Richard M. Johnson
This well known grant county farmer and business man came here when a child more than sixty years ago, and long since acquired a substantial position as a man of affairs, and head of one of the important families of this community.
Richard M. Johnson was born in Green County, Ohio, September 21, 1842, a son of Enos and Martha (Pierce) Johnson. the family are of old Southern stock, and the parents were born in North Carolina, were married in North Carolina, and then joined in the great migration from those states, moving out with a horse and cart, and finally arrived Green County, Ohio, with only twenty-five cents of available capital. Enos Johnson followed his trade of a shoemaker, which he had learned in the south, until he was about forty years of age, when he moved on the the west and arrived in Grant County in 1850. He bought eighty acres of school land in Blackford County, but later sold that and lived in center and afterwards in Monroe Township of Grant county, where he was a prosperous farmer and owned a good quantity of well improved land. His wife died there in August, 1880, when about three score years of age. She was a devout Methodist. Enos Johnson died in Monroe Township at the home of his daughter, during the winter of 1895, being then an old man, his birth having occurred May 30, 1812. He was likewise a Methodist, a Democrat in politics, and a man of substantial character. Of the thirteen children some died young, and seven are still living, all of whom have been married and have had children, and there are now two widows.
Richard M. Johnson, who was the fifth child, and the first son in this large family, was eight years old when his people came to Grant County, and grew up and received his education in Monroe Township. He early acquired an interest in the land and more or less actively identified with farming, he has spent much of his time and acquired much of his prosperity from trading and speculation. In 1908 Mr. Johnson and wife spent a winter in California, and since then all their winters have been passed in Florida, returning to Grant county only with the opening of the summer season. Mr. Johnson was identified with the Democratic party as a voter until 1884, when he transferred his support to St. John, and has ever since been an active Prohibitionist, and very decided in his advocacy of that party. He has served officially as Assessor in his home township.
Richard M. Johnson first married Phama Gage, of Grant County, who was born in Licking County, Ohio, March 23, 1840, but was reared in Grant county, where she died June 7, 1873. she was the mother of two children: Pahma E., who die din infancy, and one that died unnamed. Mr. Johnson for his second wife was married in Monroe Township to Sarah E. Moon. She was born in Clinton County, Ohio, August 23, 1854, at the age of five years came to Grant County, with her parents, Thomas Moon, and lived in this vicinity ever since. Her father, Thomas Moon, was born in North Carolina in 1798, a son of Joseph and Ann Moon, who spent all their lives in North Carolina, and were of English stock. They were farmers, and close adherents of the Friends Church. Thomas Moon and wife were married in Clinton County, Ohio, and were farmers there, and also in Monroe Township in Grant county, where he died. His wife passed away in Clinton County, Ohio, when her daughter now Mrs. Johnson was three years old. Thomas Moon married for his second wife, about the time he came to Indiana, Eleanor (Hinshaw) Holloway, who died in 1893. Thomas Moon died in 1868.
Mr. and Mrs. Richard M. Johnson have the following children:
-
Margaret E., born September 26, 1880.
-
Jason, born January 6, 1883, married Emma L. Knick, but has no children.
-
Edith, born March 31, 1886; graduated from the Jonesboro High school, completed her education in the Marion Normal College, was for some years a teacher, and is the wife of James Arthur Loughry, a dentist of Ohio, and a graduate of the Ohio Medical College, their home now being in Cleveland, Ohio, and they have one son, James R., born July 19, 1912.
Mr. and Mrs. Johnson and family are all members of the Friends Church, Mrs. Johnson's birthright being Quaker.
Margaret E. Johnson, the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Richard M. Johnson was born September 26, 1880, was educated at Jonesboro and in the Marion Normal College, graduating in oratory in 1901, and for some time was a teacher of expression. she married Forrest C. Miller, who was born in Henry County, Illinois, April 25, 1881, and is also a graduate of the Marion Normal College, with the Class of August 1903. After his commercial education he was a teacher in the commercial department of the Muncie Business College, and then accepted a place of trust and responsibility with the Thompson Bottle Company at Gas City as Credit Man and Cashier, and was with that large plant for eight years. Mr. Miller is now regarded as one of the best equipped young business men of Gas City, and is associated with Mr. A. L. Prickett in the lumber business. Mr. and Mrs. Miller own a beautiful home on East Main Street in Gas City, are educated and cultured young people, and leaders in the younger social set. They have one daughter, Dorothy M., born April 12, 1905, and now in the third grade of school.
Source: Centennial History of Grant County Indiana 1812-1912. The Lewis Publishing Co., 1914, page 1232.