Obituaries I-J

The Hornellsville Weekly Tribune, August 26, 1874

DEATH OF UNCLE NAT. JOHNSON

Died at Wellsville, NY on the 18th day of August, 1874,

NATHANIEL JOHNSON, AGED 82 YEARS.

Mr. Johnston (sic) was born at St. Johnsville, Montgomery County, in April 1792.  His father was an officer from New Jersey, who served with credit in the Revolutionary War.  The subject of this sketch was the oldest of a large family of children and his father was unable to give him any material aid in starting in life.  At an early day Mr. Johnston (sic) moved to Bainbridge, Chenango County, where he engaged in the manufacture of shingles and run them through to Baltimore markets.  In 1830, he moved to Southport in Chemung County, and entered heavily into the lumber trade.  In 1845, he came to Alleghany (sic), where his largest lumbering interests were.  A little later he bought one hundred acres of land, on a part of which the Wellsville Depot now stands, and in 1850, definitely located at Wellsville, where he has since resided.  In 1815, at Bainbridge, he married his wife Miss Sally Seymour, who still lives to mourn his loss, and by whom he had four children, William S., Henry W., Charles E and Sarah J., who became the wife of Hiram York, Esq., of  this place.  None of those are now living except Charles E. Johnson, who resides in  Florida.

“Uncle Nat,” as he was familiarly called, was a man of large heart, genial and kind in his disposition, and a general favorite in this community.  He was a business man possessed of more than ordinary energy and shrewdness, and accumulated a good property, which mainly goes to his grandchildren residing here.  In all his dealings, he was guided by the strictest integrity; and no man lives who can say that “Uncle Nat,” ever knowingly wronged him out of a dollar, or took a cent that was not clearly his own.  He has been for some years in feeble health and his demise was not unexpected, but his honest face was so familiar to all who travel our streets that his death appears to have something of a suddenness about it.  Yet his was a long life, honestly spent, and though his presence is withdrawn, the remembrance of his integrity and large heartedness will long linger among us.   Wellsville Reporter.