Tuesday, October 20, 1936

A BRIEF ENTRY FROM EDNA

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Cool — Nice day.

Henry went to G.R. to Road Comm[ission]

meeting.

Helen + Alice both went

to sort apples. They rode with

Frances Jahnke.

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Edna didn't have much to report today. Maybe she was tired. Maybe it was just a fairly uneventful day. She will make up for it tomorrow.

In her journals, Edna often makes note of Henry's service to the Road Commission. Henry had a long history of community service that began long before 1936.

Grand Rapids and Kent County, Michigan: Historical Account of Their Progress From First Settlement to the Present Time is a thick tome that details the history of Kent County and many of its citizens.

On pages 196 and 197, the good character of Henry A. Johnson, his service and his ancestry is detailed. Written in 1918, Henry A., Jr. (Hank was not yet born).

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Henry A. Johnson. -It may be cited as proof of the stable character of the people of Kent county that many of the finest farms here are owned by direct descendants of the original settlers, and that the land has never been out of the family since it was secured half a century or more ago by the pioneer of the family. The Johnson farm, in Bowne township, is a case in point, for its owner is Henry A. Johnson, who secured it by purchase from the heirs of his

parents, who located here at the close of the Civil war. Mr. Johnson, in addition to being a prominent agriculturist, is connected in various ways with important business interests and has also taken no small part in the public affairs of the community, having repeatedly served in offices within the gift of his fellow-citizens. He was born on the farm which he now occupies, March 3, 1877, son of James C. and Eleanor L.

(Nash) Johnson. His father, a native of Cherry Valley, Pa., received ordinary educational advantages and in his youth followed farming. When the Civil war came on he served a short enlistment as a member of a Pennsylvania regiment, and then, coming to Michigan, enlisted in Company F, Sixth Michigan cavalry, with which he served until the close of the war. With his honorable discharge and a splendid record as a faithful and hard-fighting soldier of the Union, he returned to the duties of peace and to the vocation of an agriculturist, buying eighty acres of land in Bowne township, the greater part of which was uncleared. He completed the clearing of this tract and cultivated it, and in later years added forty acres to his original purchase, and passed the rest of his life in developing a productive and handsome country estate. Here both he and his wife died. Mr. Johnson was one of the well-known men of his community, who stood high in the estimation and confidence of his fellow-citizens, whom he represented in school offices and as supervisor of Bowne township for nine years. He was a Democrat in politics, and he and Mrs. Johnson were faithful members of the Methodist Episcopal church at Bowne Center, of which he was a trustee. His fraternal connection was with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. Mr. and Mrs. Johnson were the parents of five children: Gladys, who married W. H. Pardee, of Traverse City, Mich.; Lydia, wife of John W. Porritt, of Bowne township; Jennie, wife of O. B. Pardee, of this township; Katherine, who married W. Cosgriff, also of Bowne township; and Henry A. Henry A. Johnson attended the district schools of Bowne township and spent two years at the Valparaiso (Ind.) Normal School, and for the two years which followed devoted his talents to school-teaching in his native township. Following his. father's demise, he returned to the home farm, which he managed for his mother until she died, and at that time bought the 120-acre home farm from the other heirs and has since, by good management, added forty acres more to the estate. As a general farmer he has been more than ordinarily successful, as he has also in the breeding of live-stock, particularly hogs, his registered animals having gained his farm some reputation as a breeder through this section. Mr. Johnson is also well known in business circles as a man of good judgment and ability and is a director in the Alto Co-operative Elevator Company and secretary of the Farmers Mutual Telephone Company. With his family, he attends the Methodist Episcopal church and has liberally supported its movements. A Republican in political tendency, he has served in school offices and as supervisor of the township, has been township clerk seven years, and township treasurer two years, and for the past four years has been supervisor, and in each capacity has given his best abilities and energies to the furtherance of things which have promised to advance the community interest. His only fraternal connection is with the Modern Woodmen of America lodge. Mr. Johnson was married, Nov. 28, 1902, to Edna A., daughter of Moses and Celinda (Bergy) Weitz, natives of Canada, Mr. Weitz now being a resident of Bowne township. Mr. and Mrs. Johnson have five children, all at home, born as follows: Lucile, Dec. 10, 1903; James Lawrence, April 27, 1905; Alice, May 14, 1911; Morris, Jan. 27, 1914; and Helen Virginia, July 26, 1917.