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Danville

Danville is a borough in Montour County, Pennsylvania, of which it is the county seat, on the north branch of the Susquehanna River. There are deposits of limestone in the vicinity. Danville was the home to 8,042 people in 1900, 7,517 people in 1910, and 7,122 people in 1940. The population was 4,897 at the 2000 census. .

History

Iroquois land until a 1768 treaty, Chester County native and American Revolutionary War figure William Montgomery purchased a plot of land in 1774 and established a trading post called Montgomery's Landing. In 1792 he constructed a house there, which is now a small museum inside the town. In the same year his son Daniel plotted the area between Mill Street and Church Street, the historic core of the town which now bears his name.

Danville became a transportation center in the 19th century, served by several railroads and the eastern branch of the Susquehanna River. Coal and iron mines in the surrounding hills and mountains fueled the local economy, and by mid-century Danville was an important iron mill town. Many of the rails of the nation's expanding railroad system were made in Danville. It is also claimed that the first T-rail rolled in the United States was rolled in Danville, on October 8, 1845 at the Montour Iron Company.