From Shaddow of Mount Haggin
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From Shaddow of Mount Haggin
| david9861 (View posts) | Posted: 30 Jul 2000 12:00PM GMT |
Classification: Biography
Surnames: Johnson, Jergensen, McNay, Gibson, Rosander, Crosswhite, Massett, Fox, Brown, Parks, Lee, Pubols, Para, Buckely, Hagenson, Yelsa, Eggan, Hamry, Newton, Prescott, Absher, Cladouhos, Swanson, Davis, Menahan
From: IN THE SHADOW OF MOUNT HAGGIN - The Story of Anaconda and Deer Lodge County From 1863- 1976; A Bicentennial Year "Heritage" Project Collected and Compiled by Deer Lodge County History Group, 1975. Additions in [brackets] and notes by David Larson.
Pages 118 & 119 HERMAN J. JOHNSON FAMILY
This was written by Lena Caroline Jergenson. This is dated June 8, 1972.
Mr. and Mrs. Lars Jergenson came from Denmark on a sailing vessel in 1856. During a storm in the mid-ocean, approximately 48 children got sick and died, among them the young sons of Jergensons. These children were buried at sea [note 1 below]. They crossed the United States by covered wagon and finally settled near Warm Springs, Mont. However, they spent some time in Utah where Mary and Chris were born, and then to Iowa where Carolina (Lena) was born in 1868.
1. Mary Jergenson Crosswhite, husband Ben, both deceased. Ben was a land adjustor with the A.C.M. Co. He died in Anaconda, 1929, Winter. Mary died in Anaconda, Aug. 1937. [children:]
Belfield Crosswhite, deceased, was an ironworker. Born on Oct. 15, 1883, died in 1952, Calif.
Joe Crosswhite, wife Veronica McNay, was a union leader and heavy equipment operator in the
western states. They had three sons, Donald Terry and Larry. Larry is deceased.
Willis Crosswhite, wife, Rose Massett, is Traffic manager of St. Lawrence Seaways and hospital administrator at Warm Springs. They have two children, Jeanette and Angela Lee. Both reside in Anaconda.
2. Chris Jergenson, wife, Kate Fox, deceased, then remarried to Edna Brown, Pennsylvania, all are now deceased. Their daughter Mary Esther (Jergenson) Parks, born May 1899, died Sept. 1974, had one son Tom Jr. who worked for the Shell Oil Co. He is now deceased.
3. Carolina "Lena" (Jergenson) Johnson, deceased March 25, 1953. Lena was born in Crescent City, Iowa on April 4, 1868 and was married to Herman Johnson who was born May 5, 1857. He came to America in 1878 [note 2]. Since 1879, he engaged in ranching the Deer Lodge valley.
When coming to Montana, Mr. Johnson was a steamboat fireman on the famous Missouri river boats between Bismark, N.D., and Fort Benton. He often told of seeing buffalo herds crossing the river. Many buffalo were shot, stripped of their steaks and left by the river. Mr. Herman Johnson helped to construct the first telegraph line into Helena in 1878.
Upon his arrival in the Deer Lodge valley, he first worked on the Jorgenson ranch. Later, he purchased what is known as the Walker ranch near Race Track after his marriage to Lena Jergenson in Jan. 1885. There was six children born to them. Four are living.
For many years, Mr. Johnson worked, too, for the Anaconda Copper Mining Company. He helped build the first slum pond, east of Anaconda and later did digging work for the Company. He also dug many basements in the first new addition with a team of horses. Herman Johnson was born in Goteborg, Sweden, May 5, 1857 [note 3], and died in the Deer Lodge valley.
Mr. and Mrs. Herman Johnson are the parents of six children, four are living.
Leonora Johnson Lee, husband Ed, reside in Carlmont Dr., Belmont Calif. They had two children, Norman who is married to Myrl. Their children are Carol Lee, teacher, Norman Lee Jr., student. Neona Lee Pubols, husband Dan, also of Belmont California, have three children: Barbara, student, Dan Jr., student, Maryls, student.
Hennes N. Johnson, wife Neota Para, reside in Butte. Hennes worked with Sheridan and Finlen Construction Co. They have four children:
Catherine Johnson Buckley, husband "Packy" Buckley. They have four children, Judy student, Jay
housewife, Kathy, student and Margie also a student.
Harold Johnson, died in World War II, Germany.
Nettie Mae Johnson Hagenson, husband Martin, reside in Butte.
Maurine Johnson Yelsa, husband Bill, live in Opportunity, Mont. They have two children, Linda Hamry Eggan and Mary Budette Hamry Newton.
Manila Johnson Prescott, deceased, husband Urban Prescott, resides in LaPuente, Calif. They have a son and daughter. Nadine Prescott Absher, nurse, resides in Baja, Mexico. William Prescott, son, resides in Brightwaters, New York.
Herbert Johnson, deceased, wife, Bot or Clara. They have one son, Donald H. Johnson, wife Diane, who reside in Missoula.
Raymond Johnson, wife, Sadie, are farming on the original ranch next to where grandmother came by covered wagon. They had four children: Raymond H., Robert, Tova Rae (Johnson) Cladouhos [husband Joe, see note 4], and Ronald.
Erma Dolores Swanson, husband, Carl E. Swarson Sr., reside-in Anaconda. They have four children, Dolores Swanson, Carl E. Jr., Todd, and John H.
Page 121 JERGENSEN FAMILY
This was written by Sally Campbell in July of 1972.
Beneath old cottonwoods near the banks of Warm Springs Creek muses an old home - its rafters cobwebby with the memories of a hundred years.
It is the house that Mary JERGENSEN had built a hundred years ago this summer on the JERGENSEN homestead. The house had remained in the family for that century and is now owned by her grandson, Ray Johnson. The Jergensens were a young couple when they sailed from Denmark to America on a sailing vessel.
Drama marked their lives even then, for twins were born to them on the voyage. Both died and were buried in the Atlantic [note 1 below].
The Jergensens homesteaded the property in 1866. They moved belongings and their three children from Iowa to the homestead in 1868.
One of their girls, Lena, was four years old that spring. She became the mother of Ray Johnson,
Irma (Mrs. Carl Swanson of Anaconda), Hennes Johnson, Butte and Lenora Lee of San Francisco.
It is understandable that her descendants, Ray Johnson and Irma Swanson, treasure the house and remember their grandmother with pride. For the years to follow Mary Jergensens journey to Montana Territory were to be filled with test after test of strength.
One evening shortly after Lars and Mary JERGENSEN arrived at their new home, the cow, which had trod behind the wagon from Iowa, disappeared into the thick brush and trees which once covered the valley. Lars went to look for the animal and when he didn't return by morning a search found him chilled and bogged down in the quicksand area near Dutchman Creek about five miles away. He contracted pneumonia and died.
A while later, young Mary JERGENSEN hitched the two gray mares which had brought them here from Iowa, and drove the brawling mining camp of Butte. There she hired a 16 year old Swede to work. His name was Herman Johnson and years later he married Lena JERGENSEN. Herman Johnson and another young fellow in the Valley, John Helstrom, built the house from logs.
The young rancher had fenced much of the 320 acre homestead but one evening someone forgot to close the gate the gray team escaped. Mary JERGENSEN stopped the stage coach next morning as it was headed north toward Deer Lodge and the driver reported he had observed the horses headed southeast. Ray Johnson and Mrs. Swanson remember their grandmother and Uncle Chris JERGENSEN (who owned the homestead after Mary Jergensen's death) related how a number of years later they received a letter from Iowa relatives telling them the mares had arrived "home."
John Helstrom head builder of the house, met a tragic death on the site of the homestead. A bear had been molesting garden and livestock. One night it killed a calf and Johnny Chris and perhaps another person began trailing it into the jungled growth near the creek. Helstrom was in the lead and the bear attacked him from where it was hidden. One of the men following shot the bear, but by the time they were able to roll the huge beast off Helstrom he was badly clawed. One particularly deep gash was across the front of his head. Helstrom was placed in a buggy and they took him to the nearest doctor at Deer Lodge, but he was already dead when they got there. The buggy in which Johnny Helstrom died enroute to Deer Lodge is still parked in the dust and shadows of an old building on the homestead. Mrs. Swanson reminds us that her grandmother was alive and she sometimes told of the transport of wounded cavalrymen from the Chief Joseph Big Hole Battle to Deer Lodge. They passed the ranch on the way, and "Uncle Chris, just a boy then, said he rode his horse bareback about the valley watching," Mrs. Swanson said.
Page 111 THOMAS McNay FAMILY
Mr. Thomas McNay and wife (Bridget Gibson) arrived in Anaconda in the spring of 1908 from their homeland of Wigan, Lancashire County, England. Shortly after their arrival they started farming on a small acreage in the vicinity of the old Lost Creek school house in the East valley. During these trying years, Tom McNay busied himself with operating the farm and developing one of Anaconda's first garbage disposal services.
Prior to World War I, Tom McNay became an employee of the Anaconda Company's Reduction Plant, serving in both the new Acid Plant and as a foreman in the Convertor Department and the Slag Dump in his latter years.
The family home was established at 8l2 East Eighth St., in Anaconda, where a family of nine children were raised. The family consisted of five boys and four girls:
Patrick J., foreman molder for the Anaconda Co., Mary (Mrs. Howard Davis), Matthew T. "Red'', Anaconda Co. scaleman, Thomas J., Sadie (Mrs. Raymond Johnson), Kathleen (Mrs. William Menahan), Veronica (Mrs. Joseph Crosswhite), John T. McNay, BA&P employee, and James A., Anaconda School District Employee.
Thomas McNay was one of the organizers of the Odd Fellow's lodge in Anaconda while his wife was very active in the sister lodge of the Rebecca's.
Note 1: On the 1900 census for Deer Lodge Co., Mont., Mary JERGENSEN says that she had 7 children. Apparently Lars and Mary had two other children born in Denmark before they left, and lost them on the boat also.
Note 2: Herman left his home in Sweden to emigrate, 24 Oct. 1879.
Note 3: Herman Julius was born at Tveten (Tweten) farm in Bro parish of Göteborg och Bohus län Sweden, son of Johan Andreasson and Anna Hansdotter. On the 1900 census Herman's brother Anton, and cousin Oscar Rosander are listed under Herman Johnson's household. Anton Johnson was married to Oscar's sister Amanda Rosetta Rosander.
Note 4: My wife Chrisitne's brother is Joe Cladouhos, husband of Tova Johnson Cladouhos. Their children: Kristin Rae McTeague, husband Brain, Staci Jo, and Joel.
Pages 118 & 119 HERMAN J. JOHNSON FAMILY
This was written by Lena Caroline Jergenson. This is dated June 8, 1972.
Mr. and Mrs. Lars Jergenson came from Denmark on a sailing vessel in 1856. During a storm in the mid-ocean, approximately 48 children got sick and died, among them the young sons of Jergensons. These children were buried at sea [note 1 below]. They crossed the United States by covered wagon and finally settled near Warm Springs, Mont. However, they spent some time in Utah where Mary and Chris were born, and then to Iowa where Carolina (Lena) was born in 1868.
1. Mary Jergenson Crosswhite, husband Ben, both deceased. Ben was a land adjustor with the A.C.M. Co. He died in Anaconda, 1929, Winter. Mary died in Anaconda, Aug. 1937. [children:]
Belfield Crosswhite, deceased, was an ironworker. Born on Oct. 15, 1883, died in 1952, Calif.
Joe Crosswhite, wife Veronica McNay, was a union leader and heavy equipment operator in the
western states. They had three sons, Donald Terry and Larry. Larry is deceased.
Willis Crosswhite, wife, Rose Massett, is Traffic manager of St. Lawrence Seaways and hospital administrator at Warm Springs. They have two children, Jeanette and Angela Lee. Both reside in Anaconda.
2. Chris Jergenson, wife, Kate Fox, deceased, then remarried to Edna Brown, Pennsylvania, all are now deceased. Their daughter Mary Esther (Jergenson) Parks, born May 1899, died Sept. 1974, had one son Tom Jr. who worked for the Shell Oil Co. He is now deceased.
3. Carolina "Lena" (Jergenson) Johnson, deceased March 25, 1953. Lena was born in Crescent City, Iowa on April 4, 1868 and was married to Herman Johnson who was born May 5, 1857. He came to America in 1878 [note 2]. Since 1879, he engaged in ranching the Deer Lodge valley.
When coming to Montana, Mr. Johnson was a steamboat fireman on the famous Missouri river boats between Bismark, N.D., and Fort Benton. He often told of seeing buffalo herds crossing the river. Many buffalo were shot, stripped of their steaks and left by the river. Mr. Herman Johnson helped to construct the first telegraph line into Helena in 1878.
Upon his arrival in the Deer Lodge valley, he first worked on the Jorgenson ranch. Later, he purchased what is known as the Walker ranch near Race Track after his marriage to Lena Jergenson in Jan. 1885. There was six children born to them. Four are living.
For many years, Mr. Johnson worked, too, for the Anaconda Copper Mining Company. He helped build the first slum pond, east of Anaconda and later did digging work for the Company. He also dug many basements in the first new addition with a team of horses. Herman Johnson was born in Goteborg, Sweden, May 5, 1857 [note 3], and died in the Deer Lodge valley.
Mr. and Mrs. Herman Johnson are the parents of six children, four are living.
Leonora Johnson Lee, husband Ed, reside in Carlmont Dr., Belmont Calif. They had two children, Norman who is married to Myrl. Their children are Carol Lee, teacher, Norman Lee Jr., student. Neona Lee Pubols, husband Dan, also of Belmont California, have three children: Barbara, student, Dan Jr., student, Maryls, student.
Hennes N. Johnson, wife Neota Para, reside in Butte. Hennes worked with Sheridan and Finlen Construction Co. They have four children:
Catherine Johnson Buckley, husband "Packy" Buckley. They have four children, Judy student, Jay
housewife, Kathy, student and Margie also a student.
Harold Johnson, died in World War II, Germany.
Nettie Mae Johnson Hagenson, husband Martin, reside in Butte.
Maurine Johnson Yelsa, husband Bill, live in Opportunity, Mont. They have two children, Linda Hamry Eggan and Mary Budette Hamry Newton.
Manila Johnson Prescott, deceased, husband Urban Prescott, resides in LaPuente, Calif. They have a son and daughter. Nadine Prescott Absher, nurse, resides in Baja, Mexico. William Prescott, son, resides in Brightwaters, New York.
Herbert Johnson, deceased, wife, Bot or Clara. They have one son, Donald H. Johnson, wife Diane, who reside in Missoula.
Raymond Johnson, wife, Sadie, are farming on the original ranch next to where grandmother came by covered wagon. They had four children: Raymond H., Robert, Tova Rae (Johnson) Cladouhos [husband Joe, see note 4], and Ronald.
Erma Dolores Swanson, husband, Carl E. Swarson Sr., reside-in Anaconda. They have four children, Dolores Swanson, Carl E. Jr., Todd, and John H.
Page 121 JERGENSEN FAMILY
This was written by Sally Campbell in July of 1972.
Beneath old cottonwoods near the banks of Warm Springs Creek muses an old home - its rafters cobwebby with the memories of a hundred years.
It is the house that Mary JERGENSEN had built a hundred years ago this summer on the JERGENSEN homestead. The house had remained in the family for that century and is now owned by her grandson, Ray Johnson. The Jergensens were a young couple when they sailed from Denmark to America on a sailing vessel.
Drama marked their lives even then, for twins were born to them on the voyage. Both died and were buried in the Atlantic [note 1 below].
The Jergensens homesteaded the property in 1866. They moved belongings and their three children from Iowa to the homestead in 1868.
One of their girls, Lena, was four years old that spring. She became the mother of Ray Johnson,
Irma (Mrs. Carl Swanson of Anaconda), Hennes Johnson, Butte and Lenora Lee of San Francisco.
It is understandable that her descendants, Ray Johnson and Irma Swanson, treasure the house and remember their grandmother with pride. For the years to follow Mary Jergensens journey to Montana Territory were to be filled with test after test of strength.
One evening shortly after Lars and Mary JERGENSEN arrived at their new home, the cow, which had trod behind the wagon from Iowa, disappeared into the thick brush and trees which once covered the valley. Lars went to look for the animal and when he didn't return by morning a search found him chilled and bogged down in the quicksand area near Dutchman Creek about five miles away. He contracted pneumonia and died.
A while later, young Mary JERGENSEN hitched the two gray mares which had brought them here from Iowa, and drove the brawling mining camp of Butte. There she hired a 16 year old Swede to work. His name was Herman Johnson and years later he married Lena JERGENSEN. Herman Johnson and another young fellow in the Valley, John Helstrom, built the house from logs.
The young rancher had fenced much of the 320 acre homestead but one evening someone forgot to close the gate the gray team escaped. Mary JERGENSEN stopped the stage coach next morning as it was headed north toward Deer Lodge and the driver reported he had observed the horses headed southeast. Ray Johnson and Mrs. Swanson remember their grandmother and Uncle Chris JERGENSEN (who owned the homestead after Mary Jergensen's death) related how a number of years later they received a letter from Iowa relatives telling them the mares had arrived "home."
John Helstrom head builder of the house, met a tragic death on the site of the homestead. A bear had been molesting garden and livestock. One night it killed a calf and Johnny Chris and perhaps another person began trailing it into the jungled growth near the creek. Helstrom was in the lead and the bear attacked him from where it was hidden. One of the men following shot the bear, but by the time they were able to roll the huge beast off Helstrom he was badly clawed. One particularly deep gash was across the front of his head. Helstrom was placed in a buggy and they took him to the nearest doctor at Deer Lodge, but he was already dead when they got there. The buggy in which Johnny Helstrom died enroute to Deer Lodge is still parked in the dust and shadows of an old building on the homestead. Mrs. Swanson reminds us that her grandmother was alive and she sometimes told of the transport of wounded cavalrymen from the Chief Joseph Big Hole Battle to Deer Lodge. They passed the ranch on the way, and "Uncle Chris, just a boy then, said he rode his horse bareback about the valley watching," Mrs. Swanson said.
Page 111 THOMAS McNay FAMILY
Mr. Thomas McNay and wife (Bridget Gibson) arrived in Anaconda in the spring of 1908 from their homeland of Wigan, Lancashire County, England. Shortly after their arrival they started farming on a small acreage in the vicinity of the old Lost Creek school house in the East valley. During these trying years, Tom McNay busied himself with operating the farm and developing one of Anaconda's first garbage disposal services.
Prior to World War I, Tom McNay became an employee of the Anaconda Company's Reduction Plant, serving in both the new Acid Plant and as a foreman in the Convertor Department and the Slag Dump in his latter years.
The family home was established at 8l2 East Eighth St., in Anaconda, where a family of nine children were raised. The family consisted of five boys and four girls:
Patrick J., foreman molder for the Anaconda Co., Mary (Mrs. Howard Davis), Matthew T. "Red'', Anaconda Co. scaleman, Thomas J., Sadie (Mrs. Raymond Johnson), Kathleen (Mrs. William Menahan), Veronica (Mrs. Joseph Crosswhite), John T. McNay, BA&P employee, and James A., Anaconda School District Employee.
Thomas McNay was one of the organizers of the Odd Fellow's lodge in Anaconda while his wife was very active in the sister lodge of the Rebecca's.
Note 1: On the 1900 census for Deer Lodge Co., Mont., Mary JERGENSEN says that she had 7 children. Apparently Lars and Mary had two other children born in Denmark before they left, and lost them on the boat also.
Note 2: Herman left his home in Sweden to emigrate, 24 Oct. 1879.
Note 3: Herman Julius was born at Tveten (Tweten) farm in Bro parish of Göteborg och Bohus län Sweden, son of Johan Andreasson and Anna Hansdotter. On the 1900 census Herman's brother Anton, and cousin Oscar Rosander are listed under Herman Johnson's household. Anton Johnson was married to Oscar's sister Amanda Rosetta Rosander.
Note 4: My wife Chrisitne's brother is Joe Cladouhos, husband of Tova Johnson Cladouhos. Their children: Kristin Rae McTeague, husband Brain, Staci Jo, and Joel.