Will County IL Archives Biographies.....JOHNSON, CHARLES 
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Paula Winke-Martisek wranglerjack@comcast.net September 19, 2007, 11:33 pm

Author: GENEALOGICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD

CHARLES P. JOHNSON has been engaged in the building business in Joliet since 
November, 1888.  Among the many residences for which he has been given the 
contracts are those owned by Messrs. Henry Sehring, Goldberg, Bremmond, Elmer 
Henry and Henry Shreffler.  Besides the residence which he occupies, on the 
corner of Maple and Strong avenues, he has built other houses for himself, 
including four on Meeker avenue, one on Sheridan street, two on Chase avenue, 
one on Harris avenue and two on Maple avenue, a number of which he has sold.  
He is a member of the Joliet Builders' Association.  Among the Swedish-
American citizens of Joliet he holds a prominent place.  He is connected with 
the Swedish Temperance Union, and has served on the board of trustees and 
deacons of the Swedish Lutheran Church, also was a member of the building 
committee at the time of the erection of the Swedish Orphans' Home.  The 
Northwestern Mutual Life Association and the Modern Woodmen of America number 
him among their members.  In politics a Republican, he is a member of the 
Republican Club and has served on the county central committee of the party.  
In Tornea, Skane, Sweden, Mr. Johnson was born June 5, 1858, a son of John and 
Benta Johnson. His, father, who was a son of Lewis Johnson, a farmer, learned 
the carpenter's trade, which he followed, in addition to wagon-making and 
contracting, and he was considered an expert mechanic in wood.  He died at 
forty-two years of age and his wife when thirty-eight.  They were the parents 
of one son and six daughters, of whom four are living, all but one being in 
America. When fourteen years of age our subject was apprenticed to the 
carpenter's trade under an uncle, a builder and farmer, with whom he remained 
for three years.  Later he was employed as a journeyman.  He served for two 
years in the Twenty-fifth Army Corps, Swedish Infantry. Via the steamer ''City 
of Paris'' Mr. Johnson came from Liverpool to New York in 1881 and arrived in 
Joliet in April of that year.  For a year he worked for William Davidson of 
this city.  In 1882 he went to Davenport, Iowa, and during one winter attended 
the city schools, the next winter being a student in the night schools.  He 
worked on a farm in Rock Island County, Ill., then became a sawyer and 
millwright in a sawmill in Davenport.  July, 1882, found him harvesting in 
Minnesota.  In the fall of the same year he secured employment on the 
Burlington, Cedar Rapids & Northern Railroad.  Next, returning to Davenport, 
he resumed work in the mill, where he remained steadily for some time, with 
the exception of a few months spent in putting up a mill in Cloquet, Carlton 
County, Minn.  In 1885 he began contracting and building in Davenport.  He 
continued there until the spring of 1888, when he went to Wausau, Wis.  In the 
fall of the same year he came to Joliet, where he has since resided. While in 
Davenport he married Miss Karen Swanson, who was born in Skane, Sweden. Of the 
eight children born to their union six are living, namely: Josephine, Elfie, 
Hedwig, Tissing, Victor and Charles N. 

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