Old Missoula

Joseph ‘Joe’ Johnson – Resident Here For 50 Years

Recalls Half Foot of Snow For Early Fourth of July Celebration.

A well-known Missoula character, Joseph C. (Joe) Johnson, who is in his seventieth year, has spent 50 years of his life in Missoula, Mt. Johnson arrived here in October, 1889, a few days before Montana was admitted to statehood November 7, 1889.

Johnson, when slightly more than 20 years old, came from Missouri with the family of Dr. W. B. Parsons to serve as a cook in the household, and had a varied career in the years that followed.

“One of the earliest Fourth of July celebrations that I recall,” Johnson said Monday, “was featured by a storm in which a half-foot of snow had to be plowed from Higgins avenue before the “mammoth parade” of the day could be held.

“The town was alive night and day in those early celebrations. There were fireworks galore, and the Chinamen of that time imported some of the latest things in explosives as noisemakers for the Fourth. Then too, almost every other merchant on the street sold firecrackers, and the day was not complete for the boy or girl who did not have firecrackers.

“The lumber camps all shut down for the Fourth and practically all of the woods workers and sawmill hands were to be found mingling with the throngs on the streets. The horsemen of those days were all here, and some of the Fourth of July crowd for Missoula came in in horse-drawn stages, as no automobile tire had then rolled over the dust or mud of the unpaved streets of the frontier town that was expanding into a city.”

On Alaska Trip.

Johnson spent several years here and went to Alaska in 1900. He was on the maiden trip of the “Santa Anna” when it caught fire 600 miles from land. The smoldering fire continued for three days before the ship reached Dutch harbor, where the fire was put out. He said the old sea captain had a hole cut in the side of the boat to admit water to the hull. The rolling of the boat on heavy seas, he explained kept the sides from burning with the water continually dashing up on one side and then on the other.

Johnson prospected on the beach at the mouth of the Nome river. He said when W. A. Simons came down the Yukon and opened a theater at Nome, he worked a year for the late theater man but returned to Missoula in 1901.

Here that year he became steward of the first business men’s club of Missoula which had clubrooms on the fourth floor of the First National bank block. Later he became steward for the Missoula Country club, a position he took two months after its opening and held for nine years. He was a janitor at the city hall here under Mayor James M. Rhoades.

Long hours on his feet caused Johnson to leave the work of steward and go into business for himself.

Vivid Experience

Johnson recalls one of the most vivid experiences of his life occurred early in the fall of 1902 when Clarence R. Prescott was sheriff. “I was then steward of the Business Men’s club,” Johnson related. “It was about midnight and I had closed up and was starting home.

“When I reached the street I saw Sheriff Prescott come running down the street with a rifle in his hands. The cab of ‘Swede’ Johnny was on the Florence hotel corner with the two grey horses tied to the hitching posts. The sheriff asked if I had seen ‘Swede’ Johnny. When I gave a negative answer he asked me to go up one side of the street and he went up the other.

“When we could find no trace of the ‘Swede’ Prescott asked me to drive the team to the flour mill on South Third street where a robbery was in progress.

“It was one of those cabs where the driver sat high in the back on a little perch and the occupants down in the front. I drove the team at a gallop to a point near the mill where we tied the horses and Prescott entered the front of the mill. I went around the building and saw two men emerge and skulk along south in the shadows of some freight cars. I returned and advised Prescott. By the time we got back we could see the pair in the moonlight going south. Two commands to halt were ignored, and Sheriff Prescott then told the pair it was their third and last chance. In the stillness they could hear him cock the rifle, and the hands of the robbers shot skyward. I had a revolver, but was content to watch Sheriff Prescott doing a good job with the artillery.

“He disarmed the pair, loaded them into the cab, got in between them and called to me on top of the cab to go ahead to the jail.

“The younger of the two robbers never went to trial. He hanged himself in the jail here. The elder man drew a 15-year sentence.

“The pair had worked long at the flour mill in preparation for the blowing of the safe. Sacks of flour and grain were piled around the strong box to deaden the sound of an explosion.”

Johnson, who was born in Missouri February 22, 1869, says he is enjoying good health. He has always been active and of late has been conducting a shoe shining business on North Higgins avenue.

 

The above article appeared in The Daily Missoulian on July 4, 1939. The article was accompanied by a photograph of Mr. Johnson, who was a black man.

Joseph Johnson died in Missoula in 1955. His obituary, below, appeared in The Daily Missoulian on November 20, 1955.

 

Joseph Johnson Dead at 86

Joseph C. (Joe) Johnson, died at a local hospital Saturday night at the age of 86. He came here from Missouri in October, 1889, a few days before Montana was admitted to statehood.

He was born Feb. 22, 1869, in Missouri. He came here with the late W. B. Parsons[1], former attorney here, and worked for him a year as a cook. Mr. Johnson started the Hawthorne Bar 55 years ago over the site occupied by the John R. Daily Co. on West Front street.

He left here for Alaska in 1900, on the maiden trip of the Santa Anna, which caught fire at sea and smoldered three days before reaching Dutch Harbor.

He prospected on the beach at the mouth of the Nome River, and when the late W. A. Simons, former owner of the Wilma Theater, went to the Yukon and opened a theater at Nome, Mr. Johnson worked a year for him, but returned to Missoula in 1901.

He then became steward for the first businessmen’s club of Missoula. Later he became steward for the Missoula Country Club, a position he took two months after its opening and held for nine years.

He was later janitor at the City Hall here under Mayor James M. Rhoades. He sang with a quartet including the late Hugh Campbell former police judge here.

Four years ago, at 82, Mr. Johnson successfully passed the test for a driver’s license here.

For the past three months he had been residing at Camas Hot Springs, until he took ill and came to a local hospital.

The body is at the Squire-Simmons-Carr Mortuary. Survivors include a niece out of state.

 

Funeral Services for Joseph Johnson were reported in the Daily Missoulian on November 23, 1955:

Funeral services were conducted Tuesday at 1:30 p.m. in the Squire-Simmons-Carr Rose Chapel for Joseph Johnson, 86, who died at a local hospital Saturday night. Ray Greenhalgh, president of the Missoula second branch of the Jesus Christ of Latte-day Saints, conducted services. Burial was in the family plot at Missoula Cemetery. Pallbearers were Charles Hall, Eddie Joiner, Raymond Johnson, George Kritzer, Harry Raymond and Naseby Rhinehart.