| Notes |
- History of Walworth County, Wisconsin (1912)
By Albert Clayton Beckwith
David D. Johnson
It would have been hard to have found a more whole-souled or popular
gentleman in Walworth county during the past generation than the late David D.
Johnson, a man who lived to good purpose, ordered his course well and left
behind him a good name – a thing that is more to be desired than riche
Mr. Johnson was born in Albany, New York, August 29, 1834, the son of
William and Caroline (Vrooman) Johnson, the father a native of Canada, and the
latter of Mohawk valley, New York, and of Dutch ancestry.
David D. Johnson came west when nineteen years of age, and located at
Polo, Ogle county, Illinois, and there engaged in farming and dairying. In
1861 he enlisted in Company B, Seventh Illinois Cavalry, and served faithfully
in the Union army four years, having re-enlisted after being out a year. He
was in the battles of Shiloh and Corinth. He was taken sick and was sent to
the hospital in St. Louis in the New House of Refuge. Upon recovering, he was
detailed in the commissary department, remaining in the same sixteen months.
He attained the rank of corporal. After the war he returned to Polo and ran a
dray, remaining there until 1877, then moved to Walworth county and bought
two hundred and six acres in the north part of Geneva township, and lived
there until the spring of 1888. He then lived one year in Geneva and in 1899
he moved to Springfield, where he spent the rest of his days, being paralyzed
during the last nine years of his life and unable to do any work. His death
occurred on July 5, 1904.
Mr. Johnson was married on October 25, 1854, to Miranda A. Bogardus,
daughter of Jacob E. and Harriet (Coffin) Bogardus. She was born in Lysander
township, Onondaga county, New York, in 1835. Her father’s grandparents came
from Holland and settled in Greene county, New York. Her mother was born in
1810 in Lysander, New York, and Jacob E. Bogardus was born in Greene county,
New York, in 1804. In the spring of 1845, the Bogardus family came to Illinois
and located near Polo, in Buffalo township, Ogle county. When the family came
there they found a wild, unimproved prairie, over which one could look twenty
miles and not see a house. Cattle ranged at will over the unfenced prairies.
There Mrs. Johnson grew up and was married. Fourteen children were born to
them, one of whom died in early infancy, one when sixteen months old, the other
twelve growing to maturity, married and are still living. They are, Mrs. Sarah
Hollenbeck, who lives at Burlington; Charles H. lives in Polo; James William
lives in Lake Geneva; Mrs. Ida E. Palmer lives in Belmont, Wisconsin; George
D. lives in Springfield; Mrs. Carrie Myers lives at St. Charles, South Dakota;
Owen A. lives in Lake Geneva; John M. also lives in Lake Geneva; Bert A. lives
at Gray’s Lake, Illinois, Leslie J. lives with his mother at Springfiel
Walworth county; Mrs. Alice M. Beham lives at Graybull, Wyoming; Mrs. Nina A.
Malsch lives at Lake Geneva.
Mrs. Johnson’s mother, Harriet Coffin, was the daughter of Sarah Adams
(Bassett) Coffin, who was a cousin to President John Adams. Mayhew Adams, his
uncle, lived to the age of one hundred fifteen years. She lived to be o
hundred years old. Sarah Coffin’s father, Ebenezer Bassett, lived to a very
old age. Mrs. Johnson has a photograph in which she and her son and grandson,
her mother and her grandmother Coffin, five generations, occu
The Johnson children had the benefit of good schooling in Illinois, in
which school each pupil must secure a first-grad teacher’s certificate before
being permitted to graduate. The eldest daughter holds first-grade
certificates from both Ogle and Lee counties, Illinois.
Mrs. Johnson has thirty-four grandchildren and fifteen great-
grandchildren. She enjoys good health and strength for one of her advanced
years, is able to read, hears well and keeps house. She still owns the farm in
Geneva township and a home in Springfield where she now lives. She has a host
of warm friends throughout the county, and is a grand old lady whom to know is
to admire and accord the greatest respect, as a result of her long, useful
Christian life. Mr. Johnson was a member of the Independent Order of Odd
Fellows for many years. He was a man who lived honorably and was successful in
business affairs until gripped by disease.
|
Bassett Family Association Database
1834 - 1904 (69 years)
d. Deceased