Johnsons predate Iola

By ANNE KAZMIERCZAK Register Reporter
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Orin Johnson can trace his roots in Iola back to before Iola was a town. His forebears, James Case, son Aaron and Aaron’s daughter Elizabeth all came to the area in the mid 1800s. Nimrod Hankins arrived about the same time and lived in a cabin in Cofachique.
In 1855, Aaron was selected as Cofachique’s postmaster. A few years later, Aaron and Hankins, now the local tax assessor, would be among the company that selected the townsite at the confluence of Elm Creek and the Neosho River that would become known as Iola.
In time, Elizabeth would marry Hankins and give birth to Johnson’s maternal grandfather, William Case Hankins.
William became father to Celia Hankins in 1901. In the early 1900’s, the widowed Lottie Kinman moved with her three children from Burlington to Gas City. Kinman became a Bell Telephone operator, plus the town’s first postmaster.
Celia would grow to marry Coleman Johnson, a distant relation of former President Andrew Johnson. Kinman’s son Arthur would marry Velma McDown of Colony. Their children, Orin Johnson and Lavon Kinman, in due time would find each other and make a life that continues to this day on the south side of Iola.
Lavon Kinman married Orin Johnson on June 22, 1951, and moved into a home on South Street.
“We’d been married two weeks before the big flood came,” she said.
“The water was up to the third porch step,” Orin recalled.
Two houses across the street with lower foundations flooded completely, Lavon said.
“We didn’t have a honeymoon because we couldn’t get out,” Orin noted.
But the flood didn’t dampen the Johnson’s love for each other. They still live in the house on South Street, and raised three children through the years.
Charles was born in 1952. He now lives in Gas, in the house his mother grew up in. Patricia came in 1954, followed by Ronald in 1956. Patricia and Ronald both moved away, though they live in the larger region, Patricia in Osark, Mo., and Ronald in Gypsum.
Charles stayed nearby. He and his wife Roberta operate Home Detail on the Iola square. They also had three children, Michael, Linette and Kristina, who too left Iola for greener pastures. One, though, “my middle daughter,” may be moving back, Charles said.
“They bought land near Humboldt,” he said.
Lavon mused that if their family had a particular business, each generation might not have moved away.
“But we didn’t have any one thing,” Orin said. His grandfather “was in the abstract office way back,” Lavon said. His father had a service station. Orin and his brother Richard both worked there. But “when dad had a heart attack, we had to shut the station down,” Orin said of the business at 423 N. Washington. “There’s a dentist office there now.”
Orin didn’t look far for work after that.
“They had just built a new fire station across the street so I went and worked there.” He retired as shift captain in 1986, after 18 years with the Iola Fire Department.
Other Case descendants still live in the area, as well, Lavon said.
Orin’s brother Richard, who passed on in 2002, has a daughter, Charmanne Sayles, who still lives in Gas.
Celia’s sister’s Ida Lee is 86, and lives in Overland Park. Ida Lee’s granddaughter, Nicole Hines, her husband Sean and their two sons, Wyatt and Weston, also live in Gas, Lavon said.
As for Orin and Lavon’s descendants, “we have five grandkids and seven great-grandkids,” she said. None live in the Iola area. “If they wanted, we’d be happy to have them move back, but they’re pretty-well content where they are now.”

10/16/09