BIOGRAPHIES

ANDREW JOHNSON

ANDREW JOHNSON, one of the progressive and successful farmers and stockgrowers of Sweet Grass county, is a native son of the Norseland, having been born in Norway on March 19, 1863, the son of Ole and Carrie (Eggen) Johnson, both of whom passed their entire lives in the land of their nativity, where the father was a farmer by occupation.  They became the parents of six sons and six daughters.  Andrew Johnson, our subject, grew up on his father's farm and assisted in its cultivation, enjoying such educational advantages as were afforded in the common schools of his native country.  Impressed with the superior advantages afforded in America he came to the United States in 1881, being at the time eighteen years of age.  He had the courage to do, and his success has been a natural result of application and unflagging industry.  He first located near Sioux Falls, S. D., where he devoted his attention to work on a farm for about eighteen months, when he removed to Wisconsin and worked a season in the lumbering camps.  Mr. Johnson became a resident of Montana in 1883, locating first in Butte, where he found employment for four years in one of the great smelters, after which he came to Melville, Sweet Grass county, and purchased a section of railroad land from the Northern Pacific Company, located about five miles from the village and engaged in farming and stockraising.  He has made a specialty of shorthorn cattle, and usually winters from 200 to 300 head.  He also devotes some attention to sheep growing, and his operations have been well directed and given him excellent returns.  Mr. Johnson has a particularly fortunate acquisition in a natural and never-failing spring of water in front of his house, which supplies effective irrigation for fully 300 acres of land on which he raises both grain and alfalfa.  He is one of the progressive and industrious ranchmen of the county, and is held in high esteem by reason of his sterling worth of character.

Source: Transcription from the book, Progressive Men of the State of Montana, author and publication date unknown, page 691, located on the website, Internet Archive (http://archive.org), accessed 15 June 2022.

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