Robert Gibbon Johnson (July 23, 1771 – October 2, 1850), also known as Colonel Johnson, was an American
gentleman farmer
In the United Kingdom, the United States, and Canada, a gentleman farmer is a landowner who has a farm (gentleman's farm) as part of his estate and who farms mainly for pleasure rather than for profit or sustenance.
The Collins English Diction ...
, historian,
horticulturalist
Horticulture is the branch of agriculture that deals with the art, science, technology, and business of plant cultivation. It includes the cultivation of fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, herbs, sprouts, mushrooms, algae, flowers, seaweeds and no ...
, judge, soldier and statesman who lived in
Salem, New Jersey
Salem is a city in Salem County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 U.S. Census, the city's population was 5,146, . He is especially renowned for the apocryphal story that he publicly ate a basket of
tomatoes
The tomato is the edible berry of the plant ''Solanum lycopersicum'', commonly known as the tomato plant. The species originated in western South America, Mexico, and Central America. The Mexican Nahuatl word gave rise to the Spanish word ...
at the
Old Salem County Courthouse
The Old Salem County Courthouse is a courthouse located in Salem, Salem County, New Jersey.
Built in 1735, this building is the oldest active courthouse in New Jersey and is the second oldest courthouse still in continuous use in the United Stat ...
in 1820 to demonstrate that they were not poisonous, as was supposedly commonly thought at the time. He was a keen antiquarian and wrote a history of Salem – ''An Historical Account of the First Settlement of Salem, in West Jersey'' – which was published by Orrin Rogers in 1839.
Early life and education
Johnson was the only child of his parents Robert Johnson and Jane Gibbon.
[ He was born on 23 July 1771 at the home of his great-uncle, John Pledger – a large plantation in Mannington Township, New Jersey called the New Netherland Farm.][ He was visiting the farm in March 1778 when the British raided Salem during the Revolutionary War and killed several of the inhabitants.][ The British commandeered Pledger's house and Johnson was imprisoned with the family for several days.][ Still a young boy, he later led his mother away to safety.][
His early education was in Pittsgrove where he was taught ]Presbyterianism
Presbyterianism is a part of the Reformed tradition within Protestantism that broke from the Roman Catholic Church in Scotland by John Knox, who was a priest at St. Giles Cathedral (Church of Scotland). Presbyterian churches derive their nam ...
by Reverend William Schenck.[ He was subsequently educated at Newark Academy in Delaware and ]Princeton
Princeton University is a private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and one of the ni ...
from where he graduated in 1790.[ He had planned to practise law but instead concentrated upon agriculture for most of his life, managing the large family estate.][
]
Domestic life
He married Hannah Carney on 19 June 1798.[ They had four children but the first two daughters died in infancy.][ Their third daughter, Anne Gibbon Johnson, survived and married a Philadelphia lawyer, Ferdinand Hubbell.][ Their fourth and last child, Robert Carney Johnson, married Julia Harrison and went on to inherit the family estate in Salem.][
Johnson and his mother had moved into Salem town when his father had died.][ They had stayed in the house of his great-grandfather, Alexander Grant, which still stands today in ]Market Street Market Street may refer to:
*Market Street, Cambridge, England
*Market Street, Fremantle, Western Australia, Australia
* Market Street, George Town, Penang, Malaysia
*Market Street, Manchester, England
*Market Street, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
...
.[ After marrying, he built a new house for the family in 1806–7 – ]Johnson Hall
Johnson Hall State Historic Site was the home of Sir William Johnson (1715–1774) an Irish pioneer who became the influential British Indian Department, Superintendent of Indian Affairs in the Province of New York, known for his strong relation ...
, also in Market Street.[ This was the first house built in Salem in the Federal style but has some idiosyncratic asymmetries, apparently for functional reasons.][ It is brick-built with two stories, five bays, a high roof with a balustrade and fine interior woodwork.][ Johnson wanted this house to remain in the family but it was sold to the county in 1922 and relocated when a new courthouse was built on the plot.][ But it still stands today nearby and houses the Chamber of Commerce, Visitors' Center and similar offices.][
Johnson's first wife, Hannah, died at about the age of thirty, while her son Robert was still a child. In 1813, Johnson then married Juliana Zantzinger who was about 32 years old.][ Juliana lived until 1854 but they had no further children.][
Around 1826, there was a falling out with a domestic black slave, Amy "Hetty" Reckless, who escaped to Philadelphia and sought the protection of abolitionists, claiming that she had been promised her freedom by Johnson's mother and that Juliana had mistreated her by pulling out her hair and knocking out two teeth with a broomstick.][ Colonel Johnson petitioned for her return but the suit was unsuccessful and Reckless did not return to Salem until he had died.][
]
Military service and public offices
In 1794, he served in the New Jersey brigade under General Bloomfield, as paymaster of its second regiment, and saw action in Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...
putting down tax rebels – the Whiskey Rebellion
The Whiskey Rebellion (also known as the Whiskey Insurrection) was a violent tax protest in the United States beginning in 1791 and ending in 1794 during the presidency of George Washington. The so-called "whiskey tax" was the first tax impo ...
. In 1796, he was commissioned as a cavalry captain by Governor Howell and, in 1798, he was promoted to the rank of major. Subsequent governors promoted him to lieutenant-colonel in 1809 and full colonel
Colonel (abbreviated as Col., Col or COL) is a senior military officer rank used in many countries. It is also used in some police forces and paramilitary organizations.
In the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries, a colonel was typically in charge o ...
in 1817. He was a keen equestrian and rode in a bold, erect style into his seventies.[
In 1796, he was appointed a commissioner of the loan office for the county – a New Jersey institution founded to provide mortgages to local farmers to help their cash flow.][ In 1825, he was a member of the New Jersey Legislature and he served more than one term.][ In 1833, he was appointed as a county court judge and served for several terms. He also served as the trustee for a Delaware college and ]Princeton Theological Seminary
Princeton Theological Seminary (PTSem), officially The Theological Seminary of the Presbyterian Church, is a private school of theology in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1812 under the auspices of Archibald Alexander, the General Assembly of t ...
. He attended the Episcopal Church in Salem but, in 1820–21, he established the First Presbyterian Church in Salem and became its first elder in 1823.[
He was a keen local historian and, in 1839, his ''An Historical Account of the First Settlement of Salem, in West Jersey'' was published. He maintained a collection of important local historical documents and was instrumental in establishing a public library in Salem. He was a founder member of the ]New Jersey Historical Society
The New Jersey Historical Society is a historical society and museum located in Newark, Essex County, New Jersey, United States. The Historical Society is housed in the former headquarters of the Essex Club. It has two floors of exhibition spac ...
and was its first vice-president from its founding in 1845. In 1846, he presented a paper on '' John Fenwick, Chief Proprietor of Salem Tenth'' to the society in Elizabethtown.[
]
Farming
Johnson was an active horticulturalist and was a president of the New Jersey Horticultural Society,[ and wrote about draining marshland in ''The American Farmer'' in 1826.][ Johnson's later reputation credited him with introducing the tomato into the area around 1820.][ Tomatoes became a significant crop in southern New Jersey, which was able to ship its fresh, ripe produce to the local large markets of New York and Philadelphia.][ However, even though much contemporary material relating to Johnson survives, the first written claim associating him with the introduction of the tomato to Salem dates only to the early 20th century.] The apocryphal story accompanying this posthumous reputation was popularized by Joseph Sickler, the Salem postmaster, who told Harry Emerson Wildes an anecdote about Johnson publicly eating tomatoes to prove their safety on account of the plant being in the nightshade family.[ Wildes published the story in his book ''The Delaware'' in 1940 and ]Stewart Holbrook
Stewart Hall Holbrook (1893–1964) was an American logger, writer, and popular historian. His writings focused on what he called the "Far Corner": Washington, Oregon, and Idaho. A self-proclaimed "low-brow" historian, his topics included Ethan ...
then dramatized the event in his 1946 book, ''Lost Men of American History'', adding dialogue to the tale.[ With Sickler as a consultant, the CBS radio show '' You Are There'' then broadcast a re-enactment of the event in 1949.][ The legend of Johnson's daring deed then became well-established in numerous works and retold in further dramatic accounts:][For a period in the 1980s, Salem celebrated "Robert Gibbon Johnson Day" by re-enacting the dramatic event with live actors in costume.][ In 1988, '' Good Morning America'' reported that Colonel Johnson was the first to eat a tomato in the United States,][ but there are hundreds such stories about other individuals – ]Thomas Jefferson
Thomas Jefferson (April 13, 1743 – July 4, 1826) was an American statesman, diplomat, lawyer, architect, philosopher, and Founding Father who served as the third president of the United States from 1801 to 1809. He was previously the natio ...
, a Shaker bride, immigrant Italians (e.g., Michele Felice Cornè
Michele Felice Cornè (1752–1845) was an artist born in Elba who settled in the United States. He lived in Salem and Boston, Massachusetts; and in Newport, Rhode Island. He painted marine scenes, portraits, and interior decorations such as fir ...
), and many others – despite the fact that the tomato was long recognized as edible throughout Europe and Central and South America.[
]
References
Citations
Further reading
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Johnson, Robert Gibbon
1771 births
1850 deaths
People of New Jersey in the American Revolution
Farmers from New Jersey
New Jersey lawyers
Members of the New Jersey Legislature
People from Mannington Township, New Jersey
People from Salem, New Jersey
Princeton University alumni
American slave owners
Tall tales
19th-century American lawyers