God that he should soon follow his beloved companion to the grave. They were everything to each other in the journey of life, and they were not long separated by death. They rest from their labors and their works do follow them. "And now behold their witness is in heaven and their record is on high." Richard Johnson.-By A. Tiffany Norton. Nearly ninety years ago there set out from Londonderry, Ireland, two young people filled with ambition and eager to carve out a new destiny in the great land of promise, America. They were of sturdy Scotch-Irish stock, and the ancestors of the husband, Michael Johnson, had taken part in the siege of Londonderry. The voyage was commenced in the spring of 1804, and in the latter part of July they landed in New York. In the fall of the same year they arrived at the house of their relative, William Crossett, in the town of Geneseo. After a brief rest Mr. Johnson began looking about for a suitable spot in which to lay the foundations of his new world home. It is a family tradition that he visited the site of the present city of Rochester in his prospecting tour, but was thoroughly disgusted with the appearance of that locality, which he found to be principally swamp land, and declared that he would not take the land as a gift. Today the land he so much despised is worth more per single acre than the best hundred acre farm in Groveland, where he finally located, excellent as are the fertile lands of that beautiful farming town. But the pioneer Johnson was not dreaming of busy, populous cities, nor had the faintest glimmerings of the vast progress and development of this wonderful nineteenth century. He thought only of fertile lands, bountiful crops, a comfortable home and the securing of a competency by hard toil in field and forest. In 1806 Michael Johnson had fixed his choice on a tract of land in the eastern border of the town of Groveland, and here he erected an humble log cabin wherein the household was established. It is a remarkable fact that from the day the pioneer Johnson's axe first rang in the primitive forest down to the present time, this farm has never had but two owners and has never been out of the possession of the Johnson family. There are few properties in this county that can show such a record of continued ownership and occupancy. Michael Johnson possessed all the characteristics of the ScotchIrish race. He was a man of decided convictions and no influence could move him from any position which he believed to be right. He was proverbially upright and industrious, and was greatly respected. From its formation to his death he was a deacon in the Groveland Presbyterian church. His death occurred in 1835. Richard Johnson, the subject of this sketch, was the fifth child of Michael and Margaret Johnson, and was born in the log cabin already mentioned Nov. 25th, 1815. The growing prosperity of the family permitted the erection some years later of a more modern and commodious house, but Richard Johnson passed his whole life on the farm where he was born, and desired no other home than the one made dear and sacred to him by family associations, as well as by his love of rural life. From boyhood he manifested this love of agriculture, and often in his lifetime he was heard to say that it was the most happy and honorable of occupations. Early in life he showed a great love for books, and while yet a boy commenced the formation of a library, the constant accretions of which during his whole life made it one of the most valuable and complete of family libraries, and an uncommon one for a man who called himself a common farmer. This appellation was not properly bestowed, for Mr. Johnson was not only a man of more than ordinary inteilectual powers, but years of diligent reading had given him a rich fund of knowledge, a cultivated mind and broad and liberal views. As he said himself, Mr. Johnson also "found sermons in trees, stones and running brooks," and his collection of minerals and valuable geological specimens formed a cabinet of rare value and interest. He took great interest in the discoveries of travellers, especially in pre-historic America, and discussed with keen intelligence the lost races and civilization of the New World. Mr. Johnson took a deep interest in public affairs, and although not an aspirant for office he was often called upon to fill positions of trust and responsibility by his townspeople. For ten years he was a justice of the peace, and filled the position of sessions justice for two terms. Under the old excise law of 1857 he was appointed by the county judge as one of the excise commissioners, and served in this capacity for thirteen years. For over twenty years he was the official correspondent of the Agricultural Department at Washington for Livingston county, and wrote his monthly reports until his failing health compelled his retirement. In 1869 Mr. Johnson was elected member of assembly, and was elected for a second term in 1870. In the legislature he discharged his duties with credit to himself and his constituents. He was also for two years a trustee of the Binghamton Inebriate asylum, and the institution reaped much benefit from his practical common sense and sound judgment. He was a life member of the Livingston County Historical Society, and was one of the originators and active participants in the celebration of the anniversary of Sullivan's campaign. Mr. Johnson was married in 1840 to Matilda Ebenriter, who survives him. Two children were born of this marriage but they died in infancy, and Mr. Johnson left no descendants save his aged Of his father's family also, only an aged widow to bear his name. Mr. Johnson was a man of kind and generous instincts, and many who were in distress found in him a friend and helper. He was also a good counsellor, and was often called upon by his neighbors to advise with them in important matters. He was liberal in his support of the Presbyterian church, with which his family was identified from its foundation, but his was no narrow sectarianism, and he gave liberally also to the Methodist church near his life-long home. He despised indolence and dishonesty, and gave encouragement always to those who sought to make their lives useful and honorable. Mr. Johnson's health failed in 1889, and after a lingering illness he passed away on the 26th day of January, 1892. and was buried in the rural cemetery which overlooks the old Groveland hills he loved so well. Rev. E. B. Walsworth, D. D.-By H. D. Kingsbury. No object of study yields richer instruction or furnishes more effective stimulus to thought than a human life—especially when that life satisfies our conceptions of what a life should be. By this standard let us review the life of our departed and deeply lamented member, the late Dr. Edward Brown Walsworth, who, during the past year, has rounded the bend in the river of life, and passed from our sight. Two years and one week ago this very day he stood in this desk and honored the occasion with his presence and enriched the archives of this society with a masterly address. In Dr. Walsworth's veins ran Pilgrim blood from the oldest Colonial stock of New England. His father, Silas Southworth Walsworth, was a descendant of Lady Alice Southworth, who became the second wife of Governor William Bradford of the Plymouth Colony. Sophia Brown, his mother, a native of Northampton, Mass., was a woman of superior abilities and of most devout Christian character. His father was a near relative of the celebrated Walworth family of New York and Albany cities, of which Chancellor Walworth was a member. Like so many other old families, different branches varied the spelling, but the subject of this sketch made distinct claim that he conformed to the oldest records. He was born in Cleveland, Ohio, September 29, 1819, the second of seven children. His father was a pioneer merchant in the city of Cleveland, with the stir and tact of a man of affairs. Scarcely in his teens, Edward was seized with an irrepressible longing to see more of the world than city life displayed. Finding employment on an Ohio river boat that ran to New Orleans, he was at once surrounded by the excitement, the dissipation, and the wild, rough scenes of Mississippi steamboat life sixty years ago. Like his comrades, he carried a pistol and a bowie knife as a preparation for emergencies. Excessive drinking, debauches, and often bloodshed were the normal condition of river life in the great southwest, and the man or boy who lacked tact, judgment, and courage, was lost. That our boy went in, went through, and came out of this maelstrom unscathed, shows the kind of metal out of which the trip hammer of events was forging his manhood. But this kind of life did not last long for before Edward was 15 years old, and while the family were living in Louisville, Ky., the devoted wife and aged mother was taken from them by death. This bereavement came like an edict of fate. Losing its central attraction and guiding star, the family at once broke up and separated. Two brothers remained in the southwest with their father. Edward and three of his sisters came north to enjoy its better educational advantages. The supreme influence of his mother shows at this parting of the ways. It had been her desire that he should become a minister, and she lived long enough to ineffaceably stamp her wish on his purpose and his will. His father opposed it strongly, offering business inducements, and threatning to withhold all aid from any other course-but all to no effect. The great soul of the mother was re-created in her son, and at her death the mantle of her consecration rested on his spirit and became the inspiration of his life. From this time he became, and for the next twenty years continued to be a citizen of Western New York. Dependent upon his own exertions, Edward became a schoolmaster while yet in his teens, teaching in West Bloomfield, Batavia and other places. Besides his own needs, he contributed to the educational support of one of his sisters in Canandaigua and one in Albany. He prepared for college at Geneva Lyceum, under the guidance and instruction of Dr. Justin French, who had the discernment to see what a rare piece of manhood was wrapped up in his favorite pupil. This friendship between teacher and pupil was only broken when the former was called to the great school above. The first home the three children had in this state was with a brother of their deceased mother-Rev. Silas C. Brown in West Bloomfield. This was great good fortune to these ardent, impressible natures. It was a harbor and a training school, where they received equipment and direction for the voyage of life, and to which they often returned. Another very worthy man, Deacon Theodore Brown, elder brother of Rev. Silas C., and a near neighbor, also took fatherly care of the children. The only record we have of Edward's early religious life is that he united with the Presbyterian church in West Bloomfield by letter from a church in Batavia, July 5, 1837, and that he made considerable progress in his preparation for the ministry under the guidance of his Uncle Silas. It is worthy of note that before his final decision to be a minister, he tried the tailor's and bookbinder's trades—with equal dissatisfaction. His classical course was taken in Schenectady, where he graduated from Union College in 1844, then under the management of the celebrated Dr. Nott. The next two years he spent in the Auburn Theological Seminary, and the third in the Union Theological Seminary in New York city. While here he taught in Dr. Lyon's grammar school on Broadway, and was strongly urged by the Doctor to relinquish preaching and give his life to teaching, so well adapted were his talents to this profession. Previous to this he had been principal of the Attica academy and of Walworth academy. But long maturing plans and the memory of the wishes of his sainted mother kept him a preacher. He graduated from the Union Theological Seminary in 1848, and the same year accepted a call from the Presbyterian church in East Avon, where in September he was ordained by the Ontario Presbytery. This first pastorate continued through four years of continual church growth, and of almost continual revival. Here he found his life partner, Miss Sarah A., daughter of Frederick Pierson of East Avon. Forty-four years of blessed, happy wedlock, proved this choice a wise one. Possessed of womanly qualities and graces, moulded by culture, and balanced by strength and steadiness of judgment and character, her helpfulness was a theme which he loved to acknowledge as one of the secrets of his prosperity. Accompanied by their only child, Cornelia, she is now visiting in California, where the familiar scenes of her husband's labors must awaken constant memories of the triumphant past. In 1852 Mr. Walsworth offered his services to the American Home Missionary Society, then composed of the Presbyterian and Congregational denominations. His offer was eagerly accepted, and in company with seven other missionaries and their families, Mr. and Mrs. Walsworth sailed on the "Trade Wind" for California via. Cape Horn, arriving in San Francisco Feb. 23, 1853, after a voyage of 102 days. In March he preached, under a magnificent oak, the first sermon ever heard in Contra Costa, where the city of Oakland now stands, and organized the first Protestant church in what is now Alameda county. During his single year's stay in Union theological seminary, he made such enthusiastic friends in Brooklyn that they purchased and sent him a bell, which from that day to this has called worshippers to the First Presbyterian church in Oakland. His real desire was to settle with this people, but a struggling church in Marysville needed help, and his friends thought that a more commanding point for church work. Thither he went, enthused all classes of people with his spirit, and by their aid built the finest religious edifice then on the coast. His educational talents were recognized by the unanimous choice of all parties, which made him |