BIOGRAPHY: Joseph JOHNS, Cambria County, PA 

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From Wiley, Samuel T., ed. Biographical and Portrait Cyclopedia of Cambria 
County, Pennsylvania. Philadelphia: Union Publishing Co., 1896, p. 160
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JOSEPH JOHNS, the first permanent settler in the vicinity of Johnstown, was born 
in Switzerland in 1750. He emigrated to America and located in Lancaster, 
Pennsylvania, where he was employed for a short time. Thence he went to Berlin, 
Somerset county, Pennsylvania, removing to what is now Cambria county, in 1791, 
when he located on what is known as the Campbell tract of land. He built a log 
dwelling on the flats, near Stony creek, a short distance from where the house 
of Doctor Caldwell now stands. There he resided with his wife and four children 
about sixteen year, when he removed to a farm he had purchased in 1804, from 
John Stover, eight miles up the Stoyestown turnpike, and one mile east of 
Davidsville. He died in 1810, and was buried on the farm. A board fence encloses 
a plat thirty feet square, on the summit of a hill commanding a superb view, in 
one corner of which slumbers the pioneer, his faithful wife by his side.