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Albert Mussey Johnson


Albert Mussey Johnson (May 31, 1872 – January 7, 1948), was an eccentric millionaire who served for many years as president of the National Life Insurance Company, built Scotty's Castle in Death Valley, and was variously partner, friend, and dupe of infamous Wild West con man Death Valley Scotty, for whose outrageous antics he later served as financier.

Albert Johnson was born in Oberlin, Ohio, the product of a long-prominent family in Oberlin. He was the son of Albert Harrison Johnson (1838–1899) and his wife Rebecca A. Jenkins (1842–1915). Johnson's father was an extremely wealthy man who owned several banks, a utility company, and a few stone quarries in the vicinity of Oberlin. He was also President of the Arkansas Midland Railroad Company, which was based in Helena, Arkansas.

Although records of Albert M. Johnson's early life are frequently contradictory and uncertain, it is known that he was given a very religious upbringing. It has been asserted numerous times that Johnson was raised a Quaker, but some sources indicate that due to the close affiliation between Johnson's grandparents and John Shipherd, Presbyterian minister and founder of Oberlin College it is far more likely Johnson's family was Presbyterian or Congregationalist. Either way, however, Johnson lived a devout lifestyle and was a lifelong non-smoker and teetotaler.

Johnson attended Oberlin college for one year before transferring to Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. While a student in the civil engineering program at Cornell, Albert met and fell in love with Bessie Penniman, a fellow student at Cornell, and the daughter of a wealthy fruit and nut rancher from Walnut Creek, California. Albert Johnson graduated from Cornell in 1895, and a year later married Bessie.


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