Bertha Johnson

Girl from Stone Lake Bertha Johnson Rev edition

She was born in a shack in a lumber camp in the back woods of Wisconsin. Dad left his home in Pleasant Valley, Minnesota as a boy of sixteen, bumming his way to Yellow Stone Park in Wyoming, where he drove a four horse wagon and fought the wild bears! Dad and Mother were married in Colorado where he worked on the trains. They moved a lot, to Texas, Kansas, Georgia and Little Rock, Arkansaw. Dad and Mother left Little Rock in a model T Ford with three children, heading for Sioux Falls, South Dakota. When the car broke down, they traded for a team of horses and a covered wagon, and continued their journey. My sister Henryetta was born in that covered wagon at Henryetta, Oklahoma. After a couple of years in Sioux Falls, they were on the road again to Draper, Wisconsin where The Girl was born. Granny drove her horse and buggy to the gate of the Ludlow Mine, reached down and pulled out her shotgun and said -"Get out of my way or I'll blow your head off!" When the Ludlow Colorado Mine massacre was over, all that was left was a bunch of ashes and a few pot-bellied stoves. Al Capone and his gang of hoodlums would stop at the farm, put the car in the barn under some hay, and spend the night.