A Narrative History of The People of Iowa with SPECIAL TREATMENT OF THEIR CHIEF ENTERPRISES IN EDUCATION, RELIGION, VALOR, INDUSTRY, BUSINESS, ETC. by EDGAR RUBEY HARLAN, LL. B., A. M. Curator of the Historical, Memorial and Art Department of Iowa Volume IV THE AMERICAN HISTORICAL SOCIETY, Inc. Chicago and New York 1931 IRVING C. JOHNSON was born and reared in the City of Oskaloosa and now has standing as one of the representative members of its bar. In choosing his field of professional endeavor Mr. Johnson emulated the example of his honored father, the late Judge J. Kelly Johnson, who was long a leading lawyer in this city and who served with distinction on the bench of the District Court. The subject of this review is known for the amplitude and exactness of knowledge of law and precedents and for the efficiency of his service as counselor, besides which he had made a record of success as a resourceful trial lawyer. He is retained as attorney for the Johnson Abstract Company and other corporations, and his law business is one of substantial and representative order. He has been engaged in the practice of his profession in Oskaloosa more than thirty years, and has continuously maintained his office in the building at 121 High Avenue, East. He is a popular and influential member of the Mahaska County Bar Association and the Iowa State Bar Association, besides having membership in the American Bar Association. He has been content to give undivided allegiance to his profession and thus has had no desire for political office, though he is a staunch advocate and supporter of the cause of the Republican party. Mr. Johnson was born in Oskaloosa, judicial center and metropolis of Mahaska County, on the 1st of June, 1872, and is a son of Judge J. Kelly Johnson and Ann E. (Gruwell) Johnson, the former of whom was born in Greene County, Ohio, August 22, 1841, and the latter of whom was born in Columbiana County, that state, she being a daughter of Dr. J. P. Gruwell, who was likewise a native of Ohio and who was long in active practice as a physician and surgeon, he having been of English and French lineage and his wife having been a birthright member of the Society of Friends. Judge J. Kelly Johnson was a son of Abijah and Elizbeth (Bailey) Johnson, the former of whom was born in Warren County, Ohio, a representative of one of the sterling pioneer families of that section of the Buckeye State, and the latter of whom was born in Virginia, whence she accompanied her parents to Ohio. Abijah Johnson gained success both as a farmer and a merchant. In 1854 he moved with his family from Ohio to Crawfordsville, Indiana, and there he continued to the mercantile business until 1865, when removal was made to Oskaloosa, Iowa. He continued as one of the honored pioneer citizens of this community until 1881, when his impaired health led him to remove to California, where his death occurred in the following year, his wife having died in that state likewise. They became the parents of eight children: Sylvia B., J. Kelly, Micajah D., Rebecca O., Overton A., Warren C., A. Henry, and Anna. Of the number Warren C. is the only survivor. Judge J. Kelly Johnson was in his thirteenth year at the time of the family removal to Crawforsville, Indiana, and in that state he received the advantages of Wabash College and Battle Ground Institute. Thereafter he was a student in the law department of the University of Michigan during one session, and in 1865, when twenty-four years of ag, he came with his parents to Oskaloosa, Iowa. Here he became a student in the law office of J. R. Bancroft, and subsequently h attended a law school in the City of Des Moines. He was admitted to the Iowa bar in 1867, and he then engaged in the practice of his profession at Eddyville, Mahaska County, where he formed a law partnership with Henry C. Clements, a personal friend who had been a fellow student in the law school of the University of Michigan. Judge Johnson was chosen city attorney of Eddyville, and this office he retained until 1868, when he found a broader field of professional endeavor by engaging in practice in Oskaloosa. Here he formed a partnership with George W. Lafferty, and their professional alliance continued until his election to the bench of the District Court in 1883. In 1869 Judge Johnson had been appointed city attorney of Oskaloosa, and by subsequent election he retained this office six years. He represented Mahaska County in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth General Assemblies of the State Legislature, and in the latter was chairman of the house committee on constitutional amendments. In 1882 he was elected to the bench of the District Court of the Sixth Judicial District, and in the election of 1886 he had no competing candidate. He was again elected in 1890, and was thus serving his third consecutive term at the time of his death, November 12, 1894. Judge Johnson was a man of dignity, urbanity and unfailing courtesy, his legal learning was broad, and his rulings on the bench were signally fair and impartial, while he ever strove to temper justice with mercy, as he knew well the springs of human thought and motive and was kindly and tolerant in his judgment of humanity. His political allegiance was given to the Republican party, and he and his wife were earnest members of the Friend's Church, their marriage having been solemnized April 27, 1871. Mrs. Johnson survived her husband more than thirty years and her death occurred in Los Angeles, California, March 7, 1928, when she was in her eighty-seventh year. Judge Johnson was but fifty-three years of age at the time of his death. Of the seven children two died in infancy, and of the five surviving the eldest is Irving C., of this review: Mrs. Elizabeth J. Esgen resides in Los Angeles, California; Carl remains in Oskaloosa; Alice is the wife of John C. Bradbury, and they reside in Oskaloosa; and Emily is the wife of J. E. Duffy, of Redondo Beach, California. Erving C. Johnson was graduated from the Oskaloosa High School as a member of the class of 1888, and in the fall of the same year he here entered Penn College, in which institution he was graduated in 1892 and from which he received the degree of Bachelor of Arts. In the following year, after completing effective post-graduate work in Haverford College, near Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, he received from that institution the degree of Master of Arts. Upon his return to Oskaloosa he began the study of law under the preceptorship of his father and later continued his studies in the office of Seevers & Seevers, one of the leading law firms of the city at that time. In May, 1895, he passed a successful examination in Des Moines and was duly admitted to the bar of his native state. He has since been engaged in the independent or individual practice of his profession in Oskaloosa, and is now one of the veteran and honored members of the bar of his native county. He gave six years of service as referee in bankruptcy for the southern district of Iowa, and retired from this office in 1908. He has been for thirty years a trustee of his academic alma mater, Penn College, is secretary and a director of the Hawkeye Lumber Company of Oskaloosa, is a director of the Willapa Lumber Company in the State of Washington, is a director of the Mahaska County State Bank, and is a former president of the Rotary Club of his home city. He and his wife are active members of the First Presbyterian Church of Oskaloosa. October 19, 1899, marked the marriage of Mr. Johnson and Miss Mary Hortense Burnside, daughter of William and Hannah (Henderson) Burnside, who gained pioneer honors in Iowa, Mr. Burnside having been born in Guernsey County, Ohio, June 4, 1842, a son of James and Mary (Wilkin) Burnside, representatives of sterling pioneer families of the Buckeye State, and Mrs. Mary (Wilkin) Burnside having been of Scotch-Irish ancestry. William Burnside was a youth when he accompanied his parents to Iowa, and at the age of twenty years he here enlisted for service as a soldier of the Union in the Civil war. He became a member of Company A, Twenty-fifth Iowa Volunteer Infantry, August 20, 1862, and with this command he served until January 23, 1864, when he was transferred to the Fifty-first United States Infantry. He continued in service some time after victory had crowned the Union arms and was mustered out at Baton Rouge, Louisiana, June 16, 1866, with the rank of first lieutenant. Mr. Burnside lived up to the full tension of conflict at the front and took part in many engagements, including the siege and capture of Vicksburg. After receiving his honorable discharge he returned to Iowa, where he advanced his education along varied lines, including his study of law and the taking of a virtual commercial course. In 1868 Mr. Burnside engaged in the real estate and abstract business in Oskaloosa, and finally he purchased the lumber business which eventually became the first unit of the present Hawkeye Lumber Company, which was incorporated in 1901 and of which Mr. Burnside continued the president until his death March 12, 1911, this being one of the leading lumber concerns of Iowa, with headquarters in Oskaloosa and with numerous branches. Mrs. Burnside survived her husband and died in Oskaloosa, January 6, 1925. Their marriage occurred on Christmas day of the year 1868, and all of their seven children survived the honored father: Ralph H. is a resident of Portland, Oregon; Charles H. resides in New York City; Mary H. is the wife of Mr. Johnson of this review; Margaret H. is the widow of Ralph Hinshaw, of Oskaloosa; Miss Elizabeth H. likewise resides in this city; John H. is a resident of Denver, Colorado; Alice H. is the wife of Howard Hockett, of Whittier, California. Mr. and Mrs. Johnson have two children. J. Kelly, named in honor of his paternal grandfather, was graduated as an electrical engineer from Columbia University, New York City, where he remains as an instructor in electrical engineering. Miss Hannah Grouvelle Johnson was graduated from the Oskaloosa High School, thereafter continued her studies tow years in Penn College, then completed a course in the University of Chicago, in which she was graduated, and later graduated from Columbia University upon completing a library course. She is now an efficient and popular member of the executive staff of the Frick Art Reference Library in New York City. Debbie Clough Gerischer _http://www.celticcousins.net/scott/index.htm_ (http://www.celticcousins.net/scott/index.htm) _http://iagenweb.org/history/index.htm_ (http://iagenweb.org/history/index.htm) _http://gerischer.rootsweb.com/_ (http://gerischer.rootsweb.com/)