| AN OLD COUNTY RECORD
The County Commissioners First Minute Book which has just been
placed with the other Records of the County.
We had the pleasure of examing one day last week, the first minute
book kept by the Commissioners of this county, in 1808, soon after the
county of Tioga was organized. The Commissioners met at the log meeting
house in Wellsboro on the 20th day of October 1808, and it was resolved
that future meetings of the Board be held at the same place. The
total estimated expense of running the county at that time was only $1,772,
and the Commissioners though it necessary to levy a tax of three fourths
of a cent on the dollar in order to raise the requisite amount. In
January 1812 the first printed county orders were issued. We find
an agreement made at about the same time with Aaron Bloss for the opening
of the Williamson road to Peter’s Camp, (Blossburg). It seems the
tax Collectors were handled without gloves in those early days, for in
August, 1812, we find that instructions were given to the attorney for
the county to issue executions at once against all delinquents. In
November, 1812, the Commissioners were thinking of erecting a jail, which
it was estimated would cost $400. It was to be made of logs, of course.
In April, 1813, an agreement was made with one David Henry to do the work
of underpinning the new jail upon the following terms: “He, David
Henry, to have a dollar per-day for his own work, his provisions found
him, and he to be furnished with half a pint of whisky per day. He
is to have a half a dollar per day for the use of his oxen, and their feed
is to be found by the Commissioners.” At the date of October 11,
1813, we find the following interesting entry “It being represented
to the Commissioners by John Norris and Ebenezer Hill that the work of
building the Court house and jail must have stopped directly after their
last meeting had they not borrowed a certain quantity of shingling nails
of David Henry and become bound to said Henry to return the nails in five
weeks from that time or pay him half a dollar per pound for them in cash,
the Commissioners having taken the same into consideration, and believing
that Norris and Hill had no other view in procuring the nails but to forward
the work on the jail and Court house, do hereby resolve to relieve them
from the penalty of their agreement and subject the county to any and every
expense or loss that they may suffer on this account.
At a meeting held October 25, 1815, Justus Dartt was instructed
to hire some person to take the job of clearing the stumps from Main Street
and the Public Square in this village.
This old record ends at the date of August 9, 1815. It contains
little else of interest to our readers for it seems the minutes were not
kept as full as they have been in later years. The old book is well
preserved and every line and letter is readable. It has just been
deposited with the other records at the Commissioners’ Office, having been
in individual hands for upwards of seventy years.
We find a table of the estimated expenses of the county for the
year 1813, which we think our readers will find interesting, and therefore
append it:
Board and work on Court house $100
Four grand juries 24 men 3 days each
200
Four common juries 36 men 4 days each 576
Wood candles, Crier etc for court 100
Prothonotary and Commissioners offices
To be built
300
Commissioners and Clerks wages 400
Treasurers salary 400
Wolves and panthers bounty 300
Jail fees 50
Viewing roads 100
Building of a jail 400
Assessors wages 30
Seals for the offices
60
Total 3016
Source: The Wellsboro Agitator: Wellsboro, Pennsylvania;
23rd November 1880, page 3 |
