Notes for JOEL JOHNSON:

Son of Daniel and Elvina (Dubois) Johnson.
Born: 1865 in Chariton County, Missouri.
Died: 1909 in Unknown.
Buried: Highland Cemetery, Okemah, Okfuskee County, Oklahoma.
Cause of Death: Copperhead snake bite.
Residence:
Before 1900 - Payne County, Oklahoma.
About 1904 - Okemah, Okfuskee County, Oklahoma.
Married: Ella Florina Kier 1886 in Yates Center, Woodson County, Kansas.

Joel was the third child of Daniel Johnson of Sussex County, NJ, and Elvina "Dubois" Johnson of Hurley, NY. His parents were some of the earliest settlers of Wisconsin where Joel was born in 1855 in Koshkonong, WI. Shortly after Joel's father returned from the Civil War, the family moved to Yates Center, KS where they opened a pharmacy and music store. Joel met Ella Kier in Yates Center and they married in 1886. By 1900, Joel and Ella had settled in Indian Territory (Oklahoma) in Payne COunty, and moved to Okemah, Oklahoma in 1904 to open a hotel. The business was in a two-story building. The upstairs was a hotel and the downstairs was a furniture store and Joel had a woodshop there and made all types of wooden furniture as well as upholstered furniture. Early in April of 1910 Joel heard a dog growling and his children screaming for him behind the hotel. The kids were gathering kindling for the fire. The dog was growling and the kids were afraid. Joel reached for a stick to chase away the dog and when he did, he was bitten by a copperhead snake. There was no doctor available in town that day and he went untreated for more than a day. Then he was put into a horse-drawn wagon which shook him around a lot and made things worse and he died. He and his wife had had 8 children: Edith, Edna, Harvey, Frank, Cary, Jesse, Elvina, and Marie.