27 April 2011

Apr. 2011, week 4: Misc. info re Esther (JOHNSON) OGDEN

This is the last post on my maternal grandmother, covering all of the miscellaneous info I have on her.

According to my mother, her mother’s family moved from Gordon, Sheridan Co., NE to Henning, Otter Tail Co., MN the summer before my grandmother’s senior year in high school. That would be the summer of 1920, since the Johnsons are in Gordon for the 1920 census and my grandmother was born in 1902. Because the high school in Minnesota would not accept all of her Nebraska high school credits, she would have had to go two years there in order to graduate. So she dropped out. It’s a shame she claim so close to graduating.

Also according to my mother, her parents met when my grandmother was back in Nebraska visiting some of her cousins. My grandfather was dating one of these cousins and dropped her because he was smitten by my grandmother. He must have made a good choice because they were married for 55 years.

The move from Gordon to Henning was at least the third move her family made while she was growing up. They went from Milan, Rock Island Co., IL to Winside, Wayne Co., NE probably in 1904 when she was two. They are in Winside in the 1910 US Census and her obituary says they moved when she was 2. Sometime between 1910 and 1920 they moved to Gordon. Her obituary says 1920, but that is the year they went to Minnesota. If she attended high school in Gordon, they probably arrived there before 1918. The latest date is probably Oct 1919, when her grandmother, Christina JOHNSON, died in Gordon, assuming that she was living with her son’s family when she died. I need to figure out which of her other children were living near Gordon when she died.

After she married my grandfather, my grandmother did a lot of moving around with him between southwestern SD and Sheridan Co., NE. The Ogden’s don’t seem to like staying in one place for very long.

Finally here are some pictures of my grandmother with her sisters, Ruth and Elsie.

ca. 1920
ca. Oct 1971

ca. Aug 1972

Next month I start on the lives of my eight great-grandparents.

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