Knudt Johnson

JOHNSON, HANSON, PAULSON, GUNDERSON, LYNG, DAHLAN

Posted By: Peter Gausmann (email)
Date: 1/31/2010 at 07:35:24

KNUDT JOHNSON

Many of the most highly honored citizens of Lake Mills are retired farmers and among this number is Knudt Johnson. He is a native of Norway but has resided in this country since boyhood and no native born American has given more undivided loyalty to the United States than he. At the time of the Civil war he bore arms in defense of the Union and in times of peace he has always subordinated private interests to the general welfare. His birth occurred in Norway, September 12, 1841, and his parents were John and Ingeborg (Hanson) Torgeson, the latter of whom died when her son Knudt, the youngest of eight children, was but five years old. In 1853 the father with his son Knudt and another child came to the United States and located near Madison, Dane county, Wisconsin, where an older brother had taken up a homestead in 1849. The father died upon that place in 1876 and is there buried.

Knudt Johnson received his education in the public schools of Norway and after his removal to the United States made his home with and worked for a cousin for two years. Prom the age of fifteen to the age of twenty years he worked for various farmers but on the 20th of September, 1861, he enlisted in the Twelfth Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry and for four years, or until the 27th of September, 1865, was in the army, seeing a great deal of hard service during that time. He entered as a private but was mustered out at Louisville with the rank of corporal. At different times lie was under the command of Generals Grant, Sherman and McPherson and took part in the siege of Vicksburg, in the battles of Jackson, Mississippi, Baker's Creek, Atlanta and Jonesboro, an engagement fought in the course of Sherman's march from Savannah to the sea, and finally in the battle of Bentonville, North Carolina, the last important battle before the end of the war.

After receiving his honorable discharge from military service he returned to Dane county, Wisconsin, where he purchased forty acres of land. In 1869 he came to Winnebago county, Iowa, and bought two hundred acres on section 17, Center township, where he made his home until 1913, when he retired to Lake Mills. During the forty-four years that he resided upon that place he brought it to an unusually high state of cultivation and not only gained more than a competence from his labors but also aided in the agricultural development of the district, for he was always among the first to adopt a new method or a more efficient type of farm implement. In the early days in the history of the state a large tract of swamp land was given to the state by the federal government, but since no survey was made there was no way of ascertaining the exact limits of the tract and as a result of this uncertainty conflicting titles were given to lands contained within it by the state and federal governments. This led to a great deal of trouble and at last the matter was straightened out by a survey of the land in question. Mr. Johnson, as agent for the American Emigrant Company, supervised the survey of all such swamp land in Winnebago county and in this work utilized a plat furnished him by the secretary of state.

In 1865 Mr. Johnson married Miss Elsa Paulson, a daughter of Paul and Helge (Gunderson) Kettelson, of Perry, Wisconsin, who spent their last years in the home of Mr. and Mrs. Johnson. Both have passed away and are buried in a cemetery near the Johnson homestead. Ten children were born to Mr. and Mrs. Johnson, namely: John P., of Pike River, North Dakota; Carl T., who is married and is farming in Center township; George E., who is married and resides near Maywood, North Dakota; Rev. Torge A., who is married and is minister of the Lutheran church at Brandon, South Dakota; Paul G., at home; Helen, the wife of Chris Lyng, of Lake Mills; Mary, who married Oscar Dahlan, of Eden township; Anna M. and Clare E., both at home; and Henrietta, the wife of Rush Adams, of Lake Mills.
Mr. Johnson is a stanch republican and has given a great deal of time to public affairs, having served on the county board of supervisors for six years, on the school board for thirty-four years and as township clerk for fifteen years. Moreover, he was United States census enumerator for three years and for fourteen years was treasurer of the Farmers Association, an organization which did much to further an interest in cooperative effort among the farmers of the county. He is a communicant of the Synod Lutheran church and has endeavored to guide his life by the teachings of Christianity. His personal friends are many and all who have come in contact with him hold him in the highest respect.

Source: History of Winnebago County and Hancock County, Iowa: A Record of Settlement, Organization, Progress and Achievement, Vol. II. Pioneer Publishing Company (Chicago), 1917. pp. 188-189.