From: May Heath saugatuck Book

Early Memories of Saugatuck, Michigan : 1830-1930
Author: Heath, May Francis
Publisher: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company; Grand Rapids, Mich: 1930

OTIS R. JOHNSON

Pioneer lumberman of Michigan was O. R. Johnson and the following sketch is written by his son, Charles R. Johnson, now of San Francisco, Cal.—

"He was born in Winthrop, Maine, on April 2nd, 1815. His father died while on a voyage to New Orleans when my father was six years old, and the family had a hard struggle. My father went out to Michigan about the year 1845. For a while he operated a tannery on the lake shore a few miles south of the mouth of the Kalamazoo River. My mother's father had established a tannery a few miles east of Sauga-uck and later he and my father became interested together in that tannery (which was afterwards sold to Mr. Wallin) and later became interested in a sawmill situated on the River at Saugatuck. Soon afterwards my mother's father removed to Racine.

My father who in the meantime had married my mother continued to live in Saugatuck and for many years operated the saw mill at Saugatuck and also one near the mouth of the River at a place called Singapore. The business was operated under the name of O. R. Johnson & Co. and the firm consisted of Mr. F. B. Stockbridge and my father. Besides these two mills there was as you know, a number of others, both on the Saugatuck side of the River and the Douglas side. The timber was put into the Kalamazoo river during the winter and driven down to the sawmills on the spring freshets.

As I recall Saugatuck when I was a boy, it was quite a lively lumber town. The lumber all went to Chicago by schooners carrying from 100 to 200M feet of lumber.

About the year 1876 my father and all of his family removed to Racine where he resided until he died in 1895. While he was in Saugatuck lie was very active in business but afterwards, although he was interested in lumber opera­tions at Saint Ignace, Michigan and Minnekaunee, Wisconsin, and also had interest in California, he was never personally active in any of these matters."