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- http://archive.jconline.com/article/20110617/COLUMNISTS08/508/Feb-15-1998-Deutsch-Amerikaner-
Focus On: History
German immigrant was publisher, politician
One of Lafayette's foremost German immigrant citizens died in his home above his bookstore at 605 Main St., on March 5, 1908.
Francis Johnson had founded a German language newspaper, the Deutsch-Amerikaner or German-American, in 1874 and ran it until a stroke disabled him in 1904. Born in Rostock in northern Germany in 1837, Johnson was the son of a professor of modern literature and history. The father died in 1846, and the surviving family - spurred by political persecution and economic depression - emigrated to the United Stated in 1854 and moved to Lafayette in 1855. They turned out to be "blue chip citizens."
In Lafayette, Francis, then 18, and his brother Theodore opened the bookstore, selling literary materials printed in English or German. Their brother Lewis commanded a brigade in the Union Army during the Civil War and retired as a lieutenant-colonel, dying in 1895 in Texas. Another brother, Charles, became editor-in-chief of the German language Volksblatt in Cincinnati, and died in Bremen, Germany, while serving as a U.S. consul. Francis Johnson in 1868 returned to Europe for literary studies, already having mastered several languages and written for magazines and newspapers.
Author, journalist
Later, back in the United States, he worked for the Lakeside Monthly in Chicago until, in 1871, the "Great Chicago Fire" destroyed its building. Johnson went to New York City and wrote editorials on European subjects for the Evening Mail. He is said to have written several books, criticisms, essays and reviews and translated into English an unknown number of novels by an obscure German writer named Muehlbach.
During this period, Johnson also developed and delivered a lecture on "Prussia and the Causes of Her Greatness," and wrote an article about "Assassinations Famous In History." In 1873, Francis returned to Lafayette to look after his aged and ailing mother, the bookstore and various real estate holdings in which he had invested.
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1837 - 1908 (71 years)