Sacramento County
Biographies
C. A. JOHNSON
C.
A. JOHNSON.--A successful and enterprising rancher, who has been a resident
of California since 1885, is C. A. Johnson, who was born
in Trondhjems Stift, Norway,
where he was reared on his father’s farm and received his education in the
excellent schools for which Norway
is noted. When eighteen years of age he
decided to come to America; so in 1883
we find him in Kandiyohi County, Minn. After remaining in that state for two years,
he came to California, in 1885, locating in Sacramento
County. Soon after, with his brother Andrew, he
engaged in grain-raising, farming about 3,000 acres of the Haggin ranch from
1888 till 1912, operating this one place all these years and meeting with good
success. They had purchased a ranch near
Franklin, where his brother Andrew resided; and in 1913
they purchased the old Altucker ranch of 1,007 acres on the Cosumnes
River, to which place he moved and
which he has since made his home. Aside from raising grain, he is growing alfalfa, having installed
a pumping-plant for irrigation. In
operating his place he uses both teams and tractors for motive power. He has a well-equipped dairy of seventy
excellent Holstein milch-cows.
In
1899, Mr. Johnson made a trip back to his old home; and in Trondhjem, on March
28, of that year, he was united in marriage with Miss
Charlotte Spechmann, who was a native of Trondhjem, a daughter of Valdmar
and Nicholena Spechmann. Her father was a business man in his
locality. He passed away when Charlotte
was a small child. When five years of
age she came with her mother to Brooklyn, N. Y., and later they lived in New
York City; and she attended school in both of these
places. In 1878 they returned to Trondhjem, where she completed her education.
After
his marriage, Mr. Johnson brought his bride to Sacramento
County and resumed his farming
operations, in which he has been very successful. Mr. and Mrs. Johnson are liberal and
kind-hearted and have a pleasing personality, their generous hospitality being
much appreciated by their numerous friends, who esteem them very highly for
their many virtues and worthy attributes of mind and heart. Mrs. Johnson is a member of Bethel
Lutheran Church,
in North Sacramento.
Transcribed by Barbara Gaffney.
Source: Reed, G. Walter, History of Sacramento County, California With Biographical Sketches,
Pages 415-416. Historic Record Company,
Los Angeles, CA. 1923.
© 2007 Barbara Gaffney.