Ventura County Republican Project: History and Genealogy

Ventura County Republican Project: History and Genealogy

"A Memorial and Biographical History of the Counties of Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo, and Ventura, California" (1891), page 638.

G. W. F. Johnson [Editor inserted: George W. F. Johnson]

G. W. F. Johnson, Proprietor of the Petrolia Hotel, Santa Paula, California, was born in Terre Haute, Indiana, April 22, 1853. His father, George W. Johnson, was born and reared in Indianapolis. While attending school, he spent three years of his life in the family of Henry Ward Beecher. For a long time he was employed on the Daily Sentinel, now a leading paper of Indianapolis. Mr. Johnson's grandfather, Collin P. Johnson, was a pioneer of Indianapolis. He was a native of Winchester, West Virginia. Mr. Johnson's mother, nee Mary E. Kittlemen, was born in Indianapolis, and her father, James Kittlemen, was a pioneer there. Her grandfather was a soldier in the Revolutionary war, and lived to be 104 years old.

The subject of this sketch was the oldest of a family of three children. He received his early education in Iowa, Kentucky and Oregon, completing his studies at Plymouth College, Oregon. The first work he did was to help Mr. Ben Hodely construct a telegraph line. After that he was engaged for ten years in the hotel business. In 1883 he purchased the Calistoga Hot Springs, together with 148 acres of land known as the old Sam Brannan property, and conducted it a year a half, after which he solt it to Governor Stanford, who now owns it. In Sonoma County, he bought 500 acres of land and for two years carried on general farming and stock-raising. On account of his wife's failing health, her physician ordered them South, and they traveled for nearly two years, seeking health for Mrs. Johnson, but without success; and finally located at Phoenix, Arizona, on a farm of 640 reres. There Mr. Johnson established the Calistoga breeding farm, importing and breeding fine stock of all kinds. After conducting this two years, he sold out and engaged in business in Phoenix, forming the firm of Hiller & Johnson, dealers in investments, bonds, warrants, etc. While in that business they purchased 150 acres of land, joining the city of Phoenix, which city is now the capital of Arizona, and laid out the Hiller and Johnson addition. During the last year he spent in Phoenix, Mr. Johnson conducted the Lemon Hotel - then the leading hotel of the Territory.

March 1, 1888, Mr. Johnson sold his interest to his partner, Mr. E. Hiller (now the cashier and manager of the Hartford Banking Company of Phoenix), and came to Santa Paula. He purchased the lease of the old Union Hotel, and conducted the house successfully for ten months, when it caught fire and burned down. Three months later he bought the ground and commenced the erection of the Petrolia Hotel, which he completed and furnished in a very satisfactory manner. It is 50 x 110 feet, with two stories and a half and a basement, containing forty rooms, and having a central location on Main street. The house is lit with gas, does a good business, and is well managed. It is the regular eating-house for passengers on South Pacific trains, and it is the leading hotel of the place.

Mr. Johnson was united in marriage to Miss Sarah M. Booth, a daughter of Mr. James R. Booth. She was born in Oregon in 1857. Their union was blessed with two sons and one daughter, namely: Chester, born in Napa County, September 1, 1877; Carl, in the same place, February 2, 1879; and Pearl E., in Adin, Modoc County. Notwithstanding the efforts put forth to save the life of Mrs. Johnson, she died, of consumption, in 1884. In August, 1885, Mr. Johnson married Miss Mary F. Fornia, a native of Nebraska City, born in 1869. She is the daughter of Mr. Milton Fornia, a merchant of Leadville, Colorado. They have two interesting children: George N., born in Phoenix, May 30, 1887, and Eleanora Cecelia, born September 13, 1889, in Santa Paula.

For the last five years Mr. Johnson has been a contractor for the Government posts in Southern California and Arizona. While in Arizona, Governor F. A. Tritle appointed him Secretary of the Territorial Fair Association, at a salary of $1,200 per year. He was a stockholder in the Valley Bank, and in the Hartford Bank. Mr. Johnson has obtained every degree in the I. O. O. F., and has passed all its chairs. He is a K. of P., and a member of the military order of the Loyal League of the United States. In politics he is a Republican, but is not radical. He is a prominent business man and a very obliging hotel-keeper.
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Ventura County Republican Project: History and Rootsweb Genealogy posted by Jon Miller and Tony Larson.