Hugh Johnson

JOHNSON, POTTER, MACY, HOUGH

Posted By: Jeffrey R. Phillips (email)
Date: 6/26/2003 at 07:39:20

!BIOGRAPHY History of Hardin County, Iowa ;Springfield, Ill: Union Publishing Company., 1883, page
Hugh Johnson resides on section 21. Mr. Johnson was born in Monmouth county, now Ocean county, N. J., in 1813. He lived there till 1840, when he removed to Indiana. Mr. J. is a millwright by trade. He bought a mill in Indiana, which he run for some time, and then rebuilt and sold. He came to Iowa to improve his health. He came to Hardin county, from Indiana, with teams, in 1856. Mr. Johnson bought his first land (340 acres) of
Robt. and John Simpson. He has now 500 acres in his home farm and owns land in other places. His first wife was Ann Potter, of New Jersey. She died in Indiana, leaving Mr. J. with three small children. His second wife was Caroline Hough, born in Indiana. She died here in March, 1858. His present wife was Ann Macy, who came here with her father, Henry Macy, in 1855. Mr. Johnson's children by his first marriage are all deceased. Of these, James was a member of the 6th Iowa Infantry, and was captured at Jackson, Miss., imprisoned at Libby three months, and died at Annapolis in 1863. Mr. Johnson had six children by his second wife, all of whom but one (John) are living. John was in the cavalry service during the war of the rebellion, and died at home of disease contracted in the army. Mr. J. had three children by his present wife, two of whom (Casto and Martin)
are living. Mr. Johnson has been one of the successful farmers of Hardin county. He had no advantages for an education when a youth, but acquired sufficient knowledge of books, after reaching manhood, to transact all necessary business. In politics, he was an admirer of Horace Greeley, of whose paper he was a constant
reader for a long series of years, and he still continues to read the New York Tribune out of respect for its great founder. He is now independent in politics, voting as his conscience dictates.