Family Tree Maker's Genealogy Site: Genealogy Report: Descendants of John A. Johnson

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Descendants of John A. Johnson

Generation No. 1

1. JOHN A.¹ JOHNSON was born 1841 in Shaen, Telemark, Norway, and died April 12, 1892 in Sturgeon Bay, Door County, WI. He married LOUISA OLSON Abt. 1867 in Sturgeon Bay, Door County, WI, daughter of OLE OLSON and ASELEAN KJASTHEIN. She was born October 09, 1841 in Christiania, Norway, and died November 20, 1917 in Minot, Ward County, North Dakota.

Notes for JOHN A. JOHNSON:
Family story is that John was 1/4 French. His grandfather was Telemarken and that John grew up in Inland Norway.

1880
Census Place:Sturgeon Bay, Door, Wisconsin
Source:FHL Film 1255424 National Archives Film T9-1424 Page 104B
RelationSexMarrRaceAgeBirthplace
John JOHNSONSelfMMW33NORW
Occ:FarmerFa: NORWMo: NORW
Louisa JOHNSONWifeFMW37NORW
Occ:Keeping HouseFa: NORWMo: NORW
Adolph JOHNSONSonMSW10NORW
Occ:At HomeFa: NORWMo: NORW
Lena JOHNSONDauFSW9IL
Occ:At HomeFa: NORWMo: NORW
Tilda JOHNSONDauFSW7IL
Occ:At HomeFa: NORWMo: NORW
Joseph JOHNSONSonMSW4IL
Occ:At HomeFa: NORWMo: NORW
Olon JOHNSONSonMSW7MWI
Occ:At HomeFa: NORWMo: NORW

LOTTIE MILDRED ANDERSON: Grand daughter of John Johnson
My great regret is that I, didn't start this thirty-five years ago when my Father lived. When I could have gotten some information from him regarding relatives of my father. But I was not interested in family history. I didn't have much
schooling so I am afraid there will be many mistakes but if you will bear with me, I'll try to do the best I can,as I thought it would be nice to remember my father's descendants and, also, for generations to come that they may carry on and
make it more interesting. I hope that the ones who carry on this family history will enjoy what I have got.

By Lottie Medalen (1970)

Memories.

Father was born January 2nd, in the year of 1863, in Norway on Karmol, in Skudness Haven. As far as I can find out, his real mother's name was Ingegerg Christen Farsdatter. (which means Father's daughter) Sjcetun; and his father's name was
Gabrial Anderson. His mother died when he was real small, left my father , a sister, Karen, and a sister, Anne ( Anne was a twin and her twin died at birth). Then father's father married again, to a lady I know nothing of, only that her name
was Caroline, and then they had two boys, Olaf and Erik. I could not tell you too much about his father; only these days it took months to sail to America. I know my father said that his father went to America and never heard from him until
my father landed in New York years later and found out his father had died.

My father was the oldest of five children; he was christened and confirmed in the he Lutheran faith, in the name of Bore Anderson. His name was later changed, as you will read further on.

He started to said at the age of 12 with a fishing crew to support his stepmother and two sisters and two brothers. Erik drowned; Olaf lived in Chicago and had two children when he died. Karen settled in Wittenberg, Wisconsin; she was about 60
years old, she met with an accident and was run over by a car crossing the street at Manotowoc, Wisconsin. She did not have any children and was buried at Our Saviour's Lutheran Church, Inwood, Iowa.

William Anderson was a sailor for many years. He had sailed at every port and I wish I could have told you all the ports he had visited; anyway, he made sails and mended ropes. He was a good rope-splicer. I remember people coming for miles
to have my father splice ropes for them to use for their had forks to haul the hay in their barns. He landed in New York in the he year 1881 where he worked on the docks for one year and then spent another year in the united States Navy. After
he was discharged from the Navy service, he spent one year and one half in the he ship yards at Milwaukee, Wisconsin; and a similar period in a boiler shop in the same city, and in 1890 he went to Chicago where he was employed at an elevator.

Anyway, before I go any further, I'll tell you how father got his name changed to William, from Bore. My father had decided to stay in the United states so he had signed some papers and, of course, he signed them Bill Anderson, as all the
sailors had called him "Bill". The Captain said, Is this your name? My father said, My given name is Bore. The captain said that is no name and he tore the paper to bits and have him another paper and said, sign this William; whoever heard of
a name Bill? So this is why father's name was changed to William and he kept this name the rest of his life. Only a few of his friends and schoolmates called him by his given name, Bore.

Anyway, he met my mother in Chicago. Olena Johnson born Jan. 25, 1871. They got married on the 6th of September, 1890. and he worked in the Rockery building running an elevator.

One and one-half years after they were married, they became parents of a baby girl, Clara Louise, born Feb. 20, 1892; and on the following year Johnny Edward was born August 10, 1894, and he passed away at the age of three years. Bella Gulvine
was born June 2, 1895; Josephine Emilia was born April 30, 1897; then a boy was born Bernhart Olaus, May 31, 1899; and then L. Lottie Mildred was born on November 16, 1901.

My mother gave birth to me without attendants. I remember her telling of a beautiful day in November, the children were out playing without coats. She sent my oldest sister, Clara, to get a midwife and the midwife didn't seem to think it was
any hurry. She didn't come right away, so after a few days Mother became very sick, and had a high fever and it settled in her leg.

So here we were in a family of five children, and to rent a house in Chicago with a big family was very difficult; so in the year 1902, as my mother and father decided to move on a farm, they moved to Inwood, Iowa, as my mother's sister and
her family was there and mother's mother was going in March to join her other daughter who was living on a farm at Inwood, Iowa.

So mother and father decided they would give up there home and Mother and us children, with the help of Grandmother would go on to Inwood, and father would work another month in Chicago before he came to Inwood so he came in April 1902. Mother
and us children got to stay and keep house for a bachelor by the name of Tobias Simonson, and as my mother became very sickly the first years at Inwood, her leg pained her a lot, so this was very trying days for Mother with such a big family.
They stayed with Tobias Simonson till March 1904. My father rented a place by Klondike, Iowa near Laechwood, so we moved to this place and farmed there.

It might be interesting for the next generations to know how my folks, Mr. and Mrs. William Anderson, lived. I remember we had to carry water; we didn't have running water like we have today. We had to carry it all in pails for one fourth a
mile, all of us would take pails from a gallon, in a big pail, according to our ages we would have to carry it, to last from one day to the next. Mother didn't have a Washing machine or an automatic washer; she had to was on a board, one piece
at a time, for seven in the family. So can you imagine what a job this was for someone who was sick, to wash clothes by hand. They had a very small house, kitchen, front room and bedroom downstairs, and one room upstairs. And this was
finished like our attic now-a-day.

They didn't have a refrigerator, they didn't have an ice box, so they had to dig a cave (they called it). a big hole. It was so deep they could keep their milk and butter, but in the very heat of summer, they would hang the milk, butter, and
cream in the well. we had about three miles to Klondike, it was one store and some times we would walk and carry a few dozen eggs and exchange them for groceries. We could not buy ready-made mixes, or baked bread, and there were not varieties
of breakfast food, only oatmeal, corn meal, sugar, raisins, prunes, apples, and bananas. These were the things we could buy at the stares, We had to bake our bread and I remember my Mother baking in the morning as she would have to mix it hard,
It usually took all day to make bread, Another thing we did not have, gas stove. They had cook stoves, they didn't have furnaces, they had a good stove to heat the other rooms, we had to pick cobs like those when the pigs ate the corn off the
cobs. We had to pick them from the pig pen to burn and my father would go down to the river and chop wood and haul it home to burn/ Coal was very expensive so we had to be careful for that and use it if it was real cold. I remember the folks
bought a hard coal heater which had isinglass all around the doors so we could see the fire burn; and I remember how we enjoyed to sit and hold our feet to warm them. We didn't have warm bedrooms either.

On May 25, 1904 Irene Janet was born, so now we were six children and it was not easy for my Mother on crutches to care for another baby, but somehow they got along. Guess God had his guardian angel to watch over them, and another thing I must
not forget, there was no ready-to-wear clothes to buy. They had to make them all on a machine that they had to run by foot, peddle it up and down. My mother was a very good seamstress and this helped as we were so many girls.

They didn't have electric lights; they had to burn lamps filled with kerosene oil and carried them around so they could see. they had lanterns so they could see out in the barn to do chores in the winter. They didn't have tractors to work in
the fields with, so they would have five horses to take care of besides the cows and pigs and chickens.

And on January 4, 1907 Ruth Alice, joined the family. We had such a big family now that my Father had a chance to rent a farm one mile north of where we were living. This one had a bigger house and one that we didn't have to carry water so
far; as we would have a cistern. This is a big hole in the ground that is all cemented so it does not leak and water runs in from the roof of the house when it rains. This was quite a improvement for us as we had soft water to wash clothes
in, but we had to pump it and carry it in.

Then, March 27, 1908 a baby boy came to join us, Lawrence Amel. But as the house was bigger and handier, and the older girls could help, it made it easier for our Mother.

Father had planed potatoes, rutabagas and turnips, and had a good crop. he took this to Larchwood and traded it for six 100 lbs. of flour, and two 100 lbs of sugar, and a barrel ;of apples, prunes, raisins, and some material for making
clothes for us children and one thing I never remember that we went hungry at any time. My father was a good fisherman; he would go to the river and catch a lot of fish and bring them home and keep them in the tank where the horses and cows
drank from, till we ate them they would swim around, alive.

On December 12, 1911, another boy was born, Andre Ira, who lived until January 6, 1912, passed away and was buried at Our Saviour's Lutheran Church at Inwood, Iowa. Well, days went by and on November 14, 1913 Verna Lorraine was born. She was
a blue baby and angel watched over her and god had a reason for her to live, but she was not well and when she was two years old she contacted infantile paralysis, or Polio, they call it now, and left her with a limp.

In the year of 1915, my Father rented a place eight miles north west of Inwood, and moved there in march 1915. Now we were close to church and Father bought a place one mile south and one and one-half miles west of this place, so we could farm
both places. My brother was bigger and I, too, helped to farm. We had ten horses now and milked 14 to 16 cows, and had a bunch of chickens and pigs, and us girls had to help farm, milk, do chores and , in fact, I think I was the second boy.
I could harness horses, drag colteat corn, or anything with horses a boy could do.

On December 24, 1915, Thilda Elizabeth was born and passed away shortly after birth. She passed away on January 12, 1916, and was buried at Our Saviour's at Inwood. In 1917 my father decided he would move to his own farm, so they moved March 1,
1917 and here comes March 13, 1917 and the worst snowstorm we had had in years. Our baby sister was born then, Wilma Elenora. The snow was so deep (we didn't have a telephone) so my brother went by sled and horses to call the doctor, one mile
east of our place, and wait so he could bring the doctor home with him. My father got so excited that they were not coming, so he sent me on horseback to look for my brother and see what had happened to him and the doctor, The snow was so
deep that the horse could hardly wade through. I saw my brother come with the horses and sled, also the doctor, so i turned back home. The snow was so deep that it went up to the belly of my horse, buy it was late in March and the snow went
fast.

As there was a small house, my Father and brother stated to dig a basement, to build a new house up on the basement. The house was built a big eight room house, and us girls helped to lathe and do all we could with a hammer. So after the
house was built, they built a barn and other buildings. They lived there until 1925. Seemed like Father had a hard time and so they decided to move to North Dakota, as my brother Benhart and Father had planned to farm together, or partnership.
so Father had a sale. Then right after the sale, November 3, 1925, Martin Sorenson passed away. What a sad day that was. Martin was my oldest sister's husband. Bernhart then decided to stay and help Clara run the farm and my Father, Mother,
Ruth, Lawrence, Verna, and Wilma went to North Dakota to farm. They moved to Luverne, Minnesota, to live and help farm with my sister, Ruth. They lived there one year and my mother passed away August 11, 1932, and my Father sold his
belongings and went to my brother Bernhart's at Beresford, South Dakota to stay there while Bernhart went to Denmark in 1933 to visit his wife's relatives. Then he went back to Clara's and stayed most of the time until Father passed away.

Well, we were 13 children born to William and Olena Anderson, which I happened to be the sixth. A few things I forgot to tell about before I finish. We never had a radio, no television, or any of those entertainments, The only thing we had
was to go to church and visit neighbors. No play things like children have today, like bikes, no cars. We would like to go to neighbors and have lunch or have big pans of popcorn. This was our fun;play in the hay in the barn, jump rope, play
horse shoe; in the winter we would go sled riding and skiing.

My mother knit stockings, mittens, for all us children, sewed our dresses, churned our butter, baked our bread. Father would butcher pigs and cows;they would have to salt it down so it would keep and when they used it they would have to soak
the salt out of it in water so it was fit to eat. Then later, they learned to can, but at first they didn't have cans to can in. I remember Mother baking up to 20 loafs of bread at a time. She would board the teacher besides all us children.
One winter, plus the teacher, she had two of my cousins from Wittenburgh, Wisconsin, stay with us. We usually wore aprons to save on washing and save our dresses, so Mother would not have to wash so much.

Father bought a phonograph which we enjoyed very much. We had a Model-T ford for a while, but he never could drive very well as he always thought he was driving on the ocean. They never went on very far trips like we do now; we didn't have
bathrooms. We took our bath in a washtub, had to heat the water on the stove and take our bath by the heating stove or in the kitchen by the cook stove.

Well, this is about all i can remember to tell about. Hope i have told you some of the hardships and I think, truthfully, that people were just as happy as we are now. guess our Father was not meant to have a fortune, although he was rich in
many ways. he was a God-fearing man, had a stern attitude of life, if you know what i mean. and these are a few things to remember and go back, and be glad we have it a little handier now, than in the early 1900's.

Lottie

Child of LOTTIE ANDERSON and GILBERT MEDALEN is:
i. LOUANN4.

Notes for LOUISA OLSON:
Last name at birth was Olesdatter Haken

More About LOUISA OLSON:
Burial: Zion Lutheran Cemerty

Children of JOHN JOHNSON and LOUISA OLSON are:

2.	i.	ADOLPH² JOHNSON, b. 1870, Cook County, Chicago, IL.
3.	ii.	OLENA ANDRINE JOHNSON, b. January 25, 1871, Chicago, Cook County, IL; d. August 11, 1932, Luverne, MN.
4.	iii.	TILDA JOHNSON, b. December 19, 1872, Chicago,Cook County, Chicago, IL; d. January 27, 1959, Plaza Mountrail, ND.
5.	iv.	JOSEPH J. JOHNSON, b. May 29, 1876, Chicago, Cook County, Illinios; d. Chicago, Cook County, Illinois.
6.	v.	OLAUS JOHNSON, b. October 19, 1878, Sturgeon Bay, Door County, WI; d. August 15, 1947, Portland, OR.
7.	vi.	ANNIE MARIE JOHNSON, b. December 20, 1882, Sturgeon Bay,Door County, WI; d. July 24, 1948, Portland,Multnomah County, OR.
8.	vii.	THOMAS JOHNSON, b. July 19, 1889, Chicago, Cook County, IL; d. March 24, 1967, Aitkin, MN.

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