Fresno County, California Biographies

Source: History of Fresno County, California, with biographical sketches of 
the leading men and women of the county who have been identified with 
its growth and development from the early days to the present (1919)

History By Paul E. Vandor 
Illustrated, Complete In Two Volumes 
Historic Record Company, Los Angeles, California, 1919
 
Notes: Missing+page1185-1186

Transcribed by Peggy Hooper

This file is part of the California Genealogy & History Archives 
http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~cagha/index.htm


MRS. CHRISTINA JOHNSON.� A most excellent woman, with two 
equally estimable daughters, and one who is the center of special interest as 
the worthy representative of the late Anton John Johnson, her husband, 
and who suffered many privations in Fresno's early pioneer days, is Mrs. 
Christina Johnson, herself the well-known rancher of the Riverside Colony, 
five miles east of Reedley. When Mr. Johnson came to the Riverside Colony, 
four miles south of Parlier, thirty years ago, he was the owner of fifty acres 
there ; for he had been here before, and had come to know the value and the 
prospects of the growing country. He was born in Oeland. Sweden, on 
February 17, 1852, the son of Johan Jacobson, also a native of Oeland, who 
was both a fisherman and farmer; and there Anton grew up, went to school, 
and attended the Swedish Lutheran Church. At fifteen he took to the sea, 
and for several years he cruised as a sailor before the mast. Reaching San 
Francisco on such a sailing voyage, he stopped off and, for a couple of years 
worked on the oyster beds ; and little by little he acquired both English and a 
knowledge of the interior of the country. 

He had a brother named William, who was a farmer at Fresno, and to 
him Anton repaired and began to work at farming also. He had previously, 
however, returned to Sweden for a visit and there renewed acquaintance with 
the lady who was to become his life helpmate, namely, Christina Sabelstrom, 
who was also born at Oeland, and so had the same background of experience. 
They had really been schoolmates together, and during this visit became 
engaged. Mr. Johnson returned to his farm at Traver in the fall of 1877, 
and ten years later Miss Sabelstrom, in company with her brother. Otto, 
sailed from Stockholm for America. She traveled via Calmar and Hamburg 
to New York, and on June 24, 1888, she arrived at Fresno, and in the fall 
of that year was married. 

Mr. and Mrs. Johnson at once took up their residence on the farm at 
Traver, and there they stayed two years. The land proved to be alkali, 
however, and Mr. Johnson was glad to sell the entire place of twenty acres 
for fifty dollars. This would have discouraged many men, but Anton Johnson 
began all over again, and on Christmas Day, 1889, he came here and bought 
twenty acres of grain land ; and having improved the same, he planted it. 
Later, he bought ten acres more, and still later, another twenty acres of 
bare land, which he planted and improved in various ways. All in all, this 
property made a fine estate; and when he died, January 17, 1914, aged sixty- 
two years eleven months, the father of two children, he bequeathed the 
property to his widow. The children are : Anna, who is the wife of Clarence 
McCreary, who trained at Camp Lewis in the infantry service, spent seven 
months in France, went �'over the top" several times, returned to the United 
states and was discharged in May, 1919; and Freda, a graduate from the 
Ross Grammar School and also from Heald's Business College at Fresno. 
since Mr. Johnson's lamented death. Mrs. Johnson has sold off twenty acres, 
and is renting out the other thirty. She is a member of the California 
Associated Raisin Company, and the Peach Growers. Inc. 

Mrs Johnson and family are members of the Swedish Lutheran Church at 
Kingsburg, and are deeply interested in religious and social welfare work, 
and & in anything likely to advance their neighborhood. They are also in- 
terested in Red Cross and other war work. The United States is their home, 
Americans are their fellow citizens, and they know of but one kind of 
loyalty, that to the President and the Constitution.