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The steam mill on Church street was built by P. Baldy, senior, in 1839. It is a solid, stone structure and is still in operation. Abram Sechler, the pioneer of band music, was for many years the engineer at the stone mill. It ¼ at present idle.
The Cross-Keys was one of the early taverns in this place. It stood on the river bank, on the site now occupied by Robert McCoy’s residence. It was long kept by Mrs. Donaldson and was in its day the noted hostelrie of Danville. There the officers of the ” Codorus,” the pioneer steamer up the Susquehanna, were banquetted, on their ill-fated voyage; and there on many a joyous occasion the villagers met in the olden time.
The old charcoal furnace, and the first in this place, was built by B. Patterson in 1838. It stood near where the Catawissa railroad crosses the street, just beyond the Mahoning steam mill. When anthracite coal began to be used, the old furnace was abandoned and suffered to fall into ruin. The last vestige of the old stack has long since disappeared.
Doctor Petrikin built a woolen factory near the present location of the co-operative rolling-mill, about 1830. After being in operation for some time it stood idle for many years, as a habitation for ” the owls and the bats.” Sometime between 1856 and 1860 Duncan C. Hartman converted it into a planing-mill and did quite a lively business. It was afterwards used as a spike and bolt factory by the proprietors of the Rough and Ready; but was swept away by fire in the winter of 1871.
There was a bank of discount and deposit opened in 1871 in the room now occupied by the “New York tea store,” where Alex. M. Diehl presides, takes greenbacks and the “dollars of the daddies,” on deposit, and issues fine groceries, fruits and notions on which there is no discount. The bank, after some time, paid its depositors and discontinued the business.
THE KEYSTONE BUILDING, an elegant structure adjoining the Opera House, was built by Colonel A. H. Brown in 1874. It is now occupied by Sheldon & Co.’s dry goods store. Colonel Brown, as he is familiarly called, is one of those jovial, cheerful and generous hearted men we meet only once in a while. He served in the One Hundred and Eighty-fourth regiment, Pennsylvania Volunteers, and was wounded in battle. He was a gallant soldier, a man among men.
There was a grist and plaster-mill, known as the John Montgomery mill, that occupied the site of the stone mill that was burnt a few years ago. The stone mill was built in 1825 and there was a woolen factory and a carding machine at one end. This establishment did an extensive business in its day. Just back of Daniel Ramsey’s residence there was a woolen factory built by General William Montgomery, who left it to Daniel and Alexander, his sons; afterwards it was operated by Alexander alone, until 1839. The building has now entirely disappeared; but it was a great public benefit in early days.
There was also a saw-mill a little further south, in the rear of C. Laubach’s residence. This is also gone without leaving a vestige to mark the place where it stood.
Some distance down the canal was General Daniel Montgomery’s mill. The ruins are yet visible in the crumbling foundation of a building that was of so much benefit to the public, and the scene of so many acts of kindness to the destitute of that day.
In 1816 the ground occupied by the Mantour House was an orchard, except the corner occupied by a small, two-story brick house, where Daniel Montgomery opened the first store in Danville. The ground from Mill street up the canal was a swamp extending up to General Daniel Montgomery’s farm, which has since been known as the Pineo farm, and on which the asylum for the insane is now built. There in that extensive swamp the tall rushes grew and the bull-frogs held their evening concerts.
A meadow, between the canal and Mulberry street, extended from Mill street up to the Pineo farm. It was partly overgrown with tall rushes and low shrubbery through which the creek meandered in the tortuous channel chosen by itself, and the green sward was on a level with its banks. Large and beautiful willows stood where now the cinder covers the ground and has almost buried the stream that struggles through its narrow bed far below the bald and barren surface of to-day.
“Franklin Franklin Court ” was an old-time cafe, that stood in the rear of the Mansion House, and was the theater of many diversified scenes in the drama of human life. The foundation walls can still be seen among the accumulating rubbish ; but it has almost passed out of the memory of man.
JOHN C. BOYD came to Danville about 182o. He was a descendant of a prominent and patriotic family of Chester county, Pennsylvania. His remote ancestors were from Ireland. After he came to Danville he married a daughter of General Daniel Montgomery, and engaged in merchandising, in the room that had been occupied by his father-in-law. In 1824 he sold his stock of goods and located on a tract of land that had been given to Mrs. Boyd as a marriage portion, by General Montgomery, and since known as “Boyd’s farm.” It is some two miles up the river on the opposite shore. There he built a flouring-mill that is still in operation. He also enlarged the farm by purchase of adjoining lands, built the homestead and greatly improved the property. The snow-white and cheerful homestead affords a pleasant and beautiful view, with its surroundings, from the heights round about Danville. Mr. Boyd also joined with much energy in the various enterprises and public improvements of the day. Affable in his manners, generous, firm and enterprising, he won the respect of his fellow-citizens and made for himself an honorable record, and his children may be proud to bear his name through the world. But death came in the midst of his usefulness and closed his career while it was yet high noon. He died on the 18th day of August, 1849, in the fifty-sixth year of his age. His sons inherit much of the sterling qualities of mind and heart that characterized their honored father, John C. Boyd.
SOURCE: Page(s) 65-67; Danville, Montour County Pennsylvania; D.H.B. Brower, Harrisburg; 1881
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