The Johnson Papers consist of THOMAS SCOTT JOHNSON PAPERS and FAMILY PAPERS. Thomas' own papers cover his career from his early teaching experiences at the Blairstown Academy through his fifty years of service as pastor of the Assembly Presbyterian Church of Beaver Dam. His papers consist overwhelmingly of personal correspondence. The earliest correspondence consists of letters received by relatives, primarily his father Baker Johnson and his mother, Electa King Johnson. Later there are many letters written by Johnson to his family as a student at Carroll College and Princeton University, as a young teacher, and then as a worker with the U.S. Christian Commission and as a chaplain with the United States Colored Troops. Also included in the collection and integrated with Thomas' letters is the correspondence of his sister, Caroline S. Johnson, 1853-1941. She received her diploma from the Wisconsin Female College at Fox Lake in 1873 and spent the next forty years teaching in various Presbyterian colleges and academies. Twenty-four of these years were spent as a Presbyterian missionary to Negro children at the Mary Holmes Seminary, West Point, Mississippi, 1900-1904 and 1913-1933. Unfortunately a substantial portion of the correspondence is undated.
In addition to the extensive coverage of his Civil War experiences provided by the correspondence, Johnson's military service is represented by several files of miscellaneous military and pension papers and a volume entitled “Handbook” of the 127th Regiment, USCT. The volume is in fact, a transcription of Johnson's detailed monthly reports to the Adjutant General and a list of officers and enlisted men in the regiment. To this list of names Johnson has added information on age, occupation, an evaluation of each man's ability to read and write (rated 0 - 3), occasional remarks such as “deserted” or “died, ” and the name and address of the individual whom Johnson should contact in the event of death or illness. For the 127th, a regiment recruited in the North, Johnson's list provides invaluable information on the composition and background about the free black population. In addition to the information about the 127th Regiment, the handbook contains similar reports about the 36th USCT to which Johnson was transferred after the 127th was mustered out. Reports about the 36th Regiment USCT at Brazos de Santiago cover the period October, 1865 to October 1866. Unfortunately there is no similar list of the enlisted men in the 36th. Two volumes of evidential interest to his military service include: the American Tract Society's Bible Text-Book, which Chaplain Johnson purchased on December 8, 1864, and The Seasons: A Poem of James Thomson, which bears Johnson's own name plate as well as that of the U.S. Christian Commission Loan Library.
Other papers also include diaries, personal account books, some sermons and articles, and religious writings. Of note among the writings is the autobiography (referred to as a journal in earlier finding aids) of Moses Ordway, founder of the first Presbyterian church in Wisconsin. Johnson edited this manuscript for publication in the Wisconsin Magazine of History in 1919. The run of Johnson's diaries is incomplete. It is known that Johnson maintained his diary consistently from his arrival in Wisconsin, as he refers to it in a reminiscent article about the Portage Classical Institute, and the papers contain elements of the diary dated 1850 and 1857. More complete coverage begins with his service in the Civil War, and the 1865 and 1866 volumes contain regular and informative entries about the war. The articles, also incomplete, include handwritten manuscripts and photocopied pages of his travel writings. The account books contain financial notations and memoranda. Again, the Civil War period is of special interest. As well as personal expenditures, one will find records of money wired home for members of the regiment, abstracts of letters written for individuals, expenditures for the officers' mess which Johnson supervised, and items of clothing associated in an undocumented way with hospitalized soldiers. In addition this section includes an unpublished biography written by his daughter, Mary E. Johnson, and a shorter work by Thomas Stine.
The FAMILY PAPERS include general genealogical information and biographical clippings, as well as files on several individuals. Most prominent of these is an account book of Thomas' father, Rev. Baker Johnson, prior to his removal to Wisconsin, an 1861 account book of William N. Johnson at Oxford, Wisconsin, extensive correspondence of Thomas' sister, Caroline who taught at several Presbyterian colleges and academies and was a missionary to Afro-American children at West Point, Mississippi, 1900-1904 and 1913-1933. Other items include a photocopied scrapbook made by Mary S. Johnson1 about the Monona Lake Assembly, and Sara Johnson's financial accounts as secretary of the Dodge County YWCA. There are also photocopied articles by Joseph F. Tuttle. Other surnames in the genealogical portions of the collection include Beach, Elliot, and King. Photographs received with the collection include portraits of Johnson, portraits of Mahlon Johnson, Baker Johnson, and Joseph F. Tuttle, photographs of Assembly Presbyterian Church and other church buildings, and photographs of Mahlon Johnson Association reunions.
Other Johnson papers include a series of scrapbooks containing clippings of articles by Rev. Johnson for various Presbyterian periodicals at the Presbyterian Historical Society in Philadelphia and records of the Assembly Presbyterian Church at Carroll College in Waukesha
