My Genealogy Hound

JOHN H. JOHNSON, an experienced workman, holds the responsible position of foreman of the coach department of the Missouri, Kansas & Texas car shops, located at Sedalia. He has been in the employ of this corporation since November, 1887, and the efficient manner in which he carries on the work of his department indicates him to be a man of good judgment, and one possessed of a thorough knowledge of his line of work.

Our subject is a native of Ohio, and was born in Lancaster, June 22, 1854. He is the son of James B. Johnson, a native of Fairfield County, Ohio, who for many years was engaged in the transfer business in Lancaster, that state. In 1866, however, he emigrated to Illinois, locating at first in Bloomington, where he carried on that business for some time, and then removed upon a farm in McLean County, where his death occurred when in his fifty-seventh year.

Our subject’s mother, who was in maidenhood Mahala Hines, was a native of Maryland, and married Mr. Johnson about 1852. She accompanied her husband on his various removals, and died while living on the farm in McLean County, when fifty-six years of age. In the parental family there were four children, of whom J. H., of this sketch, was the eldest. He was educated in the splendid schools of Bloomington, Ill., and remained with his parents until twenty years of age, when he apprenticed himself to learn the trade of a carpenter in Bloomington. After working under instructors for three years he obtained a position in the Chicago & Alton car shops as coach carpenter, and after remaining there for some time received a better offer from the Illinois Central foreman in that city and accepted a position in the coach department. He did not find the place as pleasant as the former, and after six months returned to the Alton shops, remaining there until 1879. That year we find him in St. Louis, Mo., as inspector of carpenter work on the Pullman coaches. He continued with this company until 1887, when he resigned to accept the position of foreman of the shops here. About thirty men are under his charge, and he superintends the work of the department in a most satisfactory manner.

Mr. Johnson occupies a comfortable residence on Ninth Street and Barrett Avenue, and is the owner of valuable real estate in the city. He was married in Bloomington, Ill., in 1880, to Miss Lillian Franklin, who was born in Woodford County, that state. By her union with our subject she has become the mother of three children, Orville, Gracie and Minnie. Socially, Mr. Johnson belongs to the Modern Woodmen, the Woodmen of the World, and the Ancient Order of United Workmen. He is a stanch Republican in politics, and with his wife attends the Methodist Episcopal Church, of which she is an active member.