Hello, my name is Nancy Piper and I am your Pennsylvania State host.
If you have data that you would like to have posted on this website, please email me.
Please include the County (and State) you are submitting data for.
THIS COUNTY IS AVAILABLE FOR ADOPTION
Our goal is to help you track your ancestors through time by transcribing genealogical and historical data and
placing it online for the free use of all researchers.
If you have a love for history, a desire to help others, and basic web-authoring skills, consider joining us! Get
the details on our Volunteer Page.
[A desire to transcribe data and knowledge of how to make a basic webpage is required.]
This County currently does not have a host. This means that there is no one available to help answer
your questions about this county's history or to help you with your family's genealogy within this county. WE
REGRET THAT WE ARE UNABLE TO DO PERSONAL RESEARCH FOR YOU.
Montour County was created on May 3, 1850 from part of Columbia County and named for Madame Montour, a woman
of Indian and French descent who was prominent in the Indian affairs. Danville, the county seat, was laid out in
1792 and incorporated as a borough on February 27, 1849. It had been the county seat of Columbia County from 1813
to 1846.
The Mahoning Creek area was settled beginning in 1769. Danville is named for Daniel Montgomery, son of early settler
General William Montgomery. It had been Columbia County's seat until 1845, but when Bloomsburg usurped Columbia
County Danville wanted a new county so it could once more be a county seat. Newspaper activist Valentine Best went
to the legislature and pushed the creation through. Danville became a highway, canal, and then rail link on the
North Branch route from Sunbury to Wilkes-Barre. Danville's Big Mill, eventually owned by Bethlehem Steel, made
iron and steel from 1838 to 1938, Rails were a specialty; the first T-rails made in the United States were made
here. In 1873 a national financial panic eclipsed the mill's future, it lost out in competition with Bessemer process
and Lake Superior ore, and in 1896 it experienced a major explosion. But iron and steel specialties production
continued until the end of World War II. Silk and shirt-making factories were productive from the early 1900s.
Half of the county's area is farmed
Surrounding Counties:
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