Photo by Brent Addleman

For local author Dennis McGeehan, the ability to take a trip back in time through photography holds special meaning.

By Brent Addleman

Editor

For local author Dennis McGeehan, the ability to take a trip back in time through photography holds special meaning.
The St. Marys native has now written four books in the past four years with the recent release of "Images of America: Johnsonburg."
"I really enjoyed the Johnsonburg book the best of the four I have written," McGeehan said. "It is a very unique town, it is very close knit.
"I am also interested in things like folklore and legends. Johnsonburg is situated at the confluence of two rivers. It's very strategic. The very first guy that settled there had a potato patch. And, literally, like Daniel Boone when he could hear the axe of the nearest neighbor he was too crowded and moved on. It's named after that guy. All he did was start the first hut and moved on."
The book contains 230 vintage photos, according to McGeehan, who is a professor of history at Penn State DuBois and the University of Pittsburgh at Bradford. The focus of the majority of the photographs is the paper mill.
"There are a lot of pictures of the mill changing throughout the years," McGeehan said.
One of the most significant events in the history of the 'Paper City' was the flood that occurred in 1942.
"The big flood of 1942, which still they say is the heaviest single downpour in U.S. history," McGeehan said of the event. "It rained 18 inches in 18 hours. Terrible devastation in Johnsonburg. It actually led to the building of East Branch Dam to prevent flooding in western Pennsylvania."
Through the Army Corp of Engineers, the construction of East Branch Dam is illustrated.
"In the book, we were lucky to have about a dozen photographs the Army Corp of Engineers took when they were building the dam, so they are beautiful, large photographs showing the construction," McGeehan said.
The series of books McGeehan has produced tend to have a special appeal.
"It really appeals to a local market," McGeehan said. "There is nothing else that is on the market that shows [the history.] The historical societies have all these photographs, but nobody ever sees them because people rarely go into the society to look at them. This is a way for the public to access them.
"Constantly, people come up to me and say, 'the one thing I love about your book is  I saw myself in it, I am in one of the pictures."
"It's the change over time," McGeehan said. "I love to take then and now photographs. I imagine what it must have been like to live back then. I tell people that people like history the older they get because they are now part of it."
McGeehan's interest in Johnsonburg goes beyond an interest in history. Part of McGeehan's own history lies in Elk County's oldest settlement.
"I was in the first class at Elk County Christian," McGeehan said. "We had an awful lot of Johnsonburg kids that I became friends with. I still have a lot of Johnsonburg friends. I did Johnsonburg last because it's the smallest of the communities in Elk County. It is the oldest community of the three major communities. It has the most unique industrial history [of the three major communities.]"
The focal point of the book is the paper mill, which for McGeehan is the jewel of the town.
"You look at the mill it is just an amazing...it's like a giant beast," McGeehan said. "When you drive down Glen Hazel Road at night and its all lit up, it looks like you are driving into Pittsburgh in the 1950s."
Other points of interest in the book includes the community center, which has a distinct history of its own.
"[The Johnsonburg Community Center] is such a beautiful building," McGeehan said. "Over the years, it has been the center of life of Johnsonburg."
The cover of the book shows the historic structure on the day it opened. The center was constructed by the New York-Pennsylvania Company, who previously owned the mill, according to McGeehan.
What McGeehan finds most tantalizing about Johnsonburg is how the mill - which is the largest continuous process in the world, according to McGeehan - and the town are one.
"It's amazing how the mill and the town have grown up together," McGeehan said. "There are a lot of pictures in the book that show the town interlocked."
When writing the book, McGeehan enlisted the help of the experts that came in the form of Johnsonburg's long-time residents.
"I really enjoy talking to old people because they have the history," McGeehan said. "At Domtar, their public relations director set me up with three guys. They are brothers and they all worked at the mill for more than 45 years. They are all in their 80s now and they all served in World War II.
"I met with them at the VFW and I had about 40 pictures of the mill and most of them didn't make sense to me. They straightened me out.
"The mill pictures are hard to figure out because they are all at different angles and buildings went up and came down. It was really fun because there was one picture they couldn't figure out. I met with them for a whole afternoon and I went home and put all 40 of these pictures out and compared them. What is exciting is that picture we couldn't figure out, I found another picture and in both pictures I found five buildings that were the same in both pictures. I knew where it was then."