Carl Johnson

JOHNSON STROM

Posted By: Connie Swearingen (email)
Date: 9/15/2010 at 20:45:17

History of Woodbury County, Iowa 1984

Carl Johnson
By Einar Johnson

My father, Carl Johnson, applied for citizenship, October 26, 1895. He became a citizen on September 24, 1898. He was one of four brothers. Together with his brother, A R Johnson, he started the Johnson Bakery. The bakery was located between 4th and 5th on Iowa Street. He married Esther Strom and together, they had three sons, Oliver, Einar and Alvin. I have lost track of Oliver completely. Alvin, the youngest brother, died recently in an accident.

Our family lived three blocks from the bakery on Wall Street. I used to carry my father his lunch. On my way I would pass the Sioux City Fire Station on 5th Street between Wall and Iowa Street. Many times I passed when a call came in; the horses would run around from the back into position and the harness would drop onto the horses. The steam created by the engine would pump water from the hydrant. When I was about five years ago, we moved to 7th and Clark Street which was on the other side of the railroad tracks. Taking the bridge over the railroad tracks, I was able to watch down below where the cowboys came to sell horses. I went to Lincoln School on the bottoms.

One day in January after coming home from school my mother did not greet me at the door as usual. I ran upstairs into the bedroom just as Alvin was being born. The mid-wife screamed, ‘Out, out, go downstairs’. During the summer when Ringling Brothers Circus came to town, which was usually on my birthday, they unloaded elephants and all their wagons right in front of our house. My father built a new house on 2004 Iowa Street; we were moved by horses and wagon. When I was about thirteen years old my mother and father were divorced. They could not agree on who should have custody of the children, so were sent to a Lutheran Home in Stanton, Iowa. After one year my mother gained custody and we moved to Lincoln, Nebraska.

The bakery was sold and my father got another job. My father passed away about 1923. Alvin married and had one son and one daughter, Einar married and had two sons and two daughters. Einar is a retired farmer in Wisconsin.