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Below is a family biography included in Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Scott County, Arkansas published by Southern Publishing Company in 1891.  These biographies are valuable for genealogy research in discovering missing ancestors or filling in the details of a family tree. Family biographies often include far more information than can be found in a census record or obituary.  Details will vary with each biography but will often include the date and place of birth, parent names including mothers' maiden name, name of wife including maiden name, her parents' names, name of children (including spouses if married), former places of residence, occupation details, military service, church and social organization affiliations, and more.  There are often ancestry details included that cannot be found in any other type of genealogical record.

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John H. Johnson’s life, from his earliest recollection, has been passed on a farm, his early days being spent in assisting his father, who, in addition to being a successful tiller of the soil, was a well-known educator. The subject of this sketch was born in Johnson County of this State in 1849, his parents, John H., Sr., and Mary (Sweeden) Johnson, being born in the State of Tennessee. About 1833 or 1834 they came to Arkansas, where for some time Mr. Johnson followed the occupation of school teaching. In 1853 he moved to Scott County, and settled on a large woodland farm in the Fourche Valley, in which section he taught school in addition to clearing up his farm, also serving for several years, before the Rebellion, as county surveyor. He was a strong Union man in sentiment during the war, but did not serve on either side. He died in 1866, a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church; his widow dying in 1884, a member of that church also. The subject of this sketch spent the greater part of his youth in this county, near Waldron, and on a farm near his present place of abode. Although his early advantages were limited, he is a well-informed man, and has proven himself a good financier. He was married in 1867 to Miss Mary E. Tate, a native of Alabama, and a daughter of William Tate, after which family Tate Township, in this county, was named. Mr. Johnson settled on his present farm in 1868, and now has a good farm of fifty acres under cultivation, on which he erected an excellent and substantial residence in 1883. He began working at blacksmithing and woodwork in 1872, and, although he is perfectly capable of putting up a good wagon, he mostly does repairing. From 1882 until 1889 he was postmaster at Green Ridge, at the end of which time he resigned. His family consists of the following children: Francis Joseph, John William, Sarah Ann (wife of William Londus), Floy, Benjamin, Thomas Scott and Mahala (who died at the age of eighteen months). Mr. Johnson and wife are members of the Baptist Church, and socially he is a Mason. His sons assist him in the shop, and John William is about to start a shop of his own, eighteen miles east of Waldron.

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This family biography is one of 62 biographies included in Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Scott County, Arkansas published in 1891.  For the complete description, click here: Scott County, Arkansas History, Genealogy, and Maps

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