My Genealogy Hound

Thomas Jefferson Johnson, surveyor of Posey county, is a native of Harmony township and was born on his father’s farm, four miles east of New Harmony, on January 11, 1845, the son of Moses and Elizabeth (Johnson) Johnson. The family was founded in Posey county by Thomas Johnson, a native of North Carolina, later a resident of Kentucky, who settled in Harmony township prior to 1816. He was a blacksmith, an occupation which he followed while a resident of Posey county. He removed to Clay county, Illinois, about 1840, where he died. Moses Johnson was born in Harmony township in 1817. He was a farmer and surveyor. He was a Democrat and was elected county surveyor in 1853 and in 1872, and died in 1874 while in office. He was a member of the Regular Baptist church. He married Elizabeth Johnson, a distant relative, who was born in Kentucky in 1813. She died in April, 1889. They were the parents of five children, four of whom survive: Cynthia, the wife of Orvis S. Endicott, a farmer of New Haven, Ind.; Susan, the widow of Martin Williams, who was a farmer of Robb township, Posey county; she is a resident of Evansville; Thomas J., the subject of this review; and Mary, the widow of Jeddy Pitts, who was a well known farmer of Mt. Vernon; she is a resident of Pomona, Cal. Thomas Jefferson Johnson received his early educational training in the district schools of Harmony township, later attended the University of Indiana, where he completed a two-year course in the law department, being a member of the class of 1865. He subsequently practiced his profession in Posey county. From the days of his early manhood he took an active interest in his father’s work as a surveyor and became proficient in this line of endeavor. He also was an active participant in the political life of his section and an ardent Democrat. His first public office was that of assessor of Harmony township. He was elected surveyor of Posey county in 1870 and appointed in 1874 to fill out the unexpired term of his father, who had succeeded him. From 1875 until 1881 he farmed in Harmony township. In 1880 he was elected to his former office, that of county surveyor, and was re-elected in 1882, 1884, 1886 and 1888, serving until January, 1891, when he became auditor of the county, having been elected the previous fall. He was re-elected to this office in 1894 and served until March, 1899. From the last-named year until 1903 he farmed in Center and Point townships. In 1902 he was again elected surveyor of Posey county, his seventh election to this office. He was re-elected in 1906, 1908, 1910 and 1912, his term expiring in January, 1914, and the eleventh which he has served as a public official, Mr. Johnson has won the respect and esteem of the citizens of his county and his administration of the affairs of his office has been marked by honesty, fidelity and high efficiency. In point of years of service, few county officials of the State of Indiana have ever equaled him, as he will have concluded, when his present term expires in 1914, twenty-nine years of public duty, of which twenty-one have been passed in the office of surveyor. Mr. Johnson married on March 18, 1869, Miss Caroline Barrett, of Harmony township, who died December 18, 1881.