The Roeliff Jansen Historical Society
PRESERVING THE HISTORY AND HERITAGE OF THE ROE JAN COMMUNITY
roeliffjansnehs.org
Dr. Wesley Johnson of Hillsdale:
A Gentleman of Talent and Liberal Education
Research and text by
RJHS Board Member Ron Otteson
Wesley Johnson was born in 1813, the son of Quincy and Abigail Johnson of Hillsdale. The Johnson family home is still on Old Town Road (right where it forks to the west off of Route 22). Wesley matriculated at Philadelphia’s Jefferson Medical College in 1836 where he studied with Dr. Jacob Green, a prominent academic and a significant early contributor to natural sciences studies in America.
In August 1837, immediately after receiving his medical degree, Dr. Johnson traveled to Africa to begin work in a small seaside settlement of former American slaves located about 70 miles south of Monrovia, the present-day capital of Liberia. The Bassa Cove community was part of the wider African colonization project that had links to the Northern American anti-slavery movement. The project was funded jointly by the New York and Pennsylvania Colonization Societies which had grown increasingly concerned about the high rate of mortality in the community and so Dr. Johnson was employed as a physician to care for the population there. He worked closely with Thomas Buchanan, cousin of the U.S. President, who was then governor of the larger Monrovia colony up the coast. Within a year, young Wesley Johnson of Hillsdale was unexpectedly appointed the governor of Bassa Cove and in command of the small militia responsible for protecting the settlers from attacks by the surrounding native population.After the murder of the leader of another colony, Dr. Johnson was injured in the ensuing battle involving a notorious slave trader named Captain Canot - A copy of the actual book about Captain Canot is on loan to the RJHS from Ron and Yukiko Otteson, along with a letter written by Dr. Johnson to his mother from Africa.
Upon recovering from his injuries, Dr. Johnson led the establishment of a high school near Bassa Cove on a small island in the St. John’s River.
He organized the construction of a two-story brick building and taught its first classes. The curriculum was designed to develop a cadre of leaders and administrators for the settler community. There were lessons on mathematics, bookkeeping, surveying, and navigation.Dr. Johnson’s practice of medicine and work on the school were tragically cut short by poor health in 1844. In addition to his battle injuries, tropical illness damaged his spleen and eventually led to his death. He was able to make the long journey home to Hillsdale where he quickly succumbed to his illness at the age of 31. His grave can be found today next to his father and mother in Hillsdale’s Old Town Cemetery just off Route 22.
“...we have lost a devoted teacher, and Africa a devoted friend and martyr.” *
*Tribute of Respect to the Memory of Dr. Wesley Johnson, Annual Report of the Board of Directors of the American
Colonization Society, January 21, 1845,
Hon. Henry Clay, President.
Article adapted from the 2023 RJHS Exhibition, "The First 40: A Celebration of Local History Preserved"
WESLEY JOHNSON
UPDATE!
Spring 2026 - A Fascinating Link to Our Local History
Discovered at Philadelphia's Academy of Natural Sciences
of Drexel University
New Research and text by Ron Otteson
If you visited the RJHS museum in Copake Falls back in the summer of 2023 you may recall seeing a small display of information and artifacts related to a young 19th century physician from Hillsdale named Dr. Wesley Johnson.
Shortly after earning his medical degree from Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia in 1836, Dr. Johnson travelled to Liberia in West Africa. He was employed there for several years as a teacher and physician. His work was sponsored by Pennsylvania organizations that were affiliated with a national anti-slavery movement seeking to settle freed American slaves in Africa. Dr. Johnson returned to Hillsdale in 1844 where he soon succumbed to the effects of a tropical illness at the age of 31. (The Quincy Johnson House, the Hillsdale family home where he grew up, is still right there on Old Town Road just off Route 22.)
In the final year of his work in Liberia Dr Johnson established a school on a small island in the St. Johns River near a coastal settlement named Bassa Cove.
This school was funded by the Philadelphia Ladies’ Liberia School Association, a benevolent organization run by Rachel (Willett) Blanding of
Philadelphia. Rachel was the wife of Dr. William
Blanding, a prominent 19th century naturalist.
(Ever heard of the semi-aquatic “Blanding’s Turtle”, Emydoidea blandingii ?)
In one of Dr. Johnson’s letters home, the farm boy from Hillsdale writes about encouraging his students (mostly the young sons of freed slaves) to learn about the natural world around them on the St. John’s River:
“We rise at 5 1/2 o'clock, (by the bell,) work from 6 to 8, breakfast from 8 to 9, study from 9 to 12, dine and recreate from 12 to 2, study from 2 to 4, work from 4 to 6, (sunset,) sup from 6 to 7, get a lesson for the morning recitation, and go to bed at 9. Our times for studying natural history are at noon, and when we go to the settlements in a canoe, we take one of the presses along and collect on the margins of the river.” Source: Kocher, K.L. (1984). Duty to America and Africa: A history of the independent African colonization movement in Pennsylvania. Pennsylvania History, 51(2), 143 https://journals.psu.edu/phj/article/view/24445
Since our 2023 summer exhibit, ongoing research by the RJHS has identified that Dr. Johnson was sending African animal and plant specimens to the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia as donations to its collections. (Renamed the Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University in 2011, today the museum on Philadelphia's Benjamin Franklin Boulevard is the oldest natural science research institution in the Americas.)
The label on this specimen indicates that it is a Red Eyed Dove, a common African pigeon species known for its distinctive red eye-ring, dark grey-brown plumage, and a black collar on the hindneck. (The label identifies the bird as Turtur erythrophrys; its current scientific name is Streptopelia semitorquata erythrophrys.
In addition, the label misclassifies Dr. Johnson as
Rev. Wesley Johnson. This error is understandable since many of the administrators of the early Liberia settlements
were religious ministers.)
The label on this specimen indicates that it is a form of
Crimson Seedcracker, a small, chunky finch found in West Africa, with a short, thick bill adapted for cracking hard seeds. (The label clearly shows that it was classified with the name Pyronestes coccineus cassin. In fact, John Cassin (1813-1868) was one of America’s most well-known ornithologists and was a curator
at the Academy from 1842 to 1869.)
The label on this specimen indicates that it is a bird known today as the Western Nicator (Nicator chloris), a shy - but very vocal - songbird that lives along the coast of West Africa.
For More on the 19th century study and collection of variojs African birds species, read Elizabeth Serrano's "The People Behind the Birds Named for People: John Cassin' from All About Birds by Cornell Labs.
CLICK HERE
Special thanks to Dr. Rice at the Academy at the Natural Sciences of Drexel University in Philadelphia for providing the above specimen photos.
The RJHS is continuing to research Dr. Wesley Johnson of Hillsdale (1813-1844) and to collect artifacts related to him for the museum collection. If you have any information about his story or his descendants, please reach out to the RJHS and let us know. We’d really love to hear about it!