Papers Of Abraham Lincoln

Johns, Edmund G.

Born: 1810 Virginia

Died: 1863-08-24 Springfield, Illinois

In 1835, Johns settled in Springfield, Illinois, and opened a home painting and wallpapering business. Later that year, he married Almira E. Dryer. He was President of the Young Men's Lyceum and served as a lieutenant in a Springfield artillery militia company. Johns was one of many tradesmen who went bankrupt following the Panic of 1837, and he hired Abraham Lincoln to represent him in his bankruptcy suit in 1842. After filing for bankruptcy, Johns resumed his business, and he later painted or hung wallpaper in the Lincolns' home on at least two occasions. He also served as a city alderman from 1854 to 1856. His wife Almira died, and he remarried in 1857 to Catherine V. G. Forbes. Johns was killed in a street accident in Springfield.

U.S. Census Office, Seventh Census of the United States (1850), Sangamon County, IL, 103; Sangamo Journal (Springfield, IL), 14 March 1835, 3:6; 15 August 1835, 3:3; 21 November 1835, 3:2; 10 June 1837, 2:7; 17 March 1838, 2:1; In re Johns, Martha L. Benner and Cullom Davis et al., eds., The Law Practice of Abraham Lincoln: Complete Documentary Edition, 2d edition (Springfield: Illinois Historic Preservation Agency, 2009), https://lawpracticeofabrahamlincoln.org/Details.aspx?case=137817; "In re Johns," Daniel W. Stowell et al., eds., The Papers of Abraham Lincoln: Legal Documents and Cases (Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2008), 1:98-118; Illinois Journal (Springfield), 25 August 1863, 3:2-3; John Carroll Power and S. A. Power, History of the Early Settlers of Sangamon County, Illinois (Springfield, IL: Edwin A. Wilson, 1876), 632; History of Sangamon County, Illinois (Chicago: Inter-State, 1881), 566.