Los Angeles County
Biographies
BENJAMIN JOHNSON
JOHNSON, BENJAMIN, Merchant,
Los Angeles, California, was born in St. Paul, Minnesota, January 31,
1871, the son of Edward P. Johnson and America Frances (Blasdel) Johnson. He married Minnie B. Guiteau, at Los Angeles, February 28, 1893, and to
them there have been born two children, Estelle Marie and Dorothy Louise
Johnson. Mr. Johnson’s family is one of the oldest in the United States,
the early members having been among the settlers of Maryland Colony. His
paternal great-grandfather was one of the first Colonial governors of Maryland.
Mr. Johnson has spent the greater part of his life in Los
Angeles, and received his education there. His parents moved there when he was
about five years of age, and that has been the family home since that time. He
attended the public schools of Los Angeles, and then spent two years at the
University of Southern California.
Leaving college, Mr. Johnson entered the employ of the
Los Angeles Furniture Company, in which his father was a part owner, intending
to learn that business in its various branches. He served in all departments of
the company’s plant, and in 1907 was elected President of it, succeeding to the
office which his father had held prior to selling his interest in the business.
Mr. Johnson continued as executive head of the company,
one of the largest furniture manufacturing concerns on the Pacific Coast, for
about two years, but sold out his holdings in it in 1909 and retired from the
Presidency.
Since then he has devoted his time to an entirely
different field of activity, having organized shortly after quitting the
furniture business the Los Angeles Public Market Company, of which he is
President. This institution is unique in the West, and has the distinction of
owning one of the largest wholesale public markets in the world, covering, as
it does, eighteen acres of land. It is the clearing house for all classes of
produce grown in Southern California, and is the heart of the produce commission
district of Los Angeles, being surrounded on all sides by the leading wholesale
houses of the Southwest, of that character, they being tenants of the market
company.
As the head of the Los Angeles Public Market Company, Mr.
Johnson is one of the leading authorities on all subjects pertaining to the
products of Southern California, and has been a factor in presenting these
products to the world at large. Prior to the formation of the Los Angeles
Public Market Company the fruits and vegetables of Southern California were
only partially known to the rest of the country, but with the establishment of
a central trading point prices became stable and standardized, and new methods
for the handling of the crops of the section were inaugurated. In this work Mr. Johnson
took a leading part, and for it is credited with having greatly aided in the
development of California commerce.
In addition to his part in the affairs of the market
company, Mr. Johnson is interested in several allied concerns, among them
the Commercial Warehouse Company and the Klein-Simpson Fruit Company, in both
of which he is a Director.
Mr. Johnson is a man of great public spirit, and has been
an active worker in the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce for many years. He is
also a veteran of the Spanish-American War, having served in both the Cuban and
Philippine campaigns. In 1898, at the outbreak of the war, he was appointed
Captain and Quartermaster of the Volunteer Army by President McKinley and
assigned to General Shafter’s Staff. He served with Shafter throughout the
campaign in Cuba, and then went to the Philippine Islands, where he remained
for two years. During this time the native rebellion was at its height and
Mr. Johnson’s command participated in many notable engagements. He saw
active service practically all the time he was in the Islands, and was among
those men who displayed extraordinary courage under fire.
When quiet had been restored in the Islands, Mr. Johnson
resigned his commission and returned to Los Angeles, where he has been steadily
engaged in business since.
Mr. Johnson is a Republican in his political
affiliations, but has never taken a very active part in political affairs. He
is, however, prominent in fraternal and club circles of Los Angeles, being a
Thirty-Second Degree Mason, member of the Mystic Shrine, Army and Navy Club of
Washington, D. C., California Club of Los Angeles and the Los Angeles
Athletic Club.
Transcribed by Marie Hassard
31 August 2010.
Source: Press
Reference Library, Western Edition Notables of the West, Vol. I, Page 495, International
News Service, New York, Chicago, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Boston, Atlanta. 1913.
© 2010 Marie Hassard .
GOLDEN NUGGET'S LOS ANGELES BIOGRAPIES