Name = Ephraim Johnson

Dates on Tombstone = Jan. 23, 1859 - Dec. 10, 1938

Spouse = Caroline Saispair

Parents = Erick & Carrie (Frost) Johnson

Obituary

The Hooper Sentinel
December 15, 1938

Former Swaburg Pioneer Passed Away Saturday

Swaburg - Eph Johnson, pioneer resident of Swaburg, passed away at
his home in Fremont Saturday morning following a lengthy illness
from a heart ailment.

Ephraim Edward Johnson was born in Stockholm, Sweden, January 23,
1859 and had attained the age of 79 years, 10 months and 17 days.
When he was three years old he came to the United States with his
parents, Mr. and Mrs. Erick Johnson, locating in Chicago where he
lived until he was 17 years old. In 1876 he came to Nebraska,
living first near Oakland for two years when his mother and
brother, Joe, joined him from Chicago and they settled in the
Swaburg neighborhood. Mr. Johnson was united in marriage on April
2, 1882, to Miss Caroline Saispair, daughter of this community's
most prominent pioneers, Mr. and Mrs. Peter Saispair. They
established a home near Uehling, later going to a homestead in Box
Butte county where they resided for five years and then returned to
the old Saispair homestead in Swaburg, which except for a brief
residence in Lincoln, was their home until 20 years ago when they
retired and moved to Fremont.

During his many years of residence in this community, he identified
himself as a prominent citizen and took an active part in the
affairs of the community. For a long period of years he served
Logan township as assessor. He was active in the work of the
American Sunday School Union and later in the Congregational church
at Uehling. Mr. Johnson, who was the proud possessor of a famous
violin more than a century old, was an accomplished violinist and
teacher of violin. He was also a composer of music, and in 1908
had published two hymns "Where Will Jesus Find You" and "Our Savior
and Our God", the latter bearing a dedication to the Hooper male
chorus which was then an outstanding musical organization. Mr.
Johnson was affiliated with the Christian church in Fremont.

Besides his wife he is survived by two sons, Gilbert, of Fremont,
and Eph Jr., of Rushville, and six daughters, Mrs. Tura Bowman, and
Mrs. Gus Scheer, Alliance, Mrs. Arthur Rowe, Fremont: Mrs. Herman
Skoog, Cedar Bluffs: Mrs. O. B. Allison, Burbank, Calif., and Mrs.
George Kocina of Norfolk. The eldest son, Edward, passed away
about 23 years ago. Surviving him also are 14 grandchildren and two
great-grandchildren. Funeral services were held Tuesday afternoon
from Fremont and the Congregational church in Uehling, with
interment in the family lot in the Swedish Baptist cemetery at
Swaburg.