Sedgwick County KSGenWeb

Portrait And Biographical Album of Sedgwick County, Kan.

Chapman Brothers 1888

Pages 851 - 852

WILLIAM A. JOHNSON, a leader in the hardware trade at Valley Center, is one of the pioneers of this State, and in company with his father-in-law, James Gray, put up the first frame house in Edwards County, on the south side of the Arkansas River. He is one who has always had abundant faith in the future of "bleeding Kansas" and has been active in assisting to develop its resources and encourage the immigration of an intelligent and enterprising class of people. He has been prominent in religious, educational and political affairs, and in Edwards County occupied various important offices, being Vice President of the Building and Loan Association, Chairman of the Board of County Commissioners, Overseer of the Poor, Deputy Sheriff, etc. As may readily be surmised his time has been industriously occupied, and when not employed with his own private affairs he has generously given of his time and attention to those enterprises inaugurated for the welfare of the people around him.

            The firm of Johnson & McKey, of which our subject is the senior member, carries a large and well-selected stock of hardware. Mr. Johnson removed from the town of Kinsley, Edwards County, this State, to Valley Center, in 1887. At the former place he had been engaged as a dealer in grain and stock, giving particular attention to the former and realizing therefrom handsome profits. He comes from a State of solid and enterprising men, having been born in Chautauqua County, N. Y., on the 11th of April, 1852. His parents, Rev. William and Angelina (Chipman) Johnson, were also natives of New York, the former born in Geneseo and the latter near Ellington. Both are now living, and continue residents in the vicinity where they were born. Rev. William Johnson is now in the sixty-ninth year of his age, and the mother is sixty-five. They have always lived upon a farm, where their son William A. was reared and developed into manhood. The father was fond of country life, although not regularly engaging in the labors of agriculture, and thus was well fitted to superintend the tilling of the soil by his employes. In his native State and precinct he has been pastor of his church, the Free-Will Baptist, for many years. He was well educated in his youth and commenced laboring in the ministry before reaching his majority, and was ordained when twenty-one years old.

            The father of our subject, when about twenty-two years of age, was sent to the Dominion of Canada, as a portion of the Master's vineyard in which it was believed he could do good service, and where he labored for a space of two years, but with the exception of this brief absence from his childhood's home has near the latter place spent all his life. The parental family included four sons and two daughters - James A., William A., Warren C., Almond W., Hattie and Olive. Hattie married Charles Mason, and is now living in Erie County, Pa.; Olive was the wife of C. C. Fuller, a native of Vermont; they located in Erie County, where Mr. F. died in 1880, leaving three children - Angie, Edith and Myrtie. Mr. Fuller was a carpenter by trade and was also at one time employed as a wagon manufacturer. He served as a Union soldier three years during the late Rebellion. James A. married Miss Clara Rickerson, and they are living in Chautauqua County, N. Y.; Warren C. married Miss Ida McGill, and is farming in Edwards County, this State; Almond W. married Miss Orpha Bailey.

            Mr. Johnson, of our sketch, received a good classical education, and leaving home at the age of nineteen years entered the employ of James Gray, of Erie County, Pa., with whom he remained some four years, having charge of the lumber department of his business, near Corry, Pa. Subsequently Mr. J. engaged as a contractor in the town of Bradford and vicinity until about 1876-77, and then on account of the failing health of his wife decided to try a change of climate, and came to this State.

            The marriage of William A. Johnson and Miss Eva R. Gray took place on the 6th of August, 1872, in Erie County, Pa. Mrs. J. is the daughter of James and Rose Gray, natives of Pennsylvania and New York. Our subject and his wife have two children: Olla, born April 1, 1874, and Cassius, June 4, 1879. Both are at home with their parents. Mr. Johnson, politically, is one of the most reliable members of the Republican party, and his estimable wife is a member in good standing of the Presbyterian Church, at Yates Center, Kan.

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