This is a transcription of the Sophia Orne (Edwards) Johnson biography from New Hampshire Women: A Collection of Portraits and Biographical Sketches of Daughters and Residents of the Granite State, Who are Worthy Representatives of their Sex in the Various Walks and Conditions of Life, The New Hampshire Publishing Co., Concord, NH, 1895, page 85.
Sophia Orne (Edwards) Johnson
MRS. SOPHIA ORNE JOHNSON, better known as “Daisy Eyebright,” for many years a resident of Bath, was born at Springfield, Mass., June 1, 1826. Her parents were Elisha and Eunice (Lombard) Edwards. She was educated at Prof. William Wells’ school at Cambridge, Mass., and early in life showed a great fondness for literature. In November, 1847, she married Col. James H. Johnson, of Bath, N. H., who was a member of the twenty-ninth and thirtieth congresses. She met much fine society in Washington at that time. In 1869 a severe freshet in northern New Hampshire carried away in ten minutes all the lumber mills of Colonel Johnson, destroying his chief income. Mrs. Johnson began to write for the Springfield (Mass.) Republican, the Country Gentleman, Albany, N. Y., and the New England Farmer, Boston, Mass. In 1871 she began a serial, “Daisy Eyebright’s Journal,” for the Country Gentleman, which ran sixteen months. In July, 1872, Mrs. Johnson joined a press party going across the continent. In this way she became connected with many new papers, the Prairie Farmer of Chicago, the Horticulturist, Hearth and Home, Independent and Tribune of New York city, and the Saturday Evening Journal of Philadelphia. For the Prairie Farmer she wrote a serial, Letters of Sophie Homespun,” and for the Country Gentleman, “Horace and I.” The year after her return from San Francisco, she earned $1,200 by her pen, which was of great help in educating her children. In 1873 she joined another press party, visiting the Mammoth cave and Pike’s Peak, and in 1889 she again visited Colorado. She has written thousands of newspaper articles, and her published books are “Every Woman Her Own Flower Gardener,” “Hints Upon Etiquette” (Putnam’s), and “Hints for the Household.” She wrote nearly half of “Window Gardening,” edited by Henry T. Williams.