Sierra
County
Biographies
CLARENCE W. JOHNSON
Clarence
W. Johnson, proprietor of the Hotel Loyalton, at Loyalton, Sierra County, has had many years of practical
experience in the hotel business and has met with well merited success, as the
result of his persistent and intelligent efforts to make his hostelry a real
home for his guests. He was born in
Black Earth, Wisconsin, March 24, 1879, a son of Andrew and Katherine, or
Katie, (Patterson) Johnson. The father
was born at Black Earth, of which locality his father was a pioneer
farmer. The mother, who was born near
Durand, Winnebago County, Illinois, was orphaned during the Civil War. Her father, a member of Company H, One
Hundred and Seventy-fourth Regiment Illinois Volunteer Infantry, which was a
part of the Army of the Tennessee, was killed in battle, and his widow died
soon after learning of the death of her soldier husband. They left four children: Sene, who became
the wife of Alfred Crowder, a farmer at Durand, Illinois; Katherine, Olaf; and
James M. All were reared to maturity in
the home of their uncle, Niles Patterson, near Durand, Illinois. A half brother, Charles Patterson, is a
substantial farmer at Emmetsburg, Iowa.
Mrs. Katherine Johnson died at the age of twenty-eight years and was buried
at Black Earth, Wisconsin. She left four
children: Albert J., who is a merchant
and banker at Graettinger, Palo Alta County, Iowa, and is married and has a
daughter; Clarence; Saphus Alvin, of Jasper, Alberta,
Canada, who is a locomotive engineer on the Canadian National Railroad and is
married and has two children; and Evelyn, the wife of J. T. Conley, proprietor
of Conley’s café at Janesville, Wisconsin, and they have two children. For his second wife Andrew Johnson married
Miss Lena Kroken of Stoughton, Wisconsin, and to them
were born three children: Morris and Arthur, who are carpenters and
builders at Stoughton; and Katherine, who was married August 2, 1930, to City
Attorney Palmer E. Henderson, of Stoughton.
The first child born to this second union was Carl Julian, who died at
Stoughton in 1916, at the age of twenty-eight years. Andrew Johnson became deputy sheriff of Dane
County, Wisconsin. He was superintendent
of construction for the Moline Plow Company at Stoughton, where his death occurred
in 1921.
Clarence
Johnson received his education in the public schools of Stoughton and at an
early age started out to make his own way in the world. He went to Iowa and from there in 1901 to
North Dakota. Locating at Jamestown, he
was employed at railroad work until 1911, when he came to California, settling
at Sparta, Yolo County. He became
interested in the hotel business at Brookdale Lodge,
in the Santa Cruz Mountains. In 1921 he
and his wife came to Loyalton and took over the
management of the Sierra Hotel, which they conducted until it was destroyed by
fire in July, 1923. They then went to
Richmond, California, where they leased the Hotel Veale, which they conducted
until 1929, when the Hotel Loyalton was completed,
and they became its first lessees and have made it the leading hotel in eastern
California. It is the largest and most
modern hotel in Sierra County, with its excellent cuisine, its reasonable rates
and its obliging employees. It is the
only hotel in the county equipped with showers and baths, and it is the official
headquarters of the American Automobile Association. A modern coffee shop is
conducted in connection with the hotel.
In 1911, in Oakland, California, Mr.
Johnson was married to Miss Caroline Louise Dimmen,
who was born at Aalesund, on the west coast of
Norway, and came to the United States in young girlhood. She is a true helpmate to her husband and has
won a large circle of friends in Loyalton. Politically Mr. Johnson is a Republican and
is now filling the office of city treasurer.
He is a member of Loyalton Lodge, No. 359, F.
& A. M. He and his wife were reared
in the faith of the Lutheran Church and are now contributing members of the
Community Church in Loyalton. Mr. Johnson is a man of sterling character,
marked business ability and progressive ideas and during his residence here has
won a high place in public esteem.
Transcribed by
Gerald Iaquinta.
Source:
Wooldridge, J.W.Major History of Sacramento Valley
California, Vol. 3 Pages 150-152. Pioneer Historical
Publishing Co. Chicago 1931.
© 2010 Gerald Iaquinta.
Golden Nugget Library's Sierra County Biographies