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Page 128
ORGANIZATION OF COUNCIL
CHAPTER XXVII
THE first municipal body to organize was that of the
town council. A meeting was called for the 24th day of February,
1881, nine days afer the election. This meeting was held in the
office of Bell, Lewis and Yates. This company had a store and office
building at the corner of Booth Street, now West Long Avenue and
State Street. Mr. McCall was a clerk in this office, and through his
courtesy the Council met there.
The minutes of this meeting are rather unique, and as
taken from the minute book are as follows:
"DuBois, Pa., February 24th, 1881. A meeting was called
at the office of Bell, Lewis & Yates, in the Borough of DuBois, on
the evening of February 24th, for the purpose of organizing the
Council of said Borough.
"The following persons present subscribed to the oath
of office for Council: L. A. Brady, Burgess; George R. Vosburg, H.
S. Knarr, Louis Zeigler, John M. Raught, and E. F. McCall as
Council.
"E. F. McCall elected to act as Secretary Pro Tern.
"J. M. Troxall not present.
"Motion made and carried that J. B. Ellis act as
Treasurer for the Borough of DuBois. The Burgess appointed L.
Zeigler and John Raught a committee to select a room for meetings of
the board and to report at next meeting. Adjourned to meet in same
place on Friday Evening, March 4th. at 7 P. M."
It would be interesting at this date to have the
discussion of the members of Council at this first meeting in
February, 1881.
From the minutes adopted, it would indicate that the
Council knew little of the needs of a new borough.
The nearest borough in the County was that of
Curwensville, with a population of probably one thousand. To the
west was the Borough of Reynoldsville, not much, if any, larger.
The various boroughs throughout central Pennsylvania
had grown from small villages of 100 or 200 population, and this
growth through a period of from ten, twenty, thirty or forty years.
A number of them had been incorporated by a special Act of Assembly
prior to the General Borough Law of 1854, but none of them were as
large as DuBois. The ordinances and laws adopted for these boroughs
did not fit the young giant that had sprung up in the wilderness
from a population of four or five families in 1867 to that of 5000
population or over by 1881.
DuBois, at the time of its organization, needed laws
more in keeping with a city of the third class. This was not
recognized by the
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