BIO: Charles A. JOHNSON, Clearfield County, PA Contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by Judy Banja & Sally Copyright 2005. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/pa/clearfield/ NOTE: Use this web address to access other bios: http://www.usgwarchives.net/pa/clearfield/1picts/swoope/swoope.htm _____________________________________________________________ From Twentieth Century History of Clearfield County, Pennsylvania, and Representative Citizens, by Roland D. Swoope, Jr., Chicago: Richmond-Arnold Publishing Company, 1911, pages 847 & 848. _____________________________________________________________ CHARLES A. JOHNSON, a progressive and prosperous citizen of Grass Flat, Clearfield County, Pa., where he is proprietor of a general store, was born near the city of Warberg, Sweden, in the county of Halland, March 28, 1866, and is a son of Johnson Neilson and Johanna (Anderson) Neilson, the family names not being inherited from father to son according to the custom in America. Johnson Neilson and wife were natives of Sweden and the father was a farmer. He died in 1889 at the age of sixty-six years and the mother in 1879, at the age of forty-four years. They had six children: Albertina, now deceased; Josephine, who married M. Anton, of Halland, Sweden; Johan Emanuel, who lives on the old home place; Albertina, who married Johan Swan and lives in Sweden; Augusta Louise, who lives in New Jersey; and Charles A. Charles A. Johnson was educated in his native land which he left in 1885 and came to the United States. From New York City he went to Chicago, Ill., where he worked from April 1 to September 10, 1886. He then came to Grass Flat, Clearfield County, Pa., and worked here in the coal mines until 1907, when he gave up mining. For the next three years he was engaged in teaming and in the summer of 1902, he conducted an ice cream parlor. Mr. Johnson proved to be an excellent business man and although he has been dependent entirely upon his own efforts since coming to America, he has accumulated property, has successfully carried out a number of undertakings and has established himself as a reliable, dependable business man and good citizen, having been naturalized at Clearfield. In April, 1910, he purchased the general mercantile business of John G. Anderson, at Grass Flat and has made it a commercial success. He revisited Sweden in 1901. On December 24, 1888, Mr. Johnson was married to Miss Julia Anderson, who was born in Sweden, June 5, 1872, a daughter of Andrew K. Anderson, and was ten years old when her parents came to America. Mr. and Mrs. Johnson have six children, namely: George, who was born April 23, 1891, and died July 18, 1891; Carl Berger, who was born August 2, 1897; Ernest Herbert, who was born June 12, 1900; John Arthur, who was born July 20, 1902; Reinhold Gerhard, who was born November 22, 1905, and died July 1, 1907; and Henry Reinhard, who was born November 30, 1908. Mr. Johnson and wife are members of the Swedish Lutheran church. In politics he is a Republican. The mother of Mrs. Johnson died in 1909, but the father is living at Jersey City, N. J., aged sixty-two years. He came to America in 1882 and located first at McIntire, Lycoming County, Pa., and moved from there to Peale, Clearfield County, and subsequently to New Jersey.