Anna Maria Larson, was born in Ekeskog, Skaraborg, Sweden, daughter of Lars Ekholm (Grek) and Katrina Swenson, July 10, 1819, their second child, the first one being a son. Ekeskog was a farming community, so Anna grew up in the beautiful wooded farmlands of Sweden, learning to care for the livestock, to milk, make butter and cheese, and also how to wash, card, spin and weave the wool from the sheep, then make the cloth into the family clothing and other necessary household articles.

Schooling was very limited in those days, especially in the country, consisting mostly in learning to read the Bible, the Lutheran minister in the different villages being the teacher, as the Lutheran Church was the State religion. When they had learned to read and completed reading the Bible through for the minister their education was, as a rule, considered complete especially for the girls. The boys were required to spend five years in Military training, those attaining any rank, were given an Army name, which they could retain or discard after their service was over. Anna's father kept his Army name (Grek) so the children retained it also, added to their regular surname of Larson, which was derived from the father's first name, (Lars).

Anna Maria was rather small in body, with blue eyes and brown hair, and a pleasant, sunny disposition, she grew into young womanhood in this quiet, happy farming village, doing the same as the other young girls, herding the cattle in the near-by hills during the pleasant, sunny summers, and helping with the numerous tasks of the farm and house-hold in the winter. She grew into an attractive young lady, not in the ways of the world, but in the purity and simplicity of this beautiful country life, lived so close to mother nature.

In the adjoining village of Brevik, young Jonas Johnson had been born, and grown up in much the same conditions, No one now living knows just how or why they met, but in the great scheme for the creation and peopling of this world, they did meet, learn to know and love each other, and in 1843 they began a new life together as man and wife, and from then on their life and history was welded into one. She lived just nine months, after her companion was laid to rest, passing from this life Jan. 13, 1905.

To the great grandchildren it was a great loss, for her modest, but pleasant and always welcoming home was the place we always had to run to, when we came to grandfather's home, just across the street. Great grand-mother knew and loved her little ones, as she always called us, and knew what to do to please us, and we were never disappointed. Always there was some little treat in store, a cooky, and what good sugar cookies she could make, a bowl of good swedish fruit soup and a slice of Swedish sweet bread or coffee cake, or if nothing else was at hand, a few sugar cubes, from the jar on the top shelf in her kitchen cupboard, or some peppermint candy from the deep pocket of her apron, sometimes it was a slice of her good bread, spread with sweet cream and sprinkled generously with sugar, and always given with a beautiful smile and a loving little pat on the cheek. It was hard for us to understand her or great grandfather's broken speech, but we knew we were loved and always welcome in their home, and so the memory of them shall always linger with those of us who were old enough to live just a few short years in their life time.

This short sketch of Jonas Johnson and Anna Maria Larson was written by olive Johnson Stark, daughter of Charles Gustave Johnson, son of Andrew Gustave Johnson, who was the first son of Jonas and Anna Maria, and the first of their children to make a home in this new land, so far from their native country. Tho but three of their nine children lived to rear families, they have a large posterity who love and revere this wonderful couple, and the heritage they gave them, not a herita8e of great wealth, but one of honest integrity, of industriousness, of love for home and family and of faith in our Heavenly Father.

Source: Jonas Johnson Family Book (1600-1970)

Scanned into computer by Steven Glade Johnson 01/18/03.