sheds, etc., and a good bearing orchard, also considerable small fruit. He has a grove of good natural timber at the home place, and the farm is well supplied with plenty of living water. In politics Mr. John is a Republican, and a Prohibitionist in principle, and has held several local positions in his township. To Mr. and Mrs. John were born eight children: Marion E. (married and resides in the county), Charles E. (at home), Blanche (a teacher in the county), Ida (also a teacher), Willard (attending school at Des Moines), Anna, Fred and Esther. Mr. and Mrs. John and some of the children are members of the Evangelical Church, and Mr. John has been class-leader in the church at Maxwell for a number of years.
Elias Johnson, a prominent and successful farmer and stock-raiser of Story County, is a native of Norway, first seeing the light of this world on the 29th of September, 1833. His parents, John Patterson and Julia Johnson, were both Norwegians, and the father died in that country about 1852. The subject of this sketch grew to manhood in the land of his an cestors, receiving a common-school education, and emigrated to the United States in 1854, where he settled, first in Kendall County, Ill., devoting all his attention to farming for five years. In 1859 he married Miss Taaraan Larson, a native of Norway, and continued to live in that county until 1865, at which period he moved, and located in Story County, and now owns 300 acres of exceedingly valuable land, that is kept in a splendid state of cultivation at all times. Mr. Johnson is a Republican in politics, and is a prominent citizen, being a member of the school board. Mr. and Mrs. Johnson have eleven children: Julia, Caroline, Isabel, John, Joseph, Peter Eli, Lewis G., Charles W., James A., Arnie J. and Eliza. They are members of the Lutheran Church.
Iver Johnson, many years ago, left the historic shores of Norway to woo Fortune upon American soil, and tempt her to guide aright his business ventures. And she, with that generous benevolence with which she sometimes treats her favorites, has more than granted his request, until at the present time he is preeminently successful in the mercantile world, and justly popular and influential in the community where he resides. He received an excellent education in his native language, emigrating when seventeen years of age. Upon first reaching the country which was henceforth to be home to him, he located in Northern Iowa, in 1865, and the following year moved to Nevada, where he clerked for I. J. Ringheim, one of the leading merchants of that place. Talent and industry combined soon served to raise the subject of our sketch to the enviable position of confidential clerk to his employer, a position which naturally enabled him to grasp the details of the business in a most substantial way, thus fitting himself for the responsibility of a business of his own. In September, 1884, Mr. Johnson established a mercantile business at Roland, growing each year in strength and experience, until he now ranks at the top of successful merchants, and has a large and constantly increasing trade. Constantly occupied with business matters, Mr. Johnson has so far never married.
Edwin Johnson, merchant, Cambridge, Iowa. There are a number of young business men in Story County, who are rapidly coming to the front among the representative citizens of the community, but none mentioned in this work are more deserving of prominence and success than Edwin Johnson. His birth occurred in La Salle County, Ill., on June 3O 1855, and his parents were natives of Norway. The father was a farmer by occupation and died in Illinois at the age of seventy-three years. The mother still survives, is about sixty years of age and