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Name: JOHNSON, Louis Andrew 'American'

image of individual

Photo Source: East African Standard 15 Dec 1934

Nee: son of Peter Hans Johnson, from Denmark

Birth Date: 23 July 1877 Randall, Iowa

Death Date: 19 Mar 1954 Vancouver, Brit. Columbia

First Date: 13 Jan 1911

Profession: American pioneer settler farmer. Original finder of gold at Kakamega

Area: Farm 255 Kipkarren district, HBEA 1912 - Eldore River, Uasin Gishu, 1925 Farm 225, Turbo Valley, Mumias

Married: Frances Corinne 'Fanny'

Children: Peter Louis (16 Nov 1919 Nairobi-4 Mar 1921 Nairobi, broncho-pneumonia and tetanus)

Book Reference: Gillett, HBEA, Midday Sun, KFA, Eldoret, Golf, Joelson, Today, KAD, Red 25, Red 31, Hut, Curtis, Red 22, Trans Nzoia Scrap Book, Land, Gazette, Nicholls, Red Book 1912

General Information:

Midday Sun - (1933) - Kakamega - 'I met the original finder. He, also, was an American, by name L.A. Johnson, who had settled in Kenya, if settle is the word, in 1910, after a spell on the Klondyke and adventures in the Spanish-American war. In Kenya he had tried flax and gone bust when the flax boom collapsed in 1921; then he had switched to maize and gone bust again when maize prices collapsed in 1930. That had sent him off prospecting in northern Tanganyika, where he had trudged on foot for thousands of miles and found nothing. Late in 1930 he formed a syndicate in Eldoret, with four shares of £25 each, to finance a final try. The expedition, consisting of himself, his wife Fanny, two other Europeans and five Africans, set forth from Eldoret in 2 very ancient Fords and what was left of the £100 after buying petrol and one sack of flour, one of dried beans, one of potatoes and several sacks of posho (maize meal). Once again, they had no luck. When the money ran out they headed for home, making their final camp in the Kakamega district near the Yala river. Next day they panned a tributary of the Yala and found gold. Back in Eldoret they quickly registered another syndicate, borrowed money for petrol and returned to peg out claims along the Yala river. That was the goldfield's beginning. ........…..
L.A. Johnson I remember as a tall, bony man with a jutting chin and an ill-fitting set of teeth, who looked every inch the tough prospector, and was as uncommunicative as a mule. 'A grunt or two', wrote one of his neighbours, 'a great hoik and hefty spit and the word "Jesus" was L.A.'s usual comment on most subjects.' When the difficulties of receiving news of world events in the outback - this was before the days of wireless - were under discussion, someone asked 'What do you do when the weekly EA Standard doesn't arrive?' Mr Johnson's reply was simply 'use grass'. He, at least, did well out of the goldfields, and when he went to the United States for a visit, Fanny wore a necklace of nuggets.'     
KFA - brought a breath of the Wild West to the quiet hills of Turbo. He had come from the Klondyke in 1910, together with his fellow-countryman Harvey J. Anderson. Rumour held that L.A. Johnson had left the Klondyke in a hurry as a result of a gambling episode and found sanctuary among the troops fighting in the Spanish-American War. Rumours always flickered around his past, for he was a dour and uncommunicative man. The impression he made upon his companions is well described in the following words by a colleague:  "A loud clearing of the back of his nose, followed by a hefty spit and the one word 'Jesus', was his usual comment on most subjects. In truth, he didn't get much chance as a conversationalist since his wife Fanny lived in a state of open animosity and she had a stridence and fluency in vituperation which she excercised on all occasions. In spite of this, there was a bond between them and any suggestion of their separating would have met with the greatest hostility, if not actual violence, from both. 'L.A.' was a great, bony man well over six feet and his dislike of his badly-fitting dentures gave him, at most times, a clamped-jaw appearance and a jutting chin. When they were young they must both have been extremely handsome. When I knew them, he had a shambling walk with his great hands hanging down a bit in front. Fanny was tough and skinny with untidy wispy hair. When they came to Kenya, they rode up on mules from Londiani and settled on a big farm on top of the bluff at Turbo. Here they built a small stone house and farm buildings which are still standing, and presently went broke in a big way growing flax. Somehow, L.A. managed to borrow some more money and gradually went broke a second time growing coffee and maize until the time of the Kakamega discoveries. His gold mining ventures made him a considerable sum of money and he took a trip to England (Fanny festooned with a necklace of gold nuggets) and, on his return, bought a small farm near Soy Club where he amused himself with a spectroscope and other gadgets.
After a while he sold his farm to the Wattle Company and went to America where he bought a geiger counter and made a find of uranium which brought him in a lot of money. He died not very long ago in the US. Fanny had a son while they were at Turbo but he died when he was still a baby. To all who knew L.A., a grunt or two, a great hoik and spit and the one word 'Jesus' almost bring the man to life again."  At the start of the co-operative society, American Johnson had staked heavily on maize. He ploughed 1200 acres and got most of it planted, but after hauling the crop to Londiani by wagon and bargaining with Indian merchants for its sale, he reckoned that he had 50 cents a bag left. This made him a keen exponent of co-operative marketing. He did not remain chairman of the Plateau Maize Growers' Association for long [a couple of months!] ...... resumed Chairmanship of Plateau Maize Growers' Association in 1923 when Lt.-Col. Griffiths became Managing Director.  
Eldoret - was celebrated for his hospitality living in the blue before the Railway came. He had to transport his maize by ox wagon from Turbo to Londiani and eventually went bust on it. He was a wonderful host and so was his wife, Fanny, an excellent hostess .........…
L.A. headed a group of farmers including D.O. Russell, Jimmy Newton, Toby Arnold, Corrie Ferguson and Col. Alan Still, when gold was discovered in Kenya at Kakmega, having prospected elsewhere. By Christmas, a few months later, there were over 1,000 prospectors combing the streams for alluvial deposits and the hillsides for reef, followed by representatives from well-known mining companies overseas. L.A. formed the Plateau Maize Growers. later to become a part of the KFA.                                                 
Golf - Did a lot to get golf going in Eldoret  
Joelson - 1928 - Kipkarren - the pioneer settlers were Messrs Wreford Smith and L.A. Johnson in 1911   
KAD 1922 - Committee Member, Nandi Border Tennis Club
Curtis - p. 143 - 'The Kakamega Gold Rush' by John L. Riddoch - ' .......... It so happened that a small group of prospectors headed by L.A. Johnston [sic] - who, incidentally, took part in the Klondike Rush - found alluvial gold in the Kakamega area in 1930 or 1931. The first discoveries were at the time considered to be very encouraging and started off a widespread rush of local individuals, mainly farmers but also businessmen, all feeling the effects of the world-wide depression which started in 1929, and who hoped to acquire wealth by winning gold in the Kakamega area. ......…
As the result of further prospecting in search of the source of the alluvial gold, which was easy to win but was rapidly being worked out, gold-bearing reefs were found from 1933 onwards and, as these finds coincided with the increased price of gold, large and experienced mining operators from overseas and locally formed companies became interested in the development of those reefs which showed any promise. ..........
They acquired by purchase the discoveries made by the original prospectors, some of whom did very well. The Eldoret Mining Syndicate were paid handsomely for their mining rights by Tanganyika Concessions, who also paid £50,000 to a Mr Musgrave for his reef. The discoverers of the Rosterman reef sold out to Bewick Moering & Co. for quite a large sum. A number of other local prospectors diud moderately well by selling out to small companies, while others worked the reefs they found on their own account and on a small scale. But, of the total number of prospectors who went to Kakamega in 1931-2, only a small proportion did any good, either by winning alluvial gold or by finding payable reefs, and it may be said that most of them by the end of 1934 packed up and returned to their farms and businesses sadder but wiser men and women or had switched over to reef mining. From 1934 till the outbreak of war in 1939 gold reef mining was flourishing and expanding ....….
With the outbreak of war, however, costs began to rise and, as time went on, many essential materials became difficult to get .......... [the beginning of the end]
Trans Nzoia Scrap Book - Article "The Kakamega Gold Rush" - In the period 1928-33 farmers all over Kenya were faced with catastrophe from two sources. One was the world 'slump' when prices of produce all over the world fell below costs of production, the other was the vast swarms of "desert" locusts that invaded East Africa from the East ….. During the early part of this period a number of farmers from the Turbo and Nandi border district, under the leadership of L.A. Johnson, an American with some experience, went prospecting for gold. Having travelled on foot over most of Kenya and North Tanganyika, the Eldoret Mining Syndicate, as they called themselves, found a considerable outcrop of gold-bearing quartz reefs in the Kiminini area between the Yala River and what was then known as Milimo's Camp; they applied for and were granted an Exclusive Prospecting Licence over a considerable area. Various members of the Syndicate, including Johnson, Arnold, Staines, Smallwood and Collins, all from the Trans Nzoia, registered claims in streams in the "Kisumu Kidogo" area west of Kiminini, some of which carried very rich alluvial gold.
Land - 1911 - L.A. Johnson - Grazing and agricultural, 3280 acres (Farm No. 225) and 3445 acres (Farm No. 227) - Uasin Gishu - 6/1/11 and 3/1/11 - Under Occupation Licence for 2 to 99 years from 1/2/11 - Registered 31/8/11
Gazette - 7/4/15 - Liable for Jury service, Uasin Gishu Plateau - L.A. Johnson, Farm No. 225
Nicholls - Eldoret parties - when the American Louis Johnson would play his violin ……
Nicholls - American, tall and bony, a farmer at Turbo near Eldoret who lived in hope of better things, and his wife Fanny, tough and skinny, with untidy, wispy hair. Before he went to Kenya Johnson was a storekeeper in the Klondyke, where he learned to use prospecting pans. Now he formed a syndicate with a few partners who contributed finance, in blocks of £25, for one safari at a time to look for gold. His 1931 syndicate with J.A. Collins and G.G. Smallwood moved to Kakamega to explore the Yala river, where they discovered alluvial gold and the Kimingini reef. Back in Eldoret, Johnson raised further finance from Eldoret citizens forming themselves into the Eldoret Mining Syndicate with T.J. O'Shea as chairman. ………. As for Johnson, he made sufficient money from his gold mining to return to the United States, purchase a geiger counter and make a uranium find.
Red Book 1912 - L.A. Johnson - Uasin Gishu
KFA - Present at 1922 meeting at Soy to discuss how best to form a co-operative society - elected Chairman. Mrs Johnson built the first "hospital" in Eldoret in 1914 with Mrs Dreyer.
Old Africa - 11-12-08 - L S Van Aardt - L A Johnston [sic] used to frequent the Central Lounge in Eldoret. I never heard him utter more than two words - smoke when he wanted a cigar and - drink when the barman would pour him a double tot of whisky. As a youth he worked on the Klondike in Alaska carrying buckets of water to the local brothels and was paid a dollar per bucket. He was reputed to have saved more money than the miners. He discovered gold in Kakamega
Ancestry US Passport Application 1919
1910 US Census he is living with parents and is a labourer on a fruit farm

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