Steve Johnson

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Biography

I am the great-grandson of Swedish and Norwegian Immigrants who came to this country from 1835 to 1890. Some come to better their lives and enjoy the limitless opportunity that our great country offers, while others came, like some of my Norwegian ancestors, to escape the religious intolerance they suffered in their native land. Most of my ancestors immigrated to Iowa, the vast majority settling on the rich prairie land in the rolling hills of Marshall County.

I grew up on a farm, just on the eastern edge of the little town of LaMoille, which is in Washington Township, Marshall County, Iowa. I attended the LaMoille Community School for the last two years of its existence, before it was consolidated with State Center in the spring of 1956. I graduated from West Marshall High School in 1966 which was the result of school consolidation in 1950's Iowa. West Marshall consisted of LaMoille, State Center, Rhodes, Clemons, St. Anthony and Melbourne, all small towns in Marshall County.

I was drafted in May of 1969, the largest draft call in Marshall County since WWII and served two years with the U.S. Army's 8th Infantry Division, Division Artillery, Battery C, 7th Battalion 16th Field Artillery. We were the heavy guns for the Division equipped with M-110 8-inch Self-Propelled Howitzers. I was stationed in Baumholder, which is in the wooded hills of the Western Palatinate, in the German federal state of Rheinland-Pfaltz.

If you are related to one my several family lines which include the Johnson, Olson, Strawbridge, Bryngelson, Harem, or Johannson families, please drop me a line and introduce yourself. I will share any information, pictures, or documents that I have.

Sources

• First-hand information. Entered by Steve Johnson at registration.