Oliver Guy Johnson
1893-1969
Oliver Guy Johnson was my maternal grandfather. Born
in 1893, he passed away at Christmas time in 1969. He blessed us by writing his
personal history. Over the next several days, I will be posting his history in installments.
I hope you enjoy reading about this great man.
The Early Years—Part One
I was born May 19, 1893, at 91
West 6th North, Logan, Utah, the seventh child and the second son of James
Christian and Mary Hansen Johnson. They had both come to Utah from Denmark. My
father came to Logan in July of 1875 and mother came in 1869. I was born in the
house that my son, Reed, and his family now lives in. My father owned land and
operated a small farm where I was born. My father had been a railroad
contractor, building the railroad grade in Idaho and Montana, but had quit it
and moved back to Logan to be with his family before I was born.
The 20 acre farm where I was born
and grew up, was also the home where my nine brothers and sisters were born and
raised. At the present time (1964) there is a large L.D.S. Church where Father’s
barn once was and there are seven business places and some twenty or thirty new
homes. We always had cows to milk and horses on the farm. I soon learned to
ride a horse and I have liked to ride horses all my life.
My first
remembrance of my father was one day when he was sorting potatoes out in the
potato pit and Mother let me out to be with him. I had been stung on the eye
lid by a bee and my eye was swollen shut. I do not remember how or when I was
stung by that bee, but I do remember that my Father ask me whose boy I was.
When I told him I was Oliver, he said he didn’t think it was because Oliver
could see with both eyes. My mother was very sick when I was born so it was up
to my oldest sister, Hilda, to tend me until I could do a little for myself.
She was twelve years old when I was born.
I finally
grew up enough so 1 could do a few things around the farm like feeding the
chicken and the calves and pigs. My mother kept my hair in long ringlets until
I was five years old, but one day she cut them off and I was a boy.
When I
was six years old, I started school at the Benson School which was on the
corner of 4th North and 1st East Streets. I remember my sister Mable, who was
two years older than me taking me to the teacher for the first time. This
school had eight class rooms, four upstairs and four downstairs. I attended all
of them in the next eight years. This is the same school where my sons, Nyman,
Jim and Reed, and my daughter, Beth, took the first six grades.
A few of
the boys and girls that I can remember (55 years later) of that first school
class are: Joseph Keller, Herbert Kallstrom, Alonso Lindquist, Ernest Ruchti,
Easter Lundberg, Lillie Hansen, Rebecca Jacobson, Carrie Jenson, Ina Barrett,
Edward Barrett, Harvey Larson.
My father
went back to his native land, Denmark, on a mission for the L. D. S. Church in
1902, leaving eight children home with their Mother. My brother, James, was 14
years old and I was 8. We took care of the farm; we milked the cows, put the
hay in the barn, and did all the irrigating.
I went to
the 4th Ward Primary and Sunday School and Religion Class. They do not have
Religion Class any more. I gave the closing prayer at the exercises when I
graduated from Primary in 1905. I went to church in the 4th Ward. Thomas X.
Smith was Bishop with Thomas Morgon and Gustave Thompson counselors. Nora
Eliason was President of the Primary. E. W. Robinson was superintendent of the
Sunday School. They were the days when everybody walked to church, the good old
days before there were any autos.
I was
ordained a Deacon on December 9, 1905, by Fred Crunder Jr. We held our
Priesthood meeting in the back room of the meeting house. I helped with the
chores such as feeding of the calves and chickens and helped to keep the wood
box full, for wood was all we had to burn in those days.
Next installment:
The Pre-Marriage Years
