HISTORY OF GERDA THERESIA HANSON JOHNSON

It would be wonderful if anyone had additional information that I could add to this history.  Please let me know if you do.

GERDA THERESIA HANSON JOHNSON

(PIX of Gerda appear in another place on this blog.)
1880 – 1955

Grandmother of Carolyn Johnson Christensen through her youngest son, Maurice O. Johnson

Note: Quotes and most early information in this history are taken from a personal biographic sketch Gerda wrote to present in a RS meeting in her ward in Shelley.



Gerda Theresia Hanson was born 21 April 1880 in Tryserum, Kalmar, Sweden. Her father, Carl Johan Hanson, managed a dairy farm near the forest in woods, as they called it. Gerda’s mother was Caroline Charlotta Anderson. Gerda’s only sister had been born and died the year before Gerda was born. Gerda’s first memories were of playing in the woods picking wild flowers and berries.

Gerda went through elementary school in Tryserum and graduated when she was twelve years of age. She belonged to and was confirmed in the Lutheran church, the state church of Sweden, but she remembers that the family went to the Methodist and Baptist churches more than to the Lutheran.

When she was just a child, Gerda learned to weave and at first, helped to weave rugs. As she got older, she helped weave material for sheets, pillow cases and even for dresses and coats.

When Gerda was fourteen, in 1894, her mother died and an aunt came to live with them. Gerda’s aunt was discontented in the country so the family moved to Stockholm, the capital of Sweden, sometime before Gerda was 16. Gerda’s father worked at concrete construction in the city, and Gerda began working as a waitress in a café. She later worked in a delicatessen.

She was more interested in sewing so she left the shop, and got work in a tailoring establishment where she worked for three months without pay to learn the trade. She was seventeen when her father died. (Note: CJC. Possibly, the loss of her parents and siblings in her youth contributed to her decision to leave Sweden and her family.)

Gerda was always interested in religion and after she moved to Stockholm, she went first to one church and then to another, trying to find one that suited her, but none of them seemed to offer her what she was seeking. Finally she made up her mind to join the Baptist church on the following Sunday. However, during the week, she met a friend, Fannie Anderson, whom she had not seen in some time, and learned that Fannie had joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. Gerda was disappointed because the two girls had planned to join a church together. It was considered a disgrace to be a friend of a Mormon. Fannie begged Gerda to go to church with her and hear the missionaries, saying, “Even if it doesn’t do you any good, it can’t hurt you.” So Gerda went with Fannie to show her what a terrible mistake Fannie had made.

Another quote from Gerda; “One of my friends and I (Fannie Anderson) used to go to the Baptist church together a lot, and we planned join that church, but we felt that we were not quite ready yet, and it was the busy time of the year for me in my work, so for several months I did not have time to go to church. When the work slackened off some, I went to see my friend. I felt like I was ready to join the Baptist church and I went to ask her to join with me, if she hadn’t already joined. To my surprise, she told me that she had found the true church. I felt bad because she had joined the Mormon Church. She asked me to go with her and find out for myself. I went with her the next Sunday, because I thought I could find something to show her how wrong she was.”

Gerda indicates that never in her life has she felt as she did when those missionaries talked on the first principles of the Gospel. “When they talked, I felt as if I was awakening from a deep sleep; as if they were telling me something I had known before, but had forgotten”. Gerda’s friend Fannie asked the missionaries for some pamphlets and tracts for Gerda to read. “As I read the books, I was more convinced that it was the true Church. I couldn’t find anything wrong in them.”

So, instead of finding fault, Gerda found what she had been searching for. She was baptized and confirmed a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints on 1 May 1898 by Peter James Sanders when she was eighteen years old. Her Aunt felt very bad, and her only brother, who was four years younger than she, was very Angry. He couldn’t see why Gerda had disgraced the family by joining the Mormon Church. Why hadn’t she gone ahead and joined the Baptist Church as she had planned?

Her only brother, Karl Allen, who was four years younger than her, later joined the Swedish Navy and it is unknown what happened to him. Through uncertain correspondence and messages from Sweden, Gerda heard that her brother had died in World War I. (Certainly, knowledge of life after death must have healed some of the sorrow Gerda felt about her brother and parents’ deaths.)

From that time on, Gerda saved every penny she could from her salary to be able to go to Zion. While she was still in Stockholm, she met Carl O. Johnson, a missionary, who was later to be her husband, but all she thought of him at the time was that he was a fine speaker. (At that time, Carl was about 33 years old, married and with 2 children who lived in Murray, Utah.)

In 1900, Gerda and Fannie immigrated to America when Gerda was 20 years old. They lived for some time with Gerda’s relatives in Perth Amboy, New Jersey. Fannie got a job housekeeping for a well-t-do-family.

Gerda’s relatives* were very good to her. They took her everywhere with them. Gerda’s relatives all belonged to the Methodist church and Gerda attended with them. They wanted Gerda to join the church, but she told them she couldn’t because she had found the true church, the Latter Day Saint or Mormon Church as it was called. She told them she and Fannie had been baptized 2 years before. After finding out the girls were Mormons, her relatives felt badly and thought it was terrible. They tried to keep it a secret from their friends, hoping to be able to convert these two misguided young woman. Gerda and Fannie were the only two Mormons in the city; the people had driven two missionaries out of town about two years before.

The relatives tried to convert Gerda and make her forget about the Mormons. They used to sit and talk to her for hours at a time, not so much about their religion, but about the bad stories they had heard about the Mormons. Eventually, the secret of Gerda’s leaked out and the relatives were so ashamed of Gerda that they didn’t want to have anything to do with her.

Gerda’s Aunt told her how very hard it would be for her if she didn’t change her mind. She said Gerda wouldn’t be able to get work because no one would have anything to do with a Mormon. Gerda’s aunt said, “Can’t you see how hard it is going to be for you if you don’t change your mind?”

“It doesn’t matter, Aunt Louise,” said Gerda.* “I would rather go from door to door and beg than to deny the testimony I have of the Gospel of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.”

When the relatives saw that they could not convert the young ladies or get them to deny the church, they because angry. One Aunt said, “It’s a shame her mother died when she was so young, she’s had no one to guide her. She doesn’t know what she is doing herself.” The aunt wouldn’t even let Gerda receive any letters.

One cousin though that she was just stubborn so he got her a job at a dressmaking shop of a friend of theirs, Mrs. Aflerbach, hoping the lady could persuade her to change her mind. At times, this lady was very nice and at other times she was angry because Gerda still insisted that she must remain a Mormon. Eventually they all quit bothering Gerda, and Mr. and Mrs. Aflerbach became very kind, much more so that Gerda’s relatives.

Fannie lived with another family by now, so Gerda would go visit her as many evenings as possible and they would sing hymns and pray together to keep up their faith and courage.

During that time, both Gerda and Fannie saved all the money they could. Fannie decided to let Gerda have the money she had saved and finally they had enough to send Gerda to Utah. They decided Gerda should move, because the relatives didn’t bother Fannie.

In preparing to leave, Gerda went to bid her aunt goodbye. He aunt cried and said, “I would rather follow you to your grave than to see you go to Utah. If you get to Utah and you get your eyes opened, before it’s too late, write to us and we will send you money to come back to us.”

Gerda went to Salt Lake City and got a job and borrowed some money from a friend to send for Fannie. Gerda had some wonderful experiences on her way to Utah. She was a stranger, and could not speak the English language. She prayed to Heavenly Father to help her and He certainly did. On the train going to Utah, Gerda met an elderly coupled and told them she was going to Utah. They gave her their address and told her that if she was disappointed, to write to them and they could help her come back to Chicago. Gerda had a bad time changing trains because she could speak very little English, but this good couple helped her to get on the right train.

Gerda went on the Kansas City, where she had to stay overnight. Here again she got help. She had intended to stay in the depot all night and was afraid to ask where to go for fear of being misled somewhere. One of the conductors on the train asked her if she had any place to go and she told him she knew no one, nor did she have any place to go. The conductor told Gerda it would be dangerous to remain in the depot and that if she would come with him, he would get her a room in the hotel in which he was staying. She hesitated because she was frightened, but he seemed very nice, so she went. He got her a room and took her to breakfast the next morning and put her on the train to Utah. Gerda had always been sure that the Lord provided helpers along the way.

When Gerda arrived in Salt Lake, the only one she knew was a former girl friend from Stockholm who was working for a family there. This friend took Gerda to a family whom she knew and they helped her to get work in the dressmaking department in Walker’s in Salt Lake City. She worked there for some time.

Gerda felt like someday she would marry and have a family, and she didn’t know how to cook or keep house, so she left her job and began doing housework for a family for the experience. The lady stayed in the kitchen most of the time and helped her for a month, to teach her how to cook and do other housework. She became an excellent and natural cook. Her daughter-in-law, Doris, remembers asking for recipes. A “pinch of this, and some of that” turned out to be the extent of her recipes to the frustration of those who wanted to learn how she made the delicious dishes.

In Salt Lake, again, at a conference, she met Carl O. Johnson and they stopped to chat about Stockholm and their experiences there. Carl’s first wife had recently passed away, leaving Carl with two small children, a boy and a girl, Oscar Wilford and Ebba Olivia. Friendship between Gerda and Carl developed into courtship, and they were married in the Salt Lake Temple on 22 October, 1902. They went to live in Murray where Carl worked in the smelters. Two children, Gerda and Allan were born there.

In March of 1907, when Gerda was 27, her and Carl moved to Shelley, Idaho and bought a farm (for which they had probably been scrupulously saving for the past five years) . The farm was located just below the Shelley Butte on the north west side, later known as the Hollis Harker farm. Eventually the farm was traded for a farm about one and a half miles east of Shelley. Their farm consisted of 50 acres, and they raised hay, grain, potatoes, sugar beets, peas and livestock. Eight other children were born in Shelley. In April of that year, Else was born only to pass away five months later. Only those mothers who have had an infant pass away can know how Gerda felt.

Some time after moving to Shelley, Carl and Gerda built a home in Shelley on Locust Street, across the street and kitty-corned from the old Second Ward Church . While living in the Locust Street house in 1912, Carl went on his third mission while his wife was in charge of the farming. At that time, she was getting 20 cents on the hundred for potatoes which was unusually bad for that year. It is assumed that Gerda had Oscar Wilford (age 18), Ebba, (age 16), Gerda (age 11), Allan (age 9), Edith and Edwin (age 4) and Ruth (age 2) living at home. Carl returned from his mission in 1914.

Four more children were born after Carl returned from his mission; Walter, Wallace, Bernice and Maurice.

In 1927, when their youngest son was 6 years old, the farm homestead was established. Carl and Gerda had ordered this home from a Montgomery Ward Catalog. It arrived with all the materials and necessary directions for building which they did. Maurice remembers how the boys slept in a tent in the yard while the house was being finished.

Regarding the Shelley farm house, the lean-to from that old home was made into a chicken coop, then a pig shelter. Many years later, about 1976, while Maurice and his sons were clearing that area, they came upon a small piece of wood from the shelter, which they recognized as a piece of the old green kitchen wall. Also, when the barn from the homestead was demolished after it had outlived its usefulness, they found a board with writing put there by Allan and his friend, Alf Olsen, while the barn was being built when they were boys.

Gerda’s daughter, Edith passed away when she was about 16 in 1924. Gerda was grief stricken. Gerda Johnson Wilcox (sister of Edith) tells that Edith had walked a great deal, from Idaho Falls, in fact, in the heat, and now thinks Edith probably died of heat stroke. Others say that Edith was sickly, and possibly died of sinus infection.

Gerda and Carl were hard working, religious people, going through both prosperous and difficult times financially. Gerda was a visiting teacher in the LDS Church. Her time was spent on the farm and raising her children, rather than doing a lot of church work. Instead, she supported her husband in his intensive church work. Also, she knew what her work in God’s Kingdom should be.

Carl and Gerda helped each of their sons obtain the means to earn a living. Most of them farmed. Maurice purchased the Taylor Highway farm in 1942. Carl and Gerda moved to Idaho Falls to be near the temple so they could spend more time serving there. Gerda’s Patriarchal Blessing, received in 1924 states:

“ The way will be opened for you. He will help you to perform the labor that is most valuable for you to do which is seeking after those who have passed away and being a Savior unto them. There is nothing in your life that will be of greater value to you. I bless you that you will be prepared to do this work in the House of the Lord and great shall bring you joy and satisfaction. You shall praise the Lord that He has enabled you to perform this labor. “

One granddaughter who spent a great deal of time working with Gerda’s efforts at Genealogy was amazed at the massive amount of names which Gerda & Carl paid to have researched in Sweden in order for temple work to be completed. Hundreds of names were submitted by both Gerda and Carl. They both kept careful records of those names and work done. A great deal of money must have been spent in order to pay for this research in Sweden, inasmuch as it was completed before Swedish records were available in the United States.

Carl passed away on 9 April, 1946 when Gerda was 66 years old while they were living in Idaho Falls. After some time, Gerda moved back to an apartment downstairs in the farm home. Her granddaughter Carolyn has a vague memory of the old white enamel wood or coal stove standing on the linoleum of the kitchen in that apartment. Later Gerda bought another home near the temple at 515 E Street and lived there until she died in the LDS Hospital on 25 May 1955.

Four of Gerda’s sons filled missions. Allen went to Scandinavia in 1925. Edwin served in the Swiss German mission starting 1926. Both Maurice and Walter served missions with their wives after they retired.

Gerda is remembered as being conservative. She tried to avoid attention being drawn to herself, and was very reserved . One daughter-in-law, Doris, remembers decorating a cake for her, but Gerda was too self-conscious to show it to other people. This is also indicative of the fact that Gerda didn’t like to “make a fuss”. At Christmas time, when she received gifts, she would open them immediately and put them away, not saving them until Christmas Day.

Although Gerda was a very proud woman, she was modest and felt very inferior, especially concerning her ability to speak English. She was always more comfortable with Swedish. Her granddaughter, Carolyn, remembers she would talk on the phone upstairs in the farm home to a close friend, then suddenly she would begin talking the old language, which was frustrating to a child who wanted to know “what was going on”.

Her unsureness of the English language didn’t stop her from communicating with her children. In fact, it is believed that some of her older children could speak Swedish. Wallace remembers he would come home from a date and his mother would be waiting up for him, and they would sit down by the old coal stove and open a can of shrimp and talk for hours.

Gerda was very neat and clean with a clean apron and dress all the time, and her hair always looking nice.

As indicated from her early history, Gerda was an exceptional seamstress. She worked repairing furs in a fur shop in Idaho Falls for many years. Daughters and Daughter-in-laws received fur coats because of her work.

Gerda suffered from heart disease, “hypertension” being listed on her death certificate. In those days, the stimulant prescribed by the doctors for heart disease was coffee, which Gerda drank, but taught her children not to drink because of the Word of Wisdom. In 1955, Gerda’s heart had weakened, and in May she passed away leaving a legacy of a wonderful family, and invaluable family records.

NOTES:

*Aunt Louise was mentioned by name in the history or testimony Gerda wrote. I would assume Aunt Louise was Maria Louisa Andersson born in 1849, sister of Gerda’s mother. She was married to Otto Wilhelm Andersson. Maria Louisa, listed as a wife, appears in the Swedish Emmigration Records going from Aarhus to Copenhagen with her three children. It is assumed that she went from Copenhagen to America. However, the three children all died in Sweden.