Andrew Johnson Biography


	This biography appears on pages 305-306 in "History of Dakota 
	Territory" by George W. Kingsbury, Vol. V (1915) and was 
	scanned, OCRed and edited by Maurice Krueger, mkrueger@iw.net.

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				ANDREW JOHNSON. 

	Andrew Johnson, who passed away in Hartford township, Minnehaha 
county, on the 7th of September, 1913, was an honored pioneer 
agriculturist of South Dakota who successfully followed farming here 
for a third of a century, owning three quarter sections of value able 
land. His birth occurred in Sweden on the 1st of September, 1846, his 
parents being Gens and Inga Polson, both of whom are deceased. The 
father was a farmer by occupation. 

	Andrew Johnson obtained his education in the common schools of 
his native land and after putting aside his textbooks assisted his 
father in the work of the home farm. In 1870 when a young man of 
twenty-four years, he crossed the Atlantic to the United States, 
locating in Wisconsin, where he was employed as a farm hand for nine 
years. On the expiration of that period, in 1879, he came to Minnehaha 
county, South Dakota, homesteading a quarter section of land in 
Hartford township and also taking up a timber claim of eighty acres 
which he later sold. He improved his property in excellent manner, 
erecting all the buildings, and conducted agricultural interests 
successfully throughout the remainder of his life. At the time of his 
demise he owned three quarter sections of land which are now being 
cultivated by his sons, Melvin and Rudolph, who, like their father 
before them, employ the latest improved machinery to facilitate the 
work of the fields. They also devote considerable attention to live 
stock, feeding seventy head of cattle and one hundred head of hogs. 

	On the 19th of December, 1882, Mr. Johnson was united in marriage 
to Miss Neta Person, a daughter of Per and Anna Bengstson, both of whom 
are deceased. Mr. and Mrs. Johnson became the parents of the following 
children: Ida, who gave her hand in marriage to J. L. Johnson; Bessie 
Pauline, who is the wife of Albert Johnson; Anna Nathalia, who wedded 
Ned Hanson; and Ebba Alfreda, Carl Melvin and Ernest Rudolph, all at 
home. 

	Mr. Johnson was a republican in politics and a Lutheran in 
religious faith. He was a stockholder in the Farmers Lumber Company of 
Crooks and enjoyed enviable recognition among the substantial and 
representative citizens of the community which had known him from 
pioneer times. He experienced all of the hardships and privations which 
confronted the early settlers who established homes in this state when 
it was still largely a wild and undeveloped region. His death occurred 
on the 7th of September, 1913, when he had attained the age of sixty-
seven years, and his remains were interred in the Benton cemetery. His 
life had been upright and honorable in its varied relations and his 
demise was the occasion of deep regret to his many friends.