George Kinney Johnson, M. D.
George Kinney Johnson, M.D.—Grand Rapids has had her full share of skillful and honorable physicians, and amongst them no one, perhaps, holds a more secure place than the gentleman whose name opens this paragraph. He is one of the oldest physicians in the western part of Michigan, and may be classed among the pioneer medical men of the state, as he has been in active practice since the early part of the summer of 1846, and from the beginning of his career has been uninterruptedly successfully, but of this success more may be told in his concise narrative of his life, given in the satisfy form and manner as those adopted though out this work.
George Kinney Johnson, M. D., was born in Cayuga county, N. Y., January 17, 1821. He came to Michigan in 1826 with his father, who settled in the township of Brighton, Livingston county, There and in that vicinity the embryo physician spent three or four years helping his father to make a farm and a home. The country was new and wild, and almost without a settlement, but he regards that experience of pioneer life and of the incidents of early settlement as wholesome. School advantages were scanty or absent, but he read with avidity such books as fell in his way. At eighteen years of age he resolved to secure an education, but the difficulties were great. There were no schools in the vicinity, but at Ann Arbor, twenty-two miles away, an old fashioned academy, known as the McNeil academy. Had its existence. This he attended two or three years, and was at that school when the corner stone of the Michigan university was laid. During that time, as well as while pursuing professional studies afterward, he eked out his scanty means by teaching school when the exigency demanded.
At the age of twenty-one years he entered the office of the late Dr. Ira Bingham, at Brighton, and began the study of medicine. Dr. Bingham was a brusque old bachelor, but was a well instructed and successful practitioner, and took great pains with and interest in the young men he admitted to his office.
In March, 1846, Dr. Johnson received his
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degree in medicine from the Cleveland Medical college (medical department of the Western Reserve university), and in June following he established himself in Pontiac, this state, and began his professional work. Here fortune favored him, and he soon found himself sufficiently occupies. In a few years his practice ranged over large portions of Oakland county; but at length his health broke under excessive labor. In 1852 or 1853 he removed to Detroit and undertook light practice, but his health did not return, and began to look as if it would not. In 1856, being unable to do the work of his profession, he came to this city in charge of the interests of the Detroit & Milwaukee railroad, then in course of construction, and in which some of his friends were largely concerned. In 1857 he spent several months in England, partly in pursuit of health and partly in the interest of the railroad referred to above. In the spring of 1859 he was elected, as a democrat, mayor of Grand Rapids, and served one term, but declined to be again a candidate. In the autumn of 1860, having regained sufficient health, he resumed his profession.
In 1861 the great war drew him into its vortex. He became surgeon of the First Michigan Cavalry and went with it to the field. He served with it during the exciting campaign of Gen. Banks in the valley of the Shenandoah, in the early months of 1862; later in the same season he served as medical director of a brigade of cavalry, commanded by Gen. John Buford, in the very stirring but unfortunate campaign to Gen. Pope. He was at second Bull Run, and had the grief to see his friend Col. Brodhead, the commander of his regiment yield up his life. In February, 1863, congress created a corps of medical inspectors of the army, with increased rank. It consisted of eight inspectors, four of whom were to be taken from the regular service and four from the volunteer service. Dr. Johnson was commissioned as one of the four from the latter, was at once assigned to duty with the army of the Potomac, and was in this service during the campaigns of 1863. He was present at the battles of Chancellorsville and Gettysburg, as well as at some minor affairs. From the end of 1863 to the first of October, 1865, he was medical inspector of the Middle military department. As such it was his duty, a responsible and laborious one, to inspect the field and general hospitals of that large department, extending from Philadelphia to New Berne, N. C.
In November, 1865, after a military service of four years and four months, Dr. Johnson returned to his home in this city, at once resumed his profession, and from that time to the present has been in full and laborious practice. He has been an active member of the various medical societies of the city, has long been and still is a member of the State Medical society, and was president of that society in 1879. He has frequently contributed papers and addresses to the proceedings of that society. He is a member of the National association of railway Surgeons, and is surgeon-in-chief of the Grand Rapids & Indiana R. R., chief surgeon of the Chicago &West Michigan, and the Detroit, Lansing & Northern. By reason of his army service he holds membership in the society of the army of the Potomac and in the order of the Loyal Legion of America. Dr. Johnson was appointed pension examining surgeon of Grand Rapids shortly after the war, and was the only surgeon on that service in this city for several years, until the Grand Rapids board was organized, after which he served as president of the board a number of years. He is also chief of staff and consulting surgeon to Butterworth hospital.
In 1847, Dr. Johnson was united in marriage with Miss Adeline M. Stewart, a native of Ithaca, N. Y., and this marriage has been blessed with two children—George Stewart, president and general manager of the Grand Rapids Consolidated Street Railroad company, and Mary A., widow of George T. Kendall and now residing with her parents.
The doctor adhered to the democratic party until 1896, when he declined to support Bryan and free silver and allied himself with the gold democracy.