Margaret “Maggie” H. Johnson (née Johanssen), 1847–1925

Headstone GPS Coordinates: 

Birth: 12 April 1847, Sweden

Death: 05 October 1925, poss. Seabeck, Kitsap County, Washington

Relatives in Seabeck Cemetery: John A. Johnson , Albine T. Johnson, Edward Johnson

 

Margaret “Maggie” H. Johanssen Johnson was born in Sweden on April 12, 1847. While the specific details of her parentage and birthplace in Sweden are unrecorded, she sought a new life in America, immigrating in 1880 at the age of thirty-three.

She settled in Wabasha County, Minnesota, where she met fellow Swedish immigrant John A. Johnson. The couple was married on April 17, 1881, in the town of Wabasha. Their first son, Edward, was born there the following year.

In 1883, Maggie and her family undertook a second great migration, moving across the country to the rugged frontier of the Pacific Northwest. They settled in Seabeck, Washington, where they homesteaded seventy-four acres in the Lone Rock area. Here, Maggie raised her family and helped establish a home in the wilderness, welcoming her second son, Albin, in 1886.

The homestead was marked by both growth and grief. In 1901, Maggie suffered the loss of her youngest son, Albin, who died at age fourteen. Despite this tragedy, she remained a pillar of the Lone Rock community for over four decades. Census records indicate she became a naturalized citizen, fully embracing her life in her adopted country.

Maggie passed away on October 5, 1925, at the age of seventy-eight, following a struggle with “senile decay” and pneumonia. 

Her obituary was published in the Kitsap Herald on November 20, 1925:

“The deceased was a native of Sweden. She immigrated to this country many

years ago, and she and her husband located on the homestead where she died,

at Lone Rock, about three miles from Seabeck. The deceased was an old and

highly esteemed resident of that place, having lived there about forty-three years.

There survive to mourn her loss, her husband and one son, Edward. The funeral

occurred from her home, and burial was in the Seabeck cemetery, beside her

son, who went to the great beyond many years ago. The father and son have

the sympathy of all their community in their bereavement, and of the editor and

wife and the readers of the Herald.”