Jeromus Johnson (1775-1846)

Portrait courtesy of the Brooklyn Museum.

   Two-term U.S. Representative Jeromus Johnson can rightly be labeled as an "old guard" oddly named political figure, as I discovered his name via the Congressional Bioguide database way back in the summer of 2000. In the eighteen years since becoming aware of Mr. Johnson, he stands as the only "Jeromus" I've found, and other than a few brief biographical lines on the Congressional Bioguide and Wikipedia, Johnson's life largely remains obscure. The son of Capt. Barent Johnson (1740-1782), a state militia captain, and the former Anne Remsen (1745-1792), Jeromus Johnson was born in Wallabout, New York on November 2, 1775. He was a student in the Wallabout schools and during his youth moved to New York City. In 1802 he married Mary Carpenter (1782-1863) and would have at least one daughter, Mary Carpenter Johnson (died 1849).

   After his removal to New York City Johnson plotted his future and the succeeding years saw him attain prominence in several business endeavors in the city, including service as a trustee for the Seaman's Bank for Savings, being a director of the Merchants Fire Insurance Company and had a hand in establishing "the first horse-drawn omnibus line from Manhattan to Brooklyn." From 1805-1812 Johnson operated a distillery in Hudson, New York, devoted to the manufacture of rum from imported molasses. 

   Long active in Democratic political circles in the city, Jeromus Johnson was remarked as  "sort of a pillar in Tammany" and following his election to the New York State Assembly in 1821 chaired the assembly committee responsible for the North River and Fulton Bank charters. A staunch Tammany man and Jacksonian Democrat at the time of his election to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1824, Johnson served two terms in Congress (1825-1829) and chaired the Committee on Public Expenditures. As a cog in the largest political machine in New York City, Jeromus Johnson proved to be susceptible to political patronage, and as two of his contemporaries (Benjamin F. Butler and Jesse Hoyt) noted in their retrospective of the city political scene:

"Mr. Van Buren knew his man, and he baited a political hook with an appraiser's office; hung it up in the ceiling of the House of Representatives to make Jeromus vote straight when he went to congress. Jerome kept his eye upon the bait--was in due time nominated an appraiser, though he had been a conservative and voted for the Tallmadge pledge"

   Indeed; one year following his final term in Congress, Jeromus Johnson was named as Appraiser of Goods for the Port of New York in 1830, an office he would fill through the administrations of Andrew Jackson and Martin Van Buren. Following his retirement in 1840, Johnson retired to his estate in Goshen, Orange County, New York, where he died on September 7, 1846, aged 70. He was survived by his wife Mary and both were interred in the Johnson family cemetery, a private graveyard located on the grounds of their estate.

From the American Republican and Baltimore Clipper, Sept. 14, 1846.