John M. Johnson

Submitted by Elizabeth Burns, Aug 2002

Arizona, The Youngest State, 1913, pg 257-258

John M. Johnson, who platted the Johnson addition to Bisbee, where he is conducting a general mercantile store, was born in Missouri on the 17th of January 1866, his parents being Thomas J. and Matilda Johnson, who were also natives of Missouri, where they passed their entire lives. The father, who died in 1911, engaged in farming. The mother passed away in 1891 at the age of forty-five years. Our subject is the fifth in order of birth in a family of eleven children, eight of whom are still living.

The early life of John M. Johnson was very similar to that of the average youth who is reared on a farm. He attended the common schools in the acquirement of an education and assisted with the work of the farm until he was about seventeen years, when he started out to make his own way in the world. A longing to pursue his career amid conditions different to those in which he was born led him west. For three years thereafter he followed the life of a cowboy in Colorado and then went to Pueblo, where he opened a restaurant, which he conducted for a short time. In 1888 he came to Arizona and settled among the Indians on the present site of the city of Bisbee. Here for twelve years he worked as a miner for the Copper Queen Company and then engaged in the real estate business, with which he has ever since been identified. In 1896 he platted and subdivided a twelve acre tract of land, which he called the Johnson addition, and immediately began its improvement. He has disposed of the entire amount within the intervening period with the exception of the building where his store is located and four residence properties. Mr. Johnson owns more than three hundred acres of valuable mineral land adjoining the copper Queen holdings and is a stockholder in various mines which are under development.

On the 18th of August, 1893, Mr. Johnson was married to Miss Maggie Edmunds, who was born near what is now Florence, Arizona. She is a daughter of Eugene and Antonie Edmunds, who went to California in the '40s and thence to Arizona. Both parents passed away in Cochise county, the father 's death occurring in 1883 and that of the mother in 1887, and they were buried in Tombstone cemetery. To Mr. and Mrs. Johnson have been born three children as follows: Elsie May, who was born April 2, 1898, and is now attending the Normal School at Flagstaff and is studying music; Milton George, who was born February 2t, 1906 and is a student of the public schools; and Mabel, who died at the age of one year.

The family affiliate with the Christian church, in which the parents hold membership and Mr. Johnson belongs to the Fraternal Order of Eagles. Politically, he supports the democratic party but has never held an office save that of deputy sheriff. He has been a hardworking man and fully merits such success as has come to him, as it is the result of persistent endeavor and capably organized and intelligently directed effort.

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