Sedgwick County KSGenWeb

Portrait And Biographical Album of Sedgwick County, Kan.

Chapman Brothers 1888

Pages 839 - 840

JAMES F. JOHNSON, an industrious and thorough farmer of Illinois Township, is engaged in raising grain and stock on his farm on section 27. He is a native of Breckinridge County, Ky., and made his appearance upon the stage of life June 20, 1842. His parents, Lindsay and Cheney (Clarkston) Johnson, were natives, the father of Missouri, and the mother of Virginia.

             The subject of this sketch remained at home, assisting his father in his labors and in attending school, until he had attained his thirteenth year. At that time, in 1855, his father died and he was compelled to go out in the world and battle for an existence, and to help support his widowed mother and the children at home. The family was a large one, there having been some thirteen children, the names of whom are herewith given: Mildred, deceased; Bethana, Edmund; Mina, deceased; Humphrey; Robert, and two infants unnamed, deceased; James, the subject of our sketch; Lindsay, Ellen, Martha, and an infant unnamed, all deceased.

                    For five years James F. remained with his first employer, but since that time has been a great traveler on this continent. In the course of his busy life he has made his home, temporarily, in Chicago and Quincy, Ill.; Red Rock, Iowa; Cleveland and Columbus, Ohio; Martinsville and Leesburg, Va., and many other places. During the late Civil War, being filled with a strong love for the old flag, he entered the service of the General Government, as a soldier in the Federal army. He was an officer in Company E, 27th United States Colored Infantry, of Ohio, and served with them about eighteen months. With the regiment he served in all the marches and campaigns around Petersburg, in the battles at South Branch, Dutch Gap, Ft. Harrison, and in the siege of Petersburg itself, where so many of the pride and youth of our noble country "ventured life and love and truth," and laid down their martyred lives as a sacrifice on the altar of their country. After the fall of the latter place the regiment was transferred to North Carolina, where it was hotly engaged at several points, among the most noticeable of which was that at Ft. Morehead, at Ft. Fisher and at Goldsboro. During the many battles and skirmishes in which he was present and took an active part, he was fortunate enough to escape almost unwounded. A slight bayonet wound on the forehead, and a severe contusion of the ankle caused by the fall of a piece of heavy timber, were about his only casualties. He was mustered out of the service and discharged at Newbern, N. C., in September, 1865, and returned to Columbus, Ohio, where he had made his home prior to his enlistment. In 1868 he removed to Highland County, Ohio, where he was engaged in farming. A strong tide of emigration sweeping over the country toward Kansas in 1870, he came to this State and cast his lot among the pioneers of Sedgwick County. He took up under the homestead act 160 acres of land on section 27, where he now resides.

             After a short residence in Kansas, Mr. Johnson returned to his home in the Buckeye State, and then coming back to Kansas, commenced life as a farmer on the broad and fertile plains of this State, where he has ever since made his home. His farm contains some 160 acres of land, is in a high state of cultivation, and the improvements upon it are most excellent. He has set out a healthy and thrifty orchard of some 170 trees, and otherwise added to the value of his land. He is as yet unmarried, not having found his ideal of a perfect woman. In politics he affiliates with the Republican party, feeling that within its tenets lies the safest guide to our National progress. He is a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and carries his religion into the daily walks of life. Honest, industrious and entirely free from debt, his influence in the township is extensive and well merited. His education was acquired in the common schools of his native State, but being a man who reads, and a lover of good books, he has acquired a large fund of general information, notwithstanding the cares and responsibilities of a busy life.

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