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- EDGAR M. JOHNSON. The life of such a man as the late Edgar
M. JOHNSON
- is well worthy of emulation by the youth standing, as Longfellow
wrote, "Where the brook and river meet," meaning the
small stream of childhood with life's larger flood, often likened
to a river. This is so because Mr. JOHNSON was a man who set
a good example, his habits having been exemplary and he was also
a man of courage industry and strict integrity. Thus he was
held in high esteem by all who knew him, being for years one
of the worthy citizens of Walworth county.
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- Mr. JOHNSON was born in Bennington, Vermont, September 20,
1846, and he was therefore
- one of that hardy band of New Englanders who came here in
the early history of this section of the Badger state and took
a leading part in its development. He was the son of Parsons
and Roxanna (LITTLEFIELD) JOHNSON, who came to Beloit, Wisconsin,
in 1855, when the subject was nine years old, and there the parents
spent the rest of their lives, the father dying about 1896, the
mother surviving until 1910, having reached the advanced age
of eighty-nine years.
- Edgar M. JOHNSON was educated in the public schools and the
preparatory department of
- Beloit College. He worked for a time in the hardware store
of Hibbard & Spencer, of Chicago. He then attended the Bryant
and Stratton business College in Chicago, and after finishing
the course there, he secured a place with the board of public
works of that city. He then went to Silverton, Colorado, where
he engaged in the banking business for some time. He came to
Whitewater, Wisconsin, in 1883 and organized the Second National
Bank, of which he was president until the time of its consolidation
with the First National Bank. He was also vice-president of
both banks before the consolidation. He was very successful
as a business man, was by nature an organizer and promoter, could
foresee with remarkable clearness the future outcome of a present
transaction, and he made few mistakes. He became one of the
financially solid and influential business men of Walworth county.
Accumulating a handsome competency, he retired from the active
affairs of life about 1896, and his death occurred in 1898, at
his fine residence on Main street, where Mrs. JOHNSON still resides.
- Politically, Mr. JOHNSON was a Republican and he was a leader
in local affairs. He was a
- delegate to the national convention in St. Louis. He was
one of the regents of the State Normal school at Whitewater.
Religiously he was a member of the Congregational church. He
was a Freemason.
- Mr. JOHNSON was married in 1869 to Harriet KEEP, who was
born in Beloit, Wisconsin, the
- daughter of Judge John M. and Cornelia (REYNOLDS) KEEP.
They were married at Westfield, New York, and came to Beloit,
Wisconsin, in an early day, where he became one of the leading
members of the local bar and was at one time a judge. He helped
lay out the town of Darlington, Wisconsin, and it was largely
through his influence that the railroad was brought from Warren
to Mineral Point, this state. He was prominent in this part
of the state for a number of years, influential in public affairs
and a lawyer of the first rank. His death occurred on March
2, 1861. Politically, he was a Republican. His family consisted
of nine children, two of whom are living. His widow survived
until 1895.
- To Mr. and Mrs. Edgar M. JOHNSON two children were born:
Roxanna Littlefield JOHNSON,
- who married John E. OTTERSON, a naval constructor at the
Charleston navy yards, at Boston, Massachusetts; they have two
children, John E., now six years old, and Edgar JOHNSON, now
three years old. Lawrence Graham JOHNSON, the subject's second
child, was educated in Whitewater, Wisconsin, and St. Paul School
at Concord, New Hampshire. For some time he was with the First
National Bank at Whitewater, and he is now with the Studebaker
Brothers Manufacturing Company at South Bend, Indiana, being
in the delivery wagon department. In June 1911 he married Maud
TERRY, of Brodhead, Wisconsin.
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-
- Taken from "The History of Walworth County, Wisconsin,
Vol. II" by Albert Clayton Beckwith, (c)1912, pp. 1088-1090.
-
- Courtesy of Carol
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