Johnson, John O.

Flourished: 1857 to 1859 Springfield, Illinois

John O. Johnson was a resident of Springfield, Illinois by 1857 when he became friends with Abraham Lincoln, who hired him as a Republican Party organizer. He worked in the office of the Illinois state superintendent of public instruction and served as secretary of the Illinois Republican State Central Committee. While in Illinois, Johnson acted as a correspondent of the New York Tribune for Horace Greeley. In 1860, he was living in New York City, where he was a clerk in the customs house by the following year.

Abraham Lincoln to Richard Yates; The Lincoln Log: A Daily Chronology of the Life of Abraham Lincoln, 27 February 1858, http://www.thelincolnlog.org/Results.aspx?type=CalendarDay&day=1858-02-27; Michael Burlingame, Abraham Lincoln: A Life (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2008), 1:446, 555; Daily Illinois State Journal (Springfield), 12 June 1858, 3:1; 15 March 1859, 3:2; The Illinois State Journal (Springfield), 7 July 1858, 2:4; John O. Johnson to Abraham Lincoln; John O. Johnson to Abraham Lincoln; H. Wilson, comp, Trow’s New York City Directory (New York: John F. Trow, 1861), 435.