Nels Johnson. Throughout the entire country Mr. Johnson is well known as the
designer and manufacturer of the Century Tower Clock. His home is
in Manistee, and he is numbered among the leading citizens of this
place, as well as one of the influential men of Northern Michigan.
For more than thirty years he has made a special study of the science of
horology, and thoroughly understands everything connected with the measurement
of time. He is familiar with the true principle of gearing,
escapements, mechanical movements, and the pendulum and laws
governing them; also with the instruments that from the earliest
period have measured time - the clepsydra or water clock of the Grecians
and Romans, the sun dial, the hour-glass, the graduated candle, and numerous other
contrivances invented by men of various ages, all imperfect and crude, but
serving as stepping-stones for the perfecting of the chronometer,
the regulator and the sidereal clocks of the present century.
A
sketch of the life of one so prominent will therefore possess for our readers
more than ordinary interest. Mr. Johnson is a native of Denmark,
and was born November 26, 1838. His boyhood years were uneventfully
passed in his native land, whence in early manhood he emigrated to
America. In 1861 he reached Milwaukee, where he worked one year as a blacksmith,
having learned that trade in his youth. Afterward he became an employee in a machine-shop,
where he was from time to time promoted, until he finally held one of the most
important positions in the concern. During his connection with that shop,
covering a period of ten years, he laid the foundation of the
success which he has since attained.
In 1871 Mr. Johnson came to Manistee,
where he opened a machine-shop and foundry. In October of the same
year his shop was destroyed by fire, at the same time that Chicago
was burned, and his loss was complete. This left him in very poor circumstances; in
fact, such was his poverty, he and his wife were obliged to spend the winter in
a small coal shed, having no other home. However, he had an
abundance of pluck and determination, and soon purchased from John
Canfield the tract where his shops are now located. Through Mr.
Canfield, A.O. Wheeler became interested in the enterprise, and the new
firm soon had charge of a profitable and increasing business. A specialty was
made of the repairing and building of sawmill machinery, also of
the fitting out of shingle-mills. In the latter department of the
work employment was given to twelve or fifteen men. For twenty
years the partnership continued, but the connection was finally dissolved by the retirement
of Mr. Wheeler from the business.
While giving his attention principally to
that enterprise, Mr. Johnson also found time to study carefully the
mathematical relations of clock movements. Purchasing a second-hand clock,
he gained through investigation a thorough knowledge of its mechanism. Some eight
years ago he met Professor Harrington, of Ann Arbor, now Chief of the Weather Bureau,
who told him that no two clocks could be made to run together, and that the only way
to arrive at the correct time was to depend upon the fixed stars, which could be reached
by the use of the transit. Two years after that conversation, Mr. Johnson
secured a transit, which still stands in his private office,
arranged to observe the passing of any star.
From Professor
Hussey, then of Ann Arbor, now of the Leland Stanford University, Mr. Johnson
received material assistance in his higher mathematical calculations. About 1886 he
commenced to manufacture clocks, and so rapidly did he advance in his work that
one of his tower clocks was chosen for the Michigan State Building
at the World's Fair. Another of his clocks adorns a large Lutheran
Church in Rochester, N.Y., one is in Fond du Lac, Wis., three in
Milwaukee, one in Postville, Iowa, and one in the City Hall at Ludington.
One of his finest clocks is in the Fort Street Depot of Detroit, which is guaranteed
to run with a variation of only ten seconds per month. He owns a valuable chronometer,
which is regulated by his transit. Though he has made many important improvements,
he has never taken out any letters patent, but is content to let others
enjoy all the advantages to be derived from their use. His outfit of tools was purchased
at a cost of more than $4000. He has a fine unmounted, six-inch telescope, which
when placed in position will be one of the best in the United States.
Among
the societies with which Mr. Johnson is identified are the Astronomical Society
of the Pacific and the Astronomical Association of Michigan, also
the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He has
attended the meetings of these organizations, and while not a
public speaker has, through his acknowledged abilities gained the esteem of
their leaders. Believing the science of astronomy to be the basis of all correct
time, he has made a specialty of its study, and few are better
informed upon the subject than is he.
In Milwaukee, in 1865, Mr.
Johnson was united in marriage with Miss Frances Green, who was
born in Germany, but at the time of her marriage was living in Milwaukee. She died
in Manistee after having become the mother of two sons and three daughters. The eldest,
August, was for two years instructor in the mechanical department of Delaware College,
in Newark, Del., and is now superintendent of the foundry and machine-shop. Hattie,
the second in order of birth, is the wife of Harold T. Newton, and is a musician
of acknowledged talent. Dollie is a trained nurse in Chicago. Nels
is employed as engineer in the shop. Kate, who is now sixteen years
of age, is a student in the business college of Manistee. The
second wife of our subject, whom he married in April, 1881, was Miss Amanda
Golden, of Manistee. In religious belief he is a member of the Methodist Episcopal
Church, of which he is a Trustee and has been a Class Leader for twenty years.
By his upright life and superior ability he has won the respect and confidence
of his associates, and through the exercise of sound judgment and
sagacity he has gained a well merited competence.
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