The Republican journal. [volume] (Belfast, Me.) 1829-current, 1911-09-14
OBITUARY.

dren Of half brother and sister, viz, Mrs.E.M
Sanborn, Mrs. Eleanor Frost and Miss Nettie
Brown of Belfast, and Mrs. Volney Thompson
of Montville. Mr.. johnson was a descendant
of one Of the earliest settlers of Maine. His
paternal ancestor, James johnson, was one of
the eighty men who migrated to this country
with Sir Fernando Gorges in 1859 and settled
on the Isle of Shoals. He subsequently be-
came resident of Rye. N. H. His grand.
father, Daniel johnson, soldier of the war of
the Revolution, came to Belfast from Epping,
N. H.. in 1896 and settled and cleared the farm
on Belmont avenue on which Samuel V. Phil
brook now lives. The father of Frederick S.
was known as Daniel johnson, Jr. The SUBJ
ject of this sketch was born in Belmont, March
q, 1881. When three years of age an uncle
was killed by the falling of tree and because
of it his father moved to the old homestead on
Hayford hill in the town of Belfast, and there
his childhood and early manhood days were
passed. All the schooling he got was at the
Hayford schoolhouse. Early in life he exhi-
bited great taste and skill for mechanics and at
the age of sixteen went to learn the trade of
house carpenter and joiner of his uncle, B. c.
Stevens of Unity. At nineteen years of age he
was full fedged carpenter and receiving the
same pay as older men in that line. At the
age of twenty he built monument to himself
in the erection of house, now known as the
Clark house, on the Belmont road 1t is the
third house on the road toward Belfast below
the Hayford schoolhouse. This was before
the days of making doors and sash and blinds
by machinery. All such work had to be done
by hand, and he took every thing from the
rough, and in one season with his saws, ham
mers and planes built the entire building, put
ting on all the then modern finish to the entire
satisfaction of the owner. This was then con-
sidered quite marvel for a young man of
twenty to perform. He worked as a journey
man for few years in Belfast and Camden.
He was employed in the building of the Hara-
dan block, now the Savings Bank building, and
also on the Waldo county court house and the
post office and custom house. In 1855 he mar
ried Miss Sarah Simmons of Belfast, a daugh-
ter of the late Nathaniel Simmons. She
was neighbor and schoolmate of his
boyhood days, and survives him In 1856
he went to California where he remain
ed for several years. He first went TO Oro-
vile, which was mining camp, and his first
work there was bridge building. His skill and
ability were soon recognized and in short time
he was the foreman of gang of men. In his
crew young man from Kennebunk, Me-,
who had recently arrived there, making the
passage around Cape Horn in sailing ship be-
fore the mast sailor. He was no less a
person than George Clement Perkins now a
United States Senator from California. Mr..
Johnson worked in Oroville few years at
bridge and house building. later drifting into
the mill business and soon became an expert
in setting up and running mills for saving
lumber. In order to saw the large lumber of
that State circular saws had to be used one
above the other, with the teeth SO arranged
that they could be detached so that they could
be sharpened and tempered, which had to be
done frequently. Mr. johnson made study of
the art of tempering steel and soon became
very successful in it, having learned a process
for tempering steel which he wisely kept to
himself He in great demand through
the saws were too hard they broke, and if too
soft they turned. These saws were made in
Philadelphia and in those days there were
but few railroads, and new saws, or teeth,
could not be had unless at great expense in
both money and time. In this instance all
goods and material had to be freighted by
teams more than a hundred miles, and MIR
johnson was engaged continually in keeping
these mills in order. saw in one of the
mills had piece broken out of it about ten
inches in circumference, which would involve
loss of thousands of dollars in time and
money, for the mill would have to be shut
down for weeks in order to get saw,
and it was the busy season of the year and
they could i'll afford to lay idle for that length
of time. Mr.. johnson told the owners ne
could fix the saw, and did by cutting piece
out of an old saw and fitted it so nicely into
the broken space, and in such a manner that
one of the teeth was the key that kept it in
position, that it worked as good as new So
remarkable was this exploit that all the
newspapers on the Pacific coast gave it favor
able mention. One company gave him SIS a
day to run and oversee their plant While
working there he was stricken with typhoid
fever and was long time in regaining his
strength. In the meantime things were going
wrong at the mill and while he was conva-
lescing, the company carried him to and fro
in carriage and paid him So per day to simply
sit in a chair and have an oversight of the ma
chinery He later built mill of his own and
was successful for while, but the mill caught
fire and was burned to the ground, leaving
him without dollar in the world. At this
time a big mining company owned
mills, but by reason of poor management
they were out of order a large part Of the
time and that it was costing them SIS per
thousand to have their lumber sawed. He
made contract with them to take their mill
and furnishing his own men to million
feet of lumber at $40 per thousand, which was
one third less than it was costing them. This
he accomplished in one hundred days and clear
ed $50 per day for the entire one hundred days
This put him on his feet again and he came
home to Maine, having spent fourteen years
in California. After remaining in Maine for
about year he went with his wife to Idaho
and located at Boise City in 1869. 1t was then
but a small hamlet and is the capital of
the State He lived there and built and run
mills successfully for few years, and when a