Ellen Cheney Johnson

Background

Johnson was born on December 20, 1829, in Athol, Massachusetts, the only child of Nathan and Rhoda (Holbrook) Cheney. Her father was a mill agent or manager, and her association with him brought to her much business experience.

Education

Johnson attended school at Weare, New Hampshire, and the Academy at Francestown; and taught school for a short time at Weare. At the age of eighteen she joined a temperance organization.

Career

Mrs. Johnson was on the executive and finance committees of the New England branch of the United States Sanitary Commission; she canvassed widely for supplies, and herself taught women in a poor part of Boston to cut and sew, to cook and save. Such work took her into correctional institutions, and she was a leading promoter of the Temporary Asylum for Discharged Female Prisoners, opened in Dedham in 1864. She became one of a group which persistently urged the establishment of a separate prison for women, to be wholly under the care of women.

In 1877 the Reformatory Prison for Women was opened at Sherborn, near Framingham. In 1879 when a state commission was created, with broad powers, for the establishment of a real prison system, Mrs. Johnson was appointed one of the five commissioners, and in 1884 she became superintendent of Sherborn. The keynote of her administration was the conviction that every woman should have a fair start in a new life and that every effort should be made in that direction. She impressed upon her prisoners the validity of punishment, even when it was severe, but she believed equally in the efficacy of gentleness and patience with offenders. She stressed the need of finding methods of helping each woman to win self-control, and insisted that the first duty of the prison official was to familiarize himself or herself thoroughly with the physical, mental, and moral peculiarities of each prisoner. Many visitors came to observe and study the reformatory at Sherborn and it received the highest praise from prison experts.

Johnson's death occurred suddenly in London, England, after she had addressed the Women's International Congress, June 28, 1899. She left money to the City of Boston, in memory of her husband, for the erection of "a drinking fountain for man and beast. "

Achievements

• Throughout Johnson's fifteen years of service she proved herself a rare administrator. She not only developed industries within doors and on the farm but made recreation a means to higher interests and better living. She also developed a system of indenture for house service in families outside prison walls, under sympathetic supervision.

Connections

When twenty Johnson married Jesse Cram Johnson, a native of Unity, New Hampshire, who became a business man in Boston. Their home, close by the State House, was a rendezvous for welfare workers.

Father:

Nathan Johnson

Mother:

Rhoda Holbrook

Spouse:

Jesse Cram Johnson

References

• The Cheney Genealogy
• Women in Prison: A Reference Handbook (Contemporary World Issues)
• The Reformatory System in the United States: Reports Prepared for the International Prison Commission (Classic Reprint)
• Notable American Women: A Biographical Dictionary: Notable American Women, 1607-1950: A Biographical Dictionary. THREE VOLUMES (Volumes 1-3)