Albert and Louise Johnson lived in their home in Hannaford, North Dakota, until the fall of 1981. Because of failing health, they moved to Dazey, North Dakota, to the home of their daughter, Doris (Mrs. Roy Jacobson) who cared for them. Louise passed away in Mercy hospital in Valley City, North Dakota, in May 1984, at the age of 96. Albert passed away in September 1986, in the Griggs County Hospital in Cooperstown, North Dakota, at the age of 101.
I have lived in Griggs County since I was born in Sverdrup Township and my husband, Albert, has lived in this county since we were married June 12, 1912. Our home had been on a farm five miles east of Hannaford in Broadview Township until we moved to the village of Hannaford, North Dakota, in 1968.
Albert was born December 10, 1884, at Muskegan, Michigan, where his father worked in the lumber business and also on the railroad. They moved to Hope, North Dakota, in 1895.
I was born March 31, 1888, in a log cabin in Sverdrup Township where my parents, Mr. and Mrs. Lars Johnson, settled in 1881, coming from Granite Falls, Minnesota.
My parents, Lars and Ingeborg Johnson were born in Duvid and Jamtland, Sweden, respectively. They and their infant daughter sailed for America May 9, 1872, after their parental home was sold to the oldest son in the Lars Johnson family. Their infant daughter's name was Brita Elizabeth (Bessie). They settled in Granite Falls, Minnesota, where the youngest brother of Lars had settled two years previously. They farmed in the Granite Falls community for nine years but left to pioneer in Griggs County, North Dakota, because of a nine-year crop failure of grasshoppers and drought.
They built a covered wagon by nailing wooden ribs to a wagon box, covering this with unbleached muslin or sheeting and then oilcloth for waterproofing. Into this they piled all their belongings and three children, namely: Brita Elizabeth, Nickalaus and Margareta. They had an immigrant trunk filled with clothes, a stove, a few kitchen utensils and bedclothes. Their provisions for the journey from Minnesota to Griggs County in North Dakota were dried beef, "knacke" bread, homemade summer sausage, smoked ham, etc. They had six hens, two geese and one rooster. They shipped a mower and plow by North Pacific Railway to Valley City, North Dakota. They also had three cows, one heifer and a calf.
At Fergus Falls, Minnesota, they traded their team of horses for two yolk of oxen. The Grotness and Forsberg families traveled along with them and also cattle buyers, gold seekers and fortune hunters with their wagons joined them at times.
Fargo, North Dakota, was only a small town of shanties when they got there. The Grotness family wagon left them and went on to Crookston, Minnesota, but the Forsbergs continued on with them. When going by the Dalrymple Farm they had to cross a slough three miles long. The water came up to the wagon box but they got through safely. When bread gave out they had to lift their stove out of the wagon while they did their baking.
Their rooster flew out of its crate near a farm by Fargo and a cow broke her leg, so they journeyed back to Fargo and sold the cow and her calf.
They reached the Sheyenne River after a four week journey and settled in Sverdrup Township. They lifted the top off the wagon and lived in that the first summer and in the fall my father, Lars, went to Valley City to get some lumber to build a shanty to live in for a few months and by that time they built a log cabin. This building has now been moved to the grounds of the Cooperstown Bible Camp on the Sheyenne River near Cooperstown, North Dakota. When the log cabin was finished it had three rooms and a low upstairs where the children slept on straw mattresses.
As soon as they were settled my father broke the sod with his crude plow. He broke 10 acres and planted wheat. He also cut hay for the neighbors to make enough money for food and clothing for his family. He made his own hay rake and borrowed a reaper to cut their first crops.
When taking a trip to Valley City for provisions in the fall, it was a three-day journey from their home. Their main winter provisions were kerosene, syrup, coffee, flour, sugar and a few minor things. They were not in the habit of drinking coffee every day. They made a substitute of coarse bread cut into strips, browned and dried and ground it with some coffee beans. Sometimes they had wild prairie tea to drink. They bought seed potatoes and planted and that was a treat.
Many times there were prairie fires and the whole family would go out to help fight them. They did not lack fuel as they got that at the Sheyenne River woods. They cut ice at the Sheyenne River to melt and wash clothes in winter. In the summer we hauled water from the sloughs for washing. We carried our unpainted chairs to the sloughs to scrub them.
We herded the cows on the prairie and then drove them to the Sheyenne River to drink. When herding we took our Sunday School lessons and Bible history along with us to study.
When school age we walked to the Gallatin School, except in really severe weather. The school was 1 1/2 miles from home. My father served on the school board.
When my father bought seed that had weed seeds in it, we spread the seeds on a large sheet and picked the weed seeds as we did not have a fanning mill. We planted 9,000 trees in the year 1885. The first planting of trees died because of a hot July rain, so he planted more to replace them.
Our home was a Christian home, and we housed many missionaries and pastors during their speaking tours. Neighbors brought bread and milk and other foods to help support them. Rev. Lundeby was one of the first pastors to visit the community. He dressed in furs and carried a tent, so that when he was caught in a storm he would cover the horses, cutter, and himself and camp on the prairie until he could reach some settlers at home.
The children born to Mr. and Mrs. Lars Johnson were:
Brita Elizabeth, born September 15, 1871, deceased May 4, 1971. Nickolaus, born January 7, 1874, deceased January 28, 1925. Margareta, born 1876, deceased 1922. Christine, born April 14, 1883, deceased March 8, 1956. Mathilda, born June 11, deceased 1975. Louise, born March 31, 1888.
My father was born in 1842, and died in 1936; and my mother, Ingeborg was born in 1847, and died in 1928.
My husband's family moved from Hope, North Dakota, and settled in Greenfield Township in 1916.
My husband's parents were Oscar and Marie Johnson and their children were, namely: Laura, Esther, Albert, Hilda and Francis. All are deceased except Albert.
The children of Albert and Louise Johnson are:
Mrs. Oswald (Loal) Tufte, April 5, 1913, Platteville, Wisconsin. Mrs. James (Marjorie) Donahue, April 18, 1915, Hannaford, North Dakota. Mrs. Roy (Doris) Jacobson, August 18, 1917, Dazey, North Dakota. Mr. Howard Johnson, April 29, 1919, Fortuna, California. Mr. Bert Johnson, October 26, 1921, Hannaford, North Dakota.
These children had to walk two miles to school except in severe weather when their father hauled them in a sleigh pulled by horses. They carried their dinner buckets and in later years they had a warm dish at school to accompany their sandwiches. It was usually a hot dish or soup. The mothers took turns bringing these dishes.
My husband and I got our first Ford touring car in 1916. When it rained we had to buckle on side curtains.
When we were first married and moved to our farm east of Hannaford we had three quarters of land and three cows.
Parent and Teacher Association and school programs were the important social functions at school. Afterwards they would play games for entertainment. Activities that kept the children busy at home were games like tag, pump, pump pull away, jump rope, croquet and ball games. our children had chores to do before and after school like milking cows, feeding chickens, hunting for eggs, carrying coal and wood for hard coal heater and kitchen range.
Threshing time was a big event. Sometimes there were as many as 24 men going along with the threshing rigs. We did not have refrigerators at that time so we kept milk, cream, butter, etc., cool by putting them in a creamer (pail) and hanging them in the wells. We pumped water by hand for our stock until later years when we purchased a gasoline engine to pump the water.
We washed clothes by scrubbing them on a washboard and later got a wooden washing machine that we worked by hand. We also churned our own butter and put it in crocks and sold some, in addition to cream and eggs, to the local store at Hannaford, North Dakota. When we butchered our animals for meat supply we cut it in chunks, packed it in jars, and processed it in our range ovens. We also had large gardens and did much vegetable canning. In the fall we canned fruits. In the winter when we butchered, we froze the meat and cut and sawed off as much as we needed.
My husband enjoyed spirited horses as he had broken broncos in his early life, so we had several runaways with machinery and hay wagons.
For ironing our clothes we set sad irons on the range to heat them and later we got a kerosene range to heat them. We had to be careful as sometimes soot would cling to the irons, and that would have to be wiped off so as not to get that on our clothes.
We had no electricity for many years. We used kerosene lamps that had chimneys (glass) that had to be cleaned every day. Later we had Aladdin lamps and gas lanterns for night work and lighting our homes.
Source: Hannaford Area History North Dakota Centennial 1889 - 1989 Page 165