YUBA COUNTY
Biographies
SAMUEL DAVID JOHNSON
Marysville has been extremely fortunate in the caliber of the men who have chosen to make their home and engaged in business there, each contributing in his special field to the general upbuilding of the community, now known as one of the most progressive towns in Northern California. Among these enterprising men may be mentioned Samuel David Johnson, founder of the S. D. Johnson Furniture Company of Marysville, who was born on a farm near Little Rock, Ark., November 11, 1865, a son of John and Mary Johnson, of an old Southern family. They were farmer folks in Arkansas, where they spent their last days.
As a youth, Samuel D. Johnson was raised on the home farm, and received his education in the local schools. He came to California at the age of twenty-six, in 1891, first locating in Chico, where he worked on the O’Connor Ranch for about one year, and then started in business for himself, dealing in new and second-hand furniture.
Coming to Marysville in 1897, Mr. Johnson started a new and second-hand furniture store on Third Street, with but small capital for the establishment of his business venture. Later he bought the furniture business of J. Pearson, and moved to the Ellis Block, where he built up a modern furniture store, doing an extensive business and meeting with deserved success, for he had with the years built up a reputation for honest dealing and strict business integrity. A self-made man, he kept in line with the progress of the growing city, and in the midst of his business cares kept actively interested in civic work, serving for two terms on the city council of Marysville. It was largely through his efforts that street-paving was done on many of the thoroughfares of the city. A progressive and public-spirited man, he worked with kindred spirits on the city’s roster, and through their united efforts were put through the improvements necessary for the further advancement of the community. Fraternally, he was a member of Marysville Lodge, No. 783, B.P.O.E., and belonged to the Odd Fellows, the Red Men, and the Eagles, and also to the Fraternal Brotherhood and the Woodmen of the World. His death, occurring on March 12, 1915, removed from the community a man who commanded the sincerest respect and admiration of all, and cut short a life which was an inspiration to all who knew him.
The marriage of Mr. Johnson, occurring in Chico, November 2, 1893, united him with Miss Mary Darneille, a native of Marshfield, Coos County, Ore. Her father, Oscar Darneille, was born in Missouri and came across the plains with his parents in an ox-team train to California when a boy. He became a lumberman, and for many years was engaged in lumbering on Coos Bay, but finally located in Chico, where he lived retired until his death in February, 1908, at the age of seventy-one years. He was married in Jackson County, Ore., to Miss Margaret Ellen O’Connor, who was born on the plains while her parents were making the overland journey to California. She preceded her husband to the Great Beyond in November, 1907. This worthy pioneer couple had twelve children, ten of whom grew up, and are living. Mary Darneille was the seventh in order of birth, and was reared and educated in the public schools of Marshfield. Five children blessed this union of Mr. and Mrs. Johnson: Jessie Ann, wife of L. R. Boedefeld, horticultural commissioner of Colusa County; Ruby May, wife of W. W. Johnstone, of Sacramento; Eva, wife of L. L. Miller, living in Turlock; Samuel D., who is assisting in the management of the S. D. Johnson Furniture Company; and Oliver L., a student at the Marysville high school and editor of the High School Annual. Since her husband’s death, Mrs. Johnson has assumed the direction of the affairs left by her husband, and is now the head of the furniture business that bears his name, in the management of which she is ably assisted by her son Samuel D., who is an active member of the Chamber of Commerce and the Lions Club.
History of Yuba and Sutter Counties, Historic Record Company, Los Angeles, 1924
p 531-532
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