Kings County Biographies


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



 
JEFF JOHNSON
 
a rancher east of Lemoore, was born in Wayne County, Ohio, in 1837.  His father 
died when he was but four years of age, after which he lived with his mother 
until the age of twelve years, when he struck out in life to gain his own 
support.  He worked for wages upon farms in Indiana until 1859, when he came to 
California.  Joining a company of twelve men and six wagons they crossed the 
plains and landed at Placerville, after an uneventful trip of about six months.  
He then began mining on the middle fork of the American river, but after an 
unsuccessful year he went to Oregon and engaged in lumbering.  In 1868, he 
returned to the East, making the trip by water and the Isthmus; he began farming 
in Illinois and in different localities in Iowa and Missouri; in 1883 he 
returned to California and settled in Fresno.  The last time Mr. Johnson crossed 
the plains he was accompanied only by his family.  The journey was made in a 
wagon with a single span of horses, and consumed five months and one day.  He 
purchased forty acres near town, and also rented about 400 acres outside, and 
followed grain farming until 1888, when he sold out and purchased his present 
ranch of forty acres near Lemoore.  He has a small orchard and thirty acres in 
vines, and now devotes his time to his vineyard interests.
            He was married in Bureau County, Illinois, in 1873, to Miss Emeline 
Hartley, a native of Illinois, and of this union have been born four children:  
May, Essie, Warren and Viola.  Mr. Johnson is a member of the Farmers� Alliance, 
and through the influences of the order expects greater protection to farming 
interests.
 
Memorial and Biographical History of the counties of Fresno, Tulare and Kern, 
California
Chicago, The Lewis Publishing Company, 1892  p. 770
Transcribed by Kathy Sedler