**************************************************************************** File contributed to the Fulton County ILGenWeb Project Copyright 2008, all rights reserved. These electronic pages cannot be reproduced in any format without the written consent of the author at http://fulton.ilgenweb.net. **************************************************************************** Source: Portrait and Biographical Album of Fulton County Biographical Publishing Co., Chicago, 1890 **************************************************************************** The Biography of Moses Melville JOHNSON Transcribed by Lyde. Note: this is abstracted data from the original biography. [Surnames: BOONE, DOWNIN, JOHNSON, SPAULDING, WEAVER, WILLCOXEN] MOSES M. JOHNSON is a middle-aged man who enjoys the esteem of his fellow citizens, especially on account of his strong advocacy of equal rights to the laborer and the capitalist. Through years of careful observation, reading and study, he has come to consider the financial status of the people of the United States from a standpoint of impartiality and has been led to acknowledge the almost entire helplessness of the innocent laborers. He is a leader in the farmers' movement in this county, and having begun life under adverse circumstances, and from early manhood having been brought in contact with men of all descriptions, proclivities and tendencies, he is well fitted to lead his fellows on to a higher sphere of thought and a broader outlook. Moses C. Johnson, the father of our subject, was born in Vermont, and came of the old Green Mountain stock. He came to Illinois prior to 1827 and was one of the first to locate in Fulton County. In 1831 he settled on a farm in Fairview Township, being the third permanent settler north of Canton. He served in the Black Hawk War as a scout and patrolman, being an experienced hunter and an expert shot. He was married in Liverpool Township to Miss Zerilda Willcoxen, a daughter of Captain Elijah Willcoxen, whose history appears elsewhere in this ALBUM, and a relative of the renowned Daniel Boone. To this union there were born nine children--Charlotte, Louisa, Mary, Elijah W., Moses Melville, Deborah, Zerilda, America and Orena Ellen--all but three still living. The father died when our subject was but nine years of age and his mother was married again. Our subject was born in Fairview Township in August 1840 and remained on the farm until sixteen years of age, at which time he rented a tract of land on shares. He had received a common school education. When eighteen years old, in company with a party of friends, he started for Pike's Peak, leaving the Indian Ford near London Mills on April 10, 1859. They fell in with other outfits and the company was finally increased until it numbered one hundred adults, and the train consisted of twenty-two wagons. At the Big Blue in Kansas some of the company became discouraged and returned East, but the major portion, after some discussion, decided to continue Westward to the Pacific Coast. Reaching the Mormon trail at Ft. Kearney, they followed it until the ninth crossing of the Sweet-Water, when they diverged to the Northwest, traveling over hundreds of miles without seeing a human habitation until they arrived at Ft. Walla Walla on September 10. Mr. Johnson had but fifteen cents in his pocket and was in debt for the scanty half rations on which he had subsisted for weeks. He at once hired out to work by the month on the Government ranch and subsequently worked in the lumber regions near. About this time E.D. Pierce, the well known pioneeer prospector, conceiving the idea that there were great treasures in the upper country formed a company of twenty-two men, of whom Mr. Johnson was one, and made an expedition. The party traveled one hundred and fifty miles Northeast of Walla Walla, crossing the streams in Indian canoes and swimming their horses. The adventures of this company, together with the description of the wonderful scenery of the country which they traversed, would fill a volume. It is sufficient for us to refer to it as the first which formed a mining camp North of California and herefore of great historical importance. The members of the party naturally endured many privations, such as are common to long journeys through mountainous regions and far from the haunts of civilization, but notwithstanding this the journey proved most interesting. Mr. Johnson was on the spot where Dr. Spaulding established his first mission in 1837 and printed the first newspaper in the northern part of the Pacific Slope. Mr. Johnson enjoyed the privilege of conversing with the missionary. The good man planted an orchard of apple trees, which Mr. Johnson saw in full bloom and which, with the foundation of the stone chimney, were the only things left of the mission after the massacre. In mining and prospecting Mr. Johnson spent four seasons; was then engaged on a ranch three seasons , after which he began freighting, carrying miner's supplies principally from the boat landing on the Columbia River to different mining camps in the upper country, using pack mules. He had many thrilling experiences with the Indians and narrowly escaped with his life at different times. He looks back upon his experiences in the West with a great deal of interest and satisfaction as a wonderful school of actual happenings. After nine years of life in that country, he sailed from Portland to San Francisco where he embarked for New York, via Panama and finally reaching his old home April 2, 1868. The following December Mr. Johnson was married to Miss Eliza Jane Downin, daughter of J.S. Downin, whose sketch is given elsewhere in this volume. She was born in Maryland but came with her parents to Illinois when a child. She is the eldest daughter in a family of eight children. After their marriage Mr. and Mrs. Johnson settled on a farm that the husband had bought at the Master of Chancery sale. It consisted of one hundred and sixty-four acres on Section 7, Fairview Township, and is still in their possession, although not occupied by them but rented. In 1887 Mr. Johnson removed to a large tract belonging to his father-in-law, where he continues to reside. He has practiced strict economy and worked hard and has been reasonably successful in his life's labors in a financial sense. He believes that the labor of this country is not properly recognized and has worked hard and long and expended considerable money in furthering the labor cause and proposes to work in this direction as long as he is allowed to be on earth. Mr. Johnson has served as School Trustee and Highway Commissioner, having been elected on the People's ticket. He is a strict prohibitionist but considers the labor question of the day of such paramount importance that he gives his chief attention to the support of the Labor party. He was a delegate to the great Labor Convention which was held in St. Louis, MO September 3, 1890. When the Greenback party made the labor question a National issue he heartily endorsed their platform and in 1880 was a delegate to the National convention of the Greenback Labor party and as such helped to nominate James B. Weaver for the Presidency. That year he was tendered the nomination for member of the Legislature but declined. He had been an unsuccessful candidate for Sheriff on the Greenback ticket in 1876 and again in 1878. Mr. Johnson has given the Grange movement his earnest support from its inception and believes that the order is destined to effect great improvement in the enlightenment of agriculturists and in freeing them from the selfishness that mars human efforts. He is Master of Round Top Grange No. 1293 and has been since its revival in February, 1890. He was prominently connected with Fairview Grange NO. 12, the first organized in the county and was a charter member. In his farming operations he strives to use intelligence and scarcely a year passes but that he introduces something new and of importance in the cereal line. He has brought into the county several varieties of potatoes and keeps a high grade of cattle strongly tinged with the Short-horn blood. In religion, as in politics, he believes in equal rights and the careful observance of the Golden Rule. Note: For more on this family, please see Elijah WILLCOCKSON Descendants website (http://stipak.com/willcockson/elijah/bios/2.htm) --Alice, a great-great grandniece of Moses M. Johnson.