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Below is a family biography included in The History of Maries County, Missouri published by Goodspeed Publishing Company in 1889.  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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Monroe Johnson was born in Dry Creek Township, Maries County, in 1847, and is a son of Rev. Abraham and Emeline (Avery) Johnson. He was the third born and is now the only living child of the family of four. In early life he attended the common schools, and afterward attended school at Steelville and St. James, later spending two years in the literary and scientific course at the State University. In 1871 he married Naomi O., daughter of Samuel C. and Naomi Fleming, of Phelps County, Mo., where Mr. Fleming has lived for nearly fifty years, having been a native of Tennessee. Mrs. Fleming was born in Alabama, and died in Missouri in November, 1888. Of the six children born to Mr. and Mrs. Johnson one son and three daughters survive. Since his marriage Mr. Johnson has lived on his present farm on the Gasconade River, one mile from his birth-place; he owns in all about 290 acres, and is one of the leading and enterprising farmers and stock-raisers of the township. He takes an active interest in educational matters of the county and spares no pains to give his children a good education. In 1875 he was appointed postmaster of Clifty Dale postoffice, which appointment he held several years, and was again made an incumbent of the same office in 1881. He took the census of Dry Creek and Spring Creek Townships in 1880, and has done much for the upbuilding of the surrounding country. He is a Democrat politically, and in religious belief he and wife are advocates of the Holiness faith. Rev. Abraham Johnson, father of our subject, was born in St. Louis County, Mo., in 1817, and two years later removed with his parents to what is now Maries County, Mo., where they were among the earliest white settlers. Here Abraham was reared among the Indians and wild beasts of the forest, enduring the hardships of pioneer life and deprived of all educational advantages. He was fond of hunting, and in early manhood spent several years engaged in flat-boating on the Gasconade and Missouri Rivers. He was an enterprising farmer, and as a result of industry and good management accumulated considerable property, which he lost through going surety for friends; but not despairing, he has since again placed himself in comfortable circumstances. He was a close student, and in 1844 became a licensed minister of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church and was a member of the St. Louis Presbytery, preaching in Arkansas and the southern part of Central Missouri. In 1855 he became a practicing attorney of Maries County, and was an able practitioner, holding the office of county attorney; he also served about forty years as justice of the peace, assessor, public administrator, and in 1862-63 represented Maries County in the State Legislature. Soon after the outbreak of the war he was made captain of Company A, Sixty-third Enrolled Missouri Militia, and in 1862 became major of Maries County Militia, which he successfully conducted. During the latter part of the war he served as a private in the regular United States service. Mr. Johnson has been married three times. He first married, in 1840, Emeline Avery, who died in 1851, and in 1853 he married Nancy McGee. His third marriage occurred in 1857, to D. E. Dunivin. Mr. Johnson has spent nearly his entire life in Maries County, and is probably the oldest settler now living there, having been a resident of the county seventy years, and one of its most prominent and respected citizens. He is a son of Thomas Johnson, who was born in Grainger County, Tenn., about 1782, and died in Maries County, Mo., in 1855. The latter came to St. Louis in 1815 with his father, who was also Thomas Johnson, and came from England with his brother Robert in an early day. Robert Johnson served in the Revolution, but Thomas had taken the oath of allegiance to his mother country. Thomas Johnson was in the War of 1812, and was with Jackson at the battle of Horseshoe Bend, Tenn., against the Indians.

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This family biography is one of 37 biographies included in The History of Maries County, Missouri published in 1889.  For the complete description, click here: Maries County, Missouri History, Genealogy, and Maps

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