Johnson & Hook Family Histories: March 2010

William Millett

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Lydia Ann Hall

Ofallow Edward Meador

Bettie Ann Davis

George Thomas Fowler Hook

Maren (wife of Jens Christensen)

Jens Christensen

Mary Ann King

Japhet Chapin Allen

Anna Marie Kayde

Nathan Perry Johnson

Amy Bertha Bronsdon

William Leonard Millett

James Milton Hook

Marie Fredireka Christensen

Ejnar Holst

Annie Delilah Allen

George William Johnson

Bertha Maude Millett

Howard Thomas Hook

JC Nathan Johnson

Susan Hook Johnson

Nathan Wayne Johnson

Seth Allen Johnson

My Short Autobiography

Seth Johnson

I was born on the morning of November 28, 1983 to Nathan Wayne and Susan Hook Johnson. This life altering event took place in Monroe, Wisconsin. I was then brought home to Freeport, Illinois where I lived as the third child. The oldest sibling I had was Preston Wayne, and Natalie Kay was second. Before I even had my first birthday in Freeport, I was transferred, along with my family, to Las Cruces, New Mexico where I gained the fantastic characteristic of allergies, especially to tumble and rag weeds and pecan blossoms. I was not alone in my misery, and after a short stay of four years, we left New Mexico for the greener grasses of Freeport, Illinois again. My brother, Nolan Paul, was born in New Mexico during our sojourn there. While both moves were actually instigated by my father’s work transfers, our allergies certainly sped along the process of moving back to Illinois. A short side-note is that my earliest memory, which I know of, occurred in New Mexico where I was stung by a bumble bee, a thousand times. That’s how I remember it at least.

After another young princess named Kara Marie was born in February of 1989, we again decided that the grass was not green enough and had to find wider pastures. So we moved to a farm. I was around the age of 5 when my parents purchased a farm on the outskirts of the thriving metropolis of Winslow, Illinois, population 350 (356 now that the Johnsons were there). Since the farm was our home for the next infinite number of years, and I “grew up” there, all my real childhood memories generate from that 80 acre location.

When we first moved in to the farmhouse, it was a one-bedroom shanty that left much to be desired. Dad was blessed with the gift of handymanship and was a regular fixer-upper. I can’t even begin to remember all the sheds that were run-down and full of tetanus. As we began to explore the possibilities of the farm, the boys were confined to the basement (a cold, dark, and dank dungeon befitting the rowdiness that comes from three boys), our parents slept in the dining room, and the two sisters crawled into and out of the attic. It wasn’t long before an addition was added to the north side of the house, which was strictly a master bedroom. The attic above the bedroom became the dwelling location of three attic trolls that were equally mischievous as they were when they were basement dwarfs.

Because I have so many memories from the farm, I regret not ever having kept a journal that entailed more of my day to day adventures that could have been invaluable to writing this story of my life. So in order to better preserve my history, I am willing to share some of the stories that I can recall, but won’t be able to maintain a strict timeline.

An early memory that I have from the farm was when my mother and her sister, Pauline, traveled to Australia, and Grandma Bertha Hook (my mom’s mom) came to watch us. It wasn’t easy for her, I’m sure, as yet another young boy was added to the family, his name being Evan William. This expedition of my mother’s occurred in November of 1993 over the course of ten days. One memory I have from this event was by brothers and I fighting over Legos. Her reaction was exasperation and frustration at not being able to maintain harmony among the orchestra of children.

Not many years after the first addition was added to the north side of the house, we added another addition to the south side. This time it was much larger and included three bedrooms on the main floor, two rooms for activities in the basement, an entry way in the basement, along with a shop for my dad to tinker in. The attic added was used for storage. A grand totaling of our home brought our living quarters to a total of three bedrooms, one master bedroom, three attics, two full bathrooms, two half-bathrooms, three basement rooms, one storage room in the basement, a kitchen, dining room, a food storage room, laundry room, an entry way, one spiral staircase, three stairways, one wood-burning stove, and a whole bunch of fun.

Another thrilling tale, or series of them, could possibly entail the stories of my brothers’ and my fort-building days. We were enthralled, as many boys are, with guns, swords, and rough play to prove our dominion over each other. I was particularly competitive and also had a temperamental side that would flare up from time to time. Because we lived on a farm, there were certain areas that had trees and were ideal for running through and pretending to battle. I remember on multiple occasions we would choose sides and no matter if it was me against all three of my brothers, or my sisters got involved, or there was an even number against each other, I had to be the best at whatever we were doing. I had even found a perfect throwing “spear” that would wobbly fly towards whoever I threw it at and cause great fear during our battles. On one such occasion Nolan incurred my wrath and received the hurled spear in his direction. Due to bad luck and extraordinary aim, the spear actually flew in his direction as he dodged into its path, catching his shirt and throwing him to the ground. I remember panicking because I had sharpened said stick to a point and knew that it could have actually hurt him if catching him squarely. That particularly vicious stick was disposed of shortly thereafter.

Living on the farm did have its additional challenges for the family, and one that I think will always live in my mind is the time that my father got hurt while working. We had been out working stacking hay bales or something of the sort when my father must have pulled a muscle in his back. He stopped working at that point and decided to call it a day. However, as the day progressed into the evening, the pain bothered him bad enough that my mother ended up calling the ambulance to come and bring him to the hospital to get treated. I remember crying and saying a prayer to Heavenly Father that he would be alright. My mother noticed my concern and spent some time comforting me and assuring me that Heavenly Father would watch over my father and make sure that he would return home in good condition. I realized a couple of different things from this experience; one, that my mother cares about how I feel and loves my father deeply, and two, that Heavenly Father feels the same way as my mother.

My farm life continued through high school, where I attended the Lena-Winslow school district. Grade school allowed for a lot of growth and learning, including visits to the speech teacher. I didn’t desire to stay long in her presence though, as I had a difficulty pronouncing my ‘r’ words. Wita, Wodney, and wabbit. My speech teacher’s difficulty was in pronouncing my name, as she called me Zeth, I finally became frustrated enough and motivated enough to quickly learn my ‘r’s and move on with my life.

One fun activity that the school district did throughout grade school was to host “Field Day” for each grade, which was another form of “Olympic tryouts”. I don’t know if they were searching for the next best athlete to represent the United States, but I did my best to qualify. My most memorable experience was in fourth grade when I participated in the “half marathon”, which was not around the entire block where the school was located, but instead cut down an alley behind the school. I wasn’t favored to win, as another boy (John Heim) was the reigning champion from the previous year, but I was determined to finish. As I ran, I began to pass by other participants and finally found myself on the final stretch with me in second place behind John. His motivation gave out as I ran up beside him within the last fifty yards and I ended up winning the event. I think that one single event gave me more confidence in my life to accomplish many sporting feats.

As I passed through junior high and the self-determining years, I didn’t grow much physically and entered high school at a whopping 92 pounds. Preston was a senior then and had been part of the wrestling team to help him learn some self-discipline and how to defend himself from bullies. I wasn’t motivated at the time to join the team, but Coach Milder approached me one day at school and told me of a dilemma the team had. In effect, he said, “Our team is looking for a 103 pounder, do you know anyone that might be able to help us out?” I agreed to come to practice the next day and I began a long journey of a sport that I have grown to love. Each year I improved and was excited for the next season to begin. My last year, I was one of two seniors that were on the team and was elected the team captain by my coaches and teammates.

I was also involved in band as a euphonium player from junior high through high school. After my first year in high school, I was good enough to be first chair in the concert band and played as well in the jazz band as the fourth seat trombone player (playing my euphonium). I was invited to participate in the Conference Music Festival each year as well. A favorite activity was playing in Chicago for the big Tuba Christmas event my junior and senior years at one of the fancy hotels there. I probably loved marching band the most as we traveled to different locations, including a field trip to New York City where I got to see my first Broadway play, Annie Get Your Gun, starring Bette Midler. We did a quick tour of the Statue of Liberty as well and ate at the Hard Rock Café where I was miserably doused by the waitress with my own 7 UP drink. On the Fourth of July, we performed in Washington D.C., which was a thrill, though the parade itself was exhausting. Finally, we made a trip to Michigan to the Cherry Festival to perform. My senior year we went to Orlando, Florida to perform at the daily parade, which we ended up not doing. We actually did a street performance that we were scheduled to do instead of both events. This was a fantastic trip as we got to visit the parks and go on all the rides. I don’t remember too many of the rides in particular, except for the tall free-fall waterslide that I was scared-to-death to go down as I have never been particularly fond of heights. I managed the ride with a little gusto and jeering from my friends and ended with only a pair of swimming trunks riding uncomfortably high.

Another high school experience was my work as an actor in the school plays. My first role was as a cross-word solving grandpa in “Murder, You Must be Kidding”. The irony is that Natalie coerced me into trying out for a role and she herself did not get a part. My next role was in “West of Pecos.” Another bit of irony is that I tried out for a part in the play that sounded exciting after browsing the script, and I landed the part. It also happened to be the lead role. I also participated in the pit band for the musicals as I can’t sing as well as some others. I finally got a part as an extra in Oklahoma during my senior year. I enjoyed each time as it gave me a chance to practice my theatrics and gave me an advantage of getting to be more social and understand my own emotions.

As high school came to a close, I prepared to serve a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and was called to the Nevada Las Vegas West Mission. My first area was Pahrump, Nevada where I served with David McDonald, a friend from my home ward in Freeport, Illinois. From there I was transferred to Reno, then to Fallon, back to Spark, and finally down to Las Vegas for the remainder of my mission. In all that time, I had a plethora of companions that seemed to come and go rather quickly. All my companions were: David McDonald, Brent Cook, Fields, Hobbs, Ryan Willetts, Hampton, Kinnard, Carrigan, Oakes, Mitts, Laycock, Whittaker, Pease, (trainee), (trunkee), Steve Thomas, (trunkee), Dieter Holtz, and finally Steven Piett. I can’t remember all their first and last names, but I remember their faces.

I had a lot of valuable experiences on my mission that taught me a lot about the Gospel, faith, and especially my Savior. I met many people that needed us to share our knowledge with them in order to ease a little burden in their lives. Some of the history of my mission began in one of the vilest of towns in America. Pahrump was a town that had legalized prostitution and had brothels on almost every corner. The members were also strong there and had to be in order to put up with the filth all around them. My next area in Reno, Nevada was a fantastic area with a lot of room for learning. I was taught a little more about kindness to others, charity, and service that would bring people to the Lord. I further learned these lessons as I was transferred to Fallon, Nevada and began a period of my mission that revolved around service. My companions and I dubbed the area the celestial area of the mission because of the opportunities to forget about oneself and focus on the needs of others around us. As I was sent to Sparks to train an incoming missionary, I was excited for an opportunity to pass on much of the knowledge that I had gained up to that point. I was again transferred to Las Vegas, where I spent the remainder of my mission in leadership and enjoyed the opportunity to serve my Savior. Upon my transfer to Las Vegas, the church also released a new missionary program called Preach My Gospel which allowed us to really focus on the Spirit helping us to teach. As a zone leader, I got the opportunity to sit in video conference with some of the Lord’s Apostles.

My post mission experience has also been very educational and very rewarding. I got home in May of 2005 from Las Vegas and enrolled in classes at Highland Community College in Freeport. I attended there with the instructions from my mission president to date the girls around me and to not fear if the girl wasn’t a member, but to have hope that I would find the right girl that would go to the temple with me. He even challenged me to find a wife and be married before my newly received temple recommend expired two years from my returning home. However, the dating scene never did present itself in the right way for me. The few girls that had good morals and caught my eye were already taken. I didn’t go out of my way to impress any of them, though I was called as the Elder’s Quorum President for the Rockford Stake Singles’ Branch and this afforded me an opportunity to get to know the single girls in the area that were already members of the church. I initially had a crush on a sister of a great friend that I had made upon returning home, though it was not to be as I believe she played a little harder to get than I would have liked.

So as I moved to Minnesota the next summer to accept a job working for Pepsi Bottling Company, I didn’t have any high hopes of meeting a girl there. The job itself entailed working eighty hours per week with Sundays off. I would often go to church exhausted but happy for the chance to socialize as best as I could, being as tired as I was. One particular Sunday I found myself awakened by the sight of a pretty girl that I had not previously noticed. I inquired around as to her name and found it to be Katrina. I quickly asked her for a pen to borrow, and maintained possession of that pen in hopes that she would come find it later. My ploy worked and as church drew to a close she found the pen, and the current owner. From that moment on, magic was in the air.

Katrina was going to school at Brigham Young University – Idaho, and I had just been accepted to go there as well. I took the offer and after seeing Katrina just on each Sabbath, I got to see her a lot more that fall as we went to school. We were in a couple of classes together, Intro to Social Dance, and Chemistry 105. The chemistry class did not have any effect on our personal chemistry, though we definitely enjoyed dancing together. I proposed on January 13, 2007 after speaking with her father just a couple of weeks prior. Using the guise that we were practicing for an upcoming dance exam, I lured Katrina into a quite room in the Manwaring Center on campus and we danced to Frank Sinatra. When his “Love and Marriage” began to play, I dropped to one knee and presented her with a home-made gumball ring. She said yes. We were married on May 4, 2007, just days before my two year mark of returning from my mission and incidentally completing the challenge given to me by my mission president. Our marriage occurred in the restored Nauvoo, Illinois temple and was a blissful experience. We had our honeymoon on a cruise ship to Calica, Mexico where we visited the Mayan ruins of Taluum and saw some beautiful sites.

My college life before and after marriage was also filled with other activities, especially sports as I maintained my love for competition and excelling in fitness. During my first semester at BYU-I, I participated in the competitive football league where I was elected by the coaches as a team leader. I also played in the intramural flag football leagues each year where I enjoyed the competition and fellowship of playing sports with others. I also took a walleyball class where the teacher praised me as being one of the best students she had. My goal in participating in each activity wasn’t to always be the best, but to understand how to become better and to help those around me to achieve similar success.

One of my favorite activities involved my best friend while at BYU-I, Toby Dossett. I was the second counselor in the Elder’s Quorum Presidency in my ward, and the president and first counselor had moved away and left me as the acting president until a new one was called. During a break from school, we arranged to go to the climbing tower above campus and do a climb as a quorum. I invited Toby as he wasn’t in the ward with us, and he and I did a partner climb on a rope ladder with wooden beams. We decided to do the more difficult way and not use the cables on the sides to stabilize ourselves. Each rung got further apart than the last as we got higher, and I didn’t think that we would make it as I still had a small fear of heights. Exhausted and paralyzed by my fear, I received encouragement from the ground below and assistance from Toby and we finally climbed the remainder of the distance to the top of the fifty foot tower. Having literally conquered my fear, I was able to look out over the town of Rexburg and view a part of the beauty that God created as the mountains stretched in the distance.

Not very long after my marriage to my gorgeous Katrina, we celebrated our first pregnancy. Both our families love traditions and one tradition from my parents was that we did not find out the gender of our child before it was born. We did share the news with our families by creating a video and sending it to them as a Christmas present. It led the way to many other creations in our lives and ways of sharing exciting news. Nathan James Johnson was born on July 17, 2008. His grandfathers’ names were selected as we have great hopes that he will pull the best characteristics from each of our fathers and make an excellent member of the Lord’s church. He is curious, has grown quickly, and learns even faster. Before the age of two, he was stating full sentences, running, climbing, playing, eating, and wanting to be potty trained. We are never surprised as he does something new every day.

Only fourteen months later, on September 29, 2009, Alexis Paige was born. She has been an angel in our lives and has grown to be a beautiful and peaceful little girl. Katrina has been able to stay at home with our children as I have gone to school and work for our family. I had the opportunity to talk with my mission president, Bruce Smith, and his encouraging words were again given to me and I passed them on to my wonderful wife. He said that we were doing the right thing in allowing Katrina to teach and raise our own children. There is definitely a pressure for both parents to enter the work-force and provide for their families in today’s modern world, and we have had to make a conscious decision to make sure that our children’s futures contain both their parents. And while we don’t know what the future holds for each of us, we can ensure that we do our parts to make the future a brighter place.

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Mathias Hook

I have a little more information about Mathias Hook who came from Europe. He came from Bavaria, Germany, and traveled on the immigration ship called Snow Betsie (Bettsey). There were 2 spellings used for the name of this ship. It left from Rotterdam, Holland, on Aug. 27, 1739, then went to Deal, England, and from there arrived in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. I will try to do some research on this to verify it, but if you get a chance before me, then let me know what you find out. I got this info from talking with my aunt yesterday. I was also told that he fought in the Revolutionary War.

Carrie Frances Meador

"A short story of my Grandma Hook"
by Susan Hook Johnson

When she was about 6 years old, she was playing on a woodpile that was out back of their house and she fell very hard into a piece of wood. Her leg was injured and she cried and cried, but her family didn't see how it could be that bad so they waited for several days before contacting a doctor. When he finally came to the house, her leg was infected and they discovered that she had splintered a bone in the shin area of her leg. He did surgery right there on the table to remove the splintered part and to scrape the bone.

You can imagine how painful this must have been and how primitive the surgery was compared to how things are done today. Anyway, her leg never did completely heal and she would get infection in it time and time again. I remember seeing it infected on many occasions and she would always "doctor it" herself by putting a poultice on it and then wrapping it in an elastic bandage. She also had a limp as a result of this injury, but it never really slowed her down.

She was such a hard worker and such a cheerful soul. Her laugh was infectious and her heart was a heart of gold. She worked from sunup to sundown, but always had time to visit with anyone who came to see her and usually had lots of baked goods on hand just in case she had company.

Esther Lily Holst

My Ancestry

"The future is here, now, and the past is full of actual deeds, real history." - Patricia Hampl

I find this quote enthralling as I am always looking forward to the future and wondering what it may hold. In so many cases of my ancestors, I often forget the real things that they did in their lives and the stories that they made that have helped me compose my own life. When I contemplate my grandparents, all deceased now, I don't even know their life stories or their accomplishments. I know small tidbits of information about each of them, some of their hobbies and past-times, but not a lot about what made them people, and more imporantly, what part of them was passed on to me through my parents. When I think of my own children I want them to have the knowledge of their ancestors and what significance they have had in my life. I truly am grateful for my pregenetors and all the experiences that they have had that have allowed me to be where I am right now. I have a love for them and want their story to be shared.

Research and Information

This page is for anyone who has information or additional research that they have done to assist me in my geneological quest. Please make sure to give as much information as possible so that anyone can back track the work that has been done. After all, geneology without sources can create a lot of unnecessary extra work. If you have any type of certificate (birth, marriage, death, etc...) please include that in your notes and feel free to give us a phone number to contact you at so that we can possilby get a copy for our own records. Thanks so much.

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Johnson & Hook Family Histories

5 generations