Rev. H. S. Johnson

Rev. H. S. Johnson Window
Rev. H. S. Johnson Window

Rev. H. S. Johnson (1864? – 1925) was pastor of the Milton Methodist Protestant Church from April 1901 to April 1903. He funded the leftmost window of the group on the East Wall of the church building, even though he had been transferred to another congregation long before the dedication in 1906.

Although he never used his full name publicly, it was probably Harry S. Johnson. He was ordained on April 11, 1892 in Alexandria, VA. The WPA Survey of Churches in Delaware, made in 1940, shows a Rev. H. S. Johnson as the first settled clergyman of the Greenwood Methodist Protestant Church, 1891 – 1892. The U.S. Census of 1900 shows H. S. Johnson, occupation minister, and wife Dora living in Harford County, MD; the census of 1910 lists Harry S. Johnson, occupation minister, and wife Dora, living in Accomac, Virginia, at the southern end of the Delmarva Peninsula. We can safely assume that Harry S. Johnson is the Rev. H. S. Johnson; from the Denton Journal we know that Rev. Johnson was minister to the congregation at Leemont, in Accomac County, in 1910. From the Milford Chronicle we know his wife’s maiden name was probably Benjamin and his father’s name was H. C. Johnson. There is a reference to his wife teaching music and dramatics at the Lavinia’s Woods camp, an annual revival meeting; this appeared in the Milford Chronicle in 1903. That newspaper also mentions the abundance of “exotics” (unusual plants) in the front window of his parsonage in Milton, but we know little else about him beyond the funerals and weddings he officiated at during his service in Milton and elsewhere. On March 14, 1903, he officiated at the marriage of Carrie White and Denton merchant (and until 1902, Milton resident) Winfield Wright. Carrie was the daughter of church trustee and prominent local businessman N. Wallace White, himself the sponsor of a window in the Annex. The Rev. Johnson co-officiated with another former Milton pastor at the funeral of Mary E. M. Atkins in 1905.

After he was transferred from his Milton post, most of what is reported about Rev. Johnson comes from the Denton Journal, as he served as the pastor of the Denton congregation for several years as well as others in Talbot and Caroline counties. After 1907, we hear of him mostly when he is summoned to Denton from Virginia to officiate at the funeral of a local resident to whom he ministered in the past. There are references to him preaching at Honaker, VA in 1909 and Burke’s Garden, VA prior to that. He was minister to the congregation of Lemont in 1909 – 1910, where the Peninsula Enterprise of January 8, 1910 reports his performing two weddings in the preceding December. In May of 1910 he is reported by that same journal preaching at Grant Memorial M.P. Church in Tasley, VA. We hear of him preaching at in Tazewell, VA in 1911 and Steelesburg, VA in 1912. We also know he returned to preach in Milton at least once, at the Lavina Woods camp meeting in 1921. An article in the Baltimore Sun in 1922 reports that a Rev. Harry S. Johnson fell victim to a stroke and was in critical condition, and this is confirmed by another article in the Wilmington Evening Journal of January 30, 1925, reporting his death in Bay View, MD, at the home of his sister Mrs. Thompson Reed. The latter article also reports the death of Rev. Johnson’s wife five years earlier, and that he was survived by a son, W. W. Johnson of Eddystone, PA. On the same subject, the Wilmington News Journal a day later reported all of the same facts plus that W. W. Johnson was an agent for the Pennsylvania Railroad, and that Rev. Johnson was the son of Henry C. Johnson of Cecil County, MD.