Devine

Johnson Store corner of Clarion and Main Street

With the Philadelphia and Erie Railroad already surveyed and under construction along the West
Branch of the Clarion River in Ridgway Township, Elk County, Pennsylvania in 1862, lumberman Lyman Wilmarth and investors purchased land and started logging operations aside the Clarion River tributary of Silver Creek. At first they just floated logs down the Clarion River to their sawmill in Ridgway but soon they dammed up Silver Creek and built a water-powered sawmill. When the railroad was completed in 1864 a railroad station at Wilmarth (Rolfe) was established and planks were trained down the line for building purposes. Most of the timber was felled during the summer, pulled from the forest by horses in the winter, and sawed at the mill in the winter and spring months when the water was flowing enough to operate the mill saw. Once the land around the mill was cleared housing was built along Silver Creek (what is now Oak Street) and eventually on both sides of a road that would one day become Cushing Avenue in West End Johnsonburg. Finished lumber was stacked around the mill and along the Clarion River behind the original railroad station (current mill storage area on West Center Street) and a company store was erected nearby. Most of the pioneers who worked at Wilmarth’s were German or Irish and came from New York State, most from Sullivan County. Lyman Wilmarth died in 1867 leaving the enterprise in charge of his two sons, Fred and Lyman Jr.

Fred Wilmarth ran the business, including the company store, at Wilmarth and his brother Lyman Jr. handled lumber sales out of Pittsburgh. Fred was named as postmaster of Wilmarth in 1865. By 1872 the brother’s Wilmarth realized that they were in over their heads in the sawmill business and asked Fred’s brother-in-law Edward (Esward) Cowles Rolfe to come in as a partner and lend his managerial expertise to the company. Under Rolfe the organization prospered while installing steam-boiler operated saws with 300-400 men working the woods, stables, sawmill, store, ice house, and company housing. So well-respected was Mr. Rolfe that the community name transitioned from Wilmarth to Rolfe (1879) and Edward Rolfe was named postmaster in 1876. However, the lumber business was risky and competitive and operating capital deficiencies caused the Rolfe-Wilmarth Company to file for bankruptcy in 1873.

“July 31, 1873- Assignee sales of Fred Wilmarth and E.W. Rolfe, bankrupts, on the 20th day of

August: four circular saws, one iron safe, a lot of files and axes, seven million feet of hemlock

(four million which are in the stream and on its banks, one and one-half woods cut and skidded,

one and one-half million in the woods cut), one thousand acres known as the “Johnsonburg

Tract,” three tracts of land known as the “Johnsonburg Mill Property” on which sit two steam

saw mills, capable of cutting 50,000 feet a day, one keg factory with the capacity of cutting 400

kegs per day, one dwelling house, one boarding house, and ten tenement houses.” -Ridgway

Advocate.

The Wilmarth-Rolfe lands for sale also included coal mines in “Glen Mayo.” James Henry Mayo

started mining on the Wilmarth tracts in 1872. In the late 1870’s and early 1880’s the mines were

productive but played out shortly after.

The bankrupt sale apparently was never consummated and the Company survived the downturn

and grew as a viable operation until 1883 when the enterprise was sold to Maurice Schultz of

Wilcox. Under the guidance of Mr. Rolfe more housing had been erected and a one-room school

building was constructed by Mr. Rolfe’s father on the site of the future Rolfe Methodist Church

(1876).

Maurice Morgan Schultz was born in Delaware County, New York in 1827. His father Abraham

Schultz was a prosperous tannery owner and leather entrepreneur but Maurice was initially a

“black sheep” of the family and at age 16 he embarked on a whaling ship to the Artic Seas.

Returning after four years with his wild oats sown he conformed and followed in his father’s

footsteps and became a successful tanner; Maurice operated a tannery at Sparrow Bush, New

York from 1860 to 1866 where he accumulated a substantial fortune. Deciding to retire he

travelled Europe for a year and upon his return learned that his younger brother Judson had

acquired 10 acres of land along the Clarion River in Wilcox, Pennsylvania and the logging rights

to 1500 acres of hemlock nearby. Judson needed help with his tanning venture and Maurice

answered his call. The brothers Schultz would erect the Wilcox Tanning Company hiring up to

300 men for the tannery and over 400 men to peel the bark off the felled hemlock. It would

become the largest tannery in the world. As part of the tanning process the hemlock bark was

made into tannin acid which removed the hair from the bison, cow, and deer hides and further

tanned the hides that were used to make leather.

Rolfe from Tannery Hill

When the Wilson Kistler Tanning Company established their tannery near Rolfe in 1882 in what

would become Johnsonburg, Pennsylvania Maurice M. Schultz made the obvious decision to

purchase the sawmill and hemlock timber from Wilmarth and Rolfe. The competition for

hemlock by tanneries was fierce brought on by the necessity of the tannin acid. Schultz had his

own sawmill in Wilcox and had little interest in the Wilmarth-Rolfe mill so he immediately sold

the mill and timber to the Henry, Bayard and Company with the provision that the Wilcox

Tanning Company retained the rights to all the hemlock tan bark before the trees were processed

into lumber. The agreement to last until 1891. The Henry, Bayard and Company of Philadelphia

were one of the most prominent lumber merchants on the East coast.

workers from the Rolfe Tannery

The Henry, Bayard and Company owned many sawmills, chemical plants, and thousands of acres

of timber in the area. None of the primary investors of the Company ever lived in Elk or McKean

County but they hired competent managers to supervise their distant operations. Hence, William

L. Devine came to Rolfe to oversee the newly acquired sawmill and logging operations.

William Lewis Devine was born in Liberty, Sullivan County, New York in 1852. His first labor

was in a tannery at Neversink, New York. Eventually, he gained work in a sawmill and by 1880

he was the “Boss Sawyer” of the W. W. Gilman sawmill at Forestburgh, New York. Winthrop

Watson Gilman was a multi-millionaire who owned several tanneries, a planning mill, and a lath

factory in Forestburgh, besides considerable land holdings across the United States. To be the

head sawyer at the Gilman enterprise would certainly be a feather in one’s cap but apparently

Devine wanted more and the Henry, Bayard and Company gave him his chance at management.

William L. Devine, with his wife Martha A. and daughters Maggie and Maude, arrived in Rolfe

in 1882 to take command of the former Wilmarth-Rolfe sawmill. Within a year the sawmill

became known as “Devine’s mill.”

Under William Devine’s expert management, Rolfe, Pennsylvania and the sawmill incurred

many important and distinguished changes. The mill was enlarged and upgraded and men

worked six day weeks from dawn to dusk with supplies charged to the Company store and

medical situations taken care of by the Company doctor. Many workers lived in Company

boarding houses, family men in Company housing (usually two families to a house), and others

in wood camps in the area. A new four-room school to accommodate the growing population

was built next to the old school site, half the school in the West end of Johnsonburg and the other

half in Rolfe. The old ice house (future Rolfe Sportsman’s Club) on Main Street was expanded

and called the Union Hall, used for meetings, elections, ice storage, as an infirmary during

epidemics, and company store storage. Since the Henry, Bayard and Company owned all the land

in the surrounding area and they were prohibitionist, no liquor was permitted on the premises and

consequently no bars, taverns, or saloons were ever built in Rolfe. That would change somewhat

in 1888 when the Armstrong’s built their paper mill in nearby Johnsonburg and “water-holes”

sprang up in Johnsonburg like weeds in an unattended garden. Men of Rolfe could now venture

down to Johnsonburg to “wet their whistle”, if they could find the time.

Mr. Devine built a fine house on Clarion Road (owned later by George Decker) and his family

added two more daughters; Clara and Alice. In Rolfe, William’s wife now went by her middle

name, Alfaretta, as did his eldest daughter, Louisa (Maggie). The respected Mr. Devine would be

named Rolfe postmaster in September 1884. Although William belonged to no church (his wife

and daughters were Methodists), when the original Rolfe Union Church (later Methodist) was

erected next to the school in 1888 Mr. Devine paid for the belfry bell. No doubt his wife,

Alfaretta, had something to do with that generosity.

About 1885 Mr. Devine’s responsibilities increased dramatically. With all the timber around the

sawmill felled, the Rolfe and Forest City Railroad was built from the sawmill up Silver Creek

and beyond. This opened up more Henry, Bayard and Company land for logging and debarking,

in all about 17,000 acres. In 1889 the railroad was renamed the Rolfe and Northern Railroad

(twenty mile charter) and the track was extended south following Little Mill Creek and a branch

was looped back to the newly built Johnsonburg Paper Mill; now any timber not suitable for

sawing could be sold to the paper mill.

When the Henry, Bayard and Company purchased the Wilmarth-Rolfe property in 1883 they

needed someone to run the Company store and they asked Charles J. Johnson to fill the role. Mr.

Johnson, born in 1858, had immigrated from Sweden in 1873. He had previous store clerk

experience elsewhere in Ridgway Township. In 1887 the Company built a new, larger store at the

site of the future Johnsonburg Borough Building. Daniel Kingsbury Condon lived in Wilcox,

Pennsylvania but he was the local bookkeeper for Henry, Bayard and Company and kept the

accounts for the store. Later, the store burnt down and Charles J. Johnson and Daniel K. Condon

partnered together and built a new store of their own on the corner of Main Street and Clarion

Road which also had stables behind it. Johnson bought out Condon in 1901. It would not be

their only partnership. Charles J. Johnson was made postmaster of Rolfe in 1889.

In 1888 Rolfe had a church, a school, two stores, and a Knights of Labor building (which may

have been the Union Hall). The Knights of Labor were one of America’s first labor unions and

they advocated for an 8 hour day. Their rallying cry was “Eight hours for work, eight hours for

rest and eight hours for what we will.” The union was ahead of its time as most industries

worked 10-hour days or more and the union was not strong enough to bring management to the

negotiation table. However, the actions of the K. O. L. guided future unionization efforts.

Whether or not the K. O. L. gave Mr. Devine some labor trouble is unknown but it is said that his

ear was always open to legitimate complaints, he was well-liked and respected, and assisted any

one in need the best he could.

In 1890 the Henry, Bayard and Company had their deforested lots around Rolfe surveyed and

began offering them for sale to employees and others. The effect was dramatic and Rolfe was

alive with house construction on Main Street, Erie Avenue (now Spring Street), Clarion Road,

and Elk Avenue. Families that had been crammed into Company housing with other families

now had the opportunity to own their own home, yet be close enough to walk to work. The

sawmill and logging operations now took over 600-800 men to cut, debark, transport, saw, and

load the finished product. And mill manager William L. Devine kept the business running

smoothly and profitably. By 1891 the mill was cutting 50,000 board feet a day. The production

was labor intensive; teamsters, blacksmiths, “wood hicks”, millwrights, carpenters, sawyers,

filers, stackers, bark peelers, engineers, firemen, maintenance men, and lumber jobbers were just

some of the occupations necessary.

With more and more families moving into the area the old school was becoming overcrowded

and in 1896-97 Mr. Devine led the effort to get a new Rolfe School built at the corner of Clarion

Road and Maple Street. At a cost of over $2,500 a magnificent in its day two-story four-room

wood-frame school building sitting on a cut stone foundation was erected. With some

modernization and additions the school would satisfy the education of Rolfe students until 1953.

Around this time the Rolfe railroad was extended along Big Mill Creek up Red Mill Run and

Pine Run. Another, more powerful locomotive was purchased to overcome the rougher terrain

and some of the old tracks up Silver Creek were torn up. At the Western limit of the railroad a

wood jobber named Frank McChesney had a large wood camp at Pine Run. Rolfe, Pennsylvania

was booming and then tragedy came a-calling; the sawmill completely burned in 1899.

With hundreds of acres of timber yet to be cut and considering the past profits of the business the

sawmill was immediately rebuilt with all new saws and machinery. But a mere five years later

the last hemlock and white pine were cut and the sawmill ceased production. Henry, Bayard and

Company sold their remaining lands and railroad operations to the Johnsonburg paper mill, there

was enough scrub timber and new hardwood growth to make the purchase profitable. Rolfe did

not suffer much. Most of the men found work at the Kistler tannery, the paper mill, or stayed on

with the paper mill lumbering crews and railroad. Many found employment nearby at the paper

mill woodyard on Silver Creek road.

In June 1904 William L. Devine, C. J. Johnson and D. K. Condon formed the Eagle Rock

Manufacturing Company and set up a sawmill and store at Eagle Rock, Venango County,

Pennsylvania. The timber to be cut and sawed was owned by the Grandin Lumber Company. A

brand new band saw was acquired and the rest of the machinery for the mill came from the now

dismantled Devine mill at Rolfe. The new enterprise also had a planning mill and a lath mill.

William Conklin, a Ridgway millwright, was hired to construct the mill, Devine supervised the

mill, Johnson operated the company store and Condon kept the books. A little over a year later

the company was sold to a Ridgway, Pennsylvania concern and unfortunately six months later

the mill caught fire and was destroyed.

William L. Devine returned to his family in Johnsonburg after the sale of the Eagle Rock

Manufacturing Company. He worked as a millwright for the next several years but in April 1910

at age 59 he was admitted to the Elk County Home and Asylum. Three days later he died of

acute pneumonia caused by three weeks of debauchery. He is buried in the Wardvale United

Methodist Cemetery. At the time of his demise he was residing with his wife Alfaretta, his

mother-in-law Marie Myers, his son-in-law Gus Larson, daughter Clara Larson, and daughter

Alice Devine. It is surmised that alcohol got the best of him and that he could not cope with the

loss of prestige or responsibility he had when he was the head of “Devine’s Mill” in Rolfe,

Pennsylvania.

NOTES:

After the sale of the Wilmarth-Rolfe sawmill the Wilmarth family moved to St. Marys,

Pennsylvania and the Edward Rolfe family moved to Bradford, Pennsylvania.

Rolfe, Pennsylvania never had a bank, hotel, or saloon.

In 1880 the Haley family had a boarding house on the future “flats” near where the East Branch

of the Clarion River met the West Branch. They boarded coal miners who worked the Glen Mayo

mines and many farm laborers. There was a footbridge across the Clarion River from the flats to

the Glen Mayo area. Virgil S. Wheeler and his wife, Mary, ran the boarding house in Rolfe at the

time.

Alfaretta Devine lived out most of her life in Johnsonburg before dying in Altoona, Pennsylvania

at her daughter, Alice Fry’s, home in 1932. She was 76. She moved from her home on Clarion

Road sometime after her husband’s death and relocated around the corner at 210 Main Street

(1920-30).

Eldest daughter Louisa Devine married Johnsonburg Paper Mill superintendent Samuel Ralston

Armstrong. Maude Devine married Charles Dietrick. Clara Devine married Gus Larson. Alice

Devine married Merrie (Leo) Fry. Charles worked as a foreman at the paper mill. Gus owned a

plumbing and hardware store in Johnsonburg for many years. Leo was an express agent.

William and Alfaretta also took in a girl shortly after 1880. Her name was Mamie E. Fahrenkrug

and she lived with the Devine’s at least until 1890 and is lost to the ages after that.

One of the more interesting facts about the death of William L. Devine is that the particulars on

his death certificate were given to the doctor by Devine himself; he must have known he was

dying. Usually, those particulars are given by a family member: address, date of birth,

occupation, spouse, mother’s maiden name, father. It is the first death certificate of many that I

have seen that was completed in that manner.

Maurice Morgan Schultz, likely the richest person ever to reside in Wilcox, died there in 1884

and he, his wife Mary Atherton (1887), and his son Irving (1882) are buried in the Wilcox

Cemetery. Although Maurice was worth hundreds of thousands of dollars in the 16 or so years he

lived in Wilcox he never owned a home but rented rooms in the Wilcox House (future Swanson’s

Confectionary). His brother Judson did own a home in Wilcox for a short time (Wilcox

American Legion).

Charles J. Johnson ran Johnson’s Fairlawn Store at the corner of Clarion Road and Main Street

until his death in 1947. His daughter-in-law Elsie Nelson Johnson took over after that and

operated the store for many years.

Daniel Kingsbury Condon did not return to Wilcox after Eagle Rock, he moved to New York

State.

My aunt, Genevieve Sprague Ashby, was born in Rolfe in 1921 and named her son Rolfe Edward

Ashby after her birthplace.

The Barwin family came to Rolfe in 1878 and brothers Casper and Joseph worked in the woods

cutting timber. They bought one of the lots from the Henry, Bayard and Company around 1890

and built a homestead on the corner of Elk and Main Street. Eventually, Joseph became a railroad

engineer at Straight and younger brother Frank, my great-grandfather, became a fireman and then

an engineer for the Henry, Bayard and Company and the paper mill on the Rolfe Railroad noted

in the story. Casper moved from Johnsonburg to Chicago and then to Sioux Falls, South Dakota.

The Johnsonburg paper mill paid $23,000 to Henry, Bayard and Company for their lands, several

miles of track in storage, two locomotives, twenty-five log cars and a tank car for fire-fighting.

Research from several sources has revealed what it was like to work to work in a sawmill in the

late 1800’s. At 4:00 a.m. a mill whistle would blow four times (generally operated by a night

watchman). In the colder months this meant arising and restoking the heat stove and all-year-

round preparing the cooking stove and doing a few household chores. At 5:00 a.m. the mill

whistle would blow three times and it was definitely time to get up then to dress, eat breakfast,

and head for work. At 5:55 a.m. the mill whistle blew twice and at 6:00 a.m. the mill whistle

blew once, signaling work to commence. There was no alarm clocks in those days and it was a

six-day work-week. The whistle blew at noon for lunch which lasted until 1:00 p.m. at which

time it was back to work. The whistle blew again at 5:55 p.m. to end the shift or at 6:00 p.m. if

there was no night shift. In some mills lunch was cut short 10 minutes a day so the mill could

shut down an hour early on Saturday. Lunch was unpaid time. Break times were catch-as-catch-

can during lulls in sawing or loading. Railroad logging men had no formal lunch hour. Wood

hicks generally ate and rested around noon. The camp cook and helper would bring coffee and

sandwiches to the men wherever they were in the woods. Wages were about 10 cents an hour

with bosses, sawyers, filers, and railroad men getting more and boys under 18 less. Company

housing costs ranged from $2-$4 a month. Men were generally paid once a week by check, cash,

or company script. Many operations just kept account balances at the company store and if you

needed cash money you just went to the store and drew it out; no interest paid on the money left

in the store account. Many company stores were also official post offices and one could have a

postal savings account there. All sawmill operations had two unpaid holidays, Christmas and the

Fourth of July. Some also gave New Year’s Day off. For Thanksgiving Day workers got an extra

unpaid hour for lunch. On days when production levels exceeded all previous output workers

may get extra pay or a box of cigars or chewing tobacco (Didn’t happen often.) Most companies

had an annual summer picnic with food, games, contests, and prizes for the children. If a man

was injured on the job and was expected to return to work he likely still got some pay. If a man

was disabled on the job and could not return to work he likely received a week or two of pay and

was dismissed. This was about the same for a worker who was accidently killed on the job, with

pay to his widow depending on the man’s former status with the company. Many sawmill

employees raised chickens or rabbits and grew vegetable gardens to help offset the cost of living.

Men worked, tended the garden, fed chickens, ate, slept, and went back to work. Women raised

the children, cooked, mended, made clothes, cleaned the house, hauled coal or wood for the

fireplace and cook stove, shopped, tended the garden, and fed the chickens. Visiting and

socializing was done on Saturday night and Sunday. Most children were finished with school

after the sixth grade. Boys got work sweeping the mill, store, and offices, bagging sawdust,

hauling water and food to wood hicks, and other odd jobs. Girls helped their family at home or

worked as helpers at a wood camp.

It seems like a hard life compared to today’s standards but in many ways it was very secure.

Families did not have to grow crops or hunt game for their livelihood, they had a roof over their

heads, warm beds, the access to groceries, clothing, and material for knitting, sewing, dress and

shirt making, education for their children, and a community for support and protection.

Many thanks for the McKean County Miner, Ridgway Advocate, Ancestry.com, the Logging

Railroad Era of Lumbering in Pennsylvania books, the Johnsonburg Press, and A History of

Johnsonburg (1810-1985) for making this story possible.

Kevin “Reg” Barwin
October 2023

Kevin Barwin, a Johnsonburg native, who spent his youth peddling newspapers in Johnsonburg and reading the newsprint, while walking his routes, acquired a taste for the past.

THE PAPER BOY FROM THE PAPER CITY, More on his book: here