The name of Seth W. Johnson has for more than thirty years been closely and prominently identified with the ship building interests of Cleveland. He saw the business in its infancy, was largely accessory to its growth into the important proportions it at last assumed, and though no longer engaged in the business, his withdrawal from it is so recent that the mention of his name suggests, to those familiar with the affairs of the city for a number of years, the incessant tapping of the shipwrights' hammers and visions of skeleton ships gradually assuming the form and substance in which they are to carry the commerce of the great West to market.

Mr. Johnson was a native of Middle Haddam, Middlesex County, Connecticut, his mother, who died October 17, 1868, being formerly Miss Mary Whitmore, born at Middletown, Middlesex County, Connecticut, in 1780, and his father, Henry Johnson, born in 1776, and died July 6, 1869. Seth W. Johnson was the second son and third child of a family of nine, all of whom, with both father and mother, were alive on the 16th of October, 1868, the oldest child being then about sixty-one years old, and the youngest over forty.

Young Johnson worked with his father a short time as a farmer, but not feeling in his element in the plow field or in the cow yard, he followed the bent of his mechanical tastes, and engaged himself to work in a ship yard. He commenced work in this line when about fourteen years old, and served out his full apprenticeship of seven years, when he set up in business for himself, taking full charge of the work of finishing ships. This he carried on for three years with considerable success.

But New England, he rightly judged, was too narrow a field for the young man who wished to improve his prospects and with narrow means lay the foundation of a liberal competence. The West offered the most promise, and to the West he accordingly came, taking his kit of tools with him. Landing in Cleveland in the Fall of 1834, he satisfied himself that here was the proper place for the exercise of his knowledge and abilities, and here, accordingly, he prepared to make his home. Before settling down to steady business in Cleveland he made a trip to Perrysburgh, on the Maumee, where he assisted in finishing the Commodore Perry. This work done he returned to Cleveland in the Spring of 1835, and opened his ship yard, at first confining himself to the repair of vessels. But soon he was called on to build as well as repair. The steamboat Constellation was completed by him at Black River, and the steamboat Robert Fulton, built at Cleveland by Griffith, Standart & Co.

In 1844, Mr. Johnson associated with him Mr. E. Tisdale, and the firm of Johnson & Tisdale acquired honorable fame as ship builders along the entire chain of lakes and beyond. The copartnership lasted nineteen years. Before the formation of this partnership, Mr. Tisdale had commenced the building of a railway for docking vessels, and this was the first firm to lift vessels for the purpose of repairing them. With his first work, in 1835, in Cleveland, he commenced the acquisition of vessel property, and steadily pursued the policy of taking this kind of stock, until he became a large ship owner as well as ship builder.

The discovery of the mineral resources of the Lake Superior region attracted a large number of people to that locality, the only feasible means of communication with which was by lake. The Saut rapids prevented the assent of vessels from the lower lakes, and to meet the requirements of the trade that suddenly sprung into existence two vessels were built on Lake Superior, the freights being carried across the portage around the rapids. These vessels being insufficient for the needs, it became a question whether others could not be taken across the portage from below and launched on the waters of the upper lake. Messrs. Johnson & Tisdale thought it could be done, and took the contract for thus transporting the schooner Swallow and steamer Julia Palmer. They were hauled two miles on greased slides or ways and safely launched on the bosom of the "father of lakes." The undertaking was considered one of great difficulty, if not of absolute impossibility, and its success gave Messrs. Johnson & Tisdale widespread notoriety.

When the first considerable fleet of Lake-built vessels left Cleveland for European ports direct--as already described in this volume--Mr. Johnson took one of his vessels, loaded with staves. She made a successful voyage, remained in Europe two years, engaged in the coasting trade, and then returned. His strange looking craft attracted considerable attention among the skippers of about forty sea-going vessels wind bound at the same time at the Land's End, and much ridicule was thrown on her odd looks, so unlike the English salt water shipping. But the laugh came in on the other side when her superior sailing qualities enabled her to run so close to the wind as to quickly double the point, make her port, unload and reload, and sail for another voyage before one of the others could beat around the Land's End and get in. Since that time he has sold two vessels, the Vanguard and Howell Hoppeck, to be placed by other parties in the direct line between Cleveland and Liverpool.

Mr. Johnson has taken considerable interest in matters outside of the ship building business, but which aided in developing the trade and increasing the prosperity of Cleveland. He aided in the formation of some of the railroad enterprises of the city although he has now withdrawn his interests from all but one. He also was interested in the Commercial Insurance Company, but has retired from active business and devotes his whole care to the management of his property, which has been added to by large investments in real estate in various portions of the Southern States.

He was married July 15, 1840, to Miss A. S. Norton of Middle Haddam, Conn., the native place of both, and by the marriage has had three children. The oldest, a daughter, died when seven years old; the two sons are still living, the oldest being engaged in the coffee and tea business in Buffalo, N. Y., with his father; the other at present being in North Carolina engaged in the lumber trade.

With commendable prudence Mr. Johnson has known when to quit active business and enjoy the fruits of his labor while he has a healthy mind and body capable of enjoying it, and which, without accident, he undoubtedly will have for many years to come. Hard work and close attention to business have been the cause of his success, and hence he will be able to appreciate the blessings of an ample competency. In social life Mr. Johnson is looked upon as a man of genial temperament, kindly disposition, and strong social qualities. He is universally respected by all who know him.