Frank M. Johnson
May 8, 1842-December 16, 1911
Niles, Mich., Dec. 15 - Frank M. Johnson, a former resident of this city, died this morning at his home near New Carlisle, Indiana. Mr. Johnson was born in Niles and was of a prominent family. He left Niles about 25 years ago, when he went to Chicago and resided there until eight years ago when he went to New Carlisle. He is survived by a widow and two sons; also two brothers and two sisters. Of the latter, Mrs. Helen Montague, Mrs. Estella Kimmel and John Johnson, reside in Niles. The remains will be brought here on Monday for burial in the family lot in Silver Brook cemetery.
Obituary appeared in The South Bend Tribune, Saturday, December 16, 1911, page 6.
FRANCIS MORTIMER JOHNSON, who was born on Sunday, May 8, 1842, in Hickory Lane, Niles, Michigan, is one of the most valued and highly respected employees of the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern Railroad Company, having been in the employ of that company since 1865. His parents were Alfred Wells and Dezire (Howe) Johnson, and both came from very old families. The paternal grandfather was John Johnson, and the maternal grandfather of F. M. Johnson was Frederick Howe. Mr. Howe was a tiller of the soil and he was born in Vermont. He settled in Syracuse, New York, subsequently, and later removed to
Michigan, being one of the first settlers in Berrien County. Mr. Howe traveled through the country with horse teams, there being no steam railway at that time. His children were named as follows: Alonzo, Dezire, Lucinda, Francis, Hezekiah, Adeline, Mary, Nancy, Charlotta, Charles and George. His wife's name was Polly Bliss before her marriage to Mr. Howe. Alfred W. Johnson was born June 26, 1810, in Burlington, Vermont. He came to Michigan in 1831. He had learned the trade of a carpenter and joiner, and erected a residence in Niles, Michigan, in Hickory Lane. All his children were born in this house. Mr. Johnson did a great deal of contracting in the vicinity of Niles, for building of residences and other erections. He was a Democrat as to political views and served in the legislature two years, about 1847-1849. He died June 9, 1889. His wife was born at Truxton, New York, Friday, May 5, 1815, and died October 18, 1896. Her
children were nine in number: John Frederick was born Monday, December 17, 1838, and resides at No. 5140 Wabash Avenue; Richard Marian was born Wednesday, May 13, 1840, married Hattie L- Barker, at Chillicothe, Missouri, and now resides at No. 5140 Wabash Avenue, Chicago;
Francis M. is the next in order of birth; Julia Estelle, born Saturday, March 9, 1844, married Henry T.Kimmell December 14, 1865. Her children are: George Alfred, born February 1, 1867, and Edna Estelle, born December 3, 1869; George Franklin, born Thursday, March 5, 1846, died August 5, 1893. He married Annie C. Cook, at Tiskilwa, Illinois, December 22, 1885; Oliver Howell, born February 12, 1848, died March 24, 1848; Helen Isabella, born Saturday, August n, 1849, married John A. Montague October 6, 1873, and has one child, Charles M., born March 23, 1876. Her home is in Niles, Michigan, where her husband is a hardware dealer; Mary Frances, born Friday, November 3, 1853, married Orson McKay October 2, 1883.
Mr. McKay is an employee of the Santa Fe Rail- road Company and they reside at No. 4735 Evans Avenue; Charles Alfred, born Friday, February 8, 1856, was married at Marshall, Michigan, August 20, 1883, to Bertha Hopkins Perritt. He is the father of one child, Alfred Hopkins, born September 6, 1892. The family resides at Niles, Michigan, where C. A. Johnson is cashier at the First National Bank.
Francis Mortimer Johnson occupied himself at the same trade as his father until sixteen years of age. He enlisted in the army October 17, 1862, in Company E, Twelfth Michigan Regiment. He was sick a large part of the time and served in the reserve corps at Columbus, Ohio, for eighteen months. He was in the battle of Shiloh and his regiment was the first one fired upon. He was also in battles along the Chickahominy River.
November 3, 1865, he was mustered out of service. Mr. Johnson was taken prisoner a Bolivar, Tennessee, but was paroled. After the close of the Civil War Mr. Johnson located in Chicago and entered the employ of the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern Railway Company and has since been occupied in the interest of that concern. He entered as clerk in the freight office and remained in that capacity eighteen years. He then took charge of the out freight house at Polk Street and Pacific Avenue and after eight years was transferred to the Englewood east bound freight, but at the end of four years this house was discontinued and he was returned to the Polk Street house, where he is at the present writing. Mr. Johnson was married February 15, 1862, to Miss Marilla Alwilda Chipman, daughter of Holton and Lucy (Hopkins) Chipman. Mrs. Johnson's great-grandfather was born in England, and emigrating to America in 1840, located in Eugene, Indiana, later removing to Bristol, of that state, where he died in 1847, at the age of forty-nine years. Holton Chipman was born in Vermont, as was also his wife. She was married in Ohio and died January 24, 1893. She was born April 24, 1809. Her children were nine in number. Lucy Hopkins married Caleb Nash, of South Bend, Indiana, and their children are: Alice, Helen, Delia and Adell; Philenia Rosalie married Dr. J. M. Roe, of South Bend, and their children are: Lelia, Alison Crestus and Lennie; Rachel Parthenia married John Brown, of Valparaiso, Indiana, and their children are: Blanch, William and Agnes; Cynthia Florilla married C. S. Payne, of Goshen, Indiana, and their children are: Lola, Hiram, Chauncey, Emma and Maggie; Austia Ian the married Joseph F.Thomas, of Edwardsburg, Indiana, and their only child is Ella; Delia Alice married John Hudson, of Sacramento, California, and is now deceased; Cassius Holton married Wealthy Rouse, at Kendallville, Indiana, and their only child is Millie; Marilla Alwilda is the wife of the man whose name heads this article, and was born November 17, 1843, at Eugene, Indiana; Milton Delmer resides at Rensselaer, Indiana.
Mr. and Mrs. Johnson are the parents of two children, who have done credit to the rearing they received and to the family name, which has never known a tarnish. Frank Rollo was born December 2, 1862, in Harris Township, Elkhart County, Indiana. More extended notice of him appears elsewhere in this volume.
Ernest Mortimer was born March 23, 1866, and has also space on another page of this volume. Though never an office seeker, Mr. Johnson is interested very deeply in the welfare of the Democratic party, in whose interest he casts a vote at all favorable opportunities. He is a member of the Royal Arcanum.
Mr. Johnson erected a residence at No. 5817 Wabash Avenue in the spring of 1882. This was the first house in the locality, and the nearest house to it at that time was on State Street. The family is one of the well-known and honored ones of the community, and each member is a credit to the neighborhood in which they reside.
Album of Genealogy and Biography
Index of Persons, published 1899
Cook County, Illinois
Transcribed by Charlotte Stevens Schneider
