Chapter III – Early History – County Organization – Public Buildings, Etc.
History of Columbia and Montour Counties, Pennsylvania

MONTOUR is among the youngest of the sisterhood of counties of the .1V1 commonwealth of Pennsylvania, as well as being one of the smallest in territory, but with all this a rich and precious jewel in the cluster of sixty-seven counties of this Keystone State. It was named in honor of Madame Montour, of whom an account is given in the chapter entitled Indians.

On the fifth day of November, 1768, the provincial authorities purchased the Indian title to the district embraced in the present counties of Northumberland, Montour, Lackawanna, Wayne, Wyoming, Susquehanna, Bradford, Sullivan, Lycoming, Union and Centre, all of which were embraced in the county of Northumberland, erected in 1772. These eleven counties were of themselves a rich empire at the hands of the resolute Anglo-Saxons. The negotiations were conducted at Fort Stanwix. Immediately thereafter the first surveys were made by the proprietaries. On the third of April following the lands were opened to settlers; and so eager was the desire to secure possession in the new territory, that over two thousand applications were filed the first day. The first survey in what is now Montour County was made February 22, 1769. A part of this tract is where Danville now stands. On this spot, at the mouth of the Mahoning, there was a small village of Delaware Indians. Here, it is said, the venerable Tamanund dwelt. The Indians did not wholly abandon their village until about 1774. For at least fifteen years they remained in the hills hereabout-secure in their rocky fastnesses and sometimes descending in their murderous raids upon the settlements. Prior to this purchase the Indians permitted no invasion of their grounds by the whites, save as travelers, traders and trappers and hunters-with much jealousy and no great good will toward the latter. The whites looked upon this fair territory and they coveted it. A few daring adventurers had explored its grand old forests, its broad fertile valleys, its cool sweet waters, boiling from its many springs, forming the murmuring mountain streams and purling valley brooks, and its forests and streams filled with game and fish, and they told their neighbors and friends of the wonderful country that lay waste and waiting the pale faced avant couriers of civilization; and the story spread among the people and filled them with eager desire to visit and to own this beautiful and promised land. To this “new purchase,” at once it was opened to the hardy settler, there was a rush of immigrants that to that time had hardly had an equal in suddenness and numbers. In four short years after the opening of the country the immigration was so large that the machinery of civilized government was an imperative necessity, and a nucleus of a town had been formed at Sunbury and this place was fixed upon as a county seat and home for courts and the paraphernalia of law and justice. This was done in 1776, or a little less than eight years after the people were permitted to come here. Circumstances fixed the abode of the new people along the banks of the Susquehanna River, following up from the bay the main stream and its two branches where it forks and spreads out in different courses. These streams were the only highways that the people could use to and from other settlements. This was the case for several years. They found here the few Indian trails, and in crossing the mountain ranges and the often precipitous foot hills, they were often guided by these in shaping their course over the country and across the streams.

In winter when the streams were frozen over, the necessities of the border settlers had cut out dim paths over which on caravans of pack-horses they transported articles of commerce to and from the settlements. This primitive style of transportation grew with the wants of the new country, and men engaged regularly in the business, employing sometimes extensive trains of horses. Two men would attend the train, one in front, a bell on the lead horse and the other man in the rear, keeping all in line and moving along in single file. Regular pack-saddles were provided and the average load for a horse was about 250 pounds. Thus with slow and toilsome step would the caravan wind its course across hill and dale, bearing its burdens braving the winter storms and the severest weather, and often the swollen streams with their raging, angry waters, and sometimes a sudden encounter with the red savages in ambush to loot the train and scalp the drivers. Following these pack-horse paths came the first rough roads over the rocky bills and unbridged streams, that were used during the long winter months for hauling sleds over. The ice then bridged the streams, and bore the heaviest loads in safety. This was a marked era of improvement in the great problem of transportation to be in turn improved and bettered by fairly laid out roads, bridged streams, and sometimes for short distances regular turnpike roads-all gradually developing toward the present grand system of canals and railroads that now fly like the wind over the country, across the continent, over and through the loftiest mountain.-argosies laden with the wealth of the world’s best civilization. Today we reap where one hundred years ago these hardy and adventurous pioneers sowed. Thus we can trace step by step how this wilderness was opened, and the grand improvements we now see were slowly and painfully wrought out.

In the summer season all merchandise was brought up the river, in what were called “Durham boats,” and every inch of the way up the long and crooked stream was gained only by the hardest kind of manual labor. “Durham boats” were like a double end canal boat, or two boats lashed together, and were propelled up stream by men pushing by long socket poles, or by sail when it was possible to use it. By river or by trail over mountain and defile there were no public houses of entertainment by the way to shelter from the “night and storm and darkness ” these travelers, but in time there came 1 sparsely built cabins and here the traveler, where chance made it possible could stretch himself upon the bare floor with feet to the open fire, and in curity sleep out the night of storm and in the morning pay his reckoning w: a sixpence. But few of them could have afforded to pay for a warm meal the way to Reading and back. The average personal expenditure from I Susquehanna to Reading—the nearest trading mart—-would be two or tin shillings. It is well there were then no comfortable hostelries on the way offering their tempting retreat to the travelers, for such was their enforced economy that o they could not have availed themselves of their benefits and they would have only increased the painful contrasts of their exposure.

March 22, 1813, Columbia County was created out of the territory of Non1 timberland County and the county seat was fixed at Danville. There R some contention about the location of the shiretown as Danville was said to in an inconvenient place for the majority of the people of the new county, w lived in the north and northeast portions of the county. In order to more evenly adjust matters and remove their objections to Danville, in 1816 Columbia County was enlarged on the west by additional territory taken from Northumberland County, extending its lines to the west branch of the river. As the county lines were readjusted in 1818 by taking off a small portion of its territory in the formation of Schuylkill County. It goes without the saying to the people of the county had the usual contention in regard to settling the permanent county seat. In such matters there are nearly always conflicting interests and clashing claims. Men build golden dreams as to the promise value of such town locations in increasing the value of their property, when the facts are in the end the location of the county seat has but a small one once in building up thrifty growing cities. It depends upon the surrounding and upon the enterprise and judgment of the first settlers as to where in t county is to be built the leading city. All over the country can be found deserted villages-places given over to the owls and bats and where waste and lance broods undisturbed, that were once county towns, over which men It wrangled in heated controversy.

By act of the Assembly, May 3, 1850, the county of Montour was formed Section 2 provides as follows:

“That all that part of Columbia County included within the limits of the townships of Franklin, Mahoning, Valley, Liberty, Limestone, Derry, Anthony and the borough of Danville, together with al that portion of the township of Montour, Henik and Madison lying west of the following line, beginning at Leiby’s saw-mill on the bank of the Susquehanna; thence by the road leading to the Danville and Bloomshi road, at or near Samuel Lazarus’ house; thence from the Danville and Bloomsburg to the Rock Valley at the end of the lane leading from said road to Obed Everett’s house thence by said lane to Obed Everett’s house; thence northward to the schoolhouse in David Smith’s in Hemlock Township; thence by the road leading from said schoolhouse to the State road at Robin’s mill to the end of the lane leading from said road to Jo Kinney’s house; thence by a straight line to John Towsend’s, near the German meeting house; thence to Henry Johnson’s near Millville; thence by a straight line to a post in Lycoming County line, near the road leading to Crawford’s mill, together with that of Roaringcreek Township lying south and west of the line beginning at the southern corner of Franklin Township; thence eastward by the southern boundary line of Cawissa Township to a point directly north of John Yeager’s house; thence southward a direct line, including John Yeager’s house, to the Schuylkill County line at the northeast corner of Barry Township.”

The act then proceeds to provide that never, no never shall any portion of Northumberland County be annexed to said county of Montour without the unanimous consent all the voters of Northumberland. Then there occurs a clause fixing Danville as I county seat.

Section 3 provides that the people of Danville shall pay all the costs of the coo house and jail. * * Annexed the county of Montour to the Eighth Judicial District the commonwealth.

HISTORY Section 14 provides that all that portion of Madison Township lying in the new county shall be erected into a new township called Madison. * * That the portion of HemlockTownship in the new county shall be erected into a new township called west Hemlock. * * All that portion of Montour Township in the new county shall be a new township called Cooper. * X. That part of Roaringereek Township in the new county shall be called Roaringereek Township. These new townships were made election districts; elections to be held in Madison at the house of John Welliver; lest Hemlock, Burtis Arnmine; Cooper, Jacob Rishels, Thomas Bitters; Roaringcreek, David Yeager.

The act appointed commissioners to locate the boundary line of the county as follows: Abraham Stroub, David Rockefeller and Isaiah B. Davis.

January 15, 1553, the Assembly passed an act to change the location of the line between the counties of Columbia and Montour. Section 1 provides as follows: That Roaringcreek Township, in Montour County, and such parts 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 re-annexed to the county of Columbia as hereinafter prescribed and established, shall be re-annexed to the county of Columbia. The act then described the new county line between the two counties as follows: Beginning at the Northumberland County line, at or near the house of Samuel Readen; thence a direct course to the center of Roaring creek, in Franklin Township, twenty rods above a point in said creek opposite the house of John Vought; thence down the middle of the stream of said creek to the Susquehanna River; thence to the middle of said river; thence up the center of the same to a point opposite where the present county line between Columbia and Montour strikes the north hank of the river; thence to the said north hank; thence by the present division line between said counties to the schoolhouse near the residence of David Smith; thence to a point near the residence of David Smith; thence to the bridge over Deerlick run on the line between Derry and Madison Townships; thence by the line between said townships of Madison and Derry and Anthony to the line of Lycoming County. John Koons, Gilbert C. McWaine, of Luzerne County, and Bernard Reilly, of Schuylkill County, were appointed commissioners to run and locate the new line.

Section 4 changed the name of Franklin Township, in Montour County, and made it Mayberry.

Section 5 provides that so much of Madison Township as remains in Montour County shall hereafter compose a part of West Hemlock Township.

As stated above, the West Branch of the Susquehanna was the original western boundary line between Columbia and Northumberland Counties. This included Turbot and Chillisquaque Townships, and by putting these townships into the new county it made it possible to name Danville as the county seat with fairness as to the accessibility in the lay of the territory to the county town. Afterward, however, these two townships were re-annexed to Northumberland County [full particulars of this may be found in the preceding history of Columbia County] with this territory transferred back and the western line of Columbia County readjusted as it is now, the western line of Montour County. Danville was considerably to the west of center of the county, and then at once commenced the agitation by the people of the northern and eastern portion for the removal of the county seat from Danville to Bloomsburg. The large bulk of the voters lay in that part of the county. They could outrate the friends of Danville. They would regularly elect the county officers, running the elections almost solely on this issue. But Danville had able and astute managers-men of powerful influence, and so the contest wont on until 1815 when the county seat was taken from Danville and Bloomsburg gained the coveted prize. This triumph of the friends of Bloomsburg was not without its effects upon Columbia County. The friends of Danville at once commenced the vigorous agitation of a new county to be taken from Columbia’s territory, and in five short years complete success crowned their efforts and thus it came about that Montour County was formed and Danville by undisputed right again became a county seat.

Danville having triumphed over Bloomsburg and Milton in being designated as the county town, she found herself confronted with the rather difficult task of providing ways and means to erect the required county buildings-jail and court-house. Her citizens, as well as all the people of this portion of the county, were stirred to energetic action by the fact that they must not allow, loophole to the enemies of Danville, who were alert for any pretext on which base a removal of the county seat. The new county made an appropriate toward the buildings of $1,050. The other money was made up by private subscriptions. Three or four subscription papers were circulated early in 18 Two of these are still extant. They were duplicates and read as follows:

We, the subscribers, promise to pay into Daniel Montgomery, James Maus and A. Tarr, for the purpose of erecting the public buildings in Danville, the county seat for county of Columbia, the sums respectively annexed to our names; nevertheless, in cane whole subscription be not appropriated for the purpose aforesaid, the subscription of e. subscriber shall be refunded in proportion to the sum subscribed.

Here was prudent forethought, indeed, on the part of those old fellow characteristic of the time and the men that sounds curious to men of this a; when such a thing as expenditures falling short of appropriations are and dreamed of possibility, much less a probability. The principal names to t subscription paper are of sufficient interest to preserve to posterity: Daniel Montgomery, $1,000; William Montgomery, $1,000; Joseph Maus, $11 Thomas Woodside, $100; Phillip Goodman, $100; Alexander Montgomery $100; James Loughead, $100; John Montgomery, $75; Alem Marr, $50; W jam Montgomery, $50; David Petrikin, $50; John Deen, ,$35; Robert McWilliams, $25; John Evans, $25; Wm. Clark, $25; William Mann, $25; Peter Bal $20; Peter Baldy, $12; David Williams, $10; James Donaldson, $10; To Moore, $10, and others $22. A total of $2,944.

This generous subscription was sufficient encouragement to commence t building of the court-house. Gen. D. Montgomery made an estimate of I cost, *2,704.9G. The committee to receive and disburse the money was GE Montgomery, Mr. Marr and Mr. Maus. Messrs. Montgomery and Marrwi too deeply engaged in their own affairs to give the matter attention, we told, so this duty devolved alone upon Mr. Maus. With his wonted energy entered upon the task-employed workmen, opened stone quarries, brick: purchased timbers, hardware, glass, paints and needed materials of all kin, His only resource for boarding the workmen was to establish boarding-house In person he collected the subscriptions, superintended the work, paid all bi] and his unremitting energy and toil soon witnessed the triumph of his labor Of those who worked upon the building the following names are all that c now be recalled: Daniel Cameron, a Scotchman, was a carpenter in charge that part of the work; Tunis Gearhart, James and Joseph Crosby, stone masons; William and Gilbert Giberson, brick-masons; chief plasterer the jolly Hibernian, Michael Rafferty. His home was in Danville. Isi Edgar, assisted by Asher Smith and John Cope, made the brick. 7 other employees on the building, their particular posts not being known were John Bryson, John Stricker, Edwin Stocking, Alexander Johns Benj. Garretson, Nehemiah Hand, William Lunger, Peter Watts, Peter Snyder, Fredrick Harbolt, James Thomas, William Doak, D. Henderson, Long and T. Haller. The total cost of the building was $3,980.80. It t commenced in April, 1815, and completed in September, 1816.

Looking over the old accounts there is one item, the bare mention of what is significant of the change in men’s minds of then and now. It reads: ” Sia four gallons of whiskey, $64.” One of the strong customs of the times manifested in this expense item. Men then supposed that in order to what they had to have their liquor as regularly as their meals. All partook of the stimulants, laymen and ministers. It was the mark of hospitable friendship after the first comers had got fixed to really live in comfort, to offer all visitors the bottle and glass as a pledge of hearty welcome. And at one time it would have been a severe judgment, indeed, of one against his caller to have forgotten this friendly token. The farmer, as soon as possible, erected upon his farm a still, and of corn, rye and wheat he distilled a strong, rough, yet pure, whisky; and of his fruit, especially apples and peaches, he made apple-jack and brandies. These were a hardy race of nation builders-pious bigots, austere in their religious tenets and practices; severe of conscience and relentless in the pursuit of sin; and in order that no sin might escape, punishing the most innocent pleasures. Splendid types of the church militant, full of the fire of patriotism, devoted to the death to liberty, and as honest as they were fearless! They ate heavily of a diet that was mostly meat; they were rugged men and women, to whom life and their Christian duties were stern realities. They knew nothing of the refinements and effeminacy of modern times; had these been brought to them, they would have despised them. They had mostly fled from the dire religious persecutions of the old world; had felt the heaviest hand of persecution-the cold dungeon, the stake and the faggot. These they had left behind them, to brave the solitudes, the malaria, the wild beasts and vipers, and the yet more deadly tomahawk and scalping-knife of the cruel and pitiless wild savages of the forests. What a school in which to rear this new people of nation builders! Look out over the fair face of the earth to-day and behold what these simple children of destiny have given us-the magnificence and magnitude of their work and the poverty and paucity of their means at their command. No men the world ever possessed had more thoroughly the courage of their convictions. Their faults and frailties leaned to virtue’s side. As severe as they were in their judgments, the same cast-iron grooves they gave to others they applied with even less charity to themselves. They came of a race of religious fanatics and martyrs, and the eldest of them were born in Europe when even the most highly civilized 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 boards, and coopers dropped their hoops and staves and unfurled the banner of the Cross, gathered the sans culottes about them, seized the greatest empire in the world, and chopped off the king’s head with no more awe than sticking a pig. An age when all men were intensely, savagely religious. Great wars had been fought for religion. Gunpowder had been invented with its civilizing explosive powers. Marching, fighting armies, when not fighting, held religious meetings, and illiterate corporals mounted the rude pulpits and launched their nasal thunders of God’s wrath at the heads of their officers. Men kneeled down in the streets and prayed and gathered crowds and preached their fiery sermons to eager listeners. The churches were filled three times a day on Sunday with earnest, solemn people, and prayers and singing of psalms were the only sounds to be heard in the towns or, for that matter, in the country. Nearly every man was a church policeman or a minister of God, his baton or license bearing no great red seal of state or church or institution; but, inspired of heaven, he became a flaming sword at the garden’s gate against the entrance of all sin and all pleasure. In 1682 gin was invented, and how quickly men ‘learned to make and use it! The fighters and meat eaters drank and gorged themselves with the fiery fluid. To their coarse, strong animal natures it was but a variety of their sulphurous sermons in liquid form. Gin shops were opened, and signs over the doors invited men to “come and get drunk for a penny; and very drunk, and free straw to sleep off the intoxication, for two pence.” A part of the duties of those we now call bar-tenders was to seize those who fell in a stupor and by the heels drag them to the straw, where they were laid by the sleeping companions. During the great London riots, when the mob held t city for three days and nights, rioting, murdering and burning, they would rifle stores and shops, roll the barrels of gin to the front doors, knock the heads and pour the liquid contents into the street gutters, until the became running streams of gin but little less fiery and fatal than the hissing flames of fire above in the burning buildings. Women and toddling children gathered about these gutters of flowing gin and filth, and lying upon t: ground drank, gorged and died, many of them just where they lay and then while many others staggered away a few feet, fell and were burned in t] city’s conflagration.

Of all this world’s travail came fatalism-a fatalism simple, terrible and sublime. God was inappeasably angry at his children, not so much for th4 conduct as for their errors in their creeds. His infinite power was only paralleled by His infinite hate. But one in a thousand, ten thousand or a million w elected, and all else were damned before creation and to all eternity.

Such was the powerful alembic that so slowly through the ages and t generations distilled the blood that has lifted our civilization and placed it up the high, plane where it is to-day-that brought liberty and the freedom of t bodies and souls of men, that wrested this continent from the savage and t wild beast and erected the empire of thought over brutish force and cruel ignorance.

From this apparent digression and it is only apparent, we return to t completion of this chapter with a brief account of the other and present county buildings that have been erected.

The present court-house was built in 1871. It occupies the grounds of t old building with the additional grounds where the building of the Friends Fire Insurance Company stood. The total cost of ground and building w $55,000. The contractor and architect was Mr. O’Malley; the brick work w done by B. K. Vastine, the stone work by F. Hawke & Co. It is a very substantial and commodious building, plain, strong and yet handsome in its of lines and finish. The first floor is occupied by the commissioner’s rooms, t different clerks, recorder, sheriff and a grand jury room. The second floor the main court room and jury rooms. The whole is well furnished, with the modern conveniences and appliances for the carrying on of the count legal affairs. The vaults for the records are large, comfortable rooms, and ample enough to store away the record books for the next and most probably t following succeeding century.

The large and solid stone jail was built in 1817-18 by Charles Mann, cc tractor. It has two cells on the first story and two on the second; also a spacious and roomy residence under the same roof for the sheriff. Its solid appearance and high stone wall around the part running back from the resider portion ought to frighten all the daring of the jailbirds of the country; perhaps it does, yet like distress these unfortunates will be always with us, 1 one consolation being that Montour County can boast of a smaller per cent these than almost any other community.

The Danville Hospital for the Insane is an imposing building local on what had been known as the ” Pinneo farm,” about one mile northeast Danville. On the 13th of April, 1868, the Legislature passed an act for I establishment of the hospital, and appointed a locating commission, composed of J. A.. Reed, Trail Green and John Curwen. After visiting various loci ties in the district, for which the proposed hospital was intended, it was fine decided that Danville was the, most suitable in all respects. The Pinneo farm of some 250 acres was accordingly purchased, the citizens of Danville contributing a bonus of $16,000. On the 23d of April the commissioners had appointed John McArthur, Jr., architect, and soon after they chose Dr. S. S. Schultz, superintendent, a position he has filled ever since May, 1868, with great credit to himself and to the complete satisfaction of the public, The corner-stone of the hospital was laid by Gov. John W. Geary on the 26th of August, 1869. The building proper is 1,143 feet long. The center building is 202 feet deep. They range from three to five stories in height. The wings contain 350 rooms -each. Altogether there are about 800 rooms. The chapel is a large and beautiful chamber and will seat 600. It is also the lecture-room and is furnished with a piano and an organ. The wing connections are enclosed with iron doors, and the building contains every department necessary to an institution where so many unfortunates find a home: offices, bath-rooms, dining-rooms, laundries, kitchen, storeroom and many others. Iron and slate are extensively used in the construction of the building, in order to strengthen it as well as to guard against the danger of fire. The stone in the exterior walls are from the well known quarry on the premises. The door and window sills and lintels, as also the carriage porch, are of the Goldsboro brown stone from York County. The brick in the partition walls were furnished by numerous makers of the neighborhood and were laid by Ammerman & Books. The roof, the kitchen floors and other apartments are of the best Peach Bottom slate. The water tables and quoins are a beautiful white stone from Luzerne County and contrast pleasantly with the darker material of the main wall. It is not the design here to enter into details beyond that which will give the reader a general idea of the complete and substantial character of the building, and its manifold appointments, necessary to serve the purpose for which it was erected. Its water and gas supply, its heating and ventilating apparatus, its sewerage and all similar improvements essential to the health and comfort of the inmates are excellent. Governed by a complete system of laws and regulations, this institution stands on the front line of modern improvements, dispensing in an eminent degree the blessings for which it was designed. In connection with the various appliances of convenience, comfort and economy the visitor will also note the beautiful buildings, fitted for their several purposes, that have sprung up around this main edifice, solid, artistic and presenting a miniature city of surpassing beauty and taste. The order or style of architecture is the Romanesque. The hospital was opened for the reception of patients by public announcement of Dr. Schultz, the superintendent, in October, 1872. The first patient was admitted on the 6th of November, following. From that period to the present time hundreds have been admitted and shared its benefits. Many have been discharged cured, many others have been improved, and others still continue to receive its scientific and humane ministrations. Dr. S. S. Schultz, who has managed the institution since its organization in 1868, still remains in, his responsible position. He has manifested not only the skill to treat successfully all possible cases in the various forms of insanity arising from physical or mental causes, but in addition to the qualities of the physician he has manifested executive abilities of the highest order in the general management of the institution.  Dr. Schultz is general superintendent, assisted by Drs. Seip and Hugh Meredith.

March 5, 1881, a fire broke out in the building and destroyed all the female and one-fourth of the male wards and the center buildings. It originated on the second floor of the wards nearest the center, in a closet used for the storage of fire-hose and the stand-pipe connected with the general water supply, Before effective connections with hose could be made with neighboring stand-pipes, the cornice and roof and timbers became involved and the fire for the time was inaccessible. Fortunately this section of wards was at that time not used by patients, being in the hands of the painters for repairs. There were 220 male patients at that time in the hospital. In the confusion nine of these escaped the care of their keepers, and some returned in a few days and others made their way to their homes. There were 172 women inmates. They were temporarily taken care of in the outbuildings until they were removed to Harrisburg or Warren Hospitals. No fatal exposures occurred to any of the patients. The sum of $209,116.01 was realized from insurance companies, and at once the work of rebuilding was commenced, important improvements and changes being introduced. Among other changes were iron beams and brick arches, and the making the attic and other floors fire-proof; large bay windows were added to all the rebuilt wards. Thus the entire center building was made fire-proof-somewhat less in depth than the old building, and placing the kitchen in the rear of it, without any story over it; and reducing the central stories by about one-half in their dimensions; and putting up a suitable building for storage in the rear. These structural alterations were not expensive but greatly added to the good purposes of the building itself. The entire center building was rebuilt from the foundation and, as indicated above, greatly improved throughout, and was ready for occupancy early in 1884.

This great institution and its beneficent work are largely, and in many respects solely, the results of the ripe intelligence and eminent management of Dr. S. S. Schultz, who has had the exclusive control from the beginning to the present. A rich and prosperous government can only pour out its wealth in behalf of its poor, unfortunate insane and build a place of retreat and refuge for them. The value of the benefaction, however, at last depends upon those who manage and control the affairs of the institution and its pitiable inmates. Here are required rare executive qualities and irreproachable integrity, as well as the clearest understanding of “ministering to minds diseased.” In these respects the Danville Insane Hospital may be the fitting and perpetual monument of Dr. Schultz, telling how truly and how well he performed life’s greatest work-incomparably greater than if he had won great battles, dethroned kings or ruled empires.

Source:  Page(s) 7-18.   History of Columbia and Montour Counties. Battle, J.H., Chicago: A. Warner, 1887.