Joseph E. Johnson

Who was Joseph E. Johnson?

Joseph Ellis Johnson was an American Mormon newspaper proprietor, politician, and businessman.

Johnson was born at Pomfret, Chautauqua County, New York. He moved to Kirtland, Ohio, in 1832 and was baptized into the Latter Day Saint church in 1833. He taught school in Springfield, Illinois in 1840 and went to Nauvoo, Illinois, a center for the Latter Day Saints, in 1840. There he married Harriet Snider on October 6, 1840; the marriage was performed by Joseph Smith, founder of the Latter Day Saint movement.

Johnson accompanied Joseph and Hyrum Smith on their way to Carthage Jail the day before the Smiths were murdered. Johnson was taken prisoner when the mob entered Nauvoo.

After the majority of Latter Day Saints abandoned Nauvoo, Johnson went to Kanesville, Iowa, in 1848, where he built the first house in Pottawattamie County, Iowa. Johnson was postmaster at Council Bluffs for five years. In this position, Johnson obtained the change of the settlement's name from Kanesville to Council Bluffs. He was a member of the first city council for several years.