Yolo-Nevada-Solano County CA Archives Biographies.....Johnson, John 1829 - 
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Joy Fisher sdgenweb@yahoo.com January 14, 2006, 4:10 pm

Author: Tom Gregory (1913)

JOHN JOHNSON

    Through the sunshine and the storms of almost sixty years, through hardships
and successes, John Johnson has retained a deep affection for the commonwealth
of his adoption. The trials of early days did not dismay him nor did repeated
adversities lessen his enthusiastic faith in the country's future greatness. Now
in the afternoon of his well-spent life, surrounded by the material
accumulations of many industrious years, he looks back upon the past with
pleasure and experiences a feeling of justifiable pride in his association with
the early agricultural development of the west. When the decision was made to
leave the east for the vast undeveloped regions near the western coast, he was a
hardy young man, willing to undertake any enterprise, but wholly without means,
and it was necessary to borrow the money with which to defray the expenses of
the trip to the coast. The steamer, Northern Light, conveyed him from New York
City to the Isthmus of Panama, which he crossed on the back of a mule, and then
took passage on the vessel, Sierra Nevada, up the Pacific to San Francisco. The
long and tedious journey presented a remarkable contrast to the opportunities
for travel afforded in the present century, when swift-speeding engines followed
by sumptuous parlor and dining cars bear the westerner to the Atlantic coast in
a time that would have seemed incredibly short to the emigrants of the
gold-discovery days.

    While Mr. Johnson feels himself to be a Californian in all else save birth,
he is of eastern nativity and was born in Greene county, Pa., June 1, 1829, and
is a son of the late David and Edith (Cummings) Johnson. The father was born
December 4, 1776, and died September 12, 1870, after nearly a century of
usefulness. The wife and mother was born January 14, 1786, and died March 5,
1863. The record of their children includes the following names, with dates of
birth and of death: Lewis, born April 22, 1804, died June 5, 1854; Reuben, April
22, 1806, January 12, 1873; Simon P., January 8, 1808, March 23, 1877; Mary,
February 6, 1810, March 21, 1901; Nancy, April 6, 1812, July 22, 1889; Robert,
May 6, 1814, February 20, 1891; William, April 3, 1816, March 14, 1894; David,
born September 3, 1818, and still living, being a resident of Hepler, Kan.;
Owen, born October 16, 1820, and died April 17, 1899; Rebecca, born February 12,
1823, and also living in Hepler, Kan.; Edith, who was born October 29, 1825, and
died April 16, 1868; Phebe, born February 20, 1828, and died July 25, of the
same year; John, whose name introduces this article and who was the youngest of
the large family circle. The sons and daughters married and established homes of
their own in various parts of the country. Longevity was characteristic of the
family and the most of the name lived to advanced years. The majority also had
eight or more children, so that at the present writing there are more than one
hundred descendants of the Pennsylvania couple who, about 1837, settled on a
farm in Guernsey county, Ohio.

    From Greene. county, Pa., where he was born, John Johnson accompanied the
family to Ohio at the age of about eight years and in that locality he remained
until he had attained maturity. When he landed in California December 31, 1853,
he went at once to Nevada county and secured work as a day laborer. Besides he
engaged in prospecting. Mining occupied his time until 1864, when he removed to
Solano county and took a squatter's claim to land in the Montezuma hills, only
to find later that the claim already belonged to Dr. Toland. However, he
remained on the place and farmed the land on shares with the owner. Through the
most persistent efforts and constant labor he acquired a competency. During
September of 1888 he retired from farming and removed to Woodland, where he owns
and occupies a comfortable home at No. 609 Third street. Under his supervision
the residence was remodeled and the grounds improved, making the place
attractive and valuable. During his experience as a farmer he made a specialty
of raising grain and the highest price he ever received for his products was
$2.38 per hundred pounds. On the organization of the Solano County Grange he
became a charter member and until he removed from the county he was a prominent
figure in the activities of the organization. Politically he always has
supported the Republican party.

    Sharing with Mr. Johnson in the good will of the community and the affection
of old-time acquaintances is his wife, whom he married in 1874 and who bore the
maiden name of Vina S. Micheud. She was born in New Brunswick, Canada, and was a
daughter of Mar cum and Marcelina (Willits) Micheud. When very small she lost
her mother by death and thereupon was given a home with friends in Maine. When
only thirteen years of age she began to teach school and for seven years she
continued to earn her livelihood in that occupation. By her first husband,
Dennis Farrell, she was the mother of three children, Charles C., Margaret and
Rose, while to her second union one daughter, Mary O., was born. Her second
husband, John Menzyes, a mechanic by trade, brought the family to California in
1870, but died shortly afterward. A woman of true and noble character, she has
been of the greatest assistance to Mr. Johnson in his efforts to secure a
competence and in her declining days she enjoys with him the fruits of their
years of honorable labor and intelligent industry.


Additional Comments:
Extracted from

HISTORY OF YOLO COUNTY CALIFORNIA
WITH
Biographical Sketches
OF
The Leading Men and Women of the County Who Have Been Identified With Its Growth
and Development From the Early Days to the Present

HISTORY BY
TOM GREGORY
AND OTHER WELL KNOWN WRITERS
ILLUSTRATED COMPLETE IN ONE VOLUME

HISTORIC RECORD COMPANY
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA [1913]


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