Los Angeles County
Biographies
THEODORE AUGUSTUS JOHNSON
JOHNSON, THEODORE AUGUSTUS, Lands and Investments, Los Angeles, California, was born in Geneseo, Illinois, December 13, 1864, the son of Louis M. Johnson and Anna (Erickson) Johnson. He married Anna E. Rush at Tallula, Illinois, January 18, 1894. Mr. Johnson is descended from a sturdy American family, his father having been a pioneer in the development of Illinois, whither he migrated in the late forties. Mrs. Johnson also comes of old American ancestry, one of her paternal ancestors having been Dr. Benjamin Rush, a signer of the Declaration of Independence and one of the most celebrated physicians of his time.
Mr. Johnson attended the public schools of his native town until he was fourteen years of age, when he commenced a very active business life which has recorded many successes.
Endowed with a natural aptitude for commercial business, Mr. Johnson, at the age of fourteen, entered the employ of Taylor Williams, at that time the largest individual coal operator in the State of Illinois and the owner of an extensive mercantile business. He began as a clerk in the Williams store at Cleveland, Illinois. When only nineteen years of age, he was made buyer and General Manager of the store which his firm established at St. David, Illinois, and remained there for two years.
After the two years at St. David Mr. Johnson went (in 1885) to Kendall, Hamilton County, in western Kansas, taking a position as bookkeeper in the Kendall Exchange Bank where he was promoted within a few months first to the position of Assistant Cashier and then to that of Cashier. At the same time Mr. Johnson took a very active part in the government of the town, serving as City Clerk and county Officer and doing his full share of the very active work of new County organization. Later, Mr. Johnson established a branch bank for the Kendall Exchange Bank in Johnson City, Stanton County, Kansas.
In 1887 Mr. Johnson, with his associates, sold out their banking interests in that section and moved to Kansas City, where he assisted in the organization of the United States Bank. This later was reorganized under the national banking laws as the Aetna National Bank and Mr. Johnson, who had been Assistant Cashier of the institution from its inception, remained there until 1890 when he resigned and went to St. Louis, Missouri, to become Secretary and General Manager of The Aetna Loan Company, occupying this position until 1896, when he first became interested in the mining business. He was Secretary and Treasurer of the Missouri Smelting Company, and later assisted in organizing and acted as Secretary-Treasurer of the Federal Lead Company, whose property was in the St. Francois County district of Missouri. This property was subsequently sold to the Guggenheim interests. Mr. Johnson was also one of the organizers and operators of the Missouri Copper Company, which at that time held the distinction of being the only mine producing copper commercially in a State noted for its lead and zinc deposits.
About 1901, Mr. Johnson left Missouri for a trip through the West and during the next year visited practically every important mining camp there, including those of Idaho, Washington, Oregon, Montana, California and Nevada. The result of his observations was the formation of a partnership with Carl F. Schader of Los Angeles, and under the name of the Schader-Johnson Company, they operated various mining properties, the most important of which was the Nevada-Keystone in southeastern Nevada. During the five years of this co-partnership several important mining operations were brought to a very successful issue by this firm.
Mr. Johnson later managed the Johnnie Mining & Milling Company for about two years and also served as Secretary of the Pan-American Railroad, a line in Mexico over three hundred miles long which has since been taken over by the Mexican Government.
In 1911, Mr. Johnson organized the Provident Investment Company and has since directed its affairs as President. This company is engaged in the real estate business with offices in Los Angeles, San Francisco and Modoc, Surprise Valley. It is the owner of the townsite of Modoc and has purchased a large acreage of rich Surprise Valley ranch lands, much of which Mr. Johnson’s company plans to put into orchard.
Mr. Johnson has also secured for his company a large interest in a great gravity irrigation system now approaching the construction stage and which, it is claimed will irrigate over 50,000 acres of land on the east side of Surprise Valley.
To any undertaking with which he becomes connected and which is concerned in the up-building of the State of California, Mr. Johnson brings unbounded enthusiasm coupled with a very high degree of careful business judgment and executive ability. It is these qualities which have been steadily recognized by his many friends throughout the central west, who have interested themselves financially in various California development operations embracing railroad and townsite building and irrigation and land development undertakings with which Mr. Johnson has been identified.
He is one of the organizers and is a Director of the Sierra Madre Club, Los Angeles; belongs to the B. P. O. E., No. 99, and is a member, San Gabriel Valley Country Club.
Transcribed 3-26-10
Marilyn R. Pankey.
Source: Press
Reference Library, Western Edition Notables of the West, Vol. I, Page 393, International News Service, New York, Chicago, San
Francisco, Los Angeles, Boston, Atlanta.
1913.
© 2010 Marilyn R. Pankey.
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