Harold Charles Johnson, the first son of Charles G. and Edith R. Ash Johnson, was born 6 November 1899 in the two room brick home his parents built and moved into early in 1897, in the southwest corner of the intersection on 1600 North 950 West, Orem, Utah, then the Lindon Ward, and a part of the Pleasant Grove school precinct and Alpine Stake. He was the second grandson of Andrew G. Johnson, but the first one to bear the Johnson name so was always quite the favorite of his paternal grandfather.

The family lived in this little home until April 1905, and two more sisters and a brother were born there, and it was while here that Father went on his mission to Sweden in April 1902 and returned in May 1904, which Harold claims to remember very clearly.

When September 1906 rolled around Harold commenced his schooling at the Lindon School and continued to attend school there until he finished the eighth grade in 1915. In September 1915 he enrolled in the freshman classes at Pleasant Grove High School, he and Elmer Whiteley taking turns driving a horse and buggy to school and back each day. In the fall of 1916 Father's duties as Ward Bishop and other positions he held took so much of his time from the farm work and chores that Harold was unable to start his second year at Pleasant Grove High, but after the fall work was done he registered for the winter quarter at B.Y.U. where he continued his lessons on the violin having started with the violin while in grade school. He enjoyed his work at the "Y" that winter though it meant getting up early in the morning to get chores done, then walking to the Harris Station to catch the Orem train (electric) to Provo, then the walk from the station there to the "Y", a distance of five blocks.

When the winter quarter was over he came back to the grind of spring farm work, besides the cows to milk each morning and night. All this work and responsibility made him seem much older than his years and I guess he felt it too, for that summer of 1917 he became engaged to Eva York, just two months his junior, and they were married in November 1917, two weeks after he turned eighteen.

They began their housekeeping together in the northwest room of Aunt Louisa Ogden's old home, where his sister Leona and her husband were living then. They stayed there for about one year, where their son Earl was born August 31, 1918. Soon after this they moved into the little home Uncle Tom and Aunt Beda Russon built just south of Martin Walker's fruit stand, with the intention of buying it. But father was unable to keep up the work on his place, along with his other work, and it was hard to find help, so in the early spring of 1921 Harold, Eva and their two small boys moved into the two north rooms of father's home, and took over twenty acres of the farm. In September 1922, when things began to tighten up and the railroad strike occurred, Harold, along with a number of other farmers from the Bench went to Soldier Summit to work for the railroad and soon sent for Eva and the children. They rented a fairly large house and took in roomers, so they really made the money for those days.

After the strike ended and the old railroad men began coming back to their jobs, Harold and Eva decided they didn't want to come back to the farm with its long hours of hard work and very little cash, so they moved to Magna and Harold went to work in the Smelters there, but he was still a farmer at heart, so after about two years there they moved back to Orem. In 1927 he leased the farm of James Thorne, now the Orem Stake Welfare Farm, or rather, a part of it. They remained here two years then leased the old Jex place with an option to buy it, but for some unknown reason it was sold to Brother J. W. Gillman without giving Harold a chance on his option. So once again they were on the move. From the Jex place they went to Payson on a large farm owned by Ralph Bullock of Provo. This ranch was at West Mountain, the children riding the bus into School at Payson, but attending Primary, Sunday School and Church in the Benjamin Ward.

During their last year at Benjamin, Harold managed to build a basement home on the northeast corner of Eva's father's land, next to the home of her sister Edna, also some large coops, and so they moved back to Orem once again, and here Annabeth, Glade and Byron were born, and the other children began school at Lindon and Pleasant Grove High School and in 1940 their three oldest children were married and in June 1941 Sterling, the next in line joined the U.S. Navy and was off to fight in the Pacific wars. Leo was also in the Navy, leaving his wife with her folks in Pleasant Grove.

With the boys gone, and no one to herd turkeys, Harold went to work on construction at Geneva Steel, but when the plant went into production he quit work there. The war was on and there vas a crying need for all kinds of farm produce, so after scouting around for a suitable place and finding a buyer for his home, he moved his remaining family to a large farm just west of Jerome, Idaho.

They were very happy here and enjoying their farm life, though Eva often got lonesome for her three eldest, still in Utah. The children liked school in Jerome and all enjoyed the activities in the Ward, Eva working in Relief Society and Harold in the M.I.A. and Seventies Quorum.

They had been on the farm about four years when Harold injured his back and knee and was forced to give up such strenuous work. So they sold the farm and moved in Jerome and Harold got work in a furniture store in town. Eva liked this much better than the farm and it meant much more time for activities for Annabeth, Glade and Byron. But it wasn't the job to keep Harold, so as soon as his health would permit, he bought a large truck and started trucking hay and grain into Utah, Nevada and Oregon, then taking coal into Idaho from Utah, and now in 1957 he and Sterling are driving trucks, but it is hard work, and telling on his health in many ways.

They have had many hardships and misfortune to bear but have always managed to make a good home for their children, and to keep interested and active in the Church and community affairs.

Eva misses the companionship of here children very much, for they are all gone from home now except Byron and Sterling, they live close to home. She misses also her mother, sister and brothers, who are still in Orem, but she has been a true and faithful companion and wife to the man she married almost forty years ago, which proves that all young marriages are not failures.