Johnson, Jervis C.

JOHNSON, CHARLES, RENAUD

Posted By: Volunteer Transcriber
Date: 9/1/2009 at 07:48:45

Johnson, Jervis C.

It is the pride of the citizens of this country that there is no limit to which natural ability, industry and honesty may not aspire. A boy born in ignorance and poverty and reared under the most adverse surroundings may nevertheless break from his fetters and rise to the highest station in the land and the qualities do not have to be of transcendent character to enable him to accomplish this result. It is more the way he does it and his skill in grasping opportunities, which are presented to him than to any remarkable qualities, which he may possess.

One of the enterprising and successful young agriculturists of this section of Iowa is Jervis C. Johnson, of Linn Grove Township. He seems to belong to that Argus-eyed, sound-minded class of men who are able to grasp a situation quickly and make the most of it, for while yet young in years, he has, with little outside assistance, become one of the most extensive farmers of Jasper County and one of her most progressive citizens.

Mr. Johnson was born in Poweshiek County, Iowa, on February 6, 1879. He is the son of Henry and Melissa (Charles) Johnson, both natives of Indiana, the father born in 1848 and the mother in 1849. Henry Johnson was four years old when his parents brought him to Iowa, making the overland trip with a wagon and team. They settled in Linn Grove Township, Jasper County, when this section was new and practically unsettled, and here they began life as pioneers, but in time were very comfortably situated. The grandfather of the subject took up a half section of land from the government. He also entered a great deal of land for other people and was an important factor in helping settle up the country. He took up as much as six thousand acres of land and was one of the best-known men in the County in the early days. The father of the subject bought eighty acres in Washington Township, Poweshiek County, when a young man, and he now owns about a section of land there. He retired from active life in 1910 and moved to Grinnell, Iowa.

He is a member of the Friends church. His family consists of the following children: Charlotte, Olivia, Jervis C., of this review; Warren lives in Hardin County, Iowa; Mrs. Beulah Renaud also lives in that County; DeVerne lives in Montana; Leland and Lelah, twins, live in Grinnell, Iowa.

Jervis C. Johnson went to school in Lynnville, and after leaving the high school there he spent two years in Penn College. Returning home, he remained on the homestead, assisting with the work there until he was twenty-four years of age, then came to his present farm in Linn Grove Township, Jasper County, the place which has been in the Johnson family so long. He now operates seventeen hundred acres, five hundred of which he owns in partnership with his uncle, Albert Johnson, the latter owning the rest of the land in question. The subject farms the greatest acreage of any one man in Linn Grove Township. He is a young man of unusual enterprise, foresight, energy and sound judgment and he accomplishes a maximum amount of work with a minimum outlay of labor. He is an advocate of modern, scientific farming and it is a pleasure to glance over his broad acres and note how everything is operated under a splendid system, with what ease he carries on general farming arid stock raising on a large scale. He is one of the best-known stockmen of the County and he feeds from ten to fifteen carloads of cattle and about ten carloads of hogs annually. He raises full-blooded Percheron horses. He is a good judge of all kinds of livestock.

Politically, Mr. Johnson is a Republican, but locally he votes for the man, irrespective of party politics. He is a member of the Friends Church.

Mr. Johnson was united in marriage on October 20, 1903, to Winema Pemberton, who was born in Marshall County, Iowa, the daughter of Henry P. Pemberton, an early settler of that County, where he became the owner of four hundred acres of land. To Mr. and Mrs. Johnson two children have been born, namely: Jervis Byron and Henry Maxwell. Past and Present of Jasper County Iowa B. F. Bowden & Company, Indianapolis, IN, 1912 Page 858.