Carl A. Johnson Biography


	This biography appears on pages 1011-1012 in "History of Dakota 
	Territory" by George W. Kingsbury, Vol. IV (1915) and 
	was scanned, OCRed and edited by Maurice Krueger, mkrueger@iw.net.

	This file may be freely copied by individuals and non-profit 
	organizations for their private use. 

	Any other use, including publication, storage in a retrieval 
	system, or transmission by electronic, mechanical, or other 
	means requires the written approval of the file's author.

	This file is part of the SDGENWEB Archives. If you arrived here inside
	a frame or from a link from somewhere else, our front door is at

	http://usgwarchives.org/sd/sdfiles.htm


				HON. CARL A. JOHNSON. 

	Hon. Carl A. Johnson was born in Dane county, Wisconsin, on the 
14th of May, 1857, and is a son of Arne and Guro (Marcuson) Johnson, 
both of whom were natives of Norway. Following their marriage they came 
to the United States, arriving in 1856, at which time they took up 
their abode in Dane county, Wisconsin, where the father followed the 
carpenter's trade, which he had previously learned in his native land. 
In 1864 he removed to Mower county, Minnesota, and in the fall of 1881 
he came to Brookings county, South Dakota, settling on a farm which he 
cultivated for a number of years. During the last ten or twelve years 
of his life, however, he made his home with his son Carl, passing away 
in 1908. His widow survives and now resides with her son Samuel in 
Brookings. She is a remarkably well preserved woman although now in her 
ninety-first year. 

	Carl A. Johnson was a lad of but five years when in 1862 he was 
taken to Mower county, Minnesota, by his grandparents and an uncle, 
with whom he remained for eight years, after which he returned to his 
parents, home. His educational opportunities were those afforded by the 
public schools. When nineteen years of age he began his business career 
as a clerk in a grocery store at Austin, Minnesota, where he was 
employed for two years. He then went to work on the farm and in the 
spring of 1880 came to Brookings county, South Dakota, where he took up 
a homestead covering the northwest quarter of section 2, Oak Lake 
township. He resided thereon for four and a half years and then removed 
to White, Brookings county, where he engaged in clerking in a store for 
four and a half years. In the spring of 1889 he came to the city of 
Brookings, where he was employed as a clerk for two years. He next 
engaged in the furniture business in company with O. G. Oyloe for two 
years and after that time, as a partner of A. M. Wold, was engaged in 
the contracting business until 1913. 

	In the meantime Mr. Johnson was called to public office, having 
in November, 1898, been elected register of deeds of Brookings county, 
in which capacity he served for two terms or four years. After his 
retirement from that office he occupied the position of assistant 
cashier in the Farmers National Bank for three years and in 1910 he and 
his son Alvin engaged in the automobile business, securing the agency 
of the Buick car. In 1914 they built one of the largest garages in the 
eastern part of the state and are conducting an extensive and 
successful business as dealers in automobiles and supplies. Once more 
Mr. Johnson served in an official capacity, being elected mayor of 
Brookings in the spring Or 1913 and giving the city a businesslike 
administration, guiding municipal affairs and shaping municipal 
progress by his endorsement of all those measures which are a matter of 
civic virtue and civic pride. 

	In 1878 Mr. Johnson was united in marriage to Miss Anna Olson, of 
Austin, Minnesota, by whom he had seven children, five of whom are 
still living, as follows: Gina, who is the wife of Dr. George Keeland, 
of Madison, Wisconsin; Clara, at home; Alvin, who is associated with 
his father in the automobile business; Alma, a pupil in St. Olaf 
College at Northfield, Minnesota; and Mabel, who is attending the same 
institution. 

	Mr. Johnson has membership with the Ancient Order of United 
Workmen and in the Brookings Commercial Club and he stands for all that 
preserves the best interests of the city, its growth and improvement, 
exercising his official prerogatives in that connection and standing 
equally loyal in support of public interests when occupying no office.