The History of Hendricks County (Chicago: Interstate Publishing, 1885)--Liberty Township, pages 642-644
Jeremiah Johnson, son of Aholiab and Hannah Johnson, was born at Killingly, Windham Co., Conn., Aug. 23, 1792, and in 1796 or 1796 he removed with his parents to Stafford, Tolland Co., Conn. With the exception of about three years, when he lived with his mother's father, Jeremiah Bacon, at Middletown, Conn., he continued to live with his father and work at farming and getting such education as the common schools then afforded, sometimes teaching district schools in the winter, till he was about twenty-one years of age. In 1813, during the war with Great Britain, he served as a volunteer in the militia of Connecticut for about seventy days, guarding the port at New London and vicinity, for which service he long afterward obtained bounty land from the United States Government. After the close of his military service he went South as far as Washington, seeking his fortune, and for a short time worked on the new Capitol the old one having been burned by the British, but believing their was some easier way of getting a living he soon left and went to Baltimore where he shipped on board a private armed sloop for a cruise. Soon taking a dislike to that kind of life he was discharged at one of the West Indiana Islands called Virgin Gorda, whence he returned to his father's home in Stafford. There the taught the district school, numbering not less than 100 scholars, for one term, and early in the spring of 1815 he started with a small trunk, containing a few articles of wearing apparel and about $50 in money, for the great New West leaving the balance of his savings placed on interest. He traveled by mail stage to Philadelphia, whence, after placing his trunk on board one of the large wagons then constantly passing between Philadelphia and Pittsburg, he traveled on foot to the latter place. At Pittsburg, in company with another Eastern man, he constructed a flat-boat and loaded it with coal and floated down the Ohio River to Cincinnati when boat and cargo were sold for what he could get. From Cincinnati he very soon went to a recently settled German village about twenty miles northwest of that city where he taught the young Germans the English language and such other rudiments of education as circumstances permitted, till the time when the authorities of Indiana fixed the site of the present Indianapolis for the capital of that State. Soon after he learned that fact he hired a couple of men with each a four-horse term, loaded them with provisions and such other articles as were necessary in a new settlement, and leaving his German friends started through the then unbroken forest for the future city, fording streams and cutting their way through the woods, being guided by a small compass. After much time and enduring many hardships he at length reached the place of his destination. Here he detained his teamsters till they, together with such assistance as those already there could afford, had built him a log cabin, being the third in that place. His first dining table was the head of a flour barrel, his first plate a clean maple chip, and his first bedstead was framed into a corner of the cabin. He at once commenced dealing in provisions, groceries, powder, lead, etc. When the first brick court-house was built (used for a State House for several years) he took the contract for the brick work and in company with John Johnson, who came there from Virginia, and one of whose daughters afterward became his wife, made the brick and completed his contract to the acceptance of the authorities. At that time money was a very scarce article, and the State obligations with which he was paid for his work were at a heavy discount, and had it not been for the money due him in Connecticut which was collected and sent to him as fast as possible, he probably would have become bankrupt. He was generally reasonably successful in business though sometimes suffered serious losses, as when bringing a boat-load of salt up the Wabash River the boat suddenly sunk and boat, salt, and wearing apparel of himself and assistants were a total loss, leaving him and his companions to beg their way home over 100 miles. He invested his savings in land at Government prices, which of course advanced in value as the county became settled. When the National Road was laid out west from Indianapolis he laid out the village of Bridgeport on land which he owned, and built a hotel, steam mill, and store. When the plank road was built, he took an active interest in it and gave the right of way through all his land and ground for a depot at Bridgeport and much otherwise to encourage building of the railroad. He was active and energetic in business and did much in promoting the cause of education and agriculture in the State, importing improved breeds of cattle from other States. His ancestors were of pure English stock and according to the tradition of that family some of them left England and settled in Massachusetts on the restoration of Charles II, on account of their participation in the civil war as soldiers and partisans of Cromwell. He reared a family of nine children, seven sons and two daughters. He survived his wife and daughters several years and died at Clayton, Hendricks County, March 20, 1876.