I was born May 19, 1893, at 91 West 5th North, Logan, Utah, the seventh
child and the second son of James
Christian and Mary
Hansen Johnson. They had both come to Utah from Denmark. My father
came to Logan in July of 1875 and mother came in 1869. I was born in the
house that my son, Reed, and his family now lives in. My father owned
land and operated a small farm where I was born. My Father had been a
railroad contractor, building the railroad grade in Idaho and Montana,
but had quite it and moved back to Logan to be with his family before
I was born.
The 20 acre farm where I was born and grew up, was also
the home where my nine brothers and sisters were born and raised.
At the present time (1964) there is a large L.D.S. Church where Father's
barn once was and there are seven business places and some twenty
or thirty new homes. We always had cows to milk and horses on the
farm. I soon learned to ride a horse and I have liked to ride horses
all my life.
My first remembrance of my father was one day when he
was sorting potatoes out in the potato pit and Mother let me out to
be with him. I had been stung on the eye lid by a bee and my eye was
swollen shut. I do not remember how or when I was stung by that bee,
but I do remember that my Father asked whose boy I was. When I told
him I was Oliver, he said he didn't think it was because Oliver could
see with both eyes. My mother was sick when I was born so it was up
to my oldest sister, Hilda,
to tend me until I could do a little for myself. She was twelve years
old when I was born.
I finally grew up enough so I could do a few things
around the farm like feeding the chickens and the calves and pigs.
My mother kept my hair in long ringlets until I was five years old,
but one day she cut them off and I was a boy.
When I was six years old, I started school at the Benson
School which was on the corner of 4th North and 1st East Streets. I
remember my sister Mable,
who was two years older than me taking me to the teacher for the first
time. This school had eight class rooms, four upstairs and four downstairs.
I attended all of them in the next eight years. This is the same school
where my sons, Nyman, Jim and Reed, and my daughter, Beth, took the
first six grades.
A few of the boys and girls that I can remember (55
years later) of that first school class are: Joseph Keller, Herbert
Kallstrom, Alonso Lindquist, Ernest Ruchti, Easter Ludberg, Lillie
Hanson, Rebecca Jacobson, Carrie Jenson, Ina Barrett, Edward Barrett,
Harvey Larson.
My father went back to his native land, Denmark, on a
mission for the L.D.S. church in 1902,
leaving eight children home with their Mother. My brother, James,
was 14 years old and I was 8. We took care of the farm, we milked the
cows, put the hay in the barn, and did all the irrigating.
I went to the 4th Ward Primary and Sunday School and
Religion Class. They do not have Religion Class any more. I gave prayer
at the exercises when I graduated from Primary in 1905. I went to
church in the 4th Ward. Thomas X. Smith was Bishop with Thomas Morgon
and Gustave Thompson counselors. Nora Eliason was President of the
Primary. E. W. Robinson was superintendent of the Sunday School. They
were the days when everybody walked to church, the good old days before
there were any autos.
I was ordained a Deacon on December 9, 1905, by Fred
Grunder Jr. We held our Priesthood meeting in the back room of the
meeting house. I helped with the chores such as feeding of the calves
and chickens and helped to keep the wood box full, for wood was all
we had to burn in those days.
I went to the Benson School until 1908 and then I went
to the old Woodruff School where I graduated at mid-year from the
8th grade, being one out of 11 boys and 1 girl. This was as far as
the public school went at that time. I registered at the Brigham Young
College(B.Y.C.) for the rest of the year. In the summer I worked on
the farm with my father, brothers and sisters. We all had to work
in the beet fields and milk cows. The next year I went to B.Y. C.
and in the summer I worked on the farm. I was ordained a Teacher by
Joseph Grew on December 28, 1908. I attended B.Y.C. in the winter
of 1909 and 1910, and also attended U.S.A.C.(Utah State Agricultural
College) in 1910.
In the spring of 1910, I went to Blue Creek for the first
time with my brother-in-law, Richard
Roskelley, and helped him clear 40 acres of sagebrush. He plowed
it with 4 head of horses on a sulky plow and I picked the sagebrush
up and piled it and burned it. I went from Blue Creek to Smithfield
with Samuel Roskelley and his wife, Maggie, and son, Martin, in a white
top buggy, I stayed with my sister, Hilda,
in Smithfield that night and the next morning I left for Blue Creek
with 4 head of horses for Samuel Roskelley. The three horses were tied
together and I rode the other with just an old quilt for a saddle. It
was the hardest horse back ride I have ever had in my life, about 60
miles. I worked for Samuel Roskelley for 11 days at $1.00 a day.
