Joel H. Johnson

Joel Hills Johnson (March 23, 1802 – September 24, 1882) was a Latter-day Saint missionary and hymn writer, known for being the author of "High on the Mountain Top" (hymn no. 5 in the 1985 LDS hymnbook, English edition). Johnson was also the founder of Enoch, Utah. Early life Johnson was born in Grafton, Massachusetts. His parents were Ezekiel Johnson and Julia Hills. When Johnson was still a child, his family moved to Vermont. Johnson eventually moved to Cincinnati and then back east to Pomfret, New York. Latter-day Saints Around the year 1830, Johnson sold his farm in Pomfret and moved to Amherst, Ohio. It was in Amherst where Johnson was baptized a member of the Church of Christ on June 1, 1831. Soon afterwards, he became president of the church's Amherst branch. He went on a mission to New York in 1832. Kirtland and Ramus In 1833, Johnson moved to Kirtland, Ohio, where he operated a saw mill. He went on another mission to both Ohio and Kentucky in 1835 during which he engaged in strong debates with Campbellites, on one occasion turning their rejection of Aaronic and Melchezidek priesthood on its head by insisting if not in either of these orders their leaders must be of the order of the priests of Baal. and often preached and baptized in the vicinity of Kirtland. Johnson was an organizer of the Kirtland Camp in 1838. He stopped at Springfield, Illinois, and did not continue to Missouri, thus avoiding the Mormon War of 1838. He organized a branch in Springfield and became the first Latter Day Saint to preach in Carthage, Illinois. The main reason that Johnson had stopped in Illinois and not continued west was that he had care of the sick coming from Kirtland. He energetically preached the gospel in Carthage and felt he won many people in that area to be friendly to the Mormons cause.