Edward Johnson, the well known president of the Brick, Tile & Cement Company of St. Marys, Kan., was born Oct. 26, 1852, in the city of Ekesjo, Sweden. He is a son of O. S. Johnson, a farmer, who managed a large estate in Sweden. Mr. Johnson's father was born, reared, married, and died in his native country. Edward Johnson left the old country, in 1869, at the age of seventeen, coming to Rockford, Ill., and from thence to Kansas. True to the spirit of his Fatherland he worked his way at chores and odd jobs, in the meantime spending his spare moments in studying telegraphy. Later he entered the field of railroad work and followed it thirty-three years. During this time he held various positions of responsibility, such as operator, agent, division clerk, train dispatcher, and chief dispatcher. The six years previous to the time he came to St. Marys, as agent, he spent in Colorado. While agent at St. Marys he became interested in the brick making business, and he has the distinction of having established the first oil burning brick plant in the State of Kansas. He went in as president of the concern he established and, under his excellent management and thrifty business principles, the plant has grown and increased until it is in a very flourishing condition, having a capacity of 30,000 brick, of the stiff mud process, in a day. The brick are of an excellent quality, being used for paving, sidewalks and building. The yard is a model one and has attracted such favorable attention of parties interested in the brick business that they have copied from it.

Mr. Johnson was married, in 1892, to Mary P., daughter of A. T. Palmer, who has been for a number of years assistant superintendent of the Union Pacific railway at Kansas City. Of this union there are two children: Frederick P., eighteen years old, a student in the high school at St. Marys, and Olive E., fifteen years old, is also a student in the high school at that place. Mr. Johnson was reared a Lutheran and belongs to the fraternal order of Masons, being a Knight Templar of that order. Politically he is a stanch Republican and has served the people of the city of St. Marys as mayor two terms and as councilman several terms, besides having served as township clerk and as a member of the school board.