Nicholas W. Johnson

JOHNSON

Posted By: Judy Wight Branson (email)
Date: 10/8/2004 at 10:18:31

N. W. Johnson, Lee twp., farmer and stock-raiser, Sec. 14; P.O. Booneville, Dallas county; was born in Buenos Ayres, South America, where his father was engaged in business, in 1829; his father was a native of Connecticut, and his mother of Rhode Island; in 1834, when the subject of this sketch was five years old, they returned to the United States, and settled in Brooklyn, N.Y., and after a residence of one year removed to Connecticut; he early formed a desire to follow the water as an occupation, and commanded a ship from 1854 to 1862, when the business was ruined by the damages incident to, and growing out of, the civil war; while engaged in this business, he was very successful, and on his return trip from the coast of Africa, after the outbreak of the rebellion, he barely escaped being captured by the Alabama, being in sight of the smoke of one of its victims; he afterward made a successful trip to the Cape of Good Hope, where he sold his cargo and ship at a handsome profit in gold, and returned to his home; he then started on a prospecting tour west, and after traveling the State from east to west, selected his present farm in this township, and settled on 1863; it comprises of 960 acres of splendid land in a high state of cultivation, and is one of the best stock farms in the county or State; the Badger river runs through the entire north portion, affording plenty of water and fine groves for shelter and wood, much of it being black walnut; he is a large stock-feeder, and buys a great deal of grain from those who have it to sell; he married Miss Emma Johnson in 1863; she is a native of Orange county, Vermont; his family consists of his wife and eight children, two being by a former marriage: their names are: Ellen, Wm. G., Caroline, Louisa, Emma, Nelson L., Nancy and Nicholas.

Taken from the book, "The History of Madison County, Iowa, 1879" page 613