[2] When still a teenager, Johnson sailed in 1847 with a cargo of merchandise around Cape Horn to San Francisco, and for almost four years he sold his goods along the Pacific Coast.
"The town at that time consisted of a handful of houses gathered around the old Plaza, and the Johnson and Wheeler store was considered a pretentious establishment.
[6] During the French intervention in Mexico (1861–67), Johnson again went to sea with a trading vessel that supplied Mexican ports along the coast.
He then made an "extensive tour through the interior, under the protection of" General Ignacio Pesqueira, at that time the governor of Sonora.
During the administration of President Rutherford B. Hayes (1877–1881), he was named registrar of the land office, a position he held for five years.