Joseph Johnson (1847-1934)

JOHNSON, PATTON, HERRING

Posted By: Dorian Myhre (email)
Date: 5/17/2021 at 16:53:13

From Nevada Evening Journal March 15, 1934 (page 1)

JOSEPH JOHNSON DIED AT ZEARING

ON SIXTY-FIRST ANNIVERSARY PIONEER BUSINESS MAN PASSED AWAY

Special to the Journal.
Zearing, March 15--Joseph Johnson, long time resident and business man of the Zearing community, passed away here at 1:15 a. m. today on the sixty-first anniversary of his marriage.

The funeral services will be held Saturday afternoon at 2:00 at the Evangelical church in Zearing, after which the body will be taken to Marshalltown for interment in Riverside cemetery.

Joseph Johnson, a son of Benjamin and Suzanna Johnson, was born August 16, 1847 at Harveysburg, Ohio When Joseph was a lad of but a year the family moved to Hamilton county, Indiana, where they lived for fifteen years. From there they came on west and located at Marshalltown and it was there that he learned the tinner's trade under A. W. Loree. In 1869 he went to Albion and moved to Chicago where he remained but a short time, returning to Marshalltown and resuming his work with Mr. Loree.

He remined with Mr. Loree for four years and then entered the shops of the old Iowa Central railroad company.

In 1881, the years that Zearing was platted and started, he came here and established a hardware business with his father-in-law, George Patton.

The style of the pioneer firm Patton & Johnson. Continuing in business here for seven years the firm sold out to George Wohlheter and Mr. Johnson returned to Chicago. There he remained for 20 years, working as superintendent in the firm of Anderson & Johnson in the heating and ventilation business.

In 1908 he returned again to Zearing and with his son, Elmo, engaged in the hardware business, the frime being known as Joseph Johnson & Son. The remainder of his life was spent in Zearing.

He is survived by his widow with whom he had lived happily and continuously for over three score years, a son, Willis Patton Johnson of Lagrange, Ill., the son Dwight Elmo Johnson of Zearing and a brother, Enos Johnson of Los Angeles and a sister, Sadie Herring, of Niles, Mich.

Mr. Johnson was one of the very highly respected men of the community and his death will be sincerely mourned by a wide circle of friends.