John Anders Johnson – Section 17
4/14/1832 – 11/10/1901
State senator (1873-1874)
President of Fuller & Johnson Co., manufacturers of farm machinery (1882-1901)
In 1889 established the Gisholt Machine Co. named for one of his boyhood homes in Norway. He was president of this firm from 1889 until his death.
Johnson introduced profit-sharing programs early in his business career. Noted for his philanthropic interests, he provided employee reading rooms at his plants, established a scholarship fund for Scandinavian students at the Univ. of Wisconsin (1875), and established Gisholt Home for the Aged in Dane County.