Albert Mussey Johnson - Early Years

Early Years

Albert Johnson was born in Oberlin, Ohio, the product of a long-prominent family in Oberlin. He was the son of Albert Harrison Johnson (1838–1899) and his wife Rebecca A. Jenkins (1842–1915). Johnson's father was an extremely wealthy man who owned several banks, a utility company, and a few stone quarries in the vicinity of Oberlin. He was also President of the Arkansas Midland Railroad Company, which was based in Helena, Arkansas.

Although records of Albert M. Johnson's early life are frequently contradictory and uncertain, it is known that he was given a very religious upbringing. It has been asserted numerous times that Johnson was raised a Quaker, but some sources indicate that due to the close affiliation between Johnson's grandparents and John Shipherd, Presbyterian minister and founder of Oberlin College it is far more likely Johnson's family was Presbyterian or Congregationalist. Either way, however, Johnson lived a devout lifestyle and was a lifelong non-smoker and teetotaler.

Johnson attended Oberlin college for one year before transferring to Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. While a student in the civil engineering program at Cornell, Albert met and fell in love with Bessie Penniman, a fellow student at Cornell, and the daughter of a wealthy fruit and nut rancher from Walnut Creek, California. Albert Johnson graduated from Cornell in 1895, and a year later married Bessie.

Not long after his marriage to Bessie, Johnson borrowed $40,000 from his father to invest in a lead-zinc mine in Missouri, which turned out to be an extremely profitable investment. Flush with cash and success, Johnson prevailed upon his father to travel with him out to the Wild West to inspect more mining claims for possible further investment. The trip was ill-fated, however, and in December, 1899, while riding on a train on the Denver and Rio Grande line near Salida, Colorado, Albert Johnson and his father were victims of a terrible train accident. The Johnsons' train was struck from the rear by another train, and Albert Johnson's father was killed as he slept. Albert Johnson himself suffered from a broken back, for which he was given an initial prognosis of certain and imminent death, as well as lifelong paralysis below the waist.

Albert Johnson made a near-miraculous recovery, regaining his ability to walk within eighteen months, and living for well over forty years past the accident. He never quite returned to full health, however, and walked with a limp for the rest of his life, which he took great pains to disguise.

In 1902, after his recovery, Johnson moved to Chicago, Illinois, to join his father's former business partner, Edward A. Shedd, in taking over some of his father's business interests as well as establishing new ones of his own. Shedd and Johnson jointly purchased the National Life Insurance Company at a foreclosure sale. Through a bargain with Shedd, Albert Johnson acquired 90% of publicly available National Life stock, and quickly became President of the company. Johnson's annual salary as President of National Life Insurance was said to have been approximately $1,000,000.