Johnson, S. M.

JOHNSON

Posted By: Joyce Hickman (email)
Date: 9/18/2008 at 13:55:13

S. M. Johnson

(From the 1883 History of Pottawattamie County, Iowa, by J. H. Keatley, p.161, Macedonia Twp.)
Dr. S. M. Johnson, physician and druggist, Carson, was born in Ohio, Greene County, April 27, 1840. His father, Christopher G. Johnson, was born in Virginia March 15, 1800, and with his parents located in Ohio, Highland County, and a few years after moved to Greene County, Ohio, thence, in 1856, came with his family to Iowa, settling on a farm in Wapello County, where he died in November, 1857. He was a farmer by occupation. Subject's mother, Lydia E. Johnson, was born in Virginia in December, 1806, and is now living in Osage County, Kan.; she is the mother of ten children, two of whom are dead. Dr. Johnson attended the common schools, and at twenty-one entered Pennsylvania College at Oskaloosa, Iowa, where he remained three months, then enlisted in the army as a private in Company H, Thirty-sixth Iowa Infantry. He served in this company about one year, then received a commission in a colored regiment as Second Lieutenant, where he served till September, 1866, when he was mustered out at Little Rock, Ark. He was at the battle of Helena, Ark., July 4, 1863, and also served on the frontier. After coming out of the army he engaged in the drug business and read medicine under Dr. J. C. Johnson, of Agency City, Wapello Co., Iowa, from 1860 to 1870, and in 1871 attended a course of lectures at Keokuk, Iowa; then went to Kansas for two years; returned to Keokuk, and graduated in the Keokuk College of Physicians and Surgeons in 1873. After graduating he went to Kansas, where he practiced medicine and conducted drug business for one year; he then returned to Agency City, Wapello County, Iowa, where he followed his profession for a short time, then became Medical Examiner of the Centennial Mutual Life Association of Burlington, Iowa, which position he held for three or four years. In 1878, he located in Mills County, Iowa; practiced medicine and conducted a drug store in Hillsdale, where he remained till 1880, then came to Carson, where he now follows his profession, and is senior partner of the drug firm of S. M. Johnson & Co. Dr. Johnson was the first man to come from a distance and erect a house in the town of Carson; this he did in April, 1880. he was one of the first School Board of Carson, and a member of the Building Committee that erected the schoolhouse; he is now on the Board of Health of Carson. Dr. Johnson married Miss Ellen Stephens, of Agency City, Wapello County, Iowa, September 10, 1868; she was born March 31, 1852, in Agency City; her father, James Stephens, a pioneer of Wapello County, Iowa, was born in Kentucky May 1, 1822, and was reared in Indiana; he came to Iowa when a young man and lcoated at Agency City, where he remained until his death, July 3, 1868. He was a blacksmith by trade, and erected a large plow manufacturing establishment, but died before his busiiness had fully developed. Mrs. Johnson's mother, Mary A. (Horrow) Stephens, was born in Kentucky, February 27, 1824; she is the mother of five children, three girls and two boys, and lives in Agency City, Wapello County, Iowa. Dr. and Mrs. Johnson have had three children - Hamilton C. (deceased), C. Clyde and an infant, deceased. Dr. Johnson is a member of the Masonic fraternity of Olive Branch Lodge, No. 21; he has always been a firm Republican; he was reared by Quaker parents and rather adheres to that belief. Mrs. Johnson is a member of the M. E. Church.