GOODSPEED BIOGRAPHIES
Contributed by Charlene Holland
JOHN H. JOHNSON
John H. Johnson's life, from his earliest recollection, has been passed on a farm, his early day being spent in assisting his father, who, in addition to being a successful tiller of the soil, was a well known educator. The subject of this sketch was born in Johnson County of this State in 1849, his parents, John H., Sr. and Mary (Sweeden) Johnson, being born in the State of Tennessee. About 1833 or 1834 they came to Arkansas, where for some time Mr. Johnson followed the occupation of school teaching. In 1853 he moved to Scott County, and settled on a large woodland farm in the Fourche Valley, in which section he taught school in addition to clearing up his farm, also serving for several years, before the Rebellion, as county surveyor. He was a strong Union man in sentiment during the war, but did not serve on either side. He died in 1866, a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church; his widow dying in 1884, a member of that church also. The subject of this sketch spent the greater part of his youth in this county, near Waldron, and on a farm near his present place of abode. Although his early advantages were limited, he is a well-informed man, and has proven himself a good financier. He was married in 1867 to Miss Mary E. Tate, a native of Alabama, and a daughter of William Tate, after which family Tate Township, in this county, was named. Mr. Johnson settled on his present farm in 1868, and now has a good farm of fifty acres under cultivation, on which he erected an excellent and substantial residence in 1883. He began working at blacksmithing and woodwork in 1872, and, although he is perfectly capable of putting up a good wagon, he mostly does repairing. From 1882 until 1889 he was postmaster at Green Ridge, at the end of which time he resigned. His family consists of the following children: Francis Joseph, John William, Sarah Ann (wife of William Londus), Floy, Benjamin, Thomas Scott and Mahala (who died at the age of eighteen months). Mr. Johnson and wife are members of the Baptist Church, and socially he is a Mason. His sons assist him in the shop, and John William is about to start a shop of his own, eighteen miles east of Waldron.