been due to undaunted perseverance and sound judgment. Happy in his home associations and in the work to which he is devoting the best energies of his life, it may truly be said that the position which he has earned has been reached deservedly.
WILLIAM H. JOHNSON.
William H. Johnson has for forty-two years resided upon the farm on section 7, Washington township, which is now his home. He formerly owned one hundred and seventy acres but about ten years ago disposed of ninety acres of this. The remainder of his place is all improved, and upon it is a good set of farm buildings, including a pleasant home and barns and sheds which furnish ample shelter to grain and stock. Mr. Johnson was a young man of twenty-seven years when he located upon this place, his birth having occurred in Fayette county, Pennsylvania, near Smithville, on the 14th of April, 1842,
On attaining his majority he went to Wisconsin, settling in Green county, where he lived for five years. In the fall of 1869 he came to Iowa and took up his abode upon the farm where he now makes his home–a well improved and highly cultivated tract of eighty acres. He has improved the place with good buildings and everything about the farm presents a neat and thrifty appearance, indicating the careful supervision and progressive methods of the owner. Mr. Johnson also became closely identified with educational interests here. He began teaching when nineteen years of age and taught in all for about thirty terms, but in the meantime three summer seasons were devoted to the cultivation of his fields.
In 1867 Mr. Johnson was united in marriage to Miss Elizabeth J. Sinclair, who was born in Monroe county, Ohio, on the 15th of May, 1845, and went to Wisconsin with her parents when about ten years of age. The home of Mr. and Mrs. Johnson has been blessed with nine children : Charles W., now a resident 0f Des Moines ; Alice, the wife of E. W. Jones, also of Des Moines; Cora, the wife of M. E. White, of the capital city, Ira B., who was superintendent of schools of Cass county and died at the age of twenty-nine years while serving his second term in that office; E. M., who is a graduate of the Iowa State College and is now a packing house inspector for the government at Chicago; Western L., the government meat inspector of the packing houses of Topeka, Kansas; Daisy, living in Des Moines; Dora, who is a twin sister of Daisy and now the wife of F. S. Bone, of Grand River, Iowa; and Olla, a teacher in the Humboldt College and a graduate 0f the Iowa State College of the class of 1906. All of the children have attended the Iowa State College and the sons have all graduated therefrom. The eldest is a professor at Still College in Des Moines and his brother Ira was doing excellent work in the educational