February 18, 1921 issue of the Tipton Advertiser
Transcribed by Sharon Elijah, October 12, 2018

LIFE STORY OF A PROMINENT WOMAN
Ella Wilkerson Johnson Who Died Feby. 11th Was Member of Pioneer Cedar Co. Family.

     C. R. Republican: When Phillip Wilkerson came to Iowa from Indiana, in 1837, he entered land of the government near the present site of Tipton. He cut down some of the trees and built himself a log cabin, in which he lived alone for nine years. During that time he was cutting the forest and tilling the prairie land.

     In 1845, he was married to Elizabeth Anderson, and April 6, 1857, by which time many improvements had been made on the farm, there was born a daughter, Ella, whose whole life has been singularly beautiful and inspiring. She died in Cedar Rapids February 11, 1921, after a long and painful illness.

     In her early childhood she gave evidence of a mind of more than ordinary capacity for learning and found special delight in reading and study. She eagerly seized the opportunity for education furnished by the public schools of Tipton, and later enjoyed the advantages of advanced instruction and training in the University of Iowa. Thus was laid the foundation for her participation in the varied activities which so absorbed her thought and energies in after years, and which contributed so much to her happy and useful life. Among her other early choices was that one which made the religious purpose of her life supreme in all her plans for herself and the good of others. Upon this foundation of a trained mind and a consecrated and loyal heart was builded the structure of a life well rounded and fruitful in helpful service to fellow human beings with whom she has been associated wherever she has lived.

     In January, 1882, at Anamosa, Iowa, she was united in marriage with Geo. Henry Johnson, who, with one son, Ralph Wilkerson Johnson, survives her. Mr. and Mrs. Johnson first lived on a farm near Olin, Iowa. Afterwards they removed to a farm near Garwin, in Tama county, Iowa. From there they changed their residence to Toledo, to give their son the advantages afforded by Leander Clark College of that place. Later they spent several years in Iowa City where they greatly enjoyed the influences and life of the State University. The atmosphere of refinement and culture they found there proved most congenial to them. In 1915 they removed to this city which has since been their home.

     While living in Toledo she was a member of the Woman’s Club and for a time served as its president. In Iowa City she was a member of the Iowa Woman’s club and there her ability and leadership were recognized in her being chosen its president. The reading and work required in these organizations were a constant source of education and growth to her, ever enhancing her power and joy in noble living and useful life. Her study and reading gave her an ever widening vision of life and its limitless privileges and opportunities, and so kept her abreast of the times in which she lived, an ornament to the church, broad-minded and sympathetic in all her social relations, and a real woman of nobility and worth. A historical sketch of Mrs. Johnson’s life is found in “The Blue Book of Iowa Women.”