Page 647-648, transcribed by Carolyn Ward from History of Butler County, Kansas by Vol. P. Mooney. Standard Publishing Company, Lawrence, Kan.: 1916. ill.; 894 pgs.


  HISTORY OF BUTLER COUNTY 647 cont'd

J. J. Johnson, of Lincoln township, is not only known in Butler county as a successful fruit grower, but his reputation as a horticulturist extends beyond the limits of the State of Kansas. He is not only a practical fruit man, but one of the best posted men on the science of horticulture in the State. Mr. Johnson was born in Wayne county, Illinois, in 1863, a son of Dr. W. N. and Mary (Galbraith) Johnson, the former a native of Tennessee, and the later of Illinois. After graduating from medical college, Dr. Johnson located in southern Illinois, and engaged in the practice of his profession. He located at Johnsonville, Ill., beginning practice there about the time the town was founded, and it was named in his honor. He was a capable physician, being a man of a natural scientific turn of mind, and a profound student of medicine; and he attained a high degree of eminence in his profession He belonged to the doctors of the old school, and while he was a financial success, fees with him were matters of secondary consideration. He practiced medicine for the love of his profession, and with a view of alleviating suffering. He practiced in an epoch of the history of the medical profession, before the age of specialists, multiplicity of operations and split fees. He practiced for sixty years, and on his eighty-sixth birthday, the Medical Association of Southern Illinois, gave a banquet in his honor.

J. J. Johnson was one of a family of nine children, and was the fourth in order of birth. He was reared in Wayne county, Illinois, and after receiving a good common school education, he attended college, and since that time has been interested in horticulture. In February, 1887, he located in Lincoln township, five miles north of El Dorado, Kans. Mr. Johnson began with limited capital, and has devoted himself all these years to fruit culture. He now owns of fine farm of 320 acres, well improved, with a splendid orchard of about 5,000 fruit trees. The number of trees which he has had, has varied from time to time, the maximum number being about 20,000. He has made a profound study of the science of horticulture, and is a recognized authority on the subject, and for many years, has been connected with the State Agricultural College at Manhattan, and his name appears on the pay-roll of that institution as a regular employee in conducting horticultural and agricultural experiments.

Mr. Johnson was married July 29, 1890, to Miss Myrtle May Cameron, a native of Butler county, and a daughter of John and Mary A.


648 HISTORY OF BUTLER COUNTY  

(Davis) Cameron. The Cameron family came to Butler county and homesteaded in Chelsea township in 1869. Mrs. Johnson saw much of the pioneer life of Butler county when a child and remembers of having seen deer and antelope here. To Mr. and Mrs. Johnson have been born three children, as follows: Mary Alberta, principal of the high school at Lebanon, Kans.; Myrtle, a student in the State Agricultural College at Manhattan and a member of the senior class; and Dorothy Joy, a student in the El Dorado schools.

Mr. Johnson is a man who applies himself with a definite object in view. He is thorough in his work and when he formulates an ideal condition, he bends every effort to its fulfillment. Besides their fine home on the Butler county farm, Mr. and Mrs. Johnson have a nice home in Manhattan where they are also well known and have many friends.


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