One of the first county judges, William Hepburn, owned the land on the opposite shore of Jaysburg that was known as Deer Park. Another land speculator, Michael Ross, owned of land in what is now the central part of Williamsport. Ross had laid out a town on his property, and a few homes were being built. Ross and Hepburn would team together to create Williamsport from land that was swampy and thought to be uninhabitable by the Susquehannocks who had originally inhabited the West Branch Susquehanna River Valley. Ross wanted to sell his properties and rightly believed that they would quickly sell if his town was made county seat. Hepburn, desiring political power, had little money by which to gain that power, but had a lot of land that could also be sold if Williamsport were to become the county seat.