©2004 Brigham Young University. All rights reserved.
The Brigham Young University Library was donated this collection by an unknown donor in March 2001.
Collection is open for public use
It is the responsibility of the researcher to obtain any necessary copyright clearances.
Permission to publish material from Papers of J. Warren Johnson must be obtained from the Supervisor of Reference Services and/or the Special Collections Board of Curators.
James Warren Johnson was born 25 October 1870 in Laketown, Rich County, Utah Territory, United States. He was the son of John Lycurgus Johnson and Cora Isabelle Davis. He was the second of twelve children and shared the same birthday as his mother. On 29 May 1895, J. Warren Johnson married Minerva Melvina Wilkins in the Salt Lake Temple. They settled in Vernal, Uintah County, Utah. Not long after, he received his mission call to the Southern States mission on 3 September 1895. He was ordained a seventy by Apostle Heber J. Grant on 15 July 1896 and reported for his mission on July 16, 1896. His first child, Warren, had been born three months earlier.
Elder J. Warren Johnson labored most of his mission in Kentucky and West Virginia. However, he was able to travel to all over the mission, including Washington D.C. while attending a conference and writes of his four-day trip there. While Elder Johnson was serving his mission, he was called to be the First Counselor to the Conference President of Kentucky. He served faithfully in his calling. He was released from his mission on 24 February 1899.
J. Warren Johnson's second child, Mary Venice was born on 29 December 1899, just ten months after returning home from his mission. He was home for about a year and a half before he was called on his second mission as a Mutual Improvement Missionary in Wasatch County, Utah. He reported for his mission on 8 October 1901. He was to be absent from his home for five months. During this time though, he was able to see his family and spend time with them during the holidays. He was released from his mission on 1 February 1902.
J. Warren Johnson returned to his home in Vernal, Utah on 6 February 1902. He arrived just in time for his wife to give birth to a little girl, Cora Isis, four days later. Two more children were to follow within the next few years. Arvan Iril was born on 16 August 1903 and Jessie Minerva was born 25 August 1905. J. Warren Johnson died before his last child was born. He passed away at the age of thirty-four years on 22 June 1905. His life was short but full.
This collection contains the journals of J. Warren Johnson before and after his mission to the Southern States for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (also called LDS or Mormon Church) during the years 1895-1899. It also contains the journals while he was serving as a Mutual Improvement Missionary in Wasatch County, Utah from October 1901- February 1902.