BIOGRAPHIES:  Bennie JOHNSON, Cumberland, Barron Co., WI

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Submitted by:  Vic Gulickson <vic@indy.net>  24 February 2004
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Bennie Johnson, Cumberland, secretary of the Johnson-Ecklie Co., Inc.,
former county treasurer, former member of the county board, former
postmaster of Cumberland, and former alderman of Cumberland, was born in
Noway Sept. 14, 1864, son of John O. and Goro (Nelson) Stalsberg, who left
their farm in Norway in 1866, and located on railroad land near Baldwin,
St. Croix County, Wis., where they developed a fine farm, and where they
still live at the age of 91 years. In the family there were five sons and
one daughter, of whom there are living the five boys, Bennie, Nicholas,
Julius G., Oscar M. and Otto G., the latter of whom was born on his
mother's fiftieth birthday. He was reared on the home farm and attended
district school. At the age of thirteen he went to Baldwin, Wis., and
started clerking in a store, at the same time attending school for a while.
Since then he has devoted all his life to mercantile pursuits. He came to
Cumberland Dec. 6, 1881, and entered the employ of O. A. Ritan in his
general mercantile store. In 1884 he was appointed assistant postmaster.
Later he entered the Ritan store once more, and there remained until 1896
when he took a course in the La Crosse Business College, at La Crosse, Wis.
When he came back to Cumberland he became a clerk in the "company store,"
so-called, of the Beaver Dam Lumber Co. During the years of his employment
here his popularity increased, and on July 1, 1898, he was appointed
postmaster, a position he filled with credit to himself and to the general
satisfaction of the public. He retired from office April 1, 1903. The next
month he was appointed county treasurer to fill a vacancy, and at the next
election was elected to a full term by the voters. Jan. 1, 1907, he
associated himself with Albert E. Johnson, Ole A. Ecklie, and Anton Ecklie,
in the Johnson-Ecklie Co., Inc., of which he is now secretary. The company
handles a general line of merchandise, such as dry goods, groceries,
clothing, shoes, and flour and feed, and also deals to some extent in farm
produce. Mr. Johnson is a good business man, he thoroughly understands
rural merchandizing from every angle, and he is a useful citizen in every
respect. His work on the county board, already mentioned, covered a period
of twelve years, and every act of his during that period of service was for
the public good. His work as alderman, to which position he was elected at
two different times, has also been of advantage to his fellow citizens. In
social life he is a popular member of the Scandinavian-American Fraternity.
Mr. Johnson was married Sept. 14, 1889, at Baldwin, Wis., to Hannah J.
Nesgaard, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Jacob K. Nesgaard. The mother died in
middle life, having borne ten children, of whom six grew to maturity. The
father and the second wife brought the children to America in the spring of
1881, and settled in Baldwin, Wis., where he lived until 1916, when he died
at the remarkable age of ninety-three years. Mr. and Mrs. Johnson have one
daughter, Bessie G., who was born Feb. 14, 1897, and is now connected with
the First National Bank at Minneapolis.

--Transcribed from: History of Barron Co., Wisconsin, H. C. Cooper,
Jr., & Co., 1922, pg. 293.


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