Joel H. Johnson

Joel H. Johnson
Personal details
Born	(1802-03-23)March 23, 1802 Grafton, Massachusetts, United States
Died	September 24, 1882(1882-09-24) (aged 80) Kane County, Utah Territory, United States
Resting place	Johnson Cemetery 37°27′25″N 112°26′59″W / 37.4569°N 112.4496°W / 37.4569; -112.4496 (Johnson Cemetery)
Occupation	Hymn Writer
Spouse(s)	Anna Pixley Susan Bryant Lucina Alzina Bascom Janet Fife Margaret Threlkeld

Joel Hills Johnson (March 23, 1802 – September 24, 1882) was a

Johnson was born in Grafton, Massachusetts.^[1] His parents were Ezekiel Johnson and Julia Hills. When Johnson was still a child, his family moved to Vermont. Johnson eventually moved to Cincinnati and then back east to Pomfret, New York.

Around the year 1830, Johnson sold his farm in Pomfret and moved to Amherst, Ohio.^[2] It was in Amherst where Johnson was baptized a member of the Church of Christ on June 1, 1831.^[3] Soon afterwards, he became president of the church's Amherst branch. He went on a mission to New York in 1832.

In 1833, Johnson moved to

Johnson later had a large amount of success in baptizing families that lived along Crooked Creek. In April 1839 he organized these converts as the Crooked Creek Branch. After this, Johnson directed his new converts in the forming of the town of Ramus (now Webster, Illinois).^[6][7] In February 1840 Johnson moved to the area, where he purchased a sawmill. The Ramus Stake was organized on July 4, 1840, with Johnson as president.^[8] After this the stake under Johnson's direction set about laying out a town site.^[9]

In 1846, mobs forced Johnson to flee Ramus and move to

A poem written in 1841 by Johnson is sometimes used by opponents of the authenticity of the Book of Mormon to demonstrate that Oliver Cowdery at times wavered in his testimony as one of the Three Witnesses of the Book of Mormon:^[10] "... Or prove the gospel was not true / Because old Paul the Saints could kill? / Because the Jews its author slew, / and now reject their Saviour still? … / Or Book of Mormon not his word / because denied by Oliver?"^[11]

Defenders of Cowdery argue that to Johnson, supporting the Book of Mormon and following the leaders of the church were one and the same, and that in 1841 Cowdery had been excommunicated from the church. They also note that the use of "denied" in the poem may mean to set aside, and not to speak against, and that this poem involves many statements that are not strictly true, such as that Paul had killed Christians. In other words, it is argued that poetry should not be taken as analytical evidence when it has not been collaborated.^[3][10]

Johnson arrived in Salt Lake City on October 11, 1848. He crossed the plains in Willard Richards' company.^[12] He served as a justice of the peace and as bishop of the Mill Creek Ward. Johnson built a saw mill in Mill Creek Ward from 1849 to 1851 at the mouth of Mill Creek Canyon.^[13][14]

In 1849 and 1850, Johnson served in the Utah Territorial Legislature.^[1]

Johnson was the founder of Enoch, Utah, settling there in 1851. When other settlers arrived in 1854, they built a fort which they named "Johnson's Fort". Before it became Enoch it was named Elk Horn Springs.^[15]

Johnson later helped settle southern Utah. In 1853, he was appointed to serve as a

Johnson was a prolific poet and hymn writer. His journal contains 736 hymns.[1] Collections of his writings were published in the pamphlet "Voice from the Mountains" in 1881 and a 344-page book of poems in 1882. His most sung hymn, "High on the Mountain Top", was written on February 19, 1853.^[1] Other estimates place Johnson's total work in writing hymn texts and poems at about 1,000.^[17] The only other hymn by Johnson in the current English edition of the LDS Church hymnal is "The Glorious Gospel Light Has Shone" (no. 283).

Johnson was a polygamist and married five women. He married Anna Pixley Johnson on November 22, 1826.

Johnson died September 24, 1882, in Johnson, Utah Territory (now Kane County, Utah)^[1] at age 80.