The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1909-09-21


Ii. D. by the University of Pennsyl-
| vania.
His parents, Gustav and Caroline ].
| johnson, were born in Sweden. The
4 life of the family from the time of the
birth of Gustav to the present death
! of the governor is one long line of
trials. troubles and struggles.
His Fathers Career.
Gustav johnson was born in Swe-
! den of good parentage. He received
/ a common school education or better,
and shortly after becoming of age
he found himself, on the death of his
parents, in possession of his share of
| a comfortable estate. The enlarged
opportunities and the freedom from
responsibility or restraint which ac-
companied his new situation in life,
instead of calling out the best that
was in the young man, called out the
worst. Surrounding himself with
companions of vicious tastes and hab-
it's. and willfully closing his eyes to
the future, he entered upon a career
of dissipation which in a few years
time reduced him to want.
Arriving in the United States, john
son, who still manifested desire to
reform. went to work at his trade.
and, so far as could be seen, he had
turned his back on the past. A fine
workman, he quickly found himself
busy and earning a good living.
1t was in this period of comparative
soberness that the woman who after
ward became his wife arrived from
Sweden. She was an orphan and her
girlhood had been filled with bitter
sorrow and desperate struggle. In the
company of friends, she reached Chi
cago about 1852. and, after living
there for year, she went to st. Peter.
In 1856 she met Johnson and they
were married in 1858.
After the wedding Johnson took his
wife into the country few miles
from the village, and here he opend a
blacksmith shop. Business was good
and the couple were very happy for
about three years, when, on the
ground that he would be able to earn
better living in town, and thus pro-
vide more abundantly for his family,
he returned to ST. Peter.
John Born 1851.
1t was here that John was born in
1861.
did not take Johnson away from ST.
Peter. His conduct was such, how
ever, that he became a public nuis-
ance. At the request of the authori-
ties, DR.. A. w. Daniels, the leading
physicians of the town, who had been
for years the johnson family p1ysi-
clan, examined the Imam and reported
that he was suffering from alcoholic !
dementia, and that he could not re-
cover unless removed from saloon in |
fuences. There were no inebriate |
asylumS in those days, nor other |
places for the Incarceration of alco-
holic unfortunates, and so the board |
of county commissioners, on the re- |
commentator of the physicians of |
the city, sent Johnson TO the poor |
farm, which was eighteen miles dis
tant.
He lived this life from the early '7Os |
until 1889, physical and mental wreck
ambition and pride all gone, and all the
finer sensbilities of life blunted, when
he died As soon as the boy, john
learned of his fathers death he ar
r. n cd fn Of Il
funeral expenses.
In the meantime, Johns. income he'd
so increased that it was no longer |
necessary for his mother to take in |
washing Indeed, she did nothing of |
this sort after her son had reached the |
age of about IA, at which time he made |
himself the entire support of the fam
ily He worked for one druggist in St
Peter for about dozen years. Then he |
went into Iowa, and then to Mankato
where he was employed by railroad |
contractors and others, his wages at |
this period averaging about SIS a |
month. With this money he kept the |
family together, paying the doctor bits |
and the funeral expenses for three of |
his sisters. and educating the remain |
ing brother and sister, who are stlli |
living.
Start in Newspaper Work.
The son was in Mankato when the op-
portunity came for him to buy a half |
Interest in the st. Peter Herald. He said |
to the friends who told him about the
opportunity that he was supporting his
didn't have a dollar for investment.
His friends in st. Peter took up the
case advanced the necessary sum, and
started him out as a newspaper man,
and it need not be said that this sum
was repaid in due time
The father had permitted taxes to
accumulate on the home. until the
amount was finally $125, and the
DrOnortV sold nv he oh oh |
bought 1t in with money saved out of
his SIS a month. so that the mother
and children might not be disturbed.
Finally he married Miss Gilmore
Preston. June 1, 1894. He brought his
wife to the home, which in the mean
time he had enlarged by the building
of a comfortable addition, and the new
daughter fitted into the little family
circle in a truly beautiful way. The
sister secured position as teacher in
& country school and left home, re-
turning for the vacation season.
The mother, with the sturdy indie
pendence and strength of character
which she had always exhibited, and
without which the family during it's
years of sore trial could not have been
kept together, made UP her mind that
she wanted to have a home of her very
own, as many other mothers have done
and will continue to do. She con-
Ceived the scheme of keeping house
for her daughter, who was now self
supporting, and accordingly she rented
two or three rooms, which her son
furnished, and into these she moved.
Her daughter, according to the ar
rangement which had been made, lived
with her, and it was not long before
that daughter secured a place in the
st. Peter schools, which she still holds |
She and her mother are now living on
one of the quiet residence streets of
the town, in q pleasant cottage, which
is well furnished, and where they are
surrounded by all the ordinary COM
forts of life.
The story was circulated that the
mother had had some trouble with her