CH A PTER
VI
BEN 'C H A N D B A R DanviUe was the county scat o f Columbia county from its oiganization in 1 8 1 3 to the removal in 18 4 7 . Montour county was or ganized by act o f M ay 3, 1 8 5 0; so that for thirty-seven years, from 1 8 1 3 to 1 8 5 0, the courts w'crc the courts o f Columbia county, and during thirty-four of these thirty-seven years, from 1 8 1 3 to 1 8 4 7 . were held in Dan ville : from 18 4 7 to 1 8 5 0 were held in Blooms burg. T he early history o f what is now Montour county was so closely identified, therefore, during these thirty-seven years with the his tory o f what is now Columbia county that in considering the bench and bar there must necessarily be an overlaraiing in the narration o f events, and so close y was Danville asso ciated. in (he administration o f justice, with the whole county of Columbia that it is im possible to gi^'c a history of the one without givin g a history of the other. The first court o f Columbia county was held in Danville in Jan uary, 1 8 1 4, in the second stoty of the tog warehouse on the river bank which afterw ards formed a part of the prop erty belonging to the B r id ^ Company and later to (he county o f Montour. Hon. Seth Chapman was president judge. William Montgomery and l,conard Rupert were the associate judges, and George F rick was prothonotary, a position which he held until 18 2 1.
.'Ml parties to this first court passed aw ay many years ago. Ever)'thing connected with the first administration o f justice here w as very primitive, and would provoke a smile in these days of modem practice. The law yers’ and judges' work was mucli more labori ous than now. There were no sten^raplters to make up the records. E very bill o f ex ception had to be written out in full and the judge had to w'ritc duw*n the notes o f testi mony in longhand. But the legal learning and power and keenness o f many practicing at that court, in its beginning and fo r many years
after, would compare most favorably with the learning and power and keenness o f those practicing to-day. H ere was the old time courteous, affable, yet technical and precise, lawyer. Courtrooms were primitive, practice was laborious, clients were few and fees sm all; but brain power and legal skill, sometimes lacking in these days, characterized the work o f both bench and bar. Some of the law yers present from a distance practicing at the county seat in those early days were Charles H all and Charles Maus, o f Berlin, Samuel Hepburn, of Milton, George M, Porter, Ju d ge Thonus Duncan and Judge Charles Huston, o f Center county, Jam es Car son, o f Philadelphia, William O. H urley, of Bloomsburg, Jam es Pleasants, o f Catawissa, Alexander Jordan, Charles G . Donnel, Hugh Bellas and Ebcnezcr Greenough, of Sun bury. N o ^ u m b crlan d and Columbia counties were in the Eighth Judicial district from 1 8 1 4 to i8 e i. The president judges during (hat perioa were as roltows: S e t k C h a p m a n, 1 8 1 4 to 1 8 3 3 . O f h im Col. John G. Freeze says, in his History o f Columbia County, quoting from a letter of George A . F ric k : "Ju d g e Chapnun had not the brilliant talents o f many of the attorneys who practiced in the Northumberland courts —to-wit Thom as Duncan, David Watts, Charles Huston. Charles Hall, Ebcnezcr Greenough and Hugh Bellas, but was a belter judge than nuny others we had in I’ ennsylvania." E l l i s L k w i s . 1 8 3 3 to 18 4 3 . Ju d ge I.ewis w as born in Lewisburg, Pa., M ay 1 6, 17 9 8 . T he town w as named after his father, E li IvCW'is, Esq. In 1 8 3 3 he was appointed, by Governor W olfe, attorney general for the Stale, and later that year was appointed, by the same govenior, as judge of the Eighth Judicial dis trict, comprising the counties o f Northum-
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