LEMUEL CLARK JOHNSON.
The best history of a community or state is the one which deals most with the lives and activities of its people, especially of those who, by their endeavor and indomitable energy have made their work count in the battles of life. In this brief review may be found the record of a well-known citizen of Audubon, this county, who has made a success of the drayage business in that town and who is honored by all for his upright life and habits of thrift and industry.
Lemuel Clark Johnson was born on. May 10, 1858, at Bernadotte, Fulton county, Illinois, the son of Gary and Margaret (Heiford) Johnson, both natives of Illinois. Margaret Heiford was the daughter of John Heiford, an early pioneer and one of the noted Indian fighters during the pioneer history of Illinois. Gary Johnson was born in 1834 and died in 1874. His wife was born in 1835 and died in 1869. He died in Arkansas, to which state he had immigrated when his son, Lemuel C., was a mere lad. He had first immigrated, in 1870, to Kansas City and thence to Ft. Scott, from which place he went to Arkansas. He was a shoemaker by trade. Subsequently, Lemuel C. Johnson returned to Illinois, where he lived with an uncle for one year, and at the age of fifteen years began working for himself. He farmed for some time in Illinois and was married in that state in 1882. After his marriage, he continued farming until he came to Iowa in 1889. Mr. Johnson located in Audubon in the fall of 1890 and started a dray line, in which business he has prospered, now operating three teams in that city.
On December 31, 1882, Lemuel C. Johnson was married to Sarah Hoyle, who was born in Fulton county, Illinois, on June 18, 1865, the daughter of Lawrence and Pauline (Walters) Hoyle, the former of whom died on April 2, 1893, the latter in 1868, and to this union the following children have been born: Daisy, born on August 12, 1884, in Illinois, who is the wife of Ren Phelps, of Audubon; Annetta, September 7, 1886, who is the wife of Scott Smith, of Texas; Bessie, March 4, 1888, died on February 3, 1891; Irvin, December 5, 1890, who is a clerk in Marquesen's department store in Audubon; Virgil, March 5. 1892; Mildred, July 12, 1904, and Avis, June 18, 1908, at home. The three first named children were born in Illinois.
Mr. Johnson is identifid [[sic identified] with the Democratic party but has never been especially active in politics, though taking a keen interest in local good government. Mr. and Mrs. Johnson and family are identified with the Baptist church of Audubon, and Mr. Johnson is a member of the Yeomen of America.
|
Transcribed from History of Audubon County, Iowa Its People, Industries and Institutions With Biographical Sketches of Representative Citizens and Genealogical Records of Many of the Old Families, by H. F. Andrews, editor, Indianapolis: B. F. Bowen & Company, 1915, pp. 505-506.
|
|
