Because Montmorency lacked adequate streams to operate mills and float goods to market, Gillis shifted the town of Ridgway to this river valley. In 1822, his land agent, James Gillis, founded Ridgway at the Montmorency Farm Site six and one-half miles from the present town site. government by the Six Nations Indian tribes. Jacob Ridgway of Philadelphia, one of the richest men in the United States, saw opportunity in the region's massive trees and clear-flowing rivers and purchased 100,000 acres of this land, newly deeded to the U.S. In the early 1800s, ancient forests stretched unbroken across northwestern Pennsylvania. It is in Ridgway in Elk County Pennsylvania This historical marker was erected by Stackpole-Hall Foundation. Fire destroyed the original courthouse building in 1990., (Photo Captions):, Original Elk County Courthouse, Jacob Ridgway, 1768-1843, James Lyle Gillis, 1792-1881, Bogert Hotel Christmas Menu, 1907, All photos courtesy Elk County Historical Society. The hotel's 150-seat dining room occupied the former courtroom. In 1905-at the peak of Ridgway's prosperity-McGeehan replaced the original boarding house with a four-story, 76-room hotel to which he again attached courthouse. State legislators dismissed their appeal, and Ridgway remained the center of Elk County government., Courthouse turned into Boarding House, When Hugh McGeehan bought the original County Courthouse, he moved the building down Main Street and incorporated it into the Bogert House, a new hotel he and P. Marys-eleven long miles east of Ridgway-petitioned to move the county seat to their town, prompting heated public debate. Marys.', Not everyone liked the choice of Ridgway as county seat. The original half-ton steel bell still hangs in the bell tower., Battle for County Seat, 'Resolved, that we call on the representatives of the people in the Senate and House to respect the popular will and.procure forth with the removal of the county seat from its present improper location to the borough of St. In 1880, the courthouse was completed, built of native sandstone and brick and roofed with tin and slate.

Town fathers placed within it a copper box containing period newspapers, coins, and a poem commemorating the day. By 1879, Elk County had outgrown the wooden courthouse and sold it at public auction to Hugh McGeehan for $135., A few months later, the cornerstone of the new courthouse was laid with great ceremony. Ridgway prevailed and, in 1845, constructed a wooden courthouse on this site. Because Montmorency lacked adequate streams to operate mills and float goods to market, Gillis shifted the town of Ridgway to this river valley., When Elk County was established in 1843, towns vied for the honor of becoming the county seat.

, In the early 1800s, ancient forests stretched unbroken across northwestern Pennsylvania.

Elk county pa