Lloyd G. Johns, ex-County Treasurer of Seward and stock-raiser, was born in Northumberland County, Penn., December 22, 1840, and is the son of Abia and Jane Johns, whose maiden name was Teats, the former being of Welsh and the latter of German descent. He received an academic education in his native State and was a farmer prior to enrolling for a three year term in the rebellion on February 23, 1864, joining the Forty-seventh Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry, Company C. Johns was honorably discharged at the age of 23 as a Corporal following the close of the war on Christmas Day 1865 in Charleston, South Carolina. He was in the army, Department of the Gulf, and afterward in the Army of the Cumberland, taking an active part in all of the engagements. Johns discharge papers describe him as 5’6″ in height, dark complexion gray eyes with light hair.
At the close of the war, he returned to Pennsylvania. Lloyd and his first wife, Matilda Adams had a son, Ezra, but they seperated after the war and Lloyd went west in 1867 to Illinois. He remained there until the spring of 1868 when he moved to Seward County, Neb., and took up a homestead on Section 30, Town 12, Range 3 east, B Precinct. He owned one section of land in that precinct, which he devoted to stock-raising, having as many as seventy-five cows of the Short-Horn breed.
Mr. Johns was one of the original members of the Baptist Church at Seward, and a charter member of Seward Lodge, No. 26, I. O. O. F., and of Encampment No. 7 at the same place. Mr. Johns was a member of Oliver Lodge, No. 38, A. F. & A. M. and of the G. A. R., being first made a member of that order at Rockford, Ill, in 1867, and Seward Post, No. 3. Lloyd G. Johns married, on November 2, 1870, at Lincoln, Neb., to Miss Mary R. McKillip, of Clinton, Iowa, by whom he had a daughter, Erma Marie, and a son, Chester T.
Mr. J. was appointed Postmaster at Seward by President of the United States Ulysses S. Grant in 1872, which position he retained until removed four years later, after which his replacement, F.W. Redford was nominated by President Grant to the US Senate on May 22, 1876. In 1877, was elected County Treasurer of Seward, in which capacity he served four years, the last term expiring January 1, 1882.1882 Homestead Application Records of Lloyd G. Johns
Lloyd G. Johns made his way west again. This time leaving Lincoln, Nebraska for Salt Lake, Utah. On the last day of May of 1882, Johns paid the $11 filing fee for his second homestead claim of 80 acres authorized by the Soldier’s Additional Homestead Entry under Section 2306, Revised Statues of the United States granting additional homestead lands to soldiers and sailors who served in the war of the Rebellion. Mr. Johns claimed two 40 acre parcels, one NE1/4 of the SW1/4 of Section 22 east of what is today known as Pinecrest and the SE1/4 of the SE1/4 of Section 20 at the head of Freeze Creek, T1N R2E of Emigration Canyon, Salt Lake County, Utah. These were the first two homestead claims in all of the township and little is known of what Lloyd G. Johns did with the property or why he claimed two remote parcels not suitable for farming separated by miles of rough terrain.