H. C. JOHNSON
H. C. Johnson, the father of the Messenger, was born at the village of Hopkinsville, Warren county, Ohio, January 33, 1834, and is the son of Joseph H. and Mary Johnson, the former a native of Ohio, the latter of Kentucky. H. C. was reared in his native village until he came to Iowa, in 1852. On the 4th of July of that year, he landed at Muscatine, and taking the stage, for this was prior to the advent of railroads in the State, to Iowa City, Johnson county, Iowa, where he entered the office of the Republican, then run by his uncle, Doctor S. M. Ballard, where he learned the trade of a printer, to which he has stuck ever since, with slight exceptions. In 1858 he removed to Council Bluffs, where he remained about a year. In 1859 he came to Cass county, and has made it his residence ever since. When he first came here, he went on to the large farm belonging to Doctor Ballard, lying in this and the adjoining county of Audubon, where he worked in the summer, and in the winter months went to Des Moines, where he worked at his trade on the Iowa State Register. In 1863 and 1864 he was engaged in the office of the Gazette, at Lewis, and on the demise of that journal, in 1864, initiated the Cass County Messenger, as mentioned above. He was united in marriage with Hannah A Goodale, a daughter of Jefferson Goodale, one of the pioneers of Cass county, in 1860, by whom he has twelve children living - Harry, Cora, Eddie, Eugene, Frank, Carl, Leonore, Madge, Robert, Grace, Leila and Dollie. After disposing of his interest in the Messenger to his partner, he, in April, 1881, stated a job printing office in Atlantic, and is engaged in that line of business at the present (1884).
Contributed by Lisa Varnes-Rex from "History of Cass County, Iowa. Together With Sketches of its Towns, Villages and Townships, Educational, Civil, Military and Political History: Portraits of Prominent Persons, and Biographies of Old Settlers and Representative Citizens." Springfield, Ill.: Continental Historical Company, 1884, pg. 439-440.
