Tulare County Biographies

JAMES LAFAYETTE JOHNSON

Transcribed by Kathy Sedler

This file is part of the California Genealogy & History Archives
http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~cagha/index.htm

 
It was in the state of Arkansas that James L. Johnson was born August 22, 1844. 
Early in the following year, when he was about seven months old, his parents, 
Joseph H. and Mary (Murray) Johnson, took him overland to Oregon. After a four 
years' residence there, they came to California. They located first at Napa 
City, later engaged in stock-raising in the vicinity, and then went to Oakland, 
and for several years they lived there and at Martinez and on San Joaquin 
Island. Subsequently they were at Merced, Gilroy and Watsonville, one after the 
other, and in the meantime James L. had acquired an education in the public 
schools. At Porterville he married Miss Harriet Rhodes, daughter of the late 
William C. Rhodes, a biographical sketch of whom appears in these pages. Mrs. 
Johnson bore her husband three children. Edna married William Lucius Kelley, of 
Fresno county, and they have had three children named Charlotte, deceased; Loren 
and Ora. Elmo married Bertha A. Crocker and she has borne him three children: 
Idena, Florence and Odessa. Lena is deceased.
The first land in this vicinity owned by Mr. Johnson was bought from the United 
States government. He pre-empted one hundred and sixty acres in Jordan Valley 
and paid it out at $1.25 per acre, and has added from time to time and now owns 
about four sections. Three hundred and fifty acres is devoted to farming, the 
remainder is hill land, used for pasture. On the place are kept about 
seventy-five head of cattle and one hundred head of other live stock. When Mr. 
and Mrs. Johnson settled in the valley, land could be bought at $1.25 an acre 
which would now be cheap at $200 and upward. The only buyers of stock in those 
days were Miller and Lux.
The old Democratic politics of his sire was in a way inherited by Mr. Johnson, a 
man of public spirit, ready always to aid to the extent of his ability any 
movement for the good of the community.
 
History of Tulare and Kings Counties, California with Biographical Sketches - 
Los Angeles, Calif., Historic Record Company, 1913, Pp 817-818