Genesee-Oakland County MI Archives Biographies.....Johnson, Abner C. 1821 - ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/mi/mifiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Joy Fisher sdgenweb@yahoo.com December 7, 2007, 2:39 am Author: Chapman Bros. (1892) ABNER C. JOHNSON, who is well known among lawyers and is recognized as a man of great legal ability, settled in this county in Mundy Township, Genesee County in 1839. He was born in Montgomery County, N.Y., at Canajoharie, August 2, 1821. The father, Thomas Johnson, was a hatter by trade, who came to Michigan in 1828 with his family. He was the son of Capt. John Johnson, who was one of the Revolutionary heroes and of English descent. Buying Government land, this pioneer set up housekeeping in a log house, and with the aid of his children began felling the trees and improving the land. In 1836 he located in Independence Township, Oakland County, where for thirty-five years he was Justice of the Peace, and was known far and wide as Esquire Johnson. The father of our subject had brought with him on coming West some $300, with which he had designed to pay for his land, but he unfortunately had endorsed for a friend in the East to the amount of $500, and upon this friend failing he was called upon to make good the loss, which seriously crippled him for years, but he overcame all his difficulties, and when he died in 1880, at the age of seventy-eight, years he was a man of wealth. He was a true-blue Republican ever after leaving the Whig party, to which he first belonged, and an earnest member of the Methodist Episcopal Church to which his wife, Charlotte, also belonged. Her father was a captain in the Revolutionary War and a large landed proprietor, owning some one thousand acres. She died in Oakland County, having been the mother of the following children: Timothy, Abner C., Jane and David (deceased), Ransom, Maria and Permelia. After spending his boyhood in Montgomery County, our subject at the age of eight, removed to Bloomfield—subsequently to Independence, Mich., but after a while removed to New York, and attended school at Green, Chenango County, for a year. In his youth he was known far and wide as an athlete, and could out run and out jump any contestant, even an Indian. In 1839 he came to Genesee County and brought land in Mundy Township. Here he put up a log shanty which he occupied at once, and which seemed to him a paradise of a home under the shade of the beautiful trees. It was built of beach and maple logs with black walnut planks for flooring, and a blanket hung in the doorway. His first crop of buckwheat was the largest ever grown in the township. He had great success in hunting, killing hundreds of deer. He once shot a big stag in a cedar swamp, and has often brought down as many as seven full-grown deer in a day. Mr. Johnson began his law studies when only a boy with George W. Wisner, brother of ex-Gov. Wisner, and after the death of this gentleman, the Governor and our subject began to do business together, and have purchased hundreds of thousands of acres. He has one hundred and sixty-five acres on the home farm, and one hundred and eighty in Grand Blanc Township, and with his son R. C. Johnson, he owns eighty acres in Gaines Township, besides land in other parts of the State. Since 1864 he has carried on the real-estate business and the practice of law in Flint, and for years has been Notary Public and Supervisor. Mundy Township was the scene of the marriage of our subject in September 27, 1845, writh Amanda Pearsall, a New Yorker by birth, daughter of Joseph and Sally (Mowry) Pearsall. Her father was a soldier in the War of 1812. Their three children are: Charles H., and Ransom C., who are lawyers in Flint, and James D., who carries on his father's farm in Grand Blanc, besides owning farms in Grand Blanc, Mundy and Fenton Townships. Several social orders claim this gentleman as one of their members, and he is active in politics. He belongs to the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and the Sons of Malta. In early times he belonged to the party of Know Nothings, and is now a stanch and earnest Republican. He is also a worker in the County Agricultural Society, and his good wife is useful in her connection with the Episcopal Church, of which she has long been a member. Additional Comments: Extracted from: Portrait and Biographical Record of Genesee, Lapeer and Tuscola Counties, Michigan, Containing Biographical Sketches of Prominent and Representative Citizens, Together with Biographies of all the Governors of the State, and of the Presidents of the United States Chicago: Chapman Bros. 1892 File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/mi/genesee/bios/johnson917gbs.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/mifiles/ File size: 5.0 Kb