Andrew Johnson

JOHNSON

Posted By: County Coordinator
Date: 3/20/2009 at 00:39:39

Andrew Johnson is a leading and substantial farmer of Jackson township. He was born in Jonehelping, Sweden on January 28, 1840, and is a son of Gustave and Catherine (Carlson) Johnson, both of whom were born in the locality in which our subjects birth occurred. They spent their entire lives in their native land and both passed away when about seventy-five years of age. In their family were seven children, all of whom are yet living as follows: :John, Andrew, Peter, Charlie, Swaten, Ellen and Otelia. Andrew Johnson reside in Sweden until he was twenty-nine years of age. During that time he mastered the branches of learning taught in the public schools and afterward followed farming becoming the overseer of a large landed estate there but he had heard favorable reports of the new world and wished to try his fortune in this land. Accordingly he sailed for America in 1869 and became a resident of Bureau county, Illinois, where he remained for four years. He worked by the month, receiving twenty-one dollars per month for his services. Subsequently he rented a farm of 40 acres for three years and on the expiration of that period he came to Boone county, Iowa in 1874. Here he purchased the first land he ever owned, becoming the possessor of a tract of 100 acres in Jackson township. As the years have passed and his financial resources have increased he has added to his property until he now owns 300 acres of valuable land. All of the improvements upon his farm stand as monuments to his thrift and enterprise. There are good buildings, well kept fences and the latest improved machinery and everything about he place indicates the owner to be a progressive and practical man. He now rents a portion of his land, giving his time to the cultivation of the remainder.
Mr Johnson was married in Sweden in 1869, to Miss Christina Danielson who was born near his home place in June 1839. They now have one daughter Jennie the wife of Theodore Hanson of Boone by who she has three sons. Leonard, Ray and Arthur. When Mr Johnson came to this county it was wild and unimproved. There were few roads here and much of the land was still in its primitive condition. With the work of development and cultivation he has since been identified. As the yeas have passed he has prospered in his undertakings, being today the owner of one of the finest farms in the state. He gives to it his personal supervision, but the work of cultivation is carried on by the aid of those whom he employs. He is the leading Swedish farmer in his township and has been very very successful, but his prosperity is well merited as it has come to him in return for his energy determination and careful control of his business interests. In his political views he is a Republican, and is a member of the Free Mission church at Boone. His life history proves what can be accomplished in this land where labor is unhampered by caste or class.

1902 Boone County History Book