Alameda County
Biographies
AUGUST LEWIS JOHNSON
AUGUST LEWIS JOHNSON. The Mount Eden Grove ranch now
owned and occupied by August L. Johnson was also his birthplace, his
father, John Johnson, of whom a sketch is given in another part of this work,
having located there about 1852. Born July 17, 1857, August L. Johnson
was reared to young manhood upon the ranch, receiving his education in
St. Mary’s College in San Francisco. When nineteen years old he began
sailing one of his father’s salt vessels from Mount Eden Landing to San
Francisco, and after three years he was made captain of the same. For ten years
he engaged in that particular line of business, after which, for about eight
years, he conducted the park known as Mount Eden Grove. Upon the death of his
father in 1900—his mother having passed away June 18, 1894, at the
age of sixty-five years—the estate consisting of three hundred acres of marsh
land and one hundred and fifty-five acres of ranch land, was equally divided
between himself and sister, Sophia. The old homestead passed into the hands of
Mr. Johnson, since which time he has engaged in the manufacture of salt,
getting out about twenty-five hundred tons per year. He intends putting in
mills in the near future.
The marriage of Mr. Johnson united him with Harietta
Merchantdorf, a native of Schleswig, Germany, and they have one son,
Louis August, born 1897. In national politics Mr. Johnson is a
Democrat but locally casts his vote for the man whom he considers best
qualified for public service. He is identified with the Sons of Herman.
Transcribed by Marie Hassard 22 September 2015.
Source: History
of the State of California & Biographical Record of Coast Counties,
California by Prof. J. M. Guinn, A. M., Page
789. The Chapman Publishing Co., Chicago, 1904.
© 2015 Marie
Hassard.
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