Johnson, J. A.

JOHNSON, SNYDER, SMOOT, FLETCHER

Posted By: mjv (email)
Date: 6/30/2021 at 12:06:52

J. A. Johnson, residing upon section 24, Clay Township, is engaged in general farming and stock-raising. He was born in Clarke County, Ohio, May 9, 1846, and is a son of Z. and Melinda (Snyder) Johnson. (See sketch of Z. Johnson in another part of this work.) He was reared on a farm and received his education in the common schools. In 1848, he came with his parents to Washington County, Iowa, where he has since continued to reside. Until he was seventeen years of age, he worked upon his father’s farm during the summer, and attended school during the winter months. He then engaged with various farmers, and in 1869 went to Davis County, Iowa, and there took charge of an engine in a sawmill, and continued in that work until the spring of 1871.

On the 7th of September, 1871, Mr. Johnson was united in marriage with Miss Martha Smoot, a native of Macon County, Mo., born Feb. 24, 1851, and daughter of William and Louisa (Fletcher) Smoot, the former a native of Missouri, and the latter of Kentucky. Five children have been born unto them: Arthur, born July 11, 1872, died Aug. 13, 1874; Leoni, born July 13, 1874; Clarence A., Sept. 11, 1876; William Z., Sept. 17, 1879; Ralph, Aug. 9, 1884.

In the spring of 1872, Mr. Johnson rented a farm which he cultivated that season, and in the summer of that year purchased fifty-five acres, but sold the same a few months afterward. He then rented a farm of 155 acres of his father, on which he remained for two years as a renter. He then purchased fifty-five acres of that farm, to which he has added by subsequent purchase until he now owns 160 acres, all under fence and in a good state of cultivation. In his farming operations he has been quite successful, and is now classed among the best farmers in Clay Township.

Mr. Johnson is well known and universally respected in his township, and has been honored by his fellow-citizens with various township offices, and is at present a School Director and President of the School Board. He is a man of considerable energy, and one who does not care to take a back seat in any enterprise calculated for the public good.

Source: Portrait and Biographical Album of Washington County, Iowa (1887). Excerpt from Biographical Sketch of J. A. Johnson, pages 361-362.