My Genealogy Home Page:Information about August Johnson
August Johnson (b. September 07, 1833, d. date unknown)
Notes for August Johnson:August Johnson immigrated to the United States in the 1890's from Sweden to the coal mines of Muchakinock, which was located just north of Eddyville approximately five miles.This coal mine came into existence around 1860 as a small, privately-owned operation and was not much more than a trading center.Coal mining came into real prominence circa the Civil War because the railroads were expanding throughout the nation.Coal was the principle fuel used, and was required in great quantities, resulting in the rapid expansion of the mining industry.
In 1881, the Chicago-Northwestern, under the name of Consolidated Coal Company, purchased the mine at Muchakinock and the area commenced to boom.Because the company changed its method of paying its employees, the miners struck, and the company sent Hobe Armstrong to import southern blacks."Muchy" was soon the state's largest unincorporated coal mining community and was a major settlement area for blacks, which was a sharp departure from Iowa's nearly all-white population:immigrants, or first generation, from Britain, northern and western Europe.Muchakinock in 1885 was described in the Iowa State Gazetteer and Business Directory as having a population of 1,200 with four stage coaches daily to Oskaloosa for 25 cents.
By 1895 the population had tripled, reaching 3,844, and contained several restaurants, two saloons, a telephone office, a town hall, four grade schools, four churches for whites, and two churches for blacks.Residents had a choice of housing:rent of company houses, or build private homes on half-acre plots of rented company land.
By 1900 much of the mines around Muchakinock were pretty well depleted necessitating the Company's finding new areas for expansion.Monroe County was the answer.Consolidated extended its lines and moved the miners' homes and their belongings, at company expense, to the west about 15 miles to the region later known as Buxton.
Buxton was the largest unincorporated town in Monroe County, containing approximately 6000 miners and their families.It continued as one of the major coal-producing mines until the mid-1920's when the company dismantled the camp and moved to Illinois.Although there is nothing left of the camp except the ruins of a couple of the business houses, and the land formerly occupied by the town has reverted to corn fields, an active interest in Buxton is much in evidence.There is an annual pilgrimage to the location by family and friends of former residents; there is a Buxton Club which has regular meetings in Des Moines.Film accounts of the history of Buxton have been produced and have been shown on public TV.Although the town no longer exists, it is remembered with great affection.
(Excerpts taken from an article entitled The Coal Mines by Walter Ward Ott in the book Our Town-Eddyville).
Children of August Johnson and Margarette (Greta) Svenson are:
- +Charles J. Johnson, b. 1868, d. 1945.
- +Anna Louise Johnson, b. 1871, d. 1942.
- +Augusta Johnson, b. November 25, 1876, Sweden, d. May 10, 1975.
- +Ida Josefina Johnson, b. May 1880, d. date unknown.
- Selma Marie Johnson, b. 1881, d. date unknown.
- Francis Emil Johnson, b. 1884, d. date unknown.