JOHNSON, HAROLD C.

JOHNSON, ESSEXZON

Posted By: Jean Kramer (email)
Date: 3/5/2004 at 13:15:25

Biography reproduced from page 331 of Volume II of the History of Kossuth County written by Benjamin F. Reed and published in 1913:

Harold C. Johnson is the leading photographer of Swea City, having a well equipped gallery. He does all kinds of work in his line but makes a specialty of the post-card views and photographs. He also acts as local agent for the Freeborn Creamery Company of Albert Lea and is doing quite a large business for that concern. He was born hear Germania, Kossuth county, March 28, 1890, a son of Carl J. and Sophia Johnson, both of whom were natives of Sweden, but were married in this county. The grandparents, John Jamison and Engrid (Essexzon) Johnson, were also natives of Sweden, where the former worked as a laborer. He died in 1906 and his wife passed away in the following year. Carl J. Johnson, who was a farmer by occupation, came direct to Kossuth county, Iowa, on emigrating to the new world, and he settled near Germania. For twenty-seven years he lived on his Iowa farm three miles north of that city, having purchased one hundred and sixty acres of land in Ledyard township. He afterward removed to Montana, where he remained for a short time. Returning to this county, he purchased the farm where he now lives in 1884, at which time his nearest trading point was Blue Earth, Minnesota, a point twenty miles distant, to which he frequently walked to do his trading. He paid four dollars and a half per acre for land which is now worth one hundred dollars per acres. He is one of the well known and highly respected men of his part of the county and is a successful farmer.

Harold C. Johnson remained on his father’s farm until he attained the age of eighteen years, receiving a good common-school education and assisting in the farm work. Early in boyhood he developed a liking for photography, one of his chief delights being the use of a camera which he obtained when quite small. He showed unusual adaptability for this work and when he left the farm he did so to enter the studio of G. A. Frederickson, a well known photographer of Dayton, Iowa, where he remained for one year, perfecting his knowledge of the business. He then opened a studio in Swea City, where he has since followed his chosen occupation, being the only recognized photographer in that part of the county. He has built up a large business which has been obtained by the fine work which he exhibits and by the moderate prices which he charges. In the spring of 1909 he accepted the agency for the Freeborn Creamery Company with headquarters at Albert Lea and in connection with his other work is handling on an average of twenty cans of cream per week throughout the year.

Mr. Johnson is a republican and pays considerable attention to political matters. He belongs to the Swedish Lutheran church of Swea City, of which he is a valued member, and is one of the popular young men of his town, being a highly respected and valued citizen who is greatly esteemed by all who know him.