Johnson, Joseph P.

Submitted by Mike Miller

Joseph P. Johnson was born in New Orleans, September 16, 1853. He is the son of Charles H. and Eloise (Dulany) Johnson. Charles H. Johnson, an Englishman by birth, came to America during one of the political disturbances in France, he being a resident of that country at the time, and settled in New Orleans. He was a civil engineer by occupation. He prospered financially and left his widow and children well provided for at the time of his death. Eloise Johnson was a native of France, born in 1820. She was married in 1840 to the father of our subject, and to them four children were born, three sons and one daughter, of whom two sons are living, Charles H. and Joseph P., the former a marble engraver and stone cutter of Philadelphia, the latter a liquor dealer of Franklin, Louisiana. Alfred died young, and Eloise at the age of seventeen, both deaths occurring in New Orleans. The mother died in the same city in 1877.

Our subject began business in New Orleans as salesman, and was thus engaged for three years, when he turned his attention to railroading, which he followed twelve years. In 1884 he settled in St. Mary parish, at the town of Baldwin, where he entered the retail liquor business. In this he was engaged for five years, and made money very rapidly. He established himself then at Franklin, though he did not discontinue his business in Baldwin, and now has interests at both places. He is doing well, and has gained by his thrift and integrity the confidence of his fellow citizens. In religion he is a Catholic, and in politics a Democrat.

Source: Southwest Louisiana Biographical and Historical, Biographical Section, p. 370. Edited by William Henry Perrin. Published in 1891, by The Gulf Publishing Company.