Johnson family business papers

Table of Contents

Summary Information

Background note

Scope and content note

Administrative Information

Related Materials

Controlled Access Headings

Bibliography

Collection Inventory

Summary Information

Repository

Historical Society of Pennsylvania

Creator

Johnson family

Title

Johnson family business papers

ID

2185

Date [inclusive]

1818-1921

Extent

1.2 Linear feet ; 3 boxes

Author

Finding aid prepared by Weckea Dejura Lilly.

Sponsor

EAD encoding of this finding aid was made possible by a generous donation from Martha Hamilton and I. Wistar Morris III.

Language

English

Abstract

Lawrence Johnson, a printer, left England and settled in Philadelphia in 1823, where he co-founded a type and stereotype foundry. His children carried on his legacy of entrepreneurship and made the Johnson family one of the most prosperous in the history of elite families in the region. This collection documents the Johnson family’s financial activities across three generations. The material consists entirely of business records such as deeds, wills, mortgages, banking accounts and financial statements, and legal documents.

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Background note

Lawrence Johnson [I] (1801-1860) learned the printing and stereotype business in his native England and came to the United States in the 1820s, settling in Philadelphia in 1823, where he partnered with Jedidiah Howe and began a prosperous type and stereotype foundry. Lawrence became a prominent Philadelphia citizen and acquired a great fortune as a participant in many business ventures and enterprises. He married Mary Winder of Lower Makefield, Bucks County in 1837; she gave birth to ten children, as follows:

• Edward Winder Johnson (born 1838)

• Anna Rebecca Johnson (born 1839)

• Mary Ella Johnson (born 1841)

• Caroline Fletcher Johnson (born 1843)

• Howard Lawrence Johnson (born 1845)

• Russell Hampden Johnson (born 1847)

• Lawrence Johnson (born 1849)

• Walter Richards Johnson (1851-1897)

• Robert Winder Johnson (1854-1910)

• Alfred Clayton Johnson (1856-1928)

Lawrence [I] also had a daughter from his previous marriage to Sarah Murray in 1825, who died in 1834. In 1851 Lawrence [I] purchased the Landsdown farm in Bucks County where the family spent summers. Many of the children were born there. After Johnson died in 1860, his partners in the foundry business renamed it in his honor, Johnson Type Foundry. His children inherited the estate and took charge of most of the family’s financial affairs.

Russell Johnson (1847-1934) received his medical degree from the University of Pennsylvania, resided in Chestnut Hill, Philadelphia, and practiced medicine for many years. He even served as the physician for the Pennsylvania Institute of the Deaf. While not a businessman by trade, he took over much of the internal family affairs after R. Winder's death.

Lawrence Johnson [II] (1849-1905), a merchant by training, established Lawrence Johnson and Company in 1870. It became one of Philadelphia’s leading trading houses. He became a prominent and respected merchant, both locally and internationally.

R. Winder Johnson (1854-1910) followed his brother to the "counting house" in 1877, became a member in 1879 and, in 1905, with Lawrence’s sudden death, became the senior member of Lawrence Johnson and Company. He too was a prosperous, sociable, and prominent citizen, much the same as Lawrence. He died suddenly in 1910 as the result of an automobile accident. He was well-respected in Philadelphia’s business community and became the trustee and executor for many estates: the Thornton Trust (after the death of Margaretta Winder), Lawrence Johnson (both elder and younger), Walter Johnson, and Margaretta Winder. Russell took over as trustee of the Lawrence Johnson (the elder) estate after R. Winder's death and was joined by William Millikin.

Walter Johnson (1851-1897), while not part of their father's trading company, invested heavily in real estate and new enterprises and purchased shares in several shipping schooners. He married his cousin Mary Rebecca Winder, and their son, Winder Lawrence, died as a young adult, leaving a two-year-old under the trusteeship of R. Winder.

Alfred Johnson (1856-1928) was admitted to the Pennsylvania Bar in 1880, but left the United States in the 1890s to act as consul at Stuttgart and vice-consul general at Dresden. He married Countess Toni von Baudissin and passed over his shares in the Johnson family ventures to R. Winder. He died in Germany in 1928.

The Johnson brothers of Philadelphia—R. Winder, Walter, Lawrence, and Russell— remained closely knit throughout their lives, frequently invested in each other’s businesses, and acted as executors for each other’s estates. They were also closely involved with the Winder family, as R. Winder acted as trustee for the Thornton Trust, Samuel Thornton being the father of Margaretta Winder, mother of Mary Rebecca Winder, Walter Johnson's wife.

Lawrence Johnson Morris (1870-1949), Mary Ella Johnson's son, was also employed by Lawrence Johnson and Company and in 1905 became a partner. He apparently showed the same knack for business as his uncles, as he too had a share in managing the various Johnson affairs, particularly after the death of R. Winder and later Russell.

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Scope and content note

The Johnson family papers contain many documents relating to the family’s financial affairs and estates like bonds, mortgages, deeds, accounts, receipts, correspondence, wills, and legal papers. Nearly every member of the family is mentioned in at least one document in the collection even though the collection is limited to the files belonging Lawrence Johnson senior’s sons and grandsons. They were principally the overseers of the family’s financial records. The correspondence elucidates many of the intra-family relationships as it relates to their inheritances and estates; connections to other business partners are also revealed.

The collection is arranged by family member. Box One holds the papers of Lawrence Johnson (senior), Mary Winder Johnson, Margaretta Winder, Louisa P. Johnson, and Lawrence Johnson (junior). The relationship of the Johnson family to the Winder family is acknowledged here through marriage records. The most informative documents are the correspondence and wills. In particular, they reveal the specifics of inheritances, who was to manage which estate, and marriage and birth records. Lawrence Johnson (junior) managed many of the family estates, thus the majority of the records contained here are listed under his name, a total of eleven folders.

Walter Johnson’s papers are most prominent in Box Two, with many of the files pertaining to the estates that he managed and his other financial affairs. The only other family member records collected here are R. Winder Johnson’s legal documents and Bucks County Trust account records.

Papers of Russell Johnson, Anna Johnson Mead, Winder L. Johnson, Edward Johnson, Millicent Gaw Johnson Lennig, Lawrence Johnson Morris, and other miscellaneous files are contained in Box Three. Similar kinds of documents are contained here as in Box One and Two with deeds, wills, receipts, and assorted financial and legal papers.

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Administrative Information

Publication Information

 Historical Society of Pennsylvania 2009.

Revision Description

 Finding aid reformatted from original Word document to EAD , 2023.

Access restrictions

The collection is open for research.

Provenance

Gift of Lawrence Johnson, Jr., 1993.

Accession number, 1993.741.

Processing note

When the collection was reprocessed in 2009, materials listed under the names of Anna R. Mead, Mary E. Morris, Caroline F. Taylor, Russell H. Johnson, Laura J. Wylie, and Samuel Wylie were not found.

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Related Materials

Related materials

At the Historical Society of Pennsylvania:

Morris family papers, 1723-1930 (Collection 2000A)

Morris family papers, 1695-1965 (Collection 2000B)

Morris family papers, 1676-1930 (Collection 2000E)

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Controlled Access Headings

Corporate Name(s)

• Lawrence Johnson and Company.

Occupation(s)

• Merchants--Pennsylvania--Philadelphia--Finance, Personal.

Personal Name(s)

• Johnson, Edward, 1838-1874.
• Johnson, Lawrence, 1801-1860.
• Johnson, Lawrence, 1849-1905.
• Johnson, Louisa Philler Gaw.
• Johnson, Mary Winder.
• Johnson, R. Winder, 1854-1910.
• Johnson, Russell, 1847-1934.
• Johnson, Winder Lawrence, 1877-1902.
• Lennig, Millicent Gaw Johnson, d. 1919.
• Mead, Anna Johnson.
• Morris, Lawrence Johnson, 1870-1949
• Winder, Margaretta, d. 1908.

Subject(s)

• Estate planning (Philadelphia, Pa.).

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Bibliography

Johnson, Robert Winder, Sr. and Lawrence Johnson Morris. The Johnson Family. Philadelphia, PA. 1934. [call number Fa 929.2 J67i 1934]

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Collection Inventory