The following 9 pages are some that were written by Jeanett McTier, a cousin of Joe Carr.

 

               THE JOHNSON FAMILY - By: Jeanett McTier

 

Joseph Johnson was born in Goteborg, Sweden, 17 December 1859, according to his Petition for Naturalization (4 March 1912).  Jessie Helen Hanson was born near Oslo, Norway, according to oral family tradition, on 29 June 1869.  they were married 1 June 1889 in Janesville, Wisconsin, Rock County, by James Sidell.  Joseph's residence was listed as Milton, Wisconsin.  From this marriage came seven children.

According to the marriage registration record, Joseph's parents were John Johnson and Annie Peterson (Johnson) of Goteborg, Sweden.  They did not come to America.  Family tradition says that Joseph came at the age of 14, working his way over on a ship.  The Petition for Naturalization does not support this, stating that he left Goteborg on 25 February 1880, arriving in New York 5 March 1880, on the Olympia.  Joseph's occupation listed on the marriage registration was "laborer", though later he became a farmer and a good horse-trader - a valuable skill of instinct in the early twentieth century.

The same document states that he had been a resident of America since 5 March 1880, and had been a resident of Wisconsin since 3 August 1890.  Family tradition says that he had worked on the railroad in Utah, and possibly had a prior marriage and a son there.

Jessie Helen Hanson, according to oral tradition, came to America as a 6 month-old-infant, with her parents, Ole and Gertrude Hanson, and siblings.  That would put the possible date at December 1869 through the next month or two of 1870.  The siblings possibly were Otto, Henry, Lave and Lavis (twins).  Amanda and Charles (twin), Arlie, Alma, Julia, Anna, and Lizzie.  There has been no contact with any of them or their descendants for a very long time.  Nothing is known about the first eight.  Julia married an Erwin and moved to Oregon.  Anna married a Wall and lived in the Milwaukee, Wisconsin area.  Lizzie married a Tollefson and lived in Rockdale, Wisconsin, Dane County.

Joseph lived from 1859 to 1931, marrying at age 29, and dying on his 72nd birthday.  He is buried in Tomah, Wisconsin.  Jessie lived from 1869 to 1951, marrying just before her 20th birthday, and passing away at age 82.  According to these dates he was ten years older than she.

The children born to Joseph and Jessie were:

Amy                25 February 1890

James Arlo (Arly)  4 Feb 1892

Olive Adele        12 Oct 1894

Cora Luella        17 June 1896

Mabel Evangeline   17 Jan 1900

John Edwin         5 May 1903

Alice Lillian      21 Aug 1906

          DESCENDANTS OF JOSEPH AND JESSIE (HANSON) JOHNSON

 

Amy       25 Feb 1890 - Aug 1907  Married Ben Street 21 January 1907

 

James Arlo (Arly)  4 Feb 1892 -?

Married Effie Lund, widow; mother of John, Fern, and Clyde

 

Olive Adele   12 Oct 1894 - 1960

Married Harry Rittenhouse, divorced

Married Henry Johnson

 

Cora Luella   17 June 1896 - 29 June 1973

Married James Haldane Carr 14 May 1919, four children

 

Mabel Evangeline   17 Jan 1900 - 7 April 1922

Married someone with name like "Minot"

 

John Edwin    5 May 1903 - ?

Married Ann, one son

 

Alice Lillian 21 Aug 1906 - 24 Jan 1977

Married Anton "Tony" Thorson 30 Sept 1927, three children

 

Amy, Arly, Olive, and Mabel had no children.

 

There were only eight first cousins in this family, 3 girls and 5 boys.

 

NAME                                                 BIRTHDATE      BIRTHPLACE

 

Cora's                            Joseph Maxon "Joe" Carr      9 June 1920     Janesville, WI

family                               

John's    Ray                     (?)

family

 

Alice's                               Jeanette Ardis Thorson       28 Aug 1928 Madison, WI

family                                Alice Lucile Thorson         15 April 1931    Madison, WI

Allan LaVerne Thorson             29 Jan 1941   Madison, WI

                             FAMILY NOTES

 

Amy, the first-born, met a tragic death, when at the age of 17 died of an abortion performed by her mother-in-law.  She died of blood poisoning.  My mother, Alice Thorson, was just a year old, so had no memory of Amy.

Arly served in the first World War.  I have no idea what was his disposition before that War, but he is remembered as a "basket case", as were many soldiers after World War I.  He lived down the road from Grandma Johnson; as a child, I was afraid of him.  In his later years, he was cared for in a Veteran's Home near Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where my sister and Mother visited him.  that must have been in the 1950's.  His stepson, Clyde became a favorite cousin of mine, and should write his own book of his life's adventures.  He has seen all, done all, and been all!

Olive Adele and her husband Henry died in a head-on collision on a hill near their home near Mauston, Wisconsin, in 1960.  they had no children.  I visited them when I came home from Europe in 1956 - her biggest interest in my life was that she thought I was so fat - and kept telling me so!  Aunt Olive and my Mother did not communicate for many, many years - I have no idea why.  Some people are just hard to get along with!

(Cora is next in line, according to age, but I will save her for last, because of her family)

Mabel Evangeline died in 1922.  All I know about her is that my mother really admired her.

John "Uncle Johnny" married a girl from across the road from the farm he and Grandma Johnson owned.  We felt so lucky to get an aunt as precious as she - our dear Aunt Ann!  From this marriage came one son, Ray, who was the delight and pride of both his parents.  Ray had not married, and lives with Aunt Ann (1997) in Elmwood, Wisconsin.  They are the kind of people who deserve the title. "salt of the earth"; in other words, they are good people!  They moved from the Tomah farm many years ago to the Elmwood area, in west central Wisconsin.  When I was a small girl, I remember being so impressed that Uncle Johnny wouldn't eat an egg or anything with eggs in it; since he saw a chicken eat a snake!

Cora Luella and Uncle Jim were married 14 May 1919 in Rockford, Illinois.  They lived on the first farm that Grandpa Joseph had owned, a farm around a big "bluff" - an outcropping of stone, but small enough that we as small children could spend whole afternoons scrambling up the slopes.  I remember blueberries, and cantaloupe, and lots of stinging nettle weeds which attracted my like magnets!  There was lots of sand.  And a swing made out of a tire!  We loved playing there with our cousins.  Cora and her family remained completely dedicated to the Seventh-Day-Adventist Church.  They moved to Oregon in the middle 1930's where there are many Adventists.  We visited them there in the late 1930's and took pictures of our whole family standing on  a tree stump, with room left over!  We picked berries so large that 3 or 4 would be a handful!  My mother and Cora cooked all the time - no wonder, with wood stoves, no refrigerators, fresh fruits and veggies, and lots of bread and sweets!  And lots of family!  I always thought my cousin Margie, Jim and Cora's daughter, was the smartest person I knew - she was just a couple years older - and never pushy - but always seemed to be able to answer any question I could dream up!

"Joe" was such a favorite cousin!  He used to "sing-song" a chant when we were kids playing at "the bluff": Jean, Jean, made a machine; Joe, Joe made it go." (My growing up name was Jean).  Joe is an excellent writer.  He never had a family.  Joe was an ambulance driver in Egypt (North Africa?) during World War II and write wonderful letters on the little V-Mail sheet/envelopes, carefully censored during those war years.  When my parents lived in Butternut, Wisconsin, Joe often visited them, and even built a small cabin for himself on their farm.  When my folks lived near Morrisonville, Wisconsin, we were astonished one dark, monsoon-like, stormy night when he knocked on the door - he had walked from the highway - at least 4 miles - in that downpour!

Both Joe and bill were conscientious objectors, both served in wartime.  Bill was a medic in Korea, and was known for his courage, daring, and bravery in aiding those wounded on the field.  His life changed with the lasting effects of the emotional trauma of what he went through.

             MEMORIES SHARED BY COUSIN MARGIE CARR LOGAN

 

Grandma Johnson, whose first name was Jessie, told some stories of her past to her granddaughter, Margie Carr Logan.  She told that Jessie worked in Milton, Wisconsin, at the Old Milton House when she was a young girl.  A young man with a moustache came to this boarding house for an overnight stay.  The girls were all excited about this young man (apparently good-looking).  They teased each other that they wanted him.  Jessie spoke up and said, "No, I am going to marry him."  Of course, the young man went on his way.  A few years later she married Joseph Johnson and they started their family.  Then one day Joseph came home with his moustache shaved off.  It was then that she realized she had indeed married that young man of an earlier meting!

While Jessie worked at the Milton House, she had a room way up on the top floor of the tower.  It was overlooking the part of the roof that still stands today.  One time some man got up there and tried to get into her window after her.  He didn't get in, but how strange to be up a couple of stories, and have someone at your window!

Margie also writes, "The Milton House is also of interest to me in another way because it was built by one of my ancestors.  My great-grandpa on my Dad's side was named Joseph Goodrich Carr, a son of the builder's daughter.  One of these rooms in the tower was furnished by the Carr family.  When I was very small, my folks lived in one of the rooms in the part of the Milton House which has been torn down."

           FAMILY OF JAMES H. CARR AND CORA L. JOHNSON CARR

 

Name                                                            Birthdate     Birthplace    Death Date DeathPlace

 

James Haldane Carr                                25 Feb 1895 Milton, WI      21 Oct 1970 Brooks, OR

Cora L. Johnson Carr  17 June 1896              Tomah, WI 29   June 1972   Salem, OR

Marriage 14 May 1919 in Rockford, Illinois

Children:

NAME                                                 BIRTHDATE      BIRTHPLACE

 

Joseph Maxon, "Joe" Carr                        9 June 1920     Janesville, WI

 

Joe did not have a family

 

                      GOING TO GRANDMA JOHNSON’S

 

All through the 1930's, and through part of 1944, our visits to Grandma's house and farm near Tomah, Wisconsin, were memorable because her life was quite different from ours.  For the years we lived in or near Madison, our once or twice a year trips covering the 100 miles were 4 hour adventures each way.  for one thing, cars and tires were not necessarily reliable, so we could almost always depend on a breakdown or a flat tire.  We also had to stop to "fill 'er up" along the way, usually at gas stations where the owner pumped the gas, and then (without washing his hands), would scoop up our five-cent, double dip ice cream cones - when we had enough money.  Many times only my sister Alice and I were the ones who got the cones, and our parents settled for "just a lick"

Grandma Johnson had her own style of cooking, for which Alice and I could not seem to develop a taste, so Mother filled us up with 4 hours of almost non-stop eating on the car trip.  We demolished lots of boxes of crackers and whatever she brought along.  Candy was too extravagant, but there always would be some peppermint.  The first taste of Ritz crackers on one of those trips convinced me that heaven was a place where you could eat Ritz every day, all day!  My Dad's favorite was lots of fruit-baskets of purple Concord grapes and apples were standard fare - in season!

Grandma was a "no-nonsense" kind of lady, but she had a pump organ which was wonderful fun.  Other than that, we made up our games for fun or brought dolls or toys along.  At night when we were in bed we listened to the wind in the trees, the "absolute lonesome-est" sound I have ever heard anywhere since!

I have only one memory of Grandpa Johnson, with him walking from the barn to the house, and me hiding behind our old car, hoping he wouldn't see me.  I was afraid of him, mostly because I never got to know him (I was just past 3 when he died).  He was known to drink a lot, and perhaps that caused me some apprehension.

Grandma was about as Seventh-Day-Adventist as you could get.  She was dedicated to living the life she should as a devout Seventh-Day-Adventist, and I have always respected her for that.  She did NOT do any work on Saturday, the Sabbath Day, including cooking or dish washing.  I don't remember her attitude toward meat, though I am sure she did not eat most kinds, but she drank Postum rather than any caffeine drink like coffee.  She cooked everything on Friday and we ate the regular food the next day, but usually cold.  I never got used to her having "butter in a sauce dish" always on the table, which was fine in cool weather but completely melted in the heat of summer.  How I have chuckled over the past 30 years when I, too, have served butter, or margarine, in a dish! "just like Grandma Johnson!"

About 1944 Grandma had a severe stroke, which left her bedridden, mindless, and unable to attend to any of her own physical functions or needs.  She came to live with us, and my mother took care of her for the next seven years night and day, without ever a break.  These were in the years before automatic washers and driers.  My brother's biggest memory of those years must be tough as he was about  three to ten at that time - such formative years.  Mother, who had never been a strong person anyway, "broke" under the strain, but had no choice but to continue her care of her own mother.  She told us girls to always remember Grandma as she had been, not as we knew her as an invalid who totally took over our family life those seven years.  Perhaps this is why I am in favor of nursing homes today, as I saw what effect it had on our family, and especially on our "little brother".

                              DOCUMENTATION

 

The documents which I have found prior to this date (24 November 1997) have been in the University of Wisconsin at LaCrosse, and in the State Historical Society Library on the campus of the University in Madison.  documents included or referred to are:

Intent to Become a Citizen  Joseph Johnson (Rock County) 12 Oct 1992

Petition for Naturalization Joseph Johnson (Monroe Co.) 11 Apr 1912

Marriage Registration      Joseph Johnson 1 June 1889

    & Jessie Hanson

Marriage Registration   Amy Johnson & Ben Street     21 Jan 1907

Registration of Births #00958 Alice Lillian Johnson 21 Aug 1906

12^th Federal Census          (Monroe Co., Bryon Township) 1900

Wisconsin Census             (Monroe Co., Bryon Township) 1905

13^th  Federal Census    (Monroe Co., Bryon Township) 1910

14^th  Federal Census    (Monroe Co., Bryon Township) 1920

 

It was a real thrill to find on microfilm in Lacrosse, the Petition for Naturalization for Joseph Johnson.  The immigration records for Monroe County are located there (along with lots of others, of course).  The copy included is of poor quality, due to the less-than-perfect machines used at that branch that day.  It is hoped that someone in the family will return and with improved technology, we will all get better copies.

It must be noted, that all documents are NOT absolute proof!  What a shock!  On the naturalization papers, officials relied on the memory of the petitioner.  We find discrepancies in birthdates, name spellings, and more.  I realized this again where on the naturalization paper, Grandpa gave an incorrect date for my Mother's birth!

From the state census of 1905 we see errors regarding Joseph's place of birth and his age.  Why, I do not know.  The Johnson children listed were: Amy, James A., Cora, Mabel E., and John E.  Amy, age 15, is listed as a servant.  Perhaps anyone that age was expected to be earning a living, even if it were for no money and at home.  But she may have hired out; we don't know.  We do learn that Joseph owned his farm, though it was mortgaged.  We learn a bit about his neighbors, also.  Names I heard my mother repeat when we were children - Herth, Jerdee, Calkins, Hill, Robertson.  Census takers went from dwelling/farm in order, so it is easy to see who the neighbors were.  It looks as though all the neighbors in 1905 were born in Norway, or at least, that is what the census taker thought and wrote!

The Federal Census of 1910 lists Joseph as age 50, married 20 years, birthplace Sweden, speaks English, immigrated in 1879, works on "own account' (self-employed), can read and write, owned farm under mortgage.  Jessie is listed as age 40, married 20 years, birthplace Norway, speaks English, can read and write.  The children are Olive, 16, not in school, but listed in school are Cora, 13, Mabel (spelling?) 9, John E. 7, and last of all baby Alice age 3.  The neighborhood must have changed.  According to tradition, a number of the original settlers moved on to the Dakotas.  The birthplace of the neighbors is also more accurate.  The Robertson's are now listed as from Denmark and Mr. Robertson's 4 step-children were also born in Denmark - the Jurgensens.  The Ibsen's also were from Denmark.  Three farms down the road was Mr. Meyer, age 34, and his housekeeper age 66.  Mr. Meyer and his parents were all born in the U.S.A., as were the Hills and their parents.  On the other side of the Johnson farm were a German married to an Irish lady - the Reich couple, ages 53 and 54.  And beyond them the Jerdees, both born in Wisconsin but their parents all from Norway.  They had seven children in this census.

The Federal Census of 1920 shows John and Alice living at home.  John at 16 is not in school but can read and write.  Alice at 13 is in school and can read and write.  There is a new addition to the family - Henry Johnson age 34, who is married to Olive age 26.  So he is listed as general farm hand, and son-in-law.  A number of farms have changed ownership again, with most of the new owners from Germany or first-born generation of German immigrants.  There has been a change in the Hill family.  John Hill is listed as 65, but evidently Mrs. Hill has passed away.  The sister-in-law and niece of Mr. Hill now live with him.  The Jerdee family keeps growing - ten are listed.  Considering that the three older boys have moved away, that makes 13 kids!  Joseph is listed as naturalized in 1911.  In those days wives were automatically naturalized when their husbands were.  No paper work is available for the wives.

As more records are found, more information can be added to this book, by anyone.

 

 

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