John W. Johnson

As printed in 1910

JOHN W. JOHNSON.

John W. Johnson, a farmer of Oxford township, was born in Delaware county, Indiana, January 23, 1857, and is a son of John M. and Sarah A. (Cree) Johnson. The father was a farmer in that state and was accounted a successful man, although, he had a very hard life for his parents died of the cholera when he was but two years of age and he was early compelled to make his own way in the world. He did not even have the advantage of a good education, in fact he received scarcely any, and yet he pushed ahead, making the best use of the gifts nature bestowed upon him and the opportunities that came his way. In 1859 he moved his family to Illinois, locating in Oxford township, Henry county. Here he continued to follow agricultural pursuits with success and profit, and also engaged in threshing, owning a machine which he took to various farms in his vicinity. Although he had almost no education he was very quick at figures, could calculate interest in his head and at the end of a season could tell the amount of grain he had threshed for each farmer. He kept no books for his accounts, for his memory served him better than paper and ink. Mr. Johnson was married twice. By his first wife he had a family of four children: Richard, Elizabeth, Mary C. and John W. The last is the only one now living, the two eldest having died in their youth, and Mary C. when she had reached years of maturity. The mother died in 1860 and shortly afterward Mr. Johnson married Miss Sarah A. Davis, who bore him five children, all of whom are living: Emma, Frank, Augpista, Martha and Lida. Mrs. Johnson died in the spring of 1907, and her husband had passed away many years before, his death having occurred October 10, 1883. He was a democrat in hia political views and was always interested in public matters, especially in good schools, whose efficiency he tried to promote in the years he was a member of the school board for he was conscious of the advantages he had missed through his inability to attend school.

John W. Johnson grew to young manhood upon his father's farm and after completing the course of study prescribed by the schools of Oxford township attended Hedding College at Abingdon for a few years, after which he returned to his home. At the age of twenty-four he married and brought his bride to the old Johnson homestead which is his home at present. It is a fine tract of land.

highly cultivated and well improved, on which Mr. Johnson farms on a large scale, giving his attention principally to the raising of corn and oats. In the fall of 1901, about the 8th of September, Mr. Johnson embarked in the furniture and undertaking business in Alpha. Two years later he sold his interests there and removed to Cambridge, where he continued in the same business. He remained there only three years, however, and then returned to his farm, which he had ever regarded as his home. He had always been interested in commercial affairs and in 1899 had organized the Alpha Check Rower Company, of which he was president until it went out of business. Early in his Hfe, when a miller of the soil, he bought a corn sheller and enjoys the distinction of having shelled more corn than any other man in Henry county, for since 1871 the total of bushels to his credit amounts to one million, seven hundred thousand and more.

On the 3d of February, 1881, Mr. Johnson married Miss Anna G. Engle, a daughter of Hudson B. and Sarah (Elwell) Engle. The parents were natives of New Jersey and Vermont respectively and came to Illinois in early days, settling in Western township, Henry county, before the town of Orion was laid out. The father identified himself closely with the farming interests of that township and attained to high respect among the citizens there. Both he and his wife are now deceased. To Mr. and Mrs. Johnson have been born two sons and one daughter. Ralph H., the eldest, was graduated from the Chicago Veterinary College in 1909 and is now practicing his profession in Farmington, Minnesota. Mary M. is the wife of George Bland, a farmer of Oxford township. Telford E. is at home and is a student in the Alpha schools.

Mr. Johnson affiliates with the republican party and has always been active in political affairs having served the township in various capacities. He has efficiently fulfilled the duties of the town clerk, has served as commissioner of the highways for a period of twelve years, and for five years was on the school board and then resigned that position. In the Baptist church, to which his family belong, he is also active, having been church clerk for twenty-five years and for a period of nearly that length superintendent of the Sunday school. At the present he is a teacher in this department of church work. In the ranks of the Mystic Workers he is well known for the qualities that have made him so strong a citizen have come to the fore in his relations with his fraternal brothers. A man of public spirit, he does all in his power for the improvement of the schools and of the roads, in fact supports everything that makes for the progress of his community.

As printed in History of Henry County, Illinois (1910). See the original pages. Wording is the original; obvious scanning errors have been corrected, and a few may remain.