Portrait and biographical album of Ingham and Livingston counties, Michigan, containing biographical sketches of prominent and representative citizens of the counties ... the governors of the state and of all the presidents of the United States.

FORTRAIT AND.BIOGRAEPHCAL ALBUlM.

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in Lancashire. lie located at Rowley, Mass., and
there spent the remainder of his days. His son,
Amos, who was also born in England about the
year 1635, set up the first fulling-mill in America.
IHe lived in Newbury, Mass., and his son Benjamin
was the father of Joseph, whose son Moses was
born in Boxford and served through the Revolutionary War, dying in Springfield, Vt. His son
Lemuel, who was born in Boxford and died in
Franklin, N. Y., was the grandfather of our subject. Mrs. Sarepta Johnson now resides with her
son in Lansing and is the mother of five children.
The brother and sisters of our subject are:
A. W., tlle head of the Samuel Lilburn Company, dealers in butter and eggs at Ottumwa,
Towa; Cory E., who died in 1887; Clara, now
Mrs. Carroll, a graduate of the National Normal School at Lebanon, Ohio, and Ada S., who is a
stenographer and typewriter for E. Bement & Sons,
of Lansing, laving graduated at tlhe Interlake
Business College. Mrs. C(arroll has blad an extensive experience as a teacher in the South and East
and now blas charge of the Normal lDeparltment of
the Interlake Business College, )eing' a proficient
in stenography and typlewriting and one of the
finest Normal teachers in the State.
The subject of this sketch spent his boyhood in
Northern Oh()llio, wherever his father was located at
the time as a preacher and at the age of twelve lie
attended the Western Reserve College for a yearand became a fluent reader of Greek and Latin,
hlaving begun the study of Latin at the age of ten
years. When at the age of thirteen lie removed
with the family to aMilan, he engagoed to work
throug}h the summer in Stowe's Nursery, but after
his father settled upon the farm in Fairfield he had
a more certain abiding place through the rest of
his boyhood, and studied at home, using all his
leisure in the pursuit of tile sciences and the languages, and at the age of seventeen he was prepared to teach. Ile took an additional term at the
Western Reserve Normal School and then having
passed an examination, began teaching at Republic,
Seneca County, Ohio.
The first endeavor of the young teacher was
made in a district school, where he taught six days
in the week and "boarded around." Being the

eldest son of the family lie had heavy responsibility in the carrying on of the farm, and while he
was away teaching he employed a man in his place.
At that time lie received $40 a month, and although
paying a man he managed to save $100, the first
considerable sum of money he ever possessed. The
next summer he worked on his father's farm and in
the fall undertook the "toughest" school in Huron
Clounty. In this IHartland Center School a "free
fight" was precipitated by a rebellious pupil within
the first five days, but the teacher most effectually
subdued the mutiny and after that peace reigned
supreme and it was a most successful session.
In 1870 Mr. Johnson went West, stopping in
Vermillion County, Ill., at State Line City; there
lie took employment upon a farm until October, at
$22.(50 per month, after whichl hle passed examination and taught for six months at Marysville in
that county. The next summer lie engaged in
training standard-bred horses in which avocation
lie was successful financially. He thus alternated
teaching in the winter with business in the summer,
and in the spring of 1872 engaged in buying and
shipping corn, and did well in it. I)uring that
spring he joined the Free and Accepted Masons at
Blue Grass City. In the fall of 1872 lie went as
far north as St. Paul, Minn., and worked in the
harvest field at Farmington, Dakota County, Minn..
operating a Marsh harvester and thresher, and
somewhlat later he returned to Ohio.
In 1873 Mr. Johnson came to Michigan and located in Lansing Township, where his father had
over one hundred acres of wild land, and where
tlhe young man engaged to cut off the timber fronm
forty or fifty acres and sell it to the Lake Shore
& Michigan Southern Railroad. While doing
this lumbering he kept bachelor's hall and remained
here until 1874, when he returned to Ohio and
taught through the winter in the home school. In
March of the following year he went to Texas,
journeying by the Ohio River to Memphis and then
crossing Arkansas on horseback. He went there
expecting to go into the sheep business, and he explored the grand prairie at Duval's Bluff, Ark., and
then went on to Dallas, Texas, and from there to
Ft. Worth. There he fitted out with others for an
expedition and went to the vicinity of the Rio