John August Carlson

JOHN AUGUST CARLSON. - Among the prominent and highly respected citizens of Wyandotte township, Wyandotte county, must be recorded John August Carlson, one of the prosperous and progressive agriculturists who is engaged in farming, cattle raising and fruit growing. He belongs to the Swedish-American citizenship and like the majority of his countrymen has proved himself a valuable and broadminded factor in society. He was born in Sweden, February 28, 1860, and he is the son of John and Bertha Carlson. The older man died in 1862 when the subject was a baby and this was one of the circumstances which cast him at an unusually early age upon his own resources. In the course of time the mother married again, becoming the wife of Andrew Sagerhammer and it was he who wasinstrumental in effecting the immigration of the family to America. After crossing the ocean, they soon located in Scandia, Republic county, Kansas, where the father took up a homestead. This was in the year 1869, when young John August was only about nine years old, but he soon had to depend upon himself for a living and he started in at the hard game of making a livelihood in the capacity of a cattle herder and farm hand. He continued in the wise until 1879, when he removed to Kansas City, Kansas, and embarked in the packing house business, with which he identified until 1898. In that year he concluded to try the wholesome, independent life of the agriculturist and with his previous earnings he bought sixty acres of his present farm in Wyandotte township. The place at that time was wild land, but he has made it into one of the finest and most highly improved farms in all the locality. He subsequently bought ten additional acres of improved land and at an even later date ninety-nine acres, twelve of which were cleared and in tillable condition. Fifty acres of the portion last bought are now under cultivation and the balance serves as pasture land. Mr. Carlson engages in general farming and he also raises cattle and a small amount of hogs. The estate was graced with a substantial two story house, but this was burned in November, 1910, and the family are now residing in a cottage which will answer until he has time to build. He has a barn forty by thirty-six feet, and a tool house, fifty-two by forty feet. He has about three hundred fruit trees.

On December 2, 1880, Mr. Carlson established an independent household by his marriage to Ella Young, of Berks county, Pennsylvania, daughter of Adam and Rebecca Young, Pennsylvanians. The Youngs came to Kansas City, Kansas, about the year 1863 and the father worked as a carpenter on the Hannibal Railroad bridge. The first Mrs. Adam Young died in 1864 and the father married again and some years later died in Kansas City, Kansas. Mrs. Carlson was reared by George Froebe of Wyandotte county, after the death of her mother, and it was her privilege to reside until her marriage in that gentleman's household. Upon the death of her foster parents Mrs. Carlson was bequeathed thirteen acres of land, eligibly located at Twelfth and Quindaro Boulevard, Kansas City, Kansas.

To Mr. and Mrs. Carlson have been born the following children: George, born December 17, 1884, and died January 13, 1905; Charles, born January 18, 1886, in Kansas City, Kansas; Louise, born October 31, 1888, now Mrs. Winifred Allen of Wyandotte township.

In the matter of political faith the subject pays fealty to the Democratic party, which he has supported as to men and measure since the days of his first casting of the ballot. He and his honored wife are members of the Lutheran church and he belongs to the Modern Woodmen of America, No. 73, Stony Point.