Cecil County MD Archives Obituaries.....James JOHNSON, 1888 Contributed to the USGenWeb Archives by Cyndie Enfinger ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/pa/pafiles.htm ************************************************ Cecil Whig, Saturday, February 18, 1888 Page 3, Column 3 Death of James Johnson. Mr. James Johnson, one of the best known citizens of the Fifth district; died on Saturday afternoon last. His death was the result of an attack of paralysis about a week previous. Mr. Johnson was the son of Jethro Johnson and Ann Winchester Johnson. He was born in May, 1826, and was consequently in the 62d year of his age. His father carried on the woolen manufacturing business near Bay View and he spent the days of his youth in learning the business. Mr. Johnson took an active interest in political affairs from youth, and was a staunch Whig as long as that party was in existence. He then became a member of the American party. Mr. Johnson was one of the few readers, in this county, of the New York Tribune at that time, and an admirer of Horace Greely. From this source and from books he early imbibed anti-slavery ideas. An effort was made about 1858 to have the grand jury indict Mr. Johnson and one or two other persons for receiving the Tribune but failed. Mr. Johnson helped organize in 1860 the first Republican club in the county, and was one of the 158 persons in Cecil county voting for Lincoln in 1860. Forty-two of this number was cast in the Fifth district. He always referred to this with pardonable pride, and but a short time ago in conversation at THE WHIG office about the vote for Mr. Lincoln in Cecil in 1860, we found upon referring to our files that it was distributed as follows: Cecilton, none; Chesapeake City, 3; Elkton, 13; Fair Hill, 25; North East, 42; Rising Sun, 25; Port Deposit, 10; Mt. Pleasant, 17; Brick Meeting, 23. Total, 158. He was an active Unionist throughout the war. He organized a Union club at Bay View in 1861. A few weeks ago he gave us as a souvenir of that period the following letter which relates to a meeting of this club: ELKTON, CECIL COUNTY, MD., September 25th, 1861. Gentlemen: Your invitation to address you next Tuesday evening has just been received and I promptly accept. God willing, I will be with you for an interchange of views at the time appointed, and will endeavor to bring Mr. McIntire with me. My whole heart is in this fight, and I hope and pray that God’s blessing may attend our efforts, so that we may be entitled to some share of the glory to be won by the entire restoration of the Union and Constitution, in all their purity and grandeur. Very truly yours. Jno. A. J. Creswell. To Messrs. James Johnson, Jno. W. Jackson } Committee. Jno. Thos. Janney. Turning to the files of THE WHIG, of the date referred to, we find the meeting proved a very large and enthusiastic one, and which exerted a wide influence at that critical time. Mr. Johnson was the collector of taxes for the Fifth district in 1859 and 1860. He was a most efficient officer. It is stated that he collected more dog tax in one year than all other collectors in the county together. For a short time during the war he held the position of assistant assessor of internal revenue for this county. In the year 1869 Hon. Hon. [sic.] J. A. J. Creswell, then postmaster-general, appointed Mr. Johnson to the position of postal clerk on the route between Washington and New York which he held until about 1885 when he resigned owing to ill health. During the raid of Lee into Pennsylvania he joined a Pennsylvania regiment and was for some time in the service. He was several times assigned to perform important duties. On the night that Lincoln was assassinated by J. Wilkes Booth, Mr. Johnson was in the theatre in Washingto [sic.] and saw the tragedy. He assisted in taking the president to his room. He was a close friend of Palmer C. Ricketts, the founder of THE WHIG. Mr. Johnson was never married. He leaves four brothers and four sisters. Of the former, William Johnson manages the woolen mill formerly owned by his father near Bay View; John B. Johnson is a carpenter and builder of Wilmington; H. C. Johnson a farmer residing near Bay View; Jethro Johnson who conducts a flour mill. Of the sisters, Jane married Elijah Hall, formerly of this county but now of Nesbraka [sic.]; Mary A., is the wife of Magistrate Joseph Benjamin, of Bay view; Deborah, widow of Bailey Russell and Miss Lydia who resides in Havre de Grace, Sheriff Samuel M. Johnson is a cousin of the deceased. The funeral took place on Tuesday afternoon at one o’clock from his late residence and was very largely attended. Brief services at the house were conducted by the Rev. E. K. Miller and the services at the church were conducted by the Rev. Mr. Litsinger. There were no less than 73 carriages in the funeral cortege. The pall-bearers were Messrs. Robert C. Thackery, J. Wesley Falls, Thomas McCracken, John W. Simpers, Samuel Burns and Charles Stewart. Interment was made in the cemetery of the Bay View M. P. Church. There were friends present from Washington, Baltimore, Philadelphia and Wilmington, as well as from all parts of the county. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Cecil Whig, Saturday, February 18, 1888 Page 2, Columns 1-2 James Johnson. Cecil county has sustained the loss of a valuable citizen in the death of him whose name heads the column, and while we sincerely mourn the loss of a friend and associate, it is still a pleasure to bear our testimony to the many excellent qualities which distinguished him as a man. We have known him for years intimately and well, and have respected him for his sturdy devotion to principle, his manly loyalty to his friends, his cordial and genial manners, and his considerate respect for the opinions and feelings of others. James Johnson came of a sturdy stock of ancestors who integrity of character and stern unyielding principle have been perpetuated in their posterity. The family of the Leslies from whom he is descended were distinguished in their day for their intelligence and influence, and numerous descendants of that family are still living who owe to it the possession of such qualities of mind and heart as exert a powerful influence in the immediate vicinities. Mr. Johnson had no superiors and few equals in what may be called the receptive quality of his nature. He was in every sense of the tem a self-educated man, and although he had not enjoyed the advantages of a collegiate career or even of an academic course, yet few men you met had superior intellectual acquirements, or were better taught in those essential matters which constitute the basis of a sound and practical education. Very early in life he developed a fondness for politics and his tastes ran in the line of debate and forensic discussion. He was a diligent reader not to say student of current polical [sic.] literature and kept abreast of his times in his knowledge of the history and progress of great political movements. Like his father he was an ardent Whig, and a devoted admirer of Henry Clay, and the intense feeling of Americanism which he had imbibed in that school, led him upon the disbanding of the old Whig party into the ranks of the native American organization and later upon the outbreak of the rebellion into the ranks of what was then known in this county as the Union Working Men’s party. On the great humanitarian questions of his day he was in advance of his political associates in this section and his sincere conviction of the fallacy of the divinity of slavery, and his outspoken admiration for the aggressive boldness of Wendall Phillips and Horace Greely, brought him more than once under the survelliance [sic.] of the law as interpreted under the old and infamous black code of Maryland. It was not difficult therefore to assign him his place when the slave oligarch of the south undertook to erect a government upon slavery as its corner stone. He became at once an influential local champion of human rights, and the uncompromising advocate of the unity of the nation whose protection he enjoyed, and during the troublous times of secession and disunion, he was ever the unflinching defender of his country’s honor and flag. In his knowledge of the details and data of local politics, Mr. Johnson had no superior. He had a wonderful memory for the minutiae of political history. He laid up unconsciously in the store-house of his memory and accurate record of passing political events, and was familiar with the public record of every prominent man of the times. It can be readily seen that the political influence of such a man was commensurate only with his activity and diligence. He early became the friend and associate of the prominent Republican leaders of the State, and was honored by them in substantial evidences of confidence and trust. In every official position to which he was assigned, whether in Government or municipal work he proved his integrity and capacity. To the Republican party of whose principles and doctrines he was so faithful an exponent his death will prove in his immediate vicinity a serious loss. In his personal relations no citizen of Cecil was more highly respected, and no man can justly charge him with a dishonorable act. We honor his memory as one worthy our warmest esteem and cherish with gratitude the recollection of the multiplied evidences of his friendship and regard.