Warren Conover was born on 23. Nov. 1890 at Terre Haute, Vigo County, Indiana. He was the son of
Ralph L. Conover and
Anna Smith. Warren Conover married
Lutie Johnson, daughter of
Soren Johnson and
Bertha Lawson, on 15. Nov. 1910 at Terre Haute, Vigo County, Indiana. Warren Conover was a salesman on 6. Jan. 1920.
Warren Conover and
Lutie Johnson appeared on the census of 6. Jan. 1920 at South Bend, Saint Joseph County, Indiana. The Johnson Brothers
Between 1903 and 1918, Johnson Brothers Motor Co. of Terre Haute built marine motors, motor bicycles and America’s first successful monoplane. By 1928 the same brothers, then located in Waukegan, Ill., fabricated more than half the outboard marine engines in the world. It all began after Vandalia Railroad employee Soren Johnson and wife Bertha moved here from Effingham, Ill., in 1898 with their five youngest children. In 1903 Louis Johnson, 21, and brother Harry, 19, assembled a recreational inboard motor in a shed behind the family home at 717 N. 10th St. Its success launched a business the younger siblings (all redheads) joined as they matured. When Julius, two years younger than Harry, came aboard in 1905, he contrived a precision three-horsepower engine
which amazed Wabash River boating fanatics. Sales escalated, dictating expansion in 1908 to 1602 Hulman St. Louis became chief executive and designer; Harry was the creator; Julius was master machinist; and Clarence was chief mechanic. Warren Conover, a local man fascinated by internal combustion engines, joined the team after marrying sister Lutie May Johnson in 1910. To promote their creative lightweight four-cylinder VEE engine, the Johnsons
adapted it for aircraft. Flight attempts from the MacBeth farm near Blackhawk in Aug. 1910 were unavailing. But at the Elroy Smith farm in Ellsworth (northern Vigo County) on Aug. 8, 1911, Lou triumphantly piloted the innovative American-made monoplane. For two summers, Lou and aviator Ross Smith gave exhibitions at area fairs and carnivals, prompting Hulman & Co. to offer the “Monoplane” brand cigar. The engine business flourished. Lamentably a tornado on Easter of 1913 wrecked the uninsured Hulman Street plant. Julius went to work for North Baltimore Glass Co. here, but the others toiled to rebuild, marketing the nation’s first successful motorbike in 1916. Offered a South Bend facility in 1918, the Johnsons relocated. Nine years later a larger plant was built on Lake Michigan near Waukegan. On Sept. 30, 1936, Johnson Motors Engineering Co. was consolidated into Outboard Marine Co., which still produces the popular Johnson Sea Horse engines. The brothers all survived into their eighties. A replica of the Johnsons’ pioneer monoplane was placed on exhibit at the Smithsonian Institute in 1959. Louis Johnson piloted America’s first successful monoplane — designed and built by the Johnson brothers — on Aug. 8, 1911.