Thomas Johnson, by the documentary history of the county, and the concurrent testimony of survivors, was one of the most prominent and spirited citizens.  He was born in the parish of Glentubert, Monaghan county, Ireland, on the 16th of March, 1783.  Early in youth he manifested a great desire to go to America, and urged his father to emigrate. He, being a very quiet, unobtrusive man, with quite a family of young children, could not think of bringing them to the wilds of America.  Thomas remained with his father until he was twenty-four years of age, and had brothers grown up.  He then told his father he was determined to go to the new world, and urged his suit with so much ardor that his parents could no longer withhold their consent.  He left Ireland in 1806, and landed in New York with but one sovereign in his pocket.  He there met with Joseph T. Baldwin of Newark, New Jersey, who offered to employ him.  He remained with Mr. Baldwin for three years.  In 1808, he married Sarah Parker.  About this time his parents an three brothers, Richard, William, and Robert, and his only sister, Margaret, joined him in Newark.  Thomas then determined that Newark was not the place for his father's family to settle, and in 1808 he and his father's family came to Coshocton county, where they bought a quarter section of land from Esaias Baker, on which now stand the old homestead and also the village of East Plainfield and cemetery, in which his first son, William, was the first to be buried.  In 1812, he and his brother, Richard, were in the army under General Harrison.  He held the office of justice of the peace, and was long an associate judge of the Court of Common Pleas.  He and Jacob Waggoner built the first mill of any note on Will's creek, of four run of burrs, that tapped a radius of twenty miles.  From 1820 to 1830, he ran several flat-boats to New Orleans and other points south.  He nearly lost his life the first cholera season.  In running the dam at Zaneville one time he and two of his oarsmen were thrown out of the boat by the oars striking the pier of the bridge.  Mr. Rankin, being a good swimmer, got out, William Smith was drowned, and he was rescued from the water by the exertions of sheriff Daniel Brush.  Once, finding yellow-fever prevailing in New Orleans, and markets dull, he concluded to coast out his load of provisions, and poled his boat up the Tennessee as far as Florence, where muscle shoals prevented his further passage.  He had large contacts on the Ohio canal.  Owing to the high banks an mud bottoms, there was a difficulty in fording Will's creek at his mills, and the commissioners being unable or unwilling to assist in bridging said stream, be petitioned the legislature, in 1834, to authorize him to build a bridge and collect toll.  This was the first bridge spanning Will's creek in Coshocton county, and remained a toll bridge about twenty years, when his son made a free-will offering of the bridge to the county commissioners, they agreeing to repair and keep it up.  He was connected with the building of the bridges that span the Tuscarawas and Walhonding rivers between Coshocton and Roscoe.  From 1838 to 1840 he had heavy contacts on the Walhonding canal.  In 1812, the pioneer Methodist preacher founded this settlement, and the Johnson family were the first to unite in church fellowship.  Thomas was appointed leader of the class, and also steward, which office he held to the day of his death.  His house was always the preacher's home.  About 135, he built the largest meeting-house in the vicinity, on his land and principally at his own expense, giving it by will to the trustees of Coshocton circuit, and their successors in office.  After a protracted sickness, which first made itself manifest while attending court in Coshocton, he died, August 20, 1840, in full resignation and in great peace.  His widow survived him almost twenty-two years, dying at the old homestead, March 29, 1862.  His father also survived him eighteen days, dying September 7, 1840, in the eighty-first year of his age.  Robert Johnson, his youngest brother, moved from near Plainfield, twenty years ago, and settled in Colwell county, Missouri, being in his seventy eighth year, and the only survivor of the old stock.

Source:  Historical Collections of Coshocton County Ohio 1764-1876
Author: William E Hunt, pub. 1876