Jefferson County Illinois Biographies

   Like the Caseys and Maxeys, the Johnsons one and all have been prominent from the earliest settlement of the county. Benjamin Johnson, the ancestor of our Jefferson county Johnsons, was a Marylander. John, a son of his, was the father of our pioneers. Lewis, the son of this John Johnson, was among our very first settlers. He had nine children Milly, Anna, Lucy, married L. Foster and they lost their house by fire and their infant son was cremated; James E. Johnson was the eldest son of Lewis. He was quite a preacher and improved the farm where John T. Johnson raised his family. John T., the next oldest brother of James, was licensed to preach when but twenty years old. He joined the conference and took regular work. Nicholas lived in Grand Prairie and died there. Elizabeth married G. B. Afflack, of Richview. Nancy married James Barnes, of Richview. Susan married A. Witherspoon, and went to Kentucky. James Johnson. second son of John, married Clarissa Maxey in Tennessee, and came here in 1818. His eldest son, John, married Sarah Hobbs and they were the parents of our present Dr. A. Curt, James D. and John N. Johnson, Mrs. Henry T. Waters and Mrs. David H. Summers. He was an enterprising man, a physician, but chose rather to do other business. He merchandised and built several houses in Mount Vernon, among them the Johnson House, the big brick near the Methodist Episcopal church, in 1854. He died, much missed and lamented, in 1858.

   John, the youngest brother of Lewis and James, came later, in 1834, and located in Mount Vernon. He died here in 1858. His children were Doctor T. B., who died in Kentucky in 1870; the wife of Blackford Casey; J. Fletcher; Washington; G. Wesley, J. Benson, a girl and boy who died in childhood, and Adam Clark, the faithful historian of the pioneers of Jefferson county. John Johnson, "Uncle Jacky," as we knew him in our boyhood days, was born in Virginia, in 1783 born in poverty and left an orphan. By the help of a slave he learned the alphabet, and after he was converted in his teens, he could not read intelligently. But by the light of pine knots he studied the Bible at night, after hard days' work, and on Sunday, at some cabin on the hillside he would proclaim the Gospel with a pathos and power that always carried the hearts of his rustic hearers by storm.  He had a voice of unusual power and could he beard two miles away. His discourses were brief, but always plain, practical and convincing. Yet with all his rugged vigor his heart was as tender as a woman's, with a sympathy that extended even to the insect at his feet. He was to all intents and purposes, a pioneer preacher of the Cartwright order, except that he had none of the great preacher's belligerency. He traveled the country from Ohio to Natchez, in Mississippi, and preached at every opportunity. His allotted work led him through much uninhabited country, among Indians, wild animals and equally wild men, but always trusting in the Lord. He was certainly a great preacher and a very remarkable man. Over sixty years ago we heard him preach from the text "What shall it profit a man if he gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?" and we have never forgotten the text, the sermon, nor the man. His widow died here in 1895, and his sons are all gone, except Washington S. The descendants of J. Fletcher and G. Wesley are still in our midst. and rank among our very best people. His death was peaceful, and triumphant. Many of his descendants are valued citizens of Mount Vernon.