Johnson, W. L.

JOHNSON, CLEVELAND, HILL, OLMSTEAD, EASTMAN, PIERSON

Posted By: Gary Norris (email)
Date: 12/2/2012 at 14:37:12

W. L. Johnson insurance agent of Brooklyn, deserves special mention in this volume and as a veteran of the Civil War. He is numbered among Ohio's native sons, his birth occurring in Ashtabula county on the 24th of November, 1845.
He is a son of Wiliam and Betsy (Cleveland) Johnson, the former a native of Stueben county, New York, and the latter of Canada. The father, who was a blacksmith and wagonmaker by occupation, was engaged at his trade in Ohio and also owned a farm there, which was operated by his sons. Later he came to Iowa and here followed his trade for a time there, and subsequently went to California, his death occurring in Cottonwood, that state, on the 20th of July, 1906, at the age of eighty-seven years. His wife, Mrs. Bettsy (Cleveland) Johnson, passed away in March, 1961, in Ohio. They were the parents of six children, as follows: F.N.., of Fayetteville, Arkansas, who served for three years in the Union army as a member of Company E, Twenty-ninth Ohio Volumteer Infantry; W. L., of this review; N.M., of Dakota; Emma, the widow of Ed Hill, of Estherville, Iowa; Ernest M., of Primghar, Iowa; and Frank A., Of Chicago. By a second marriage William Johnson had two children: Albert of Cottonwood, California; and Addier Olmstead, now deceased.
W. L. Johnson spent the period of his boyhood and early youth upon the home farm in Ohio and under his father's direction learned the blacksmith and wagonmaker's trade, at which he became quite proficient. He was but fifteen years of age when the Civil war broke out between the north and the south, but he accepted the invitation of a lieutenant of the Union army, who suggested that he join the army. Consequently he enlisted in September, 1861, as a soldier in company A, Thirty-sixth New York Volunteer Infantry, and served for twenty-two months. In January, 1864, he reenlisted as a member of Battery E, First Ohio Light Artillery, for three years, and at the close of the war was honorably discharged at Camp Dennison, Ohio. He took part in seven important battles, as well as many minor engagements, participating in the battle of Fair Oaks, Seven Pines, Malvern Hill, Fredereicksburg, the second battle of Bull Run, and the battle of Nashville. During his service he was taken ill with smallpox, and an uncle who visited him at that time caught the disease and died from the effects of it.
When the country no longer needed his services Mr. Johnson returned to civil life with a most creditable military record. He joined his parents, who had taken up their abode in Fayette County, Iowa, during his term of service, and on the 24th of January, 1866, was united in marriage to Miss Persis E. Eastman, who was born in southern Illinois, December 6, 1849, and went to Fayette county, Iowa, with her parents, Mr. and Mrs. R.R. Eastman.
After his marriage Mr. Johnson was asociated with his father-in-law in the wagonmaking business for about two years, and then he removed to Fredericksburg, Iowa, where he was engaged at that trade for about four years. He then went to Dixon county, Nebraska, where he homesteaded a farm, but he was obliged to give up that place on account of the grasshopper plague, and he returned to Fredericksburg and again worked at his trade there. Later he went to Mitchellville, Polk county, Iowa, where as a member of the firm of Eastman & Johnson he engaged int eh wagon and carriage-making business for four years, and during that period the partners marketed more new wagons than any other shop of its kind in Polk county. At the end of that time Mr. Johnson traded his interest in the firm for a farm and then entered the hardware business at Gowrie, Webster county. After a year there he removed his stock to Melford, Dixon county, establishing the first hardware enterprise at Mitchellville, where he traded his farm for a stock of hardware and located at Baxter, at which place he carried on business for four years. The year 1886 witnessed his arrival in Brooklyn and here he conducted a hardware concern for four years, after which he sold out to enter the fire insurance business. In 1898 he went on the road as a special agent for the Hawkeye Insurance Company, whom he represented for seven years, and was then employed by the Iowa State Insurance Company for one year. The losses incurred through the great San Francisco fire were such that that company was obliged to reinsure in other firms, and Mr. Johnson became connected with the German Insurance Company of Freeport, Illinois.
Subsequently he accepted a position with the Security Insurance Company of Davenport, and then, on the 1st of January, 1909, he left the road and has since conducted an agency in Brooklyn, representing several well known companies at this point. His office is in the new Brooklyn Opera House, and he handles a large amount of insureance, being accorded a most excellent patronage. His efforts in teh various channnels of business in which he has engaged have been successful, and today the consensus of public opion accords him a prominent place among Poweshiek county's aggressive and properous citizens. He has recently built a residence in Brooklyn, which is now the home of his family, and he is the owner of forty acres of land adjoining the corporation limits of the town, while in connection with his son-in-law he owns another valuable farm near Brooklyn.
With the passing of the years Mr. and Mrs. Johnson became the parents of four children, nameley: Mabel E., the wife of W. R. Pierson, cashier of the Poweshiek County Savings Bank of Brooklyn; Paul E., who is engaged in the dairy business near Minneapolis, Minnesota; Genevieve, a teacher of music at San Fernando, California; and William Glenn, who passed away at the age of ten months.
In politics Mr. Johnson gives his support to the republican party, while fraternally he is a Master Mason and also belongs to the Grand Army of the Republic. Mr. Johnson is a well developed man physically, giving the idea of great strength and reserve force, elements which have had their expression in a strenuous business life. His has been a career of constant activity along various lines, in which his well directed efforts, his keen sagacity and his unfaltering energy have been potent factors in theaccumulation of a degree of prosperity which is both creditable and honorable.

History of Poweshiek County Iowa
- A Record of Settlement, Organizations, Progress and Achievement, Vol. II
written by Prof. L. F. Parker.
Published by The S. J. Clarke Publishing Co., in 1911
Pages 470-472