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 EDDIE A. JOHNSON. � An enterprising, progressive native son, wide- awake to every opportunity for advancement in business, and equally am- bitious for the righteousness of the community, Eddie A. Johnson enjoyed a pleasant and enviable popularity. He was born in the middle eighties, a son of Eric Johnson, who was born at Carlskoga, Vermlan, on December 6, 1846. When only seventeen, Eric Johnson came to the United States and prepared to settle in Illinois: but unable to resist the call of the Union, he enlisted in the Civil War as a member of an Illinois regiment, and served until the close of the struggle, when he received an honorable discharge. For six or seven years he continued to farm in Illinois, near Chicago, and then returned for a visit to Sweden. The stay in his native land lasted a couple of years, and at its conclusion he returned to Chicago. When California was being boomed in the East, incidental to the Philadelphia Centennial, he came West to San Francisco and hired out as a conductor on the old cable street-railway. Tiring at length of this occupation, and having saved a snug sum from his wages, five years later he looked about for the best opportunity of getting "back to the land." He came to Fresno County to buy land and settle ; and after securing forty acres in the Scandinavian Colony, he set to work to improve the same. Later he sold his holding and bought the present Johnson place, taking possession in 1883. He began with twenty acres, and a year later added twenty more ; and he set out all the tract as a vineyard, placing there muscat and Malaga vines. He also built himself a residence and the customary outbuildings, and set out a variety of choice trees. On September 26, 1885 he was married at Fresno to Miss Kate Peterson, a daughter of Sweden who was born near Carlstad, Vermlan. In 1882 she came to California and soon after, at Fresno, met Mr. Johnson. Four children blessed their union. The eldest is Eddie, the subject of our sketch: Paul and Hulda are on the home farm; while David died at the age of twelve. The demise of Eric Johnson occurred on May 7, 1915. at which time the Swedish Mission Church of Fresno, of which he was both a member and an organizer, lost one of its most faithful supporters, he having continued a trustee or deacon until his death. Mr. Johnson was for some time a mem- ber of the G. A. R., and in politics was a Republican. After her husband's death, Mrs. Johnson, aided by her children, con- tinued to manage the ranch of forty acres, to which they added twenty, making a very valuable tract of sixty acres, six miles north of Fresno. They have also improved and now own forty acres of the Colonial Helm tract. Mrs. Johnson and the family attend the Swedish Mission Church at Fresno. They have many friends, and the home is a center of hospitality. Eddie Johnson was born in the old home on September 13, 1886, attended the public grammar schools of his district, and finally graduated from the Chestnutwood Business College. He enjoyed the advantages of every lad who has the good fortune to grow up in Central California, and from his boyhood was acquainted with the important details of vineyarding. In 1910 he located on the place, which his father had bought without any im- provements. He bought twenty acres of the estate, built himself a fine residence, and set and reset his vineyard, planting sultanas, Thompsons and wine grapes, and making a model vineyard ; and he also leased his sister's place of twenty acres. Interested in the larger field of viticulture, he associ- ated himself with the California Associated Raisin Company, of which he was the local correspondent. During a visit at Berkeley, Mr. Johnson was married to Miss Pauline Boquist, a native daughter of San Francisco, and now the mother of his three children � Eddie Leroy, Robert Adolph and a baby. Mrs. Johnson's father, Sven Boquist, was a native of Sweden, who came to California and here married Hilda Sophia Nordstrom. She was born in Helsingborg, Skam, Sweden, and came to Chicago and later to San Francisco, where she died, aged twenty-seven years, in 1888. Pauline was the only child, and after her mother's death she was reared by her aunt, Carrie Nordstrom, and was educated in the grammar and high schools. She learned the mil- liner's trade in San Francisco, which she followed there until her marriage. In religious work, Mr. Johnson's influence was widely felt as a deacon of the Swedish Mission Church in Fresno, while in politics he maintained an independent, public-spirited attitude toward the questions of the day, refusing to be bound by any party platform. He died December 19, 1918, a victim of influenza.