Such a course of life was kept up for years, until the hospitality of Johnson Hall became a proverb, and its revelry, we must add, passed into a byword. Despite his constant out-door life and otherwise good habits, it is more than probable that such luxurious living long persisted in explains why the baronet never saw his sixtieth year.
In practical farming and in horticulture Johnson took great delight, and in his intervals of leisure did much, both by personal example and by neighbourly conference with the farmers, to improve crops and live-stock. He was a regular correspondent of the Society for the Promotion of Arts in England, and of the American Philosophical Society in Philadelphia. Agriculture was one of the themes most often discussed in his letters. He sent frequently to London for choice varieties of seeds, and delighted to see how they fared in our climate and soil. Of horses and other fine stock he was very fond, and to him is due the credit of the introduction of sheep and blooded stallions. He also credits himself with first raising hay, and thus stimulating the development of improved breeds of cattle. While thus on his table lay the last reviews and best periodical literature of London; while in his library the European scholars, professors from Harvard and Yale, and English ladies from London drawing-rooms, would all find books to their taste, the pursuit of science indoors and out was carried on with ardour by the lord of the manor himself.
In attendance upon the county fair at Fonda during the summer of 1890, the writer was struck with the variety and excellence of the live-stock, as well as with the richness of the agricultural products of Montgomery County. This county, with Saratoga and others adjoining, has had marked influence upon the development of the region westward. Not a few of the fine specimens of horses and cattle are descendants of the denizens of the Johnson farm of pre-Revolutionary days. Certainly Johnson was one of the benefactors of the race, who made many blades of grass grow where none grew before. Not the least of his good offices was in prevailing upon the British Government to relax the illiberal laws which prevented the agricultural development of the Mohawk Valley. Much of England’s troubles with her colonies arose from her determination to keep the American part of her domain as a close market for exclusively British products, and thus to compel the Americans to buy only those goods which were manufactured in England or came from British ports. In thus attempting to nip in the bud all flowering of the native genius of the people, she succeeded in hampering, but not wholly repressing, American manufactures. Johnson, as we have seen, was able to get removed the restriction against raising wool. Peter Hasenclever, a Palatine German, who owned land next to Johnson’s royal patent, started an iron foundry, and though himself failing after long and earnest efforts, unable to surmount the numberless difficulties, gave a great stimulus to the development of the iron industry in Northern and Eastern New York. Philip Schuyler set up a flourishing flax-mill.
Johnson lived to see the fearful results of the determination of the lucre-loving British lords to force their products upon Americans at all hazards. He regretted these violations not only of human rights in general, but of Englishmen’s rights in particular; though not so outspoken as he might have been. The Americans, while willing to be customers to the greatest nation of shopkeepers, were resolved not to be considered as buyers, and victims of monopoly only. Johnson fortunately died before the covetousness, avarice, and arbitrary thick-headedness of Great Britain, which had forced the slave-trade, hampered commerce, and paralyzed foreign commerce and home manufactures, compelled the colonists to rebuke her pretensions by an appeal to arms.
CHAPTER XIII.
JOHNSON’S FAMILY; LAST DAYS; EUTHANASIA.
While the brown Lady Johnson, Mollie Brant, presided over the mansion, and her dusky brood attended the manor school, the daughters of Johnson and of Catharine Wisenberg were trained under the care of a governess who made them familiar with the social graces of London and the polite accomplishments and standard literature of England. Mary Brant, though not only an Indian, but a Mohawk Indian in spirit, was to her dying day, in the old English and Hebrew sense of the word, a virtuous woman. She had the virile qualities of worth, excellence, and abilities, and not only managed her household to the satisfaction of her lord, but kept herself well informed and interested in the two worlds in which lived the people of the Long House and those of Christendom. More than one English lady visiting at the Hall was surprised to find this Iroquois woman so cultivated, refined, and alert, not only with womanly intuition, but equipped with information as to the life and thoughts in which they and their husbands moved.
Johnson was happy in the careers of his children born in wedlock, so far as he lived to witness them. His first-born child, John, was the especial pride of his father, though he never won the regard of his neighbours. He had the misfortune to be the son of a great man, and to be constantly compared with his father. He was educated under Domine Vrooman and other clergymen of the Dutch Reformed and Anglican Churches. He often accompanied his father on his journeys, notably the adventurous one to Detroit in 1761. Later he was placed in command of three hundred Iroquois; but these unfortunately deserted their commander, who had not the power, like his father, to sweeten the rigours of discipline by magnetic personality and system. He had considerable experience in the field with the militia, but never won much personal popularity. Visiting England to complete his education, he was presented at court, and knighted at St. James’s, Nov. 22, 1765. He later became a member of the Assembly, being pitted against Colonel Schuyler, who rightly or wrongly—more probably the latter—imagined the father to be prodding the son or using him for a cat’s-paw.
On the 29th of June, 1773, Sir John was married to Miss Mary Watts, of New York City, the wedding being at the bride’s house. The bridal tour was a trip up the Hudson River when Nature was dressed in her glorious summer robes. A stay at Albany marked by brilliant social attentions, and the ride up the loveliest of valleys, completed the journey. Johnson Hall was then embosomed in a wealth of foliage and flowers, and bright with the pageantry which manor life could on special occasions display. Sir John, on the death of his father, succeeded to an estate which, with the exception of that of the founder of Pennsylvania, was probably the largest ever held by a private individual in America. At the request of the Indians to Johnson, and of the latter to the king, Col. Guy Johnson was made Superintendent of Indian Affairs, assisted by Colonel Claus; but Sir John succeeded to the office of major-general of the militia. To tell the story of his Tory career in the Revolution is no part of our plan. “The Life and Misfortunes and Military Career of Brig.-Gen. Sir John Johnson, Baronet,” has been ably written by Gen. J. Watts De Peyster. In this book a list of Sir William Johnson’s descendants are given.
Johnson usually called Anne, his first daughter, Nancy, and often wrote to her while away from home. A son of one of the Palatine Germans, Daniel Claus, a noted Indian fighter, captain of militia, and a man of considerable culture in German, English, and the Iroquois languages, and withal a favourite of Sir William, fell in love with Miss Nancy, and married her in July, 1762. The nuptials were celebrated at Johnson Hall with great rejoicing. Claus assisted his father-in-law and Joseph Brant in translating and preparing the Book of Common Prayer in the Mohawk language. In thus following up and completing the work of Domine Barnhardus Freeman, of Schenectady, a manual of devotion was prepared for the Mohawks which was in use until near the second half of the present century. As colonel of militia, Claus saw long and varied service in New York, Canada, and the West.
Mary Johnson, the baronet’s second daughter, married in March, 1763, her cousin Guy, a nephew of Sir William and his private secretary. Guy Johnson was later an active member of the Assembly from Tryon County, and was always a helpful assistant of his uncle. Their daughter Mary became wife of Sir Colin Campbell, and mother of Gen. Sir Guy Campbell. Guy Johnson’s career in devastating the valleys of New York during the Revolution is too well known to need repetition here.