William Johnson

• Active: '20s, '30s
• Genres: Jazz
• Instrument: Guitar, Banjo, Vocals

Biography

Not to be confused with primal New Orleans bassist Bill Johnson (born circa 1872), Will Johnson was born in Lexington, KY, in 1905. Active in the music scene in and around Louisville, Johnson traveled to New York with the Dixie Ramblers near the end of 1926 and worked with a band led by drummer George Howe in 1927, the year he began a five-year stint with Luis Russell's Orchestra. From 1928 to 1930, Johnson sat in with quite an assortment of hot jazz artists. His first noteworthy recorded performances were as a member of King Oliver's Dixie Syncopators, with whom he can be heard playing both banjo and guitar on their November 1928 recording of "Slow and Steady." Johnson was a very busy session man during the years 1929 and 1930, appearing on records with Jelly Roll Morton, clarinetist Wilton Crawley, Regina "Queen" Victoria Spivey, and even with Victoria's sister Addie "Sweet Pease" Spivey. Johnson made a handful of records with Fats Waller & His Buddies in December 1929 and with trombonist J.C. Higginbotham's Six Hicks in February 1930. His singing may be heard on records he made with Jack Purvis and with trumpeter Henry "Red" Allen, with whom he recorded "You Might Get Better But You'll Never Get Well" on February 18, 1930. Amid all of this activity, Johnson was still working with Luis Russell. He recorded with Russell in 1929 and 1930 and continued to work with this Panamanian pianist and his excellent jazz orchestra until 1932. Johnson was a member of the Fess Williams band in 1933 and 1934, then worked as guitarist-for-hire until he gave up performing full-time at some point during the middle '40s. He returned to Lexington, where during the summer of 1955 he is said to have perished in a fire that destroyed everything he owned. ~ arwulf arwulf, All Music Guide

British colonial administrator Sir William Johnson (1715-1774) was an important intermediary between England and the Indians in North America.

William Johnson was born at Smithtown, County Meath, Ireland. He came to New York about 1738 to supervise the lands along the Mohawk River belonging to his uncle. There he either married or took as a mistress Catherine Weisberg, who bore him a son and a daughter.

Johnson gained influence with the Indians and in 1745, at the outbreak of king George's War, he kept the Iroquois from allying with the French. The following year he was appointed a colonel and given responsibility for Indian affairs. In February 1748 Johnson was given command of 14 companies of militia raised for the defense of the New York frontier, and on May 1 he was commissioned as colonel for the Albany County militia regiment.

In April 1750 Johnson was appointed to the Council of New York, a position he held for the rest of his life. Five years later, in the French and Indian War, he received a commission for "sole Management & direction of the Affairs of the Six Nations of Iroquois & their Allies." As a major general, with 2,000 militia and 200 Indians, he defeated the French and Indians forces at Crown Point in September 1755. Although failing to take Crown Point, Johnson built a fort and won acclaim for blunting the French threat.

In November 1755 Johnson was made a baronet and appointed superintendent of Indian affairs for the Northern Department. For the next 3 years he concerned himself with Indian affairs and the defense of the northern frontier. He commanded the column that captured Ft. Niagara on July 25, 1759, and participated in Gen. Jeffery Amherst's successful expedition against French Montreal.

Johnson next undertook the organization of new tribes under his jurisdiction and in 1763 was able to put down the conspiracy of Chief Pontiac. In the Treaty of Ft. Stanwix (November 1768) he persuaded the Indians to give up their claims to lands in New York, Pennsylvania, and Virginia. He was successful in preventing the Iroquois from joining the Shawnees at the outbreak of Lord Dunmore's War in 1774.

Johnson was a member of the American Philosophical Society and of the Society for the Promotion of Arts, an organization devoted to the development of agriculture. After the death of his first wife he took a niece of a Mohawk chief as a housekeeper; she bore him three children. Later, by his common-law wife, the sister of another Mohawk chief, he had eight children. He died on July 11, 1774.

Further Reading

The best biography of Johnson is Arthur Pound and Richard E. Day, Johnson of the Mohawks (1930). Still useful are William L. Stone, The Life and Times of Sir William Johnson, Bart. (1865); William Elliot Griffis, Sir William Johnson and the Six Nations (1891); and Augustus C. Buell, Sir William Johnson (1903).

Additional Sources

Flexner, James Thomas, Lord of the Mohawks: a biography of Sir William Johnson, Boston: Little, Brown, 1979.

Flexner, James Thomas, Mohawk baronet: a biography of Sir William Johnson, Syracuse, N.Y.: Syracuse University Press, 1989, 1979.

Igneri, David S., Sir William Johnson: the man and his influence, New York: Rivercross Pub., 1994.

Rowles, Catharine Bryant, Tomahawks to hatpins, Lakemont, N.Y.: North Country Books, 1975.

Simms, Jeptha Root, Trappers of New York: or, A biography of Nicholas Stoner and Nathaniel Foster: together with anecdotes of other celebated hunters, and some account of Sir William Johnson, and his style of living, Harrison, N.Y.: Harbor Hill Books, 1980.

Powell, Richard J., Homecoming: the art and life of William H. Johnson, Washington, D.C.: National Museum of American Art, Smithsonian Institution; New York: Rizzoli, 1991.

Johnson, Sir William, 1715–74, British colonial leader in America, b. Co. Meath, Ireland. He settled (1738) in the Mohawk valley, became a merchant, and gained great power among the Mohawk and other Iroquois. He acquired large landed properties, founded (1762) Johnstown, N.Y., and lived in baronial splendor at Johnson Hall. Because of his influence with the indigenous population (he was made a Mohawk sachem in the 1740s), he was a key figure in the French and Indian Wars, first becoming prominent in King George's War. At the Albany Congress (1754) he helped formulate British policy toward native peoples, and he was made (1755) superintendent of Iroquois affairs. In the French and Indian War, although his expedition against Crown Point did not capture that fort, he soundly defeated (1755) the French under Baron Dieskau at Lake George and built Fort William Henry. Johnson was rewarded with a baronetcy.

In 1759 he captured Fort Niagara, and in 1760 he served with Gen. Jeffery Amherst in the capture of Montreal. He had been appointed general superintendent of Indian affairs north of the Ohio in 1756, and after the Peace of Paris (1763) his office was of great significance in the vast new areas gained from France. His chief lieutenants were George Croghan; Johnson's son-in-law, Guy Johnson; his son, Sir John Johnson; and Daniel Claus. Although Pontiac's Rebellion and British economy measures prevented him from establishing the centralized control over natives and fur traders that he desired, he did much to further British rule in the formerly French territories. He presided at the council of Fort Stanwix (1768). His papers have been edited by the New York State Division of Archives (13 vol., 1921–62).

Bibliography

See biographies by A. Pound and R. Day (1930, repr. 1971), J. T. Flexner (1959), and F. O'Toole (2005).

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