William Johnson

WILLIAM JOHNSON, sev­enth in the line of chil­dren of Swan and Kjer­stin John­son, was born in Chica­go, Illi­nois, on Jan­u­ary 30, 1870. He fol­lowed the fam­i­ly first to Bement, Illi­nois, then to Genoa, Nebras­ka. He grew up on the farm one and one-half miles west of Genoa.

After his father’s death he man­aged the farm until about the age of 26, at which time the fam­i­ly moved into Genoa where he asso­ci­at­ed with his broth­ers Peter and Eric who were already estab­lished in the mer­can­tile busi­ness. He enlist­ed with the First Nebras­ka Vol­un­teers for the Span­ish Amer­i­can War June 20, 1898.

He served in the Philip­pines. Har­ry Coil, Lue Gable, and John Gard­ner were oth­er Genoa boys who went in the same reg­i­ment, while his broth­er, Vic­tor, went as Lieu­tenant to W. J. Bryan to Cuba. Will was dis­charged March 15, 1899, his ser­vices no 1onger being required, and he returned to Genoa and again entered the John­son Broth­ers gen­er­al store.

Will mar­ried Lot­tle L. Smith on Novem­ber 29, 1900. They left Genoa Sep­tem­ber 3, 1907, for Port­land, Ore­gon, and moved to Eugene in May 1908. In 1910 he asso­ci­at­ed with E. L. Dorr in the fur­ni­ture busi­ness, bought Dor­r’s inter­est in 1920, con­tin­u­ing to oper­ate in the same loca­tion.

Four chil­dren were born to Will and Lot­tie John­son: Cecile Lucille, Vic­tor Edwin, William W. and Dorothy Louise.

Cecile Lucile was born Octo­ber 17, 1901, at Genoa, Nebras­ka, and mar­ried Stan­ley P. Sum­mers on August 22, 1925. They now live at Eugene, Ore­gon. Three chil­dren were born to this union — Lar­cia Louis on July 20, 1927; Mary Joanne on Novem­ber, 10, 1928, and Stan­ley Robert, Jr. on June 1, 1931.

Vic­tor Edwin was born Decem­ber 23, 1903, at Genoa, Nebras­ka, and mar­ried Nel­lie Fen­nell on Feb­ru­ary 28, 1936. He became asso­ci­at­ed with his par­ents in the fur­ni­ture busi­ness at Eugene, Oregcn. At a lat­er date Edwin became May­or of Eugene and has been inter­est­ed in pol­i­tics.

William W. was born Decem­ber 10, 1907 in Port­land, Ore­gon, and died Octo­ber 12, 1908, at Eugene. Dorothy Louise was born June 7, 1913, in Eugene, and died July 5, 1926. She was a very lov­able girl.

The fol­low­ing obit­u­ary appeared in one of the Eugene news­pa­pers:

“WILLIAM JOHNSON RITES WILL BE HELD MONDAY

“William John­son, 1763 Olive Street, died in Eugene Sat­ur­day, August 22, at the age of 72. He as born Jan­u­ary 30, 1870, in Chica­go, Illi­nois. He maried Lot­tie

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Luel­la Smith in Genoa, Nebras­ka, Novem­ber 29, 1900. He came to Port­land from Nebras­ka in 1907, then to Eugene in 1908.

“Funer­al ser­vices will be held at 10:30 A.M. Mon­day at the Branstet­ter-Simon chapel, with Dr. B. Ear­le Park­er offi­ci­at­ing. Inter­ment will be in Rest Haven ceme­tery.

“In 1910, he became asso­ci­at­ed with E. L. Dorr in the fur­ni­ture busi­ness. From 1914 to 1920, he oper­at­ed the Creswell branch of the firm.

“In 1921, he pur­chased Mr. Dor­r’s inter­est, and had since been man­ag­ing-own­er of the John­son Fur­ni­ture Com­pa­ny of Eugene.

“He was a mem­ber of the Methodist Epis­co­pal church board of trustees, as well as the offi­cial board. He was a char­ter mem­ber of the McKen­zie Riv­er lodge A.F.& A.M. and a Nebras­ka vol­un­teer in the Span­ish-Amer­i­can war.

“He was also a mem­ber of the board of direc­tors of the Retail Fur­ni­ture Asso­ci­a­tion here.

“Sur­vivors are one daugh­ter, Mrs. Cecile John­son Sum­mers, and a son, V. Edwin John­son of Eugene; six grand­chil­dren; two sis­ters, Mrs. Ellen Fol­lis of Los Ange­les, and Mrs. Frank Bal­cer, Seat­tle; a broth­er, Nels John­son of Wyoming.”