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.