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Page 126
ORGANIZATION OF THE BOROUGH
CHAPTER XXVI
USING a modern expression, after Sandy Township had
been "consolidated" in 1878 and all of the offices of that Township
filled, and with the two Justices of the Peace residing in the town,
as well as the Constable, the question of a Borough was again raised
and discussed and this discussion resulted in the preparation of a
petition to the Court of Quarter Sessions of Clearfield County,
asking that a Borough be created to be called the Borough of DuBois.
This petition was signed by more than 15o people and at this writing
it is known that the following named persons are still living, viz:
Fred Tracy, W. T. DeHaas, B. H. Butler, P. S. Weber, W. H. Sobers,
and W. A. Engelman.
This petition was presented to September Sessions of
1880 and represented that the town had a plan and a large
population, and was of sufficient size to warrant the incorporation
under the Borough Laws of the State of Pennsylvania.
Upon this petition the Court appointed three
Commissioners to lay out the new town of DuBois. This Board of
Commissioners after going over the territory, made an outline map,
paying no attention to streets or alleys, or anything else, or any
improvements in the Borough and made a return to the Court,
recommending that a territory about two miles square should be
incorporated as a borough.
This report was submitted to the Grand Jury at January
Sessions of 1881 and after the Grand Jury had reported favorably, on
the 11th day of January, 1881, the Court made a decree granting a
charter incorporating "The Borough of DuBois" as a municipal
corporation under the laws of the State of Pennsylvania,
incidentally the School District to be known as the School District
of the Borough of DuBois, and a Poor District. The decree provided
that an election should be held on the third Tuesday of February,
1881, at the public house of W. L. Nicholson in said borough, and
appointed Charlie Barrett, Judge of Election; Frank Rumbarger and
Edward Cotter as Inspectors. This election was held, and the two
clerks of the election, (the other members of the board have long
since passed away) state that the candidates were so numerous that
they did not get the vote counted to determine who had been elected
to the office of Burgess, Town Countil, School Directors, Constable,
Overseer of the Poor and other borough offices, until Friday.
It is related that one candidate for School Director
could not read or write. When he was asked about this qualification,
he promptly replied that his inability to read and write was in his
favor. If the question of adopting school books came before the
board, he not being able to read the books, could vote unprejudiced.
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