Among the men of sterling worth who have been called from this life and yet have left the impress of their individuality upon the community in which they have lived is numbered Joseph D. Johnson, who for a considerable period was connected with the agricultural interests of Waveland Township. He was born in Kentucky March 30, 1834, a son of Evander Johnson, who removed to Warren County, Illinois, when Joseph was three years of age. There he was reared to farm work and in the public schools he mastered the common branches of English learning.

Having arrived at adult age he made preparations for having a home of his own by his marriage March 17, 1867, to Miss Eunice Bushnell, who was born in Mercer County, Pennsylvania, December 22, 1844, a daughter of Elijah and Ruth (Axtell) Bushnell. In the paternal line she is descended from an old New England family and one which numbers many prominent public and professional men. Her father was born in Connecticut and removed to Mercer County, Pennsylvania, in early manhood. There he learned carpentering and later engaged in the sawmill business, with which he was identified for many years. In later life he removed to Warren County, Illinois, where he carried on farming, making his home there up to the time of his death, which occurred when he had reached the advanced age of eighty-six years. His wife was a native of New Jersey and when a child removed with her parents to Pennsylvania, where she gave her hand in marriage to Mr. Bushnell. She passed away in 1870 at the age of fifty-one years. Unto Mr. and Mrs. Johnson were born six children but only two are living: Willis, the eldest, who operates the home farm; and Ernest, who is the youngest and is attending commercial college in Omaha, Nebraska. The other children: Ida, James, Cora and Albert, are all now deceased.

At the time of his marriage Mr. Johnson located on an eighty-acre farm in Warren County, which he had purchased the year previous. There he devoted his time to the tilling of the soil until 1878 when he came to Iowa and invested in eighty acres on Section 30, Waveland Township, Pottawattamie County, which remained his place of residence until his death, June 13, 1897. Just prior to his demise he purchased one hundred and sixty acres on Section 7, Waveland Township, to which his widow has since removed and there she still lives.

In politics Mr. Johnson was a democrat but not radical or aggressive. He was a successful man and wielded considerable influence in the community in which he lived, being respected by all who knew him because of his fidelity to his honest belief and his justice and integrity in all the affairs of life. He passed away June 13, 1897 and his loss was deeply regretted by many friends. Mrs. Johnson is a lady of pleasing manner, cordial and hospitable to her many friends and loved by those who come within the closer circle of her acquaintance.

(SOURCE: 1907 History of Pottawattamie County, page 962)