JOHN JOHNSON

JOHNSON

Posted By: Jake Tornholm (email)
Date: 4/22/2020 at 14:35:12

JOHN JOHNSON, a prominent citizen of Washington township, Adams county, Iowa, was born in Lancaster county, Pennsylvania, February 16, 1842, son of John and Mary Johnson, both natives of Ireland. The father came alone from the Emerald Isle at the age of eighteen, and settled in Pennsylvania. In 1847 he moved to Butler county, Ohio, where, as in Pennsylvania, he worked by the day and the job, chopping, ditching, etc. He removed from the latter place to Bartholomew county, Indiana, in 1856; bought a team, rented land and began farming for himself. In 1866 he moved to Iowa and settled in Adams county, living on a rented farm here until 1870. That year he moved to Cass county, where he still resides. He is now about eighty years of age, and is highly respected by all who know him. His wife came from Ireland with her parents when she was four years old. She and Mr. Johnson were married in Pennsylvania. Her death occurred at the age of fifty-seven years. The subject of our sketch was the third born of their thirteen children.

July 19, 1862, Mr. Johnson enlisted as a private and a recruit in Company D, Seventh Indiana Volunteer Infantry. His first battle was the second Bull Run fight. He was in the army of the Potomac, and served two years with the Seventh Indiana. Their time expiring, the recruits and the veterans of the Seventh Indiana were consolidated with the recruits and veterans of the Fourteenth, Nineteenth and Twentieth Indiana regiments, and was afterward called the Twentieth Indiana Veteran Volunteers. Mr. Johnson was a sergeant of the regiment when mustered out, his discharge being dated June 8, 1865. At the battle of Antietam he was struck once, and at the Wilderness was hit on the knee with a spent ball, these two being the only times he was hurt, and then not seriously. While in the service he contracted chronic diarrhea, and from this disorder has never recovered.

After the war he worked by the month as an employe until 1868, when he engaged in farming on his own account in Adams county. He had bought ninety acres of land in Washington township. This he sold in 1870, went to Tipton county, Indiana, bought eighty acres of land, and remained there engaged in agricultural pursuits until 1878. In 1880 he came a second time to Adams county, Iowa, and the following year purchased the farm on which he now resides. It is located in section 12 and consists of 175 acres, 135 acres of which are improved and under a good state of cultivation. His residence is located on the section road, a mile and three-quarters from Mount Etna.

September 1, 1867, he was united in marriage with Miss Catherine Harader, daughter of Christian and Mary A. Harader, of Adams county. Mrs. Johnson was born in Pennsylvania, and came to Iowa with her parents in 1856. Her father is still living in Kansas, and is now sixty-five years of age. Her mother died in 1867, at the age of forty. Her father is a Dunker minister, well known throughout the State. He had seven children by his first marriage and two by the second, Mrs. Johnson being the third born in the first family. She has been a consistent member of the Dunker church for many years.

Mr. and Mrs. Johnson have twelve children, namely: Martha, wife of Samuel Hinton; Martin, Rosella, John C., Earnest, David Waldo, Daniel, Roscoe, Bertha, Lulu and, Anda L. Mr. and Mrs. Hinton have two children: Goldie and John.

Mr. Johnson is a member of the G. A. R., the Farmers' Alliance and the Industrial Union, being treasurer of the last organization. Politically he is a Democrat.