My Genealogy Hound

SAMUEL E. JOHNSON, who is engaged in merchandising in the village of Townsend, is in all respects a self-made man. He was born in Godwinville, now Ridgefield Park, Passaic County, N. J., March 13, 1850, and was the youngest of a family of five children, three of whom are now living. The parents were Joel M. and Hannah (Edsall) Johnson, the former a native of Vermont, born in 1816, and the latter of Bergen County, N. J. The father removed from Vermont to Mead’s Creek, in Steuben County, N. Y., and when about nineteen years old went to New Jersey, where he taught school a few years. He was a well educated man, being a graduate of Hobart College at Geneva, N. Y., and for some years was Principal of Pompton Academy, in Passaic County. Later he followed farming near Paterson, and also engaged in the lumber business in the city. He was a prominent man in public affairs, and in the ‘50s represented his county in the State Legislature. On the breaking out of the war he was commissioned Captain of a company in the Seventy-fifth New York Infantry, which became a part of General Sickle’s Excelsior Brigade. He served his country faithfully and well and was honorably discharged at the close of the war. His wife, the mother of our subject, died in 1850, and he was afterward twice married. His last wife is still living at the old home in Paterson, N. J., where he died June 3, 1895.

Our subject was left motherless when an infant but seven weeks old, at which time he was taken into the family of his uncle, Thomas Johnson, in the town of Orange, Schuyler County, where he remained until he reached his majority. He was educated in the common schools of the county, and at the age of twenty-one commenced life as a laborer, working by the day and month. In 1878, having accumulated a little money, he embarked in the grocery business with his brother Joel in New York City, in which business he continued for a year and a-half. On the 19th of January, 1880, he was married at Watkins, N. Y., by Rev. Mr. Waldo, to Florence May Stiles, who was born in the town of Potter, Yates County, July 4, 1854. She is a daughter of Isaac and Amerilla (Wheat) Stiles, both of whom were natives of the same county. Her father was a farmer in that county, where he spent his entire life, dying when Mrs. Johnson was five years of age. Her mother died when she was a child of two years.

After his marriage our subject located in Townsend, buying a farm of thirty acres, which he later disposed of. Afterward he purchased a farm of one hundred and eight acres, two miles south of the village; besides this he also owns fourteen acres within the village limits of Townsend, together with a nice residence and store building. In December, 1892, he erected a store building and put in a good stock of general merchandise, and in the years that have since passed has built up an excellent trade. He still gives his personal attention to his farm, and is engaged in general farming and stock-raising, in which he has been fairly successful. In politics he is a Republican, as his father was before him, and cast his first Presidential vote for General Grant. The family was a patriotic one, and besides the father two sons were in the army. John A. died while in the service and his remains were interred on Southern soil. Irving W. came home at the close of the war, but soon afterward started for Florida and has never been heard from since. Mr. and Mrs. Johnson are the parents of two children, Bell and Joel M., both of whom are yet at home. Mrs. Johnson and her daughter are members of the Baptist Church.