Bank On It!

The sole purpose of delivering Sunday newspapers in the East End of Johnsonburg in 1962 was to earn money to buy baseball cards and to play the pinball machines at Stelene’s Restaurant. I delivered about 70 papers and made two cents profit on the Pittsburgh papers and three cents on the Philadelphia editions, plus tips. The papers were a quarter and tips, generally a nickel, although not every household tipped. Baseball cards were five cents a pack and the pinball machine a nickel a play. What money I had left over at the end of the week went into my secret hiding place to accumulate with birthday gifts and odd jobs cash (no allowance, that was something that was only mentioned on TV shows). Eventually, my grandfather strongly suggested that I put those funds in the bank to earn interest and off to the Johnsonburg National Bank we went, laden down with a pile of bills and a bag full of various coins.

Image taken from a JCT past blog post, To a Kid this is a Castle .

Mrs. Sallack or maybe Ms. Florin helped me open up my savings account (no checking) and I received a little black bank book with the amount of my deposit written in and the date of deposit stamped next to it. I did not receive a monthly statement. With every deposit the teller would open up an accounting book, check my account, and add a little interest to my book. Very archaic compared to the slick bank books nowadays with their computerized printing.

The Johnsonburg National Bank was an imposing structure for an eleven year old; steep concrete steps going up to the doors between two massive pillars, it was a monumental stone edifice built grandly and solidly to give one the impression all monies were safe and secure in this rock solid garrison. Even the windows had bars and etched in stone above the entrance was the profound identification, B A N K.

Inside I recall the teller’s windows to the left and a large writing table along the wall to the right, at the time I was so short I could barely see into the teller’s opening or rest my elbows on the table. Straight to the back I remember a caged area that I understood contained the bank vault. Inside the front door an elderly gray-haired lady stood in uniform with a tambourine collecting donations for the Salvation Army. Whether or not she was there everyday I do not know but she always seemed to be there whenever I arrived.

The Johnsonburg National Bank charter was filed on October 30, 1890 and the building of the castle-like structure was begun around that time. Like the “Brick Block” the bank was designed by architect P. A. Welsh of Philadelphia. It was built under the direction of stonemason Gustav Florin and possibly stonemason Lars Johnson for $20,000.

Gustav Larsson Florin immigrated to the United States from Sweden in 1889 with his wife Ingrid and two children and settled in Johnsonburg, and his erstwhile friend and future partner in business, Lars Mangus Johnson, came from Sweden in 1879, married his wife Ida in Daguscahonda, Pennsylvania in 1882 and came to Johnsonburg around 1889. Both Gust and Lars were journeymen masons and particularly adept at stone cutting. They came to Johnsonburg at the bequest of the Armstrong brothers, helped build the brick paper mill and also the Brick Block. Gus and Lars built the Florin-Johnson structure which for many years housed Bosler’s Drug Store, the Corner Restaurant, John Mann’s Cigar Store, Jenks lady clothing and accessories store, and many other shops along Cobb Street until it was torn down in 1970 to make room for the improving(?) of Route 219. In 1903 they both partnered to open a plumbing store in the Brick Block and they both are responsible for erecting the many brick and stone chemical plants in the area. In April 1909 Gust and L.M. build a brick storage building in Spring Creek, Warren County for $25,000. The building stored eggs, butter, and poultry from the area and was cooled by machinery; a very modern enterprise in the days of ice box deliveries. Gust Florin also built the Elk County Home in St, Marys, Pennsylvania.

The Johnsonburg National Bank opened on April 6, 1891 with $50,000 working capital and a surplus fund of the same amount. E.O. Aldrich is the cashier and paper mill owner Meylert M. Armstrong is President. With a National Bank designation the bank was permitted to print its own United States currency. You can find examples of these interesting bank notes online by googling “Johnsonburg Bank Notes.”

On July 8, 1893 E.O. Aldrich, well-respected cashier of the Johnsonburg National Bank, is asked to help adjust matters at the defunct Ridgway Bank. J. H. Peoples will act in the capacity of cashier in his place and Peoples’ place as teller will be filled by Frank O’Connell, both men of sterling integrity. On October 18, 1894 the receivers of the defunct Ridgway National Bank which closed its doors on June 23, 1893 announced that they will pay a 20% dividend through the Johnsonburg National Bank.

A little over a month later on November 23, 1894 Harry Peoples, 24, bank clerk, was found dead in his room over the Johnsonburg National Bank. Two bullet holes in his head and a .32 caliber revolver is by his side. Harry had no bad habits and his death is a large mystery. A coroner’ inquest failed to shed any light on the tragedy. He left no note or other evidence of premeditated suicide. He was engaged to be married to popular young Miss Inez Hyatt, a Johnsonburg school teacher, who is nearly distracted over the shocking death of her betrothed. Peoples was in good spirits when last seen alive. (You can read the whole story in the book “The Paperboy from the Paper City'').

In the early days the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania often invested its treasury’s money in Pennsylvania banks. For example, on May 31, 1911 the State reported that $20,000 in taxpayer dollars was on deposit at the Johnsonburg National Bank.

In July, 1913 a new safe was installed at the Johnsonburg National Bank. The new vault is constructed of reinforced concrete lined with steel. The door weighs five tons and opens on a timer and combination lock. The manganese safe inside the vault is only opened by a combination lock. Safety deposit boxes inside the vault are now available. The old 3,600 pound safe from the bank is moved to the New Clarion Hotel on Centre Street. While transferring the safe the workers dropped it, making a great impression on the sidewalk!

On November 3, 1920 around 8:00 a.m. Dr. William Palmer and Gust Florin, the Johnsonburg National Bank’s builder and now wealthy contractor, are traveling to Ridgway where Dr. Palmer of Johnsonburg is chief surgeon. The new road to Ridgway had just been completed and Dr. Palmer and Mr. Florin were the first to motor the freshly concreted highway. Two miles from the center of town with Dr. Palmer driving, the car skidded into a ditch and turned over. Both men were seriously injured with Dr. Palmer expiring upon arrival at the Ridgway Hospital. Gust Florin was not expected to live but miraculously survived.

Frank O’Donnell, longtime bank employee, is the head cashier and a bank director in the 1920’s. His untimely death of a heart attack at age 58 results in Alvin A. Johnson of Rolfe, Pennsylvania taking over as head cashier.

April 28, 1929- The Johnsonburg National Bank is closed for remodeling. A new vault and an updated lobby is being constructed. All banking transactions and other business is to be done at the Johnsonburg Community Building until further notice.

January 1937-V. M. Slouck, an upper management employee of the New York and Pennsylvania Company, is named President of the Johnsonburg National Bank. Mr. Slouck resides in Lock Haven. Bank employees of the time are; cashier A. A. Johnson, assistant cashiers, N.R. Gardner and J.J. Bliskey. A year later Alvin A. Johnson succumbs to pneumonia at age 50 and Norman Randall Gardner is promoted to head cashier.

In November 1951 the Johnsonburg National Bank announced it would pay out in a few weeks over $75,000 in Christmas savings. It is the largest Christmas fund in Elk County.

On February 15, 1952 two masked gunmen held up the Johnsonburg National Bank of over $7,000. They will eventually be caught and a bank robbery conspiracy involving local residents will unravel. (You can read the whole story in the book “The Paperboy From the Paper City”).

November 25, 1957-Over $96,000 paid out in Christmas savings from Johnsonburg National Bank, largest in Elk County.

The Warren National Bank, capitalized at $53.2 million, merged with the Johnsonburg National Bank, capitalized at $5.1 million, on November 22, 1963. This will supposedly for all intent and purposes end the control of the Johnsonburg National Bank by the New York and Pennsylvania Company. The Company had always been placed on the bank’s Board of Directors management from the New York and Pennsylvania Company. The Johnsonburg National Bank and the Johnsonburg community had grown substantially together from their mutual inception.

In the mid-1960’s N.R. Gardner retires and Norman Jerry Nelson takes over as bank manager. The bank undergoes some major changes. An outside, walkup bank window is installed on the Bridge Street side of the edifice, the front entrance is remodeled with a two-stair approach, and a snow-melting system is placed under the front concrete sidewalk.

1-17-1968- N.R. Gardner is placed on the board of directors. Local advisory board is N.R. Gardner, George Mosebarger, H. H. Bell, V. M. Stouck, H. L. Wallis, R. K. Guinard, F. W. Crowe, N. J. Nelson, bank manager. Although the merger of 1963 was to remove New York and Pennsylvania Company control of the bank you can read by the board of directors that many upper management of the Company remain on the board. Stouck, Wallis, Guinard, and Crowe all work for the paper mill.

On June 30, 1982 the Warren National Bank was taken over by Marine Bank of Erie, Pennsylvania making the Johnsonburg bank part of the Marine Bank system.

In September 1996 Marine Bank was merged with PNC Bank. Three years later the Johnsonburg PNC Bank was taken over by County National Bank of Clearfield, Pennsylvania.

Norman Jerry Nelson retired as bank manager in 1999.

On February 2, 2008, for the second time in its 118 year history the Johnsonburg bank was robbed. A Wilcox, Pennsylvania resident robs the Johnsonburg County Bank of $21,000 with a toy gun. He came into the bank by the side door, ordered two tellers to get on the floor, and escaped in a car parked in the alley between Market and Penn Street. The car was described as a Suzuki Vitara. The perpetrator was apprehended by the St. Marys Borough Police at the Straub Brewery in St. Marys.

On January 8, 2013 the Johnsonburg CNB bank was robbed again, this time by a Ridgway resident.

In 2015 CNB closed the Johnsonburg branch and in 2016 the Johnsonburg Water Authority took over the old bank building for their offices.

For many years the castle-like structure provided a safe haven for deposits and valuables and granted loans and mortgages that enabled Johnsonburg to grow and prosper through its “heyday” years. Northwest Bank has taken over that service for current Johnsonburg citizens but the ancient stone fortress on the corner of Market and Bridge Streets still stands today as a solid symbol of Johnsonburg strength and fortitude.

Kevin “Reg” Barwin

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

Commercial Historic District Structures and Stories- 514 Market Street

There is a lot of activity in and out around 514 Market Street, Johnsonburg these days with the opening of several new businesses in the former Masonic building. The Boutique, the Rosebud Lounge, A Touch of Life Massage, Glow Airbrush Tanning, and Revolution Cheer fill up the slate of pleasant experiences one can find there.

It is great to see that old building renovated and put to such good use. Research shows that the structure was built in 1891 (Johnsonburg Sanborn Maps) but who built it is a small mystery. John W. Houser, a carpenter by trade who assisted in helping build the paper mill, built the Kendrig building (D. E. Kendrig, owner) next door in 1890 so maybe he also erected the edifice at 204 Market Street (address in 1891). Houser came to Johnsonburg in its pioneer days from Flemington, Pennsylvania with Martha Bullock who he married in 1880. They resided in Johnsonburg at least until 1914 but by 1920 John was operating a grocery store in Erie, PA and living with his daughter’s family. Besides being a carpenter and storekeeper he also was a bartender and innkeeper in his lifetime.

The place was designated as a saloon in 1898 (Johnsonburg Sanborn Maps) and further documentation shows George Spuller ran the Market Street Restaurant there for sure 1900-1903. It is noted in the July 21, 1891 edition of the Bradford Era that Mr. Spuller is having the finishing touches put on his two-story building which has an iron front (as described in the Johnsonburg Sanborn Maps). By 1905 he and family were in Niagara Falls, NY. In 1904 it is a saloon and in 1909 a saloon/restaurant and in 1916 and 1919 its designation was “office space.” (Johnsonburg Sanborn Maps). Research shows Martin McAllen, who would run the City Hotel on Centre Street, also occupied the building at one time and that Alva H. Gregory, publisher of the Johnsonburg Press, had a what-not shop in the structure at some time.

In June 1913 the rooms above the Johnsonburg Opera House were renovated for the Freemasons. The Elks Club had recently occupied the space. On November 10, 1913 the James W. Brown #675 Free and Accepted Masonic Lodge is constituted with 80 members. James W. Brown of Pittsburgh, who died in 1909, was President of Colonial Steel, a congressman (1903-1905) and a Right Worshipful Past Grand Master of the Masons. It is assumed the lodge is named in his honor.

Sometime prior to his death in 1910 Meylert M. Armstrong, paper mill owner, purchased the 514 Market Street property. It is he who likely turned the premises into office space as the Armstrong’s were known to be anti-alcohol and did not allow it on the Brick Block, which they owned through the Armstrong Realty and Land Company. In 1920 the James W. Brown Masonic Lodge bought the building from the estate of Meylert M. Armstrong but they did not occupy the premises until 1928! The building was commonly called the Acacia Club in those early days.

The Acacia tree or Acacia sprig is a symbol in Freemasonry designating “immortality of the soul.” In 1904 Freemason students at the University of Michigan organized the Acacia Fraternity for Master Masons of high moral character. This “men only” fraternal organization was apparently adopted by many Masonic Lodges across the United States. Being a Master Mason is no longer a prerequisite.

Freemasons are not a “secret society, but a society of secrets”, they have many rituals, symbols, and orders that are only known to its members. A Mason was once popularly known as a “Traveling Man,” because in ancient Europe only a Mason was permitted to travel freely from town to town, going to and from worksites. Today, the “Traveling Man” connotation means a Mason’s journey from darkness to light.

The Order of the Eastern Star Chapter #36 was constituted in Johnsonburg on June 20, 1905. The ladies’ meetings were held twice a month, first on the third floor of the W.S. Service Hardware Store (at the site of the current Cherry Square Mall), then at the Odd Fellows building (current Senior Center), after that at the Moose Club, and eventually, once the Freemasons opened up the lodge, at 514 Market Street.

The Order used the top floor and the basement kitchen extensively in the Acacia Club until 1985 when due to financial difficulties of the Masons the top floor was renovated for their meeting purposes and the first floor space rented out. Three new platforms for the Mason’s work were installed and new carpeting and paint added.

Many factors caused the demise of membership and eventual sale of the James W. Brown Masonic Building, the major reason being that Fraternal organizations no longer have the draw they once did, society has changed, the Internet, television, streaming, cell phones etc. have replaced the social interaction people once only satisfied themselves with at a club. Fraternal organizations, by their strict membership requirements, ostracized many portions of the population; America is more diverse, co-mingled, educated, and mobile than it was in the late 1800’s and 1900’s. Joining a club no longer provides the upward social mobility or comradery it once did.

It is wonderful to see 514 Market Street come to life and many thanks to the new owners and entrepreneurs for making it so, from “saloon to salon” in over 130 years, what a historical difference a simple “o” makes.

Kevin “Reg” Barwin
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

Johnsonburg Railroad

JOHNSONBURG RAILROAD

As a Johnsonburg News carrier my route took me from the Press Office to the alley between the Stackpole Building and the Theater to Center Street and then across Bridge Street heading toward the east end of town. I always wondered why the street was called Bridge as there was no bridge on or near the street. Eventually, I discovered that there was once a bridge on Bridge Street, one that did not span water as most bridges tend to do, but one that spanned a railroad track; the track of the Johnsonburg Railroad.

This is the story of that railroad.

On August 14, 1883 the Warren Mail newspaper of Warren, Pennsylvania reported that an organization had been elected to develop a railroad line from Johnsonburg to Clermont to connect with the coal fields in the McKean County area recently purchased by the Buffalo, New York, and Philadelphia Railroad. The new line would also connect at Johnsonburg with the Philadelphia and Erie Railroad. This would preclude having to surmount the current heavy railroad grade between Port Alleghany and Emporium. Coal was a most valuable commodity from the early 1800’s well into the late 1900’s; industries powered their plants with coal, people heated their homes with coal, and the railroads especially needed coal to operate their vast fleet of steam engines. Transporting coal to where it was needed was a very profitable business if a company could get it to its destination quickly and cheaply.

The Johnsonburg and Clermont Railroad was incorporated in November 1883 with a $200,000 capitalization, James H. Haggerty, President. Directors; D. D. Cook III, A. Parsons, F. W. Morgan, S.A. Rote, A. Thompson, James Penfield. The offices were at Ridgway, Pennsylvania.

James H.. Hagerty was a well-respected Ridgway merchant who dabbled in lumber, general stores, and shoe sales. He was a longtime Postmaster at Ridgway.

Little is known about Daniel D. Cook III except his first name, that he was a resident of Elk County in the 1890’s, and his daughter married a druggist from Williamsport in 1890.

Henry A. Parsons was a Ridgway, Pennsylvania newspaper editor and printer in the 1880’s and acted as St. Marys, Pennsylvania postmaster from 1889-1893. Later he was in the insurance business in St. Marys and ended his career as an employee with a collection agency in Erie, Pennsylvania in 1920.

Nothing is known of F.W. Morgan.

Samuel A. Rote was born in Lancaster, Pennsylvania in 1848. He spent most of his life as a bookkeeper for the Elk County Tannery Company.

Albert Thompson may have been a dentist or a doctor.

James Penfield was born in England in 1844. He was a Civil War veteran who lived in Ridgway, Pennsylvania most of his life and worked as a bookkeeper and a water route collector. He was assistant postmaster of Ridgway in 1880.

Although these gentlemen had the foresight to visualize the need for a railroad from Johnsonburg to Clermont they apparently did not have the necessary expertise, money, or political pull to get the railroad built. Their efforts fell by the railroad tracks.

Four years later on March 12, 1887 a charter was granted at $300,000 to an organization in Philadelphia for a Johnsonburg-Clermont Railroad. President of the Corporation was J. N. Dubarry of Philadelphia. Directors of the Company were John P. Green, Edmund (Edward) Smith, J. Price Wetherill and others of Philadelphia, Wistar Morris, N.P. Shortledge, Henry I. Welsh.

J. N. DuBarry was a Civil War veteran born in 1830 and trained as a civil engineer. He was a longtime assistant to the superintendent of the Pennsylvania Railroad and a President of many small railroads throughout his career. He died in 1892.

Nothing is known of John P. Green.

Nothing certain is known of Edmund Smith.

John Price Wetherill was a wealthy Philadelphia businessman who was a director of the American Steamship Company and the Pennsylvania Railroad from 1874 to 1888. The Wetherill family were investors with the Armstrong brothers in the Johnsonburg Paper Mill.

Wister Morris was a member of one of the most prominent Quaker Philadelphia families and the founder of Morris, Tasker & Company. He was a director of the Pennsylvania Railroad, President of the Board of the Pennsylvania Hospital, and trustee of Haverford College. An extremely wealthy gentleman he owned the Greenhill Estates mansion and grounds and many other properties in the Philadelphia and Lower Marion area.

Nothing is known of Mr. Shortledge.

Nothing is known of Henry I. Welsh.

As you can read the second Johnsonburg Railroad Charter had backers who were wealthy, well-connected, and had some extensive railroad expertise. They would succeed in their efforts to build the Johnsonburg Railroad.

On November 17, 1887 the charter was increased from $300,000 to $420,000 and mileage of the railroad increased to 42 miles from the original 18. The railroad was to link to the Buffalo, Rochester, and Pittsburg Railroad.

In late February 1888 Charles and Robert Cassidy, George Riddle, and George Black, all of Big Shanty, Pennsylvania reported they were at work on the making of the Johnsonburg Railroad. A month later Charles Webster was making a survey of the anticipated railroad and stated he did not know when the railroad would be built but that it would be built.

On June 29, 1888 in Philadelphia the Johnsonburg Railroad charter was revised to $300,000 for 18.4 miles from Johnsonburg, Pennsylvania to Clermont, Pennsylvania.

Work began on the Johnsonburg Railroad on July 10, 1888 from Johnsonburg to Glen Hazel, to Straight, to Clermont. It is anticipated that the clearing of the road and the laying of ties will take 90 days. When completed it will be the shortest railroad line to the McKean County coal region. The Western New York and Pennsylvania Railroad will build it.

By December 1888 it was reported that the Johnsonburg Railroad is proceeding slowly and will not open to traffic until January. Late in December 25,000 railroad ties were purchased and delivered for the railroad.

In April 1889 it was reported that the Johnsonburg Railroad track is complete and will be open May 15 or June 1. The new road will shorten the trip to Buffalo by 40 miles and the coal and lumber business will have better access.

All was not a walk in the park in building the railroad; Hungarian and Italian crews working on finishing the road had quite a melee on July 1, 1889. One worker was shot above the eye and killed while seven others were badly injured.

On July 12, 1889 the Johnsonburg Railroad opened for business under Superintendent Roberts. It is leased for use by the Pennsylvania Railroad. By August over 2,000 tons of coal are passed over the Johnsonburg Railroad daily. Very soon it is expected over a million tons a year will be transported.

Why did the Pennsylvania Railroad lease the Johnsonburg Railroad? Why didn’t the Pennsylvania Railroad just build or buy the Johnsonburg Railroad itself? Leases for short line railroads like the Johnsonburg Railroad were very popular after the Civil War for several reasons. In this case the building and owning of the Johnsonburg Railroad would have increased the debt on the Pennsylvania Railroad’s books, leases did not have to be shown as liabilities on the railroad’s financial reports. Additionally, leases did not require shareholder approval as did purchases and building new rail lines did. Lastly, additional stock would have to be sold to raise money for the building of a new road which would dilute current stockholders shares of Pennsylvania Railroad stock. It is interesting to note that at least a couple of the initial directors of the Johnsonburg Railroad were also directors of the Pennsylvania Railroad. It is also interesting to note that the directors of the Johnsonburg Railroad had the road constructed by the Western New York and Pennsylvania Railroad, a competitor of the Pennsylvania Railroad. This was likely done by the Johnsonburg Railroad board of directors to eliminate any perceived undue or anti-trust connection of its directors to the Pennsylvania Railroad board of directors.

The first stop on the Johnsonburg Railroad is Glen Hazel or “New Flanders” which is booming with oil and timber business. In 1888 Benjamin F. Hazelton built a sawmill at New Flanders, renamed “Glen Hazel” after himself, and had a three-mile railroad built to lumber logs from Johnson Run. Around this time several oil wells were struck in the area but the most massive strike will not occur until 1894. Also, there were four of eventually five chemical plants being constructed at the time of the railroad building that were within two miles of Glen Hazel. These chemical plants used the hardwoods in the area to make various acids, acetone, wood alcohol, and charcoal. They all had small logging crews, railroads, and sawmills.

On November 15, 1889 in Philadelphia, the Johnsonburg Railroad Company elects its new officers: President J. Bayard Henry, Directors: James Bayard, George B. Bonnell, Charles T. Evans, Edgar D. Tares, John J. Henry, and Edward D. Toland. Who were theses gentlemen and why did the board of directors change so drastically? Around 1882 the Henry, Bayard & Company of Philadelphia bought the Rolfe, Pennsylvania sawmill and surrounding timber lands from the Rolfe family. Their business model was to log and saw hemlock planks for sale and sell the hemlock bark to the Wilcox and Kistler (Johnsonburg) tanneries. The Henry and Bayard families were related by marriages and were involved in construction and grocery businesses in Philadelphia. Eventually, they purchased most of the property around Johnsonburg and Wilcox and up the Clarion River to Instanter and Straight. In the 1880’s and early 1900’s they owned 10 sawmills in the area including Whistletown, Daguscahonda, Rocky Run, Instanter, Straight, Quinnwood, Rolfe, Berrgonot, Wilcox, and Burning Well. They did not cut the lumber themselves but jobbed it out. One of their lumber jobbers was George Bowley whose descendants still reside in Johnsonburg. Obviously, with the Johnsonburg Railroad running from Johnsonburg to Instanter, Straight, and Clermont and through or by their lands they purchased controlling shares of the Johnsonburg Railroad for the Henry, Bayard & Company’s benefit.

from the collection of Arthur Martin *Vintage Photo - Straight, Pa. - about 1910*

On April 12, 1890 the Pennsylvania Railroad purchased 1,500 shares of Johnsonburg Railroad stock for $101,000. Three days later new Johnsonburg Railroad officers were elected: J. Bayard Henry, President, J.N. DuBarry, Henry D. Welsh, C.H. Allen, Wistar Morris, Charles W. Henry, and N. Thouron. It seems now that the recent stock purchase had the effect of merging the original board of directors of the Johnsonburg Railroad with the Henry, Bayard Company interests in the road.

The original Johnsonburg Railroad schedule was as follows: North-Leave Johnsonburg 7:30 a.m., Glen Hazel 8:00 a.m., Straight 8:25 a.m., Instanter 8:35 a.m., Smith’s Run 8:55 a.m., Woodvale 9:15 a.m., Clermont 9:30 a.m. South-Leave Clermont 1:15 p.m., Woodvale 1:26 p.m., Smith’s Run 1:46 p.m., Instanter 2:02 p.m., Straight 2:12 p.m., Glen Hazel 2:35 p.m., Johnsonburg 3:10 p.m. Everyday except Sunday, passenger price, two cents a mile.

In February 1891 a new schedule was introduced, the train leaving Johnsonburg at 9:55 a.m. and arriving in Clermont at 10:35 a.m. returning from Clermont at 10:55 a.m. and arriving in Johnsonburg at 11:40 a.m.

On March 27, 1891 it is reported that over 1,000 barrels of oil are being shipped on the Johnsonburg Railroad daily.

Throughout its short history the Johnsonburg Railroad appeared to be well-maintained and unlike other larger rail lines did not suffer many accidents or deaths. On September 18, 1891 Laura Steinhauser 80, of Clermont dies at Instanter. She had been visiting her sister that morning a mile from Instanter and was walking on Schemmelfing’s log railroad when a log car came. She got off the tracks but a log stuck out and hit her on the head. On December 17, 1896 an unknown man was struck and killed by a Johnsonburg Railroad train near Bendigo. On July 31, 1914 a freight car derailed at Glen Hazel causing a two hour delay. No other incidents of Johnsonburg Railroad calamities have been found.

The Johnsonburg Railroad reported in January 1892 that more rail cars were on order. The cars cost between $8,000 to $10,000 and at the fare rate of three cents a mile the railroad is doing enough business that the cars will be paid off in three years. The Johnsonburg Railroad was a booming success.

The economic downturn in the Panic of 1893 causes a shortage of business for the Johnsonburg Railroad; no-one is purchasing building lumber and wood chemical sales are down. The Johnsonburg Paper Mill and surrounding tanneries and sawmills are on short hours. No one seems to have any money. The Henry, Bayard & Company informs its jobbers that they cannot purchase any more lumber as nobody is buying. At Straight, the Quinn Company, a jobber, sawmill, kindling factory, and chemical plant concern gets its employees together and tells them that the Henry, Bayard & Company has made a deal with the Quinn’s that if they keep working the Henry, Bayard & Company will provide the Quinn’s with groceries and other supplies and cover employee medical needs during the downturn. The Quinn’s will issue company store script for wages that can be redeemed for cash in the future. The plan works and Straight is saved! It also helps the Johnsonburg Railroad as the groceries and supplies must be shipped and the railroad and other business entities accept the script. Quinn stockpiled its lumber and wood chemical products and when the depression ended the company honored all outstanding script and paid in full what it owed the Henry, Bayard & Company.

To make matters worse there is a great national coal strike starting in May 1894. All Johnsonburg-Clermont engines and other engines in the coal region are sent to the roundhouse in Kane, Pennsylvania to be guarded against the angry strikers. There is no railroad business. By June the coal owners are employing negroes from the deep south to break the strike. Two hundred are said to be heading for Johnsonburg. On June 23, 1894 180 negroes from Binghamton, Alabama arrive in Johnsonburg to work the local mines and McKean County coal fields. They will work at the .60 cent rate. They are armed with guns, knives, and revolvers to defend themselves. Wages had been cut during the Panic of 1893 and again in 1894 causing labor unrest and the strike. The United Mine Workers strike was successful at first but the coal owners held fast and by the end of June 1894 coal minors began to trickle back to work faced with poverty and scab labor. The United Mine Workers Union went defunct and would not be a force until John L. Lewis took it over a quarter of a century later. By November all coal mines were back to work full force and 22,300 cars of shipped coal travelled over the Johnsonburg Railroad in a month. The mines could not keep up with the coal orders.

The Johnsonburg Railroad announces in January 1895 that it will now travel from Ridgway to Clermont. The Ridgway to Johnsonburg trip will be on Pennsylvania Railroad tracks.

In May 1896, due to new logging in the area, there will now be a stop at Bendigo.

The Johnsonburg Railroad passenger train is identified as train 219 in 1897. Whether or not this has anything to do with the Route 219 roadway is unknown.

On April 9, 1900 it is announced that the stockholders meeting of the Johnsonburg Railroad was held at the Broad Street Station in Philadelphia and that J. Bayard Henry was elected President and J.S. Van Zandt, secretary-treasurer.

Johnsonburg circa 1905

This photograph shows Johnsonburg as seen from the B. R. & P. Railroad. The view is looking generally south with the stacks of wood for the pulp mill on the left and the pulp conveyor system running left to right into the N. Y. and Penn. Paper Mill.

In the lower right portion of the photo are several company houses for the Rolfe Tannery and the steel truss bridge over the Clarion River along current Business Route 219.

-taken from Elk County, A Journey Through Time on Facebook

Around 1909 the wooden bridge over the Johnsonburg Railroad tracks on Bridge Street is changed to iron.

More business is ensured for the Johnsonburg Railroad in February 1910 as it is decided by those concerned that coal from Reynoldsville will now travel over the Johnsonburg Railroad to Clermont to Olean and onto Buffalo. The previous coal route went through Driftwood but the Johnsonburg grade is lower and the new route will be shorter and quicker.

B.E. Wellendorf, 66, civil engineer, died in St. Marys, Pennsylvania on May 11, 1910. His company, Miller and Wellendorf, constructed the Johnsonburg Railroad. Mr. Wellendorf was married to Julia Hall, sister to Senator Hall and Judge Hall of Hall & Kaul. He built several other railroads in Pennsylvania and New York State. B.E. was a wealthy man who was retired and lived at the Franklin House. Due to circulation problems in his later years he had his legs amputated and got around in a wheeled chair.

In November 1914 J.H. Neid of Erie made his headquarters in Johnsonburg while auditing the Johnsonburg Railroad stations from Ridgway to Clermont.

A news article from March 3, 1916 reveals the entanglements of the railroads of the era; the Pennsylvania Railroad now owns 75% of the Johnsonburg Railroad stock, the other 25% is owned by the Buffalo Coal Company, a subsidiary of the Western New York and Pennsylvania Railroad. (The Western New York and Pennsylvania Railroad was incorporated in 1887 and ran from Emporium to Olean, Hinsdale, Cuba, Belfast, and Rochester. It did not earn enough revenue from 1895-1899 to pay its bondholders and the Pennsylvania Railroad bought controlling stock in the company in 1900. So, in essence, by 1916 the Pennsylvania Railroad controlled 100% of the Johnsonburg Railroad, leasing the railroad from itself.)

On June 28 and again on August 15, 1917 massive rains flood Johnsonburg and especially the Flats and Centre Street as the iron bridge on Bridge Street acts as a funnel for water coming off the avenues. The Johnsonburg Railroad tracks are closed due to debris and water damage and are not opened until late afternoon.

Henry, Bayard & Company began selling off deforested lots in Rolfe around 1892. Lumbering in Rolfe continued under the company until 1904 when the sawmill was dismantled. The Instanter sawmill had closed in 1902. With the exception of Straight which had a few years left all the Henry, Bayard & Company sawmills were closed and the Company began to look elsewhere in the Country for its wood. In February 1905 the Armstrong Forest Company (Paper Mill) buys land in McKean and Elk Counties from the Henry, Bayard & Company and also purchases from the company the Rolfe Railroad. The mill will begin to harvest the hardwood trees in Big and Little Mill Creeks and Birch Hollow for the production of paper. The closing of the sawmills at Glen Hazel, Quinnwood, Berrgonot, and Instanter reduces lumber and bark traffic on the Johnsonburg Railroad. In 1923 the Quinn’s finished logging all the hemlock and closed their chemical plant in Straight and moved to Glenfield, New York. With most of McKean and Elk County lumbered out the Quinn’s needed new forests for their wood products. The Straight chemical plant was the last in the area to close. With the McKean County coal fields also mostly tapped out and the Glen Hazel oil wells dry, the once extensive freight business of coal, oil, lumber, bark, and wood chemicals that supported the Johnsonburg Railroad was virtually nil. The T. H. Quinn company and the Elk Tanning Company had been providing 95% of the Johnsonburg Railroad freight. Now that these companies were dismantling the books of account were all in red ink.

At the beginning of 1927 the Johnsonburg Railroad ceased its passenger service and only ran freight trains two or three times a week. In reading local papers of the times it is quite amazing the large amount of traffic from the Olean, Clermont, and Smethport Area that once came to Johnsonburg on the Johnsonburg Railroad to visit, shop at the impressive “Brick Block” and to take in entertainment at the Armstrong Opera House. McKean County papers went so far as to chastise its residents for travelling to Johnsonburg instead of spending their money in McKean County. Many families came from that area to settle in Johnsonburg; Johnsonburg cigar store entrepreneur John Mann brought his future wife from Clermont and the Duffy family came from Olean, to name a couple

On April 18, 1927 the Johnsonburg Railroad filed for abandonment of its 18.4 mile railroad with the Interstate Commerce Commission in Washington D.C. There were no reported objections.

On August 22, 1927 the Interstate Commerce Commission approved the abandonment.

On March 28, 1928 the Johnsonburg Railroad sold land it had owned in Sergeant Township to the Manor Real Estate Company for $1.The President of the Manor Real Estate Company was none other than J. Henry Bayard.

On June 11, 1931 the Johnsonburg Railroad sold land in Sergeant Township to the Western New York and Pennsylvania Railroad for $60.

On August 15, 1932 the Johnsonburg Railroad Corporation is officially dissolved.

The last known activity of the Johnsonburg Railroad occurred on September 16, 1933 when contractors pulled up the last Johnsonburg Railroad track and ties and left town. It was an end of an intriguing era.

NOTES

There are many mysteries surrounding the Johnsonburg Railroad. Newspaper advertisements of the day regarding scheduling and railway fares note that J. B. Hutchinson was the Johnsonburg Railroad’s General Manager and that J. R. Wood was the General Passenger Agent, yet I could find no evidence in the genealogy files that any such persons existed. Likewise with Johnsonburg Railroad Superintendents Roberts and S.A. Hart. Only Van Ebert, Johnsonburg Railroad Trainmaster, who resided in Ridgway and then in Kane, was uncovered. Van Ebert was a longtime Pennsylvania Railroad employee who started out in Renovo.

A further mystery is where did passengers buy tickets and board the train in Johnsonburg? There is no station noted on any Johnsonburg maps of the era. The train intersected with the Pennsylvania Railroad just across East Center Street from the “Piano Box.” It went across East Center Street behind what would be Smith Lumber, Smith Motors, and the Johnsonburg Hotel. The train then proceeded under the Bridge Street bridge to a gully along the east side of Center Street and turned northeast through what would eventually be the current United States Post Office, crossing at the intersection of Cobb and Market Street and heading to Bendigo on what would become the Glen Hazel Road. The natural embarking and debarking spot would seem to be somewhere around Cobb and Market. Who knows?

In an 1895 map of Johnsonburg there is a wooden? stairway over the Johnsonburg Railroad tracks on Centre Street about halfway down the street. Although the train was in a gully on Centre Street the walkway must have been quite tall.

No resident from Johnsonburg ever seemed to be involved in the ownership or management of the Johnsonburg Railroad. The “Robber Barons” of Philadelphia with the exception of the Armstrong family only took and hardly ever gave back. They denuded the mighty forest of Hemlock, stripped the coal mines leaving the water putrid, dumped the refuse of the wood chemicals on the ground so that even today the water from the East Branch Dam is suspect, and spoiled the Clarion River with its tanneries discharge. When the Barons reaped their profits and could glean no more from the land they closed their tanneries, logging operations, sawmills, chemical factories, and railroads, never to be heard from again in Johnsonburg except in stories like this.

Kevin “Reg” Barwin

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

Whose Brick is it Anyway?

Charles E. Hathaway, after apprenticing under David Purington of Somerset, Massachusetts, decided at age 18 to go into the pottery business for himself. In that year of 1871 there existed a large market in New England for earthen ware, stoneware, flower pots, tile, and electrical insulators made from clay and Charles enjoyed a reputation as a first-class potter. Charles, and eventually his son, Howard, became very astute at the kiln firing process of their products and the type of clay required to make the best pottery. While their creations lacked flair they were generally practical and, useful, and long-lasting.

In 1888 Meylert and Lewis Armstrong, paper-making brothers of Lock Haven and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, incorporated the Clarion Pulp and Paper Company with the intention of erecting a paper mill in Johnsonburg, Pennsylvania. In Johnsonburg they had the perfect situation, railroad access to ship their paper, plenty of water needed for the paper-making process, gushing gas wells, and access to thousands of acres of timber for the necessary raw material. They also noticed that under the topsoil of the region lay vast deposits of clay that as the community’s roads were being built was being used to make sun-baked bricks for house building purposes. (At the location of the current Community Center property).

At Lock Haven the brothers had experienced the devastation of fire on their wooden paper factory that had almost ruined their business and it followed that if they could obtain enough bricks the brothers could build a Johnsonburg paper mill nearly impervious to flame. But the little sun dried brick works on Market Street could not possibly produce enough blocks to sustain an ambitious construction schedule. So the Armstrong’s turned to friends in Boston, Massachusetts and the Somerset Pottery Company, under the leadership of Charles E. Hathaway, and the financing of Arnold Borden Sanford, wealthy cotton merchant, became the Somerset and Johnsonburg Manufacturing Company, specializing in bricks.

Quickly, with the oversight of Hathaway, kilns were erected in the Glen Mayo section of Johnsonburg, gas wells were dug to fire the bricks, and clay extracted from the surrounding hills and valley. Building bricks were formed and fired and within a year the Clarion Mill and the Highland Mill stood almost fireproof and brick-strong along the banks of the Clarion River. In 1897 the new Sulphite Mill would be added. At its peak the Somerset and Johnsonburg factories could produce 20,000,000 building bricks a year. In addition, the plants turned out paving brick, enameled brick, fireproof brick, furnace linings, and terra cotta water pipes and tiles. The brick works seemed to be a rousing success story.

But soon nearby competitors began to appear; the Ridgway Press Brick Company (1897), the Shawmut Brick Company (1897), and the Jamestown Shale Paving Company (1890), and the local brick market tightened. Also, several calamities befell the Company, 100 tons of clay belonging to Somerset and Johnsonburg sank in the Providence, Rhode Island harbor in October 1894, Charles E. Hathaway resigned in 1893 as president taking his expertise with him, and many other brick companies entered the field in New England. With the great brickbuilding projects in Johnsonburg completed and sales plummeting, the company went defunct in 1898. Arnold B. Sanford, who had financed the venture, filed for bankruptcy. He listed over $300,000 in liabilities, including $61,000 of notes he had endorsed to keep the Somerset and Johnsonburg Manufacturing Company afloat. His largest creditors were banks in Boston, New Bedford, and Falls River, MA. As collateral, he had provided bonds of the Somerset and Johnsonburg Manufacturing Company, now of questionable value. His assets were listed as furniture of $250.

The aforementioned New England banks were not keen on owning a brick factory in the boondocks of Northwestern Pennsylvania; they were used to financing the numerous textile mills in their area, so they enticed financier E. H. Milliken, President of the Boston Engraving Company, to reorganize the Somerset and Johnsonburg Manufacturing Company. In March 1898 the company was organized as the Johnsonburg Vitrified Brick Company in Portland, Maine; E. H. Milliken, President. They hired Alfred Yates as its general manager.

Yates, born in Great Malvern, England in 1855, came to America as a teenager and eventually engaged in the manufacture of common brick in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He moved to Johnsonburg to operate the factory and the Johnsonburg Vitrified Brick Company began to flourish.

The Johnsonburg Vitrified Brick Company made headway in the brick industry for several reasons; the neighboring clay was perfect containing the right amounts of silica (sand), alumina (clay), lime, iron oxide, and magnesia, cities and towns were anxious to get out of the mud filled streets, and Alfred Yates kilns, patented in 1899, made the production of road pavers more efficient. The Johnsonburg Vitrified Brick Company road pavers were wanted everywhere. Pavers marked “Johnsonburg Pavers” laid over six inches of concrete on top of sand covered the streets of Baltimore, Maryland and Brooklyn, New York while other red-colored “Johnsonburg Pavers,” placed on shale and sand lined the byways of rural communities. Although asphalt paving began in 1889 the asphalt process remained expensive in its infancy and paving brick was stronger and more durable. Ice, snow, and rain had little effect on the non-porous pavers. Water ran off them like a seal’s skin. Wagon wheels lined with iron and shod horses made little dent in the indestructible blocks.

However, Alfred did not stay long with the new Johnsonburg Company, moving on to the Shawmut, Pennsylvania Brick Company in 1904 taking with him his new patent, the Downdraft Continuous Brick Kiln, and the cream colored “Shawmut” brick became famous across the eastern United States as the strongest and lightest brick made to that time.

In the same year the Johnsonburg Vitrified Brick Company changed hands becoming the property of Edward D. Emerson. Emerson had made his fortune in hardware sales and soda water manufacturing in Boston, Massachusetts. It is not known if the new ownership caused Alfred Yates to change companies. The Yates family resided in Clarion Heights near the factory while he worked in Johnsonburg. The Johnsonburg Vitrified Brick Company was locally known as the “Heights Brick Works” during its existence.

Henry Hasbrouck came from the Kirkville Brick Company of Auburn, New York to Johnsonburg to replace Alfred Yates as general manager of the Johnsonburg Vitrified Brick Company and his motto was “Make brick, make them well, and burn them thoroughly.” In 1909, owing to a large amount of spring business and low stock the Johnsonburg Vitrified Brick Company began seasonal operations on March 15th, operating at full capacity. Hasbrouck left the Company that spring to be replaced by L. I. Foster. The following year Kendrick J. Lucius took over as plant superintendent. Unfortunately, the advent of automobiles requiring smoother roadways, the ever decreasing costs of asphalt, and the invention of the Tarmac road paving process “tar and chip” by Edgar Purnell Hooley in 1901, took its toll on the paver business and in 1910 the Johnsonburg Vitrified Brick Company fell dormant.

Johnsonburg brick laborers were not out of work long when in 1910 Sherwood C. Martin and Roswell G. Yingling, with $100,000 in capital, opened the Yingling-Martin Brick Works, originally the Pfotenhhauer-Nesbit Company of New York, at the east end of Johnsonburg. Although the company did make pavers, their specialized product was a building brick of different decorative colorful hues marked with a “YS” and marketed as Promenade and Artbrique. The old red-faced monotonous brick buildings were now a faint memory. Brick faces now shone in various rough-textured tints of mixed red, green, blue and purple. The Yingling-Martin building brick works was off and running.

Roswell Gardner Yingling, born in West Freedom, Pennsylvania around 1853, had the most curious route to brickmaker as anyone who ever molded a block. He graduated from West Freedom Academy as a teacher and taught in McKean and Clarion County Schools. Furthering his education at Edinboro State Normal School (now Edinboro University) in Edinboro, Pennsylvania and the National University of Lebanon, Ohio he soon landed a professor position at the Carrier Seminary Methodist School in Clarion, Pennsylvania. In 1886, through his efforts, the Carrier School was sold and became the Clarion State Normal School (now Clarion University). Since its inception he was stockholder, teacher, business manager, and trustee at the school at least until 1913. He moved to Wilkensburg, Pennsylvania in 1902.

His partner in the Yingling-Martin Brick Works, Sherwood Christy Martin, born in 1857 in Perry, Clarion County began his career working in a grist mill in Richland, Pennsylvania in Lebanon County. By 1884 Sherwood had moved to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania where he took a position as a bookkeeper. In 1892 he organized the manufacture of “Kittanning Brick” and by 1893 Martin co-owned the Buente-Martin stone cutting and building works of Pittsburgh with Rose Buente. In 1895 he organized the Martin Brick Works for the purpose of the distribution of bricks. This type of company was not uncommon in those days as many brickmaking companies used middlemen to sell and distribute their bricks. The G. R. Twichell & Company, G. R. Twichell, President, of Boston sold bricks for the Johnsonburg Vitrified Brick Company, the Shawmut Brick Company, and the Ridgway Press Brick Company throughout the New England states. Martin and Alfred Yates were well-respected in their field, both on occasion addressing the National Brick Manufacturing Association on brick-making, production, firing efficiency, and product tariffs and taxes.

Roswell G. Yingling and Sherwood C. Martin traded off the Presidency of the Yingling-Martin Brick Works until Yingling’s death in 1922. He was honored by an obituary tribute in the Brick and Clay Record, a prominent brick manufacturer magazine of the era.

Sometime in the 1920’s the Yingling-Martin Brick Works ceased production but reopened in 1928 with new machinery and a conveyor line that would bring new found superior clay from Dill Hill to the plant. However, the stock market crash of 1929 and the subsequent Great Depression soon left the kilns cold and closed forever.

Sherwood C. Martin died in 1932 and his obituary notes only that he was the current President of the Kittanning Brick Company.

The Johnsonburg Vitrified Brick Company suffered a similar fate. In 1914 after four years of inactivity, the A. N. Broadhead Company, Almet Norval Broadhead, President, of Jamestown, New York purchased the factory from Emerson and Gray of Boston, and resumed operations on and off until at least 1930. In 1916 it was rumored the plant was to become a munitions factory but nothing ever came of that plan. Almet Broadhead’s father made a fortune in Jamestown, organizing the Jamestown Worsted Textile Mill, and Almet followed suit by making his own fortune with his brick paving entity, the Jamestown Shale Paving Company. Ironically, considering most of Jamestown had once been paved with its bricks, the Company refused in later years to pay its assessment for asphalting the streets bordering the Company’s premises. The Johnsonburg Vitrified Brick Company went out of business permanently during the Great Depression.

“Johnsonburg, PA” bricks, “Johnsonburg Pavers” and “YS” bricks are collectors’ items now and old postcards depicting the Johnsonburg Vitrified Brick Works and the Yingling-Martin Brick Works can be located on the Internet but the Companies efforts at sustaining viability were apparently just “a few bricks shy of a whole load.”

NOTES:

Charles Hathaway, after he left the Somerset and Johnsonburg Manufacturing employ, let his son, Howard, operate the Hathaway Pottery. Charles turned to cultivating and selling fruit in Somerset, MA, a successful venture he ran until his death in 1944.

Arnold Borden Sanford, the former wealthy cotton merchant and one-time owner of the famous Sanford Spinning Mill, did not die destitute. Although he resided alone in boarding houses while he worked as a textile mill manager he married late in life and worked in the textile industry until his death.

Alfred Yates, the brilliant kiln’s man, stuck with the Shawmut Brick Company acting as its president until his death on his estate, the Homestead Farm, near Bedford MA in 1918. Before coming to Johnsonburg he partnered with G. R. Twichell until June 1897 when he dissolved the partnership leaving G. R. with all liabilities and accounts payable by mutual consent. Alfred later used Twichell to advertise and sell his Shawmut bricks. Interestingly, he assigned both his patents to his wife, Jessie, and in 1910 she sued the Johnsonburg Vitrified Brick Works for non-payment of a debt owed to her of $500 per kiln agreed upon when Alfred left their employ. On appeal she won the case. Alfred’s son, Ernest Stuart Yates, who worked for his father for many years, married Arabella Ward and they had a son, Sydney Ward Yates. Arabella and son did not leave the Johnsonburg area when father-in-law Alfred and husband Ernest did in 1904. Arabella and young Sydney, born in 1904, instead resided with her parents John and Annie Ward, owners of the Ward dairy farm, on the old Wilcox Road in Wardvale. (Possibly the Shaffer Farm). The Wardvale Cemetery in Johnsonburg is probably the namesake of John and Annie Ward. Arabella and Ernest Yates likely divorced as he remarried. The son of Sydney Ward Yates, Sydney Yates, was once Johnsonburg Borough Manager, 1970-71.

Philip Crotzer, age 20, and Ed Hegland, age 15, lived with the Ward family and were dairy farm laborers in 1910.

The Shawmut Brick Company was later owned by the Shawmut Mining Company. The name Shawmut Brick Company is still registered as active in New York State with jurisdiction in Pennsylvania. It is listed as a foreign business corporation with its address as 1110 Prudential Bdlg, Buffalo, NY.

E. H. Milliken spent his early years clerking at his father’s Pine Cottage boarding house in Old Orchard, Maine. His first name was Edson.

Roswell G. Yingling and Sherwood C. Martin, unlikely partners, were likely connected through relatives; Martin’s mother was Elisabeth Yingling.

Presently, on the site of the former Yingling-Martin Brick Works, is “The Old Brickyard”, a combination trucking company, Subway, and convenience store.

Bricks are on loan from another local historian and JAHS alumni, Allen Terry Fitch

Kevin (Reg) Barwin

2015

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

Volunteering and Bringing Back a Historic Building in Johnsonburg's Commercial Historic District

photo credit sld

While recently researching Johnsonburg's history and heritage I read a beautiful rendition about our landscape.  Taken from the History of Elk County

A correspondent of the Erie Observer, visiting this place in September, 1887, tells the story of its modern progress. He writes: "Perhaps the finest mountain scenery in the State, and certainly the least known to tourists, is found in the Elk mountain region near Johnsonburg. To see the grandest part of the Elk mountains, one should take a carriage or horse from the Johnsonburg hotel and follow the excellent driveway to Rolfe, one mile, and continue to Wilcox, six miles distant. Striking peaks, sharp and glittering as the Matterhorn, surround one on all sides. Crystal streams flow through every valley, and the fair Clarion river supplies immense water-power for innumerable manufacturing plants. No lover of the grand or beautiful in nature should fail to take a drive through and around Johnsonburg. What is known as the Rocks is a wonderful piece of God's masonry. Solid ice may be broken off from these rocks in July and August. Besides being picturesque, Johnsonburg promises to become the emporium of a great business mart some day. L. C. Horton is the leading merchant and business man of this place. One of the largest tanneries in the United States, and owned by Wilson, Kistler & Co., is situated at Johnsonburg Junction. The monster planing-mill of Henry, Bayard & Co. employs a large number of men. There are several fine hotels. The Johnsonburg hotel, kept by L. C. Horton [now by John Foley], is a favorite place for summer tourists and business people. New buildings are going up daily, and the latest is the Park Opera House and billiard hall, built by Mr. A. Parks, one of our rising business men. Johnsonburg produces her own gas, and her churches and schools are all lighted and heated by gas. There is more freight handled here than in most towns of twice its size."

Postcard of Odd Fellow's Day, circa 1890

The allure of the mountains, rich history and architecture is unmistakable  You can feel it coming from the residents and visitors, the momentum is growing. So much is happening downtown and beyond! 

The photos below are of  this morning's group continuing to expose the brick wall in the Heritage Education Center, as we continue to spare some of the build out expense that is about to begin with hiring contractors.  

photo credit sld

Mayor Kyle Paget, Lauren Pura and Dawn Karellas

photo credit sld

Dawn Karellas 

Me, Kyle, Lauren and Dawn

photo credit Lauren Pura

Our group this morning!  Photo taken by one of our amazing volunteers, Christine Bressler.

More to come!  WE are Johnsonburg!

Johnsonburg Community Trust

www.stephaniedistler.com

*This is a blog post recently shared on stephaniedistler.com