FAMILY STORIES

Masonic Lodge of Wahoo, Farm Bureau, Pork Producers, and is a DeKalb Pfizer Genetics Dealer.

   Alice A. (Nelson) Johnson was born south of Fremont to Walter P. Nelson and Leona B. (Burt) Nelson. Her grandparents were Louis and Anna (Henriksen) Nelson of Woodcliff, south of Fremont, and Oscar and Alice (Bishop) Burt of Leshara. Alice has a sister, Mildred Otte, of Papillion, and a brother, Donn, of rural Fremont.

   Alice attended Midland College. She taught in Saunders County, worked at the Nebraska Ordnance Plant, and is now Postmaster at Mead. She has been a member of the "Merri-Ettas" Extension Club for many years, Pohocco Lutheran Ladies, a 4-H member, and a 4-H Club leader for over 15 years.

   Henry and Alice were married at Fremont and both are active members of the Pohocco Lutheran Church.

   Sheila Rhea, their daughter, was born in Fremont. She attended Mead Public School and graduated from the University of Nebraska. She has been employed as Agent for the Nebraska Cooperative Extension Service in the Southwest Area, and is currently in Platte Co. in Columbus. She was active in 4-H Club work and received two trips to Washington, D.C. and to 4-H Club Congress in Chicago. Submitted by Henry A. Johnson

   My father, Herbert A. Johnson, owned and operated a drug store in Wahoo from about 1904 until 1910. He was born near Cleburne, Kansas, in 1882 to a family who were the first Swedes to settle in Kansas. He received his degree in pharmacy from Kansas University, Lawrence, Kansas.

   My father's brother was Dr. O.J. Johnson, who was both pastor at the Bethlehem Lutheran Church and president of Luther College. Probably that is the reason he came to Wahoo to step up his business. He married Lillie Wahlstrom, daughter of S.P. Wahlstrom, in 1908. I was born in 1910 at the time Halley's Comet was appearing in the sky. We moved to Kansas toward the close of the year.

   His old record books are interesting, especially the prices. The highest price paid for a single prescription seemed to be $2.20. Cough syrup was 25¢, adhesive tape -- 10¢, cotton -- 5¢, ink -- 5¢, shoe polish -- 10¢. He seemed also to sell paint, wall paper and decorating supplies. I know he fitted and sold eye glasses. We still have some of them. My mother did some substitute teaching one year, and with that money they purchased a soda fountain.

   The names in his beautifully leather-bound ledger are familiar to many in Saunders County. Such names were: Charles Slama, J.H. Flodman, A.L. Anderson, Frank Magnuson, C.P. Hultin, John Dolezal, B. Torrell, F.W. Anderson, F.M. Stratton, John Trutna, W.C. Kirchman, to name a few.

   He moved back to Kansas because someone was needed on the farm. He farmed the rest of his life, but kept his registration as a druggist in Nebraska current for the next fifty years. Many times our illnesses were treated from the drugs in his large "medicine cabinet." He died in 1964. Mrs. John (Lucile) Johnson Bischoff, Daughter

1904 -1910 Drug Store in Wahoo. On Left: Herbert Johnson

   Gregrous Peter Johnson, my great-grandfather, came with his wife and family from Denmark and homestead six miles south of Fremont in Saunders County. This was directly north of Pohocco Lutheran Church as it is today. Their son, John Johnson, my grandfather, was born Oct. 4, 1865 in Denmark.

   When grandfather was a young man, he walked to Fremont to court a young lady who was to become my grandmother. He was 19 and she 21 when they married. They lived with John's parents who by that time had purchased another 80 acres in the same section and added to it. This was eventually to become my parents and we kids' home.

   Grandmother Johnson was Emma Christena Parroth who was born March 2, 1863 in Sweden. She had two older sisters who came to the United States first. She stayed behind to care for her father who was a blacksmith. They had a hard time making a living. Sometimes there was nothing to eat so grandmother mixed flour and water together and baked it in the oven and that was their supper. How she got the passage to America I don't know, but she came here when she was eighteen. She did housework and sewing for some people in Fremont who lived on Nye Avenue which then was the rich street.

John and Emma Johnson

   To this couple were born two sons and three daughters. They were Charles, Christena, Augusta, Walter and Violet. All of them attended school at District #46, called Otoe Creek School, and Pohocco Lutheran Church. Uncle Charley married Emma Keeler. To this farm couple were born Lyle, Leslie, Alice and Dolores. The two girls survive.

   Aunt Christena married Frank McDuffee and to them were born six children: Dale, Clifford, Fern, Merlin, Wesley and Norman. During the 30's, the family moved to Portland, Oregon. At the age of 92, Christena lives in Portland close to her surviving children; Dale, Clifford and Wesley. Augusta, my mother, married James McDuffee and to them were born five children: Roma, Harold, Merle, Lloyd and Glendora. Mother spent her last years in a nursing home. Dad is 90 and lives in Fremont. Mother and Merle are deceased.

   Uncle Walter never married. He passed away in 1962 at the age of 66. Aunt Violet married John Riggs. They had four children who are Wayne, Gordon, Lavonne and Donna. Violet was a teacher before her marriage. She and John are deceased.

   Christmas Eve at Grandpa and Grandma Johnson's always meant oyster stew with little crackers, celery sticks and dessert. The candles on the tree were lighted while each child recited a part he had in the church program before gifts were opened. Aunt Violet played the piano and Uncle Walter the violin. Everyone sang carols. The entire family tried to be there. The oyster stew was cooked in a big, big kettle. Submitted by Roma McDuffee Vanicek

   John P. Johnson, born in the province of Dalarna, Sweden on September 20, 1864, emigrated to America in May, 1885, going to the home of an aunt and uncle, Mr. and Mrs. Lars Bruce at Malmo, Nebraska. John, being a handy man capable of doing various kinds of work, worked for the Burlington Railroad, laying tracks from Malmo to Rescue, a small town northwest of Prague. He later engaged in farming north of Malmo, living a short distance from the Mission Covenant Church located northeast of Malmo. It was there, on that balmy January day in 1888, the men of the church had gathered to clean stove pipes and such, when the "big blizzard" struck. John got to his home safely by following fence lines.

John and Anna Johnson

   John's brother, Gust, together with their mother and father, came to America in 1886. They, too, came to the home of Lars Bruce. Mrs. Johnson and Mrs. Bruce were sisters. After some months they settled in their home on a small farm south of Malmo, and later moved into town where they resided until death. Mr. Johnson preceded his wife in death. Mrs. Johnson died in June, 1913. Gust died in 1945.

   In the year 1882, another family had emigrated from province Vastergotland, Sweden to Wahoo, Nebraska, namely, Mr. and Mrs. C.J. Peterson and 4 of their children. Anna, their oldest became the wife of John P. Johnson on May 17, 1890. The early years of their marriage were on a farm near Weston;

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later moving to Malmo where John and Mr. Peterson, called "Plasterer Peterson", worked together in the necessary trade of plastering the homes being built in the Wahoo-Malmo area.

   John and Anna's family consisted of seven children: Hulda (Mrs. Ernest Halstead), Carl Rudolph, Ellen (Mrs. Gahart Henrichson), Gilbert, who died at age 3, Leonard, Robert, and Dolores (Mrs. Raymond Nygren).

   John was employed a number of years by the H.J. Holtorf grain elevator company.

   John and Anna celebrated their golden anniversary in 1940. January 28, 1941, Anna fell, breaking her hip, and was confined to her home and hospital until her death on January 28, 1942. John died in 1955 at age 91. Submitted by Mrs. Raymond Nygren

   Joseph Leonard Johnson and his wife, Leila Faye (Gilchrist) Johnson, were both natives of Mead, Nebraska. Joe being born August 4, 1897, on a farm near Mead, and Leila, April 15, 1900 in Mead. Joe died in 1967 and Leila in 1971.

   Joe's parents were Amandus and Ellen (Anderson) Johnson. Amandus came to Nebraska from Sweden. Ellen's father, Victor Anderson, immigrated to America from Sweden in 1869, homesteading south of Mead. Joe's great-grandparents, C.J. and Sophia (Lundgren) Carlson, came to America in 1868 and homesteaded southeast of Mead in 1869. Joe attended grade school at Mead and was raised in the Lutheran faith.

   Leila's parents were George Hugh and Ida May (Templeton) Gilchrist. In 1869, Hugh and his parents, James and Janet (Crinklaw) Gilchrist, homesteaded in Marietta precinct, northwest of Mead, and May's parents, John S. and Francenah Templeton, homesteaded in Green Precinct.

   After their marriage March 30, 1921, at Mead, Joe and Leila farmed at Haswell, Colorado, and north of Ashland, Nebraska, before moving in 1925 to a farm just north of Mead.

   In the late 1920's, Joe began a trucking business, hauling livestock, grain, coal, and other merchandise. He also had a milk route, hauling milk in 10-gallon cans from the farms to dairies in Omaha. He often made as many as 3 trips a day to Omaha with milk, livestock, and grain. On return trips he would bring merchandise from Omaha wholesalers to businesses in Mead. He also sold and delivered ice (the only refrigeration in those days).

   In 1942, construction at Mead of the Nebraska Ordnance Plant changed life considerably. Because so many workers needed places to stay, the Johnsons took in roomers. As many as 20 people besides their family of six lived in their six-room house. Joe became a firefighter at the plant. After the war Joe returned to farming, renting land in the Ordnance Plant, and later, buying 240 acres 2½ miles north of Mead. He was one of the first in the Mead area to irrigate farmland, registering his irrigation well with the state July 2, 1957, after doing some irrigating late in the summer of 1956.

   While in Mead, he was a volunteer fireman, on the Town Board, and served as mayor.

   As a young girl, Leila often sang duets in the community with her sister Marie, and later encouraged her own family to enjoy music. She was a graduate of Mead High, a charter member of the Mead Reading Club, and active in the Baptist church.

   Joe and Leila had 4 children -- Genevieve, Elwyn, Joan, and Joyce. Genevieve and Everette Hilfiker of Mead have a daughter, Gail (Mrs. Mark Reeder). Elwyn and Carol (Chancellor) Johnson of Mead have 4 sons -- twins Gregory and Jeffery, Kent, and Curtis, and 2 grandsons. Joan and Jim Blankenship of Battle Creek, Michigan, have 4 children -- Sandra (Mrs. Sam Towers), James, Terry, and Connie, and 3 grandchildren. Joyce Carden of Mead has 2 children -- Kerry and Rhonda, and 1 grandson.

   Leland, son of Gustaf Emil and Ellen Erickson Johnson still resides on the farm in Saunders County, near Ceresco, where he was born in 1922. Leland Johnson's grandfather, Charles A. Johnson, came to the United States from Sweden in 1868 at the age of 21. He settled on a farm near Cambridge, Illinois. In 1876, he married Anna Carlson of Lancaster County, Nebraska, in Illinois. They continued to farm in Illinois, where two sons were born, Carl J. and Gustaf Emil.

Leland Johnson

   In 1881, they moved to Lancaster County, and purchased 80 acres of railroad land. A part of this 80 acres is where the Bethlehem Covenant Church and parsonage are now located. The following year another son, Arthur E., was born. In 1893, the family moved to Saunders County where they purchased 240 acres of land, 3 miles east of Ceresco. The Johnson grandsons still own 120 acres of this land.

   Leland's maternal grandparents, Carl J. and Hannah Erickson arrived from Sweden in 1881, settling in Chicago, where Carl was a carpenter in the McCormack shops. Ellen, one of seven children, and Leland's mother, was born here. In 1891, the family moved to an 80-acre farm northeast of Ceresco, which is now owned by Leland. Leland is the youngest of 4 children, having 3 older sisters, Engeleen, Lorette, and Vivian. Submitted by Leland Johnson

   Lloyd A. and Adeline Johnson were married April 27, 1939. He is the son of Mr. and Mrs. Anton Johnson (Eliza Schmidt), both deceased. Adeline is the daughter of Frank A. (deceased) and Anna M. (Chmelka) Jelinek.

Lloyd and Adeline Johnson

   Lloyd and Adeline are the parents of 2 children, Lloyd Jr. and Lucille.

   Lloyd Jr. and his wife, Carlann (Lamprecht), of Colon are the parents of 3 children. Nancy and her husband, Robin J. Black, are in the Navy and reside in Vallejo, California. Patricia is a junior at Cedar Bluffs High School, and Adam, a first-grader at Colon, Nebr. Lloyd works for Lowrance Equipment out of Des Moines, Iowa.

   Lucille and her husband, Len Jarman, reside in Cedar Bluffs, Nebr. and are the parents of 2 children, Scott and Michelle. Scott is a senior and Michelle, a junior, in Cedar Bluffs High School. Len works for the railroad out of Fremont, Nebr.

   Lloyd Sr. is a retired farmer, having also worked for the Farmers Co-op Oil in Wahoo for a few years. Adeline worked at the Ordnance Plant, Mead; Russell Stover Candy, Lincoln; ASCS in Wahoo; and retired from United Rent-Alls in Lincoln where she worked as bookkeeper for fifteen years.

   The Johnsons are members of First Presbyterian Church of Wahoo. By Adeline Johnson

   John F. Johnson was born on September 30, 1884 on a farm in the Bethlehem Community in Lancaster County. He was the son of Bertha and Andrew Johnson. John went to school at the Pleasant Valley School.

Mr. and Mrs. John F. Johnson

   Mamie Oberg was born on August 30, 1886 in old Ceresco. She was the youngest daughter of Johanna and John Oberg. She attended school at the Bright Star School.

   On August 23, 1905 Mamie and John were married. The first years of their married life they lived in Omaha. They then moved to a farm north and west of Waverly in the Bethlehem Community. For eleven years, 1911 to 1922, they lived on a farm north of Huron, South Dakota.

   After they moved back to Ceresco, John sold cars for Magnus Swanson and Arvid Swanson. For three years they lived on a farm east of Ceresco. In 1929, they started and operated the Ceresco Hatchery, Feed and Fertilizer with their son, Willard Johnson. Walter joined them after he graduated from high school. This business was family operated until John's death in 1943.

   Mamie continued in the business with sons Willard and Walter, until 1946. Willard's sons, Dennis and Donald Johnson, are now operating the business as Johnson Farm Services.

   John and Mamie were always interested in civic and church affairs. They were members of the Ceresco Covenant Church. John served at several intervals as treasurer and trustee of the church. John was a member of the Village of Ceresco Commercial Club and served several terms on the Town Board.

   The Johnsons were the parents of three sons and one daughter; LeRoy, Willard, Walter, Dorothy. LeRoy and Walter are deceased. Dorothy retired from teaching school twenty-seven years. Willard retired and both are residing in Ceresco. There are six grandchildren.

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