Einer Johnson Biography


	This biography appears on pages 106-109 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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				EINER JOHNSON. 

	Einer Johnson, a bank cashier at Volin and recognized as a wide-
awake, alert and enterprising business man, has been a resident of 
Dakota territory since 1882, in which year he reached Yankton, having 
come direct from Norway. He was born near Trondhjem June 27, 1862. With 
five young companions and an older man who had been in America for 
several years he sailed from his native city for Hull, England, on a 
small vessel, and they proceeded by rail to Glasgow, where they arrived 
at two o'clock in the morning. They knew no hotel to which to go and a 
Scotchman offered to help them. He found a place for them in the slum 
part of the city and routed the old landlady out of her own bed, which 
was so large that the seven found room in it without severe crowding. 
They remained there several days, fearing to mix with the tough crowd 
outside. At length they sailed on the State of Nebraska, the largest 
ship on the State line, and were eleven days in reaching New York, from 
which point they made their way direct to Yankton, arriving on the 12th 
of June, 1882. The parents of our subject, who were Jonas and Oline 
Johnson, came to America four years later and settled in Yankton 
county, this state. 

	In a few days Einer Johnson found work as a carrier in the 
brickyard of E. M. Coates, who was making the brick with which to build 
his drug store. Mr. Johnson afterward worked on the Chicago, Milwaukee 
& St. Paul Railroad between Yankton and Scotland, finishing his labors 
by bolting all of the north line of rails between the two towns, while 
a friend bolted all of the plates of the other rail. He spent the 
following winter in farm work, for which he received only his board and 
the opportunity to attend school. There were five young men in the 
class and the now venerable teacher, B. A. E. Bagstad, took particular 
pains to help them in the mastery of a text-book written in their 
native tongue, the title of which, translated into our language, would 
be called "One Hundred Hours in English." Mr. Johnson afterward entered 
the employ of Louis Sampson, then in the implement business in Yankton, 
and still later was in the Gross Hardware establishment of that city, 
where he remained for twelve and a half years. During these years he 
made friends throughout all parts of the county and in the fall of 1900 
they elected him county treasurer, which office he filled creditably 
for four years. On his retirement he accepted the position of 
bookkeeper in the Yankton National Bank, in which he continued for a 
year, and was then offered the entire management of the Citizens State 
Bank in Irene with the official title of cashier. At the end of the 
first year the officials of the Volin State Bank offered him the 
position of cashier and manager of their establishment and he has since 
continued there, giving his entire attention to the control of the 
bank. 

	Mr. Johnson married Miss Helen Grandberg, a native of 
Christiania, Norway. She came with her mother, Mars. Carrie Grandberg, 
and the family of boys and girls to the new world, and they lived first 
at Parker, South Dakota, but later removed to Yankton, where she formed 
the acquaintance of Mr. Johnson, who sought her hand in marriage. They 
have become the parents of three children: Edna, who completed the work 
of the kindergarten department of the normal course in Yankton College 
and is now employed in the schools of Pierre; Clara, a graduate of the 
Volin high school of the class of 1915; and Richard, who completes the 
family. 

	Mr. Johnson well remembers the blizzard of January, 1888. He was 
working in a store and he weathered the storm for a distance of eight 
blocks which he traversed in order to take the team to the barn and 
care for them. He returned in safety, while others were lost in going a 
half block. That night there was to have been a banquet and 
entertainment by the ladies of the church at Turner hall and their 
provisions were all there. Mr. Johnson, with two or three others, 
remained up during the night, keeping the fires burning that the 
supplies might not freeze. In the early days the settlers had to resort 
to many expedients in order to meet the conditions that existed, and 
various ways were utilized to earn a living that would create surprise 
now. One of the expedients to which Mr. Johnson resorted in order to 
keep himself in funds was the gathering of cottonwood seedlings, which 
he sold at a dollar and a quarter per thousand to the stores, where 
they were as staple an article of trade as ammunition or flour. Such 
conditions have long since passed and South Dakota has taken her place 
among the great and growing commonwealths of the country, already 
enjoying a substantial measure of prosperity, while the promises for 
the future are bright. Mr. Johnson is well known not only as the 
enterprising cashier of the Bank of Volin, but in various relations is 
widely known throughout his part of the state and is a popular and 
highly esteemed citizen. He holds membership with the Lutheran church 
of Volin and he belongs to Dakota Lodge, No. 1, I. O. O. F.; the Elks 
Lodge No. 994; and the lodge of United Workmen, No. 101, all of 
Yankton, in which organizations he is popular, numbering his friends by 
the score.