John Johnson was born at Osterhaug Sveen (a farm) in Loiten Hedemarken, Norway June 7, 1849. His family joined the Mormon church, sold the farm and left Norway on April 1,st 1863. They arrived in Salt Lake City on October 1 and settled in Provo. In the spring of 1868st at nineteen, John was called as a teamster to go to Fort Benton on the North Platte, to collect the last group of immigrants and bring them to Utah in wagon trains.
Inger Sward, daughter of August (Aakeson) Sward and Elna Olsen, was born May 2, 1848 in Ostra Vram, Kristinstad, Sweden. Baptized a Mormon at age seventeen, Inger with her brother Andrew, left Sweden and immigrated to America. She and John first met at Fort Benton. They married three years later and settled in Lake View, on the east shore of Utah Lake.
John and Inger raised nine children shown clockwise from Alfred Henry (Murl Holdaway & Frances Madsen); Tenie (Martin A. Clinger); Emma (Conrad Maag); Inger Julia (H. Edward Hatton); Josephine (William W. Goodridge); Nora (William W. Taylor); Anna Goldie Sward (Halverson, Sanders, McCune); Ellen Bergitte (Leslie L. Bunnell); August Jeremiah (Ruth Taylor & Beatrice Henderson). He is the youngest son, seated between Inger and John in the photo above.
