Seth Whitmore Johnson

Background

Johnson was born on May 3, 1811, in Middle Haddam, Connecticut, the second son and third child in a family of nine children born to Henry Johnson, a farmer, and his wife, Mary Whitmore.

Education

Johnson left father's the farm at the age of fourteen to become an apprentice for seven years in a shipyard.

Career

After the apprenticeship, Johnson set up in business for himself, repairing and building ships. Northern Ohio at this time was beginning to experience the beneficial effect of the Erie Canal and the Ohio canals. Attracted by the outlook, Johnson moved to Cleveland in the fall of 1834 and the following year entered upon his business as ship-builder. Ten years later he formed a partnership with Erastus Tisdale. For nineteen years they carried on what was then the chief industry of Cleveland. Their vessels were found on all the upper lakes: two were portages across the Sault to Lake Superior. Steamboats were built for the English coast trade.

Johnson invested his profits in lake shipping until he became a large ship-owner as well as a builder. One of his vessels, loaded with staves, was among the first to pass through the Welland Canal and carry a lake cargo to European ports, inaugurating a direct service from Cleveland to Liverpool.

Johnson died on February 13, 1907.

Achievements

• Johnson is best known as the successor of Levi Johnson as a pioneer in the Great Lakes ship-building industry, though the two Johnsons were in no way connected.

Personality

Such meager records as survive describe Johnson as a man of genial, kindly ways, socially inclined.

Connections

Johnson married Augusta Sophia Norton of Middle Haddam, Connecticut, July 15, 1840.

Father:

Henry Johnson

Mother:

Mary Whitmore

Spouse:

Augusta Sophia Norton

References

• The Pioneer Families of Cleveland, 1796-1840, Vol. 1: Under the Auspices of the Executive Committee of the Woman's Department of the Cleveland Centennial Commission, 1896 (Classic Reprint)
• Cleveland Past and Present: Its Representative Men, etc.