Henry JOHNSON ¹

   User ID: P00024626.

  General Notes:

Henry Johnson was born at Burr Oak, MI, April 9, 1949. He spent his life at
that place until the age of sixteen when he enlisted in the Union Army in
1865, serving one year and was honorably discharged, utterly broken in
health. A sea voyage to California was recommended by his physician. His
health improved and he remained there until '69 when he returned to Michigan
to spend the winter with his mother. He came to Kansas in the spring of '70
and was united in marriage to Kate E. Watson, March 12, '77. Six children
were given them; two girls and four boys. The girls died in childhood, but
the four boys and wife are left to mourn his loss. He settled on a farm one
mile east of Andale in the fall of '70 before the land was surveyed, and was
one of the oldest settlers in Sedgwick county. He lived there untill about
nine months ago, when he ........
and bought north of the river in order to get more land. He had been in
poor health for ten years and died of Pneumonia, November 20, '08.
Mr. Johnson has lived an honorable up-right life and was a kind and
indulgent husband and father. When his health permitted he attended church
regularly and the funeral services were held from the Christian church,
Sunday, Nov 22, conducted by M. J. Duncan, of Burrton The remains were
interred in the Mt Hope cemetery.
The following friends and relatives from a distance attended the
funeral: Mrs John Beckwith, Mr and Mrs D. M. Dale and Miss Ada Pratt, of
Wichita; Mr and Mrs Will Dale, of Clearwater; Mrs C. S. Watson and Mr Frank
Watson of Pond Creek, Okla; Mr and Mrs R. D. Watson, of Enid, Oklahoma; Mr
Cliff Johnson, of Goddard; and Mr Frank Johnson, of Oatville.

(no date or source but assume it is from the Mt Hope Clarion)

Henry seved in the 12 Regiment, Company C from Kalamazoo in the Civil War.. Henry is listed as being 19 and from New Buffalo.

Transcribed from The Mount Hope Clarion. dated Thursday, Aug 5, 1993
By Jan LaMotte

HOMETOWN HISTORY

MOUNT HOPE – FAYETTE
Greeley Township Post Offices

By Dan W. Graves

The geologically flat city of Mount Hope lies south of Highway K-96 halfway between Wichita and Hutchinson. The name of the town calls to mind a mountain peak, but one looks in vain for a knoll or even a hillock. Why, then, “Mount Hope?”

One naming account appeared in the Mount Hope Clarion for March 10, 1927. In the article, J. P. McCormick, early settler and prominent in community activities, tells how Mount Hope got its name. He speaks with authority, according to the article, for he was present at the meeting at which the name “Mount Hope” was given to the town.

The meeting took place in a little schoolhouse a half mile west of town in the year 1873. At that time, the settlement was to have a post office, and the meeting was called for the purpose of deciding on a name to be used as a postal designation. The name of “Mount Hope” was suggested by Conrad McCormick, father of J. P., who was a former resident of Mount Hope Township, McLean County, Illinois. After several ballots to eliminate the several names suggested, “Mount Hope” was selected. (end of 1927 article.)

No recorded minutes of that meeting have been discovered to date, but it is a fairly safe assumption that Thomas H. Randall and Samuel Maxwell suggested Ohio names they had left behind: Dr. Durant and George Thorn favored Indiana names; William Daily remembered a Missouri reference; or Marion Anderson another Illinois hometown, perhaps. These are the names of the men who petitioned for mail service.
“Century of Memories”
“The men would not agree on a name as each was loyal to a place from where he had come,” according to the Mount Hope 1983 Centennial Publication. “So they called on the ladies. Mrs. Anderson and Mrs. Daily rode a borrowed mule to each home of those living in the area to get a vote for the name. Mount Hope had the most votes."

The Centennial Committee was composed of Ruthe Porter Harris, Gladys Anderson Hefling, and Martha V. Teem Johnsmeyer. They stated to a Wichita reporter that they had five other versions besides the one which has the mother of J. H. Maxwell and Mrs. Randall picking the name we know from a hymn that was sung at a singing bee.

Background research for the McLean County Mount Hope Township has been supplied recently by Bob and Harriett Mullin, who have been seeking family history in the East. Their findings of interest in this column were sent to Bill Chance and Dan Graves and include a map and two sheets copied from “The Good Old Times in McLean County, Illinois” by E. Duis, published in 1874 and facsimile reprinted in 1992 by Heritage Books, Inc. Bob continues his abiding interest in his hometown for which we are all grateful.

The Duis book refers to the activity of the Mount Hope Company in Rhode Island and then, in 1836, when the company recorded 8000 acres in Illinois including land holdings of Robert Longworth and his son, John. The latter succeeded in making terms with the Company by paying about what it cost to enter and survey the Longworth land.

The Longworth and McCormick families were mutually friendly in McLean County. John Longworth's daughter, Belinda, married Marion McCormick, another son of Conrad McCormick. Marion was a guardian of Carrie Longworth from her childhood to her marriage January 22, 1918, to J.P. McCormick.)

Thus, one way or another, Mount Hope became the name of the new post office. The postman rang officially on December 24, 1873, with the appointment of Thomas H. Randall as first postmaster. Mail was distributed from the Randall home until C. C. Thomas built the first store in Mount Hope on the northwest corner of Ohio and Main Streets and the Randalls moved mail activities to that building. Mount Hope has depended on the long line of successful postmasters for the past 120 years.

Incidentally, there are in Kansas nineteen cemeteries named “Mount Hope Cemetery.” None that this writer knows of is on a mountain.

Fayette was the second station in Greeley Township with a post office. John P. Edwards “Historical Atlas of Sedgwick County” (1882) located Fayette in the southwest quarter of Section 34 of the property of Giles and Dinah Harnden.

Leon Charles Fouquet, grandfather of local citizen Alma Fouquet Miller, noted in his journal that he picked up his mail from Mrs. Harnden. The arrangement for mail was formalized by the United States Postal Service on May 12, 1875, with the appointment of Giles Harnden as first Fayette postmaster. Several new farmers in the sections along the Parallel listed their post office address as Fayette in A. T. Andreas' “History of the State of Kansas” (1883).

Mail service at Fayette was discontinued March 17, 1884, as reported in “Kansas Post Offices, 1828-1961” by Robert W. Baughman, published in 1961 in Topeka.

Mail in Sherman Township was handled in the town of Magnolia from 1877 to January 1899, before being transferred to Andale on the latter date. Leon C. Fouquet was the first postmaster in Andale.

Fayette and Magnolia are only two “lost' towns in Sedgwick County. The list of such towns was found in “Extinct Geographical Locations,” Kansas Historical Society Collections, 1911-1912, published 1912. The entire list includes “lost” towns, post offices, overland stations, missions, settlements, and trading posts in Kansas, 1852-1912.

  Research Notes:

1880 US Cenus Sherman township, Sedgwick County, Kansas

12 Johnson Henry W M 31 head farmer Michigan England England
Kate W F 20 wife housekeeper Illinois Pennsylvania Illinois
Maud W F 1 daughter Kansas Michigan Illinois

  Noted events in his life were:

• Military Service: in the Union Army, 1865/1866. Henry served 1 year in the 12 Regiment, Company C from Kalamazoo in the Civil War. Henry is listed as being 19 and from New Buffalo and was honorably discharged, utterly broken in health.

• Residence, Bef 1869, California, USA.

• Residence, After 1869, Michigan, USA.

• Residence, After 1870, Kansas, USA.

Henry married Kate E. WATSON, daughter of Unknown and Mary E., on 12 Mar 1877. (Kate E. WATSON was born on 3 Mar 1860 in Somonauk, Dekalb County, Illinois, USA, died on 14 Feb 1914 in Andale, Sedgwick County, Kansas, USA and was buried in Mount Hope, Sedgwick, Kansas, USA.)