Johnson - Rev ER - Montgomery InGenWeb Project

Rev. E. R. Johnson and wife, of Mulberry were in the city Tuesday, the guests of Dr. and Mrs. Eddingfield of West Wabash Avenue. Mr. Johnson celebrated his seventieth birthday Tuesday, a dinner suitable to the occasion being served at the Eddington home.

Mr. Johnson is one of the best known Methodist ministers in Indiana and especially well known in this county where he has in the past filled very acceptably several charges. He is still as active and aggressive as ever and bids fair to live many years yet to worry the devil and his minions—and Mr. Johnson is one of the kind that worries them, too.

He was born in Ogdensburg, N. Y., on May 14, 1831 and was taken to Canada by his parents when seven years of age. He grew up there and after his marriage was employed by the Methodist Church to conduct the Alderville Industrial School for Indians located near Price Lake between Cobony and Peterborough in Ontario. He spent ten years as a teacher, five among the Indians and five in a white settlement near the Indian village. In 1868, he came to Indiana and located at Lafayette, teaching two years in the schools of that city. In 1870 he entered the Methodist ministry, being admitted at Terre Haute. He remained in the active ministry until 1898, when he asked and was granted a superannuated relation to the conference. He then removed to Mulberry, in Clinton County, and he still resides there. He is an especially active temperance man, and since his residence in Mulberry has succeeded in closing the three saloons that flourished when he went there. He is not a third party Prohibitionist but has accomplished more in the cause of temperance than four fifths of the active members of that party. Mr. and Mrs. Johnson have eight children living. Two of them, Mrs. Eddingfield and Charles Johnson, live in this county. -s

Source: Crawfordsville Weekly Journal Friday, 24 May 1901

The celebration of the 70th birthday of Rev. E. R. Johnson in this city last week recalls a strange experience he had many years ago. Rev. Johnson was born in Ogdensburg, N. Y., and came to Indiana to take charge of what is now the Congress Street M. E. Church, of Lafayette. He found the church unfinished, it had no money, and the congregation was discouraged. The new pastor undertook to complete the work, and in June 1869, was seized with a fever and two physicians pronounced him dead. The body was prepared for the grave, and while the funeral was being held, Mr. Johnson revived. The funeral services were being conducted by the Rev. J. W. Joyce, now a Methodist bishop. A gust of wind slammed the church door and the jar seemed to revive the minister. He half rose in the coffin and fell back exhausted. There was intense excitement among the persons who were attending the services. Medical aid was called, and in a few weeks Mr. Johnson was able to appear in the pulpit. He admits that during the three days that he was supposed to be dead, he was beyond the portals of eternity, and saw numerous visions, but would never reveal them.