriotism that walked with bleeding feet 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
