Ticonderoga Historical Society trustee, Thomas Thatcher, recently donated five photographs, with an imprint of “Johnson, Crown Point, NY. They have been archived into our large photographic collection and are available for review.
All of the photographs appear to be circa late 1800s. We are seeking our readers assistance to identify and provide any other information that they can of those shown in these photographs.
We provide a brief review of the photographer – E. (Elbert) M. (Marcus) Johnson. He was born in Whiting, Addison County, VT on May 9, 1844 to Isaac Tichenor Johnson and Mary Tuthill Clark. Sometime around the 1850s the family moved to the Westport, NY area. During 1863 and 64 he attended school at Malone, NY. In August 1864 he enlisted in the Union Army and served with Company E, Second New York Harris Light Cavalry, until being mustered out on June 6, 1865 as a Fourth Corporal. During the war he was assigned to General George Custer’s division of Sheridan’s army. Some of the battles he was engaged in were: Cedar Creek, Waynesboro and Ashland Station. He was at Appomattox Station and witnessed the surrender of General Lee.
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After the war he studied at Eastman’s Business College in Poughkeepsie, NY and graduated in the spring of 1866. Mr. Johnson then moved to Iowa where he spent six months as a clerk in a hotel. From there he returned to upstate the New York area and learned his photographic trade. In 1873 at Crown Point, he built a home with a studio.
His first wife was Mary Eaton who he married February 1875. She died in 1883. On October 28, 1884 he married the widowed Flora E. Keyes. Mr. Johnson was an active member of the community and served on several fraternal organizations. He was also a member of the Crown Point school board, a charter member of C.F. Hammond Post, No. 533, and an officer in the local branch of the New York Mutual Savings and Loan Association. He died of a heart disease on April 7, 1910.
The Johnson Family
In 2005 Mr. Johnson’s grand-daughter, Janet Carson, published “E.M. Johsnon’s Reminiscences of the War.” The New York State Library has approximately 1/4 cubic feet of related reference material of which includes a bound notebook of the same title of the published Carson book. The collection also contains several other letters that were not transcribed into the notebook.
Photographs and other related material of E. M. Johnson, as well as, other regional photographers are sought and welcomed. Donations received will be archived into our research library’s collection and will be available to the public, subject to any restrictions requested.