San Joaquin County

Biographies


 

 

 

FRED H. JOHNSON

 

 

            No man in San Joaquin County, perhaps, has a wider acquaintance than Fred H. Johnson, who for a quarter of a century has been one of the county’s trusted public officials, displaying a fidelity and efficiency in the conduct of his offices that have won for him a high place in the regard of the community.  Mr. Johnson was born on a ranch near Ripon, San Joaquin County, on November 7, 1872, the son of Herman and Magdalena (Deck) Johnson, the former a native of Holland, while Mrs. Johnson was born in Germany; both parents are now deceased.  The father, who was a California pioneer, sailed through the Golden Gate in 1849, and soon after located in Stockton.  For some time he freighted with ox teams to the mines near Sonora, Tuolumne County, and then engaged in ranching, becoming a large landowner in San Joaquin County.  He bought the Ripon ranch in 1850 and he also owned what is now the Yost property in Stockton, one of the old landmarks of the early days.  He passed away in 1875.  Mrs. Johnson was married a second time, becoming the wife of Gustave Eichhoff, who died in 1892.  She survived him until November 30, 1910.

            Mr. and Mrs. Johnson were the parents of nine children, seven of them are living:  Herman Johnson, Mrs. Annie M. Kincaid, Mrs. Marry Harris, Mrs. Lillie S. Bodeson, Mrs. Helen Murphy, Fred H. Johnson of this sketch, and Mrs. Barbara E. Sexton.  Mr. Johnson gained his schooling at the Ripon School and at Woodbridge Academy, and in 1895 he came to Stockton, where he entered the official life at the court house, where he has been ever since, more than twenty-five years of public service.  He was clerk in the county recorder’s office under Recorder A. G. Keagle for one year, then clerk in the county assessor’s office under Charles L. Ortman from 1896 to 1900.  In July, 1900, he was appointed a deputy in the county clerk’s office, and in 1902 was made chief deputy under County Clerk E. D. Graham, and he has since then held this responsible post, filling it to the satisfaction of everyone and numbering his friends by the hundreds throughout the county.

            On February 11, 1899, Mr. Johnson was married to Miss Mary E. McDonald, a native of Canada, and one daughter was born to them, now Mrs. Ina B. Vogelgesang, the mother of one son, Harold A.  For years Mr. Johnson has been very prominent in the fraternal life of Stockton; he has been a member of the Native Sons of the Golden West since 1896; in 1899 he joined Truth Lodge No. 55, I. O. O. F., and has passed through all chairs of this lodge, and in 1902 became a member of the Elks, and has been exalted ruler of the Stockton Lodge.  At the convention of this order held in Chicago in the summer of 1920, Mr. Johnson had conferred upon him the honor of representing the local lodge.

 

 

Transcribed by Gerald Iaquinta.

Source: Tinkham, George H., History of San Joaquin County, California , Pages 791-792.  Los Angeles, Calif.: Historic Record Co., 1923.


© 2011  Gerald Iaquinta.

 

 

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