ANDREW JOHNSON was born in Finland on February 12, 1864, the son of John (Tog) and Maggie Michelson. Maggie was from Sweden. Andy immigrated to the US in 1888, coming through Ellis Island. He worked in mines in Wyoming and in a copper mine in Montana, then went to Death Valley for gold, and finally came to Alaska looking for gold. He went down the Yukon River on a raft with two men and it was said that both of the other men were robbed and killed.
Andy arrived in Kodiak on the Steamer Dora and soon thereafter married Harriet Susanna Bowen. Born on December 13, 1888 in Kodiak, she was the daughter of Captain Henry and Barbara Bowen. Andy and Hattie had eight daughters, including Susan, Mary, Florence, and Harriett (Hattie) born in Kodiak, and Elsie, born in Seldovia. Five of the girls died young, one from a bee sting she got while burying bees in holes in the bank. Two died as infants and two died of the flu. Susan, Hattie and Elsie survived to adulthood.
Andy was listed as a salmon fisherman in Seldovia census records by 1910. He was also a netmaker, and while in Finland he made wooden pegs for boats. He built a 30 foot boat named the Elsie.
In 1934 he was a 70 year old widower, living with his 16 year old daughter Elsie and working at a salmon cannery. They lived in a cabin with 4 rooms and a well nearby.
Their daughter Harriet Kathrine Johnson married Thomas K. Fox, brother, of Katherine Fox Vinberg Kashavarov. Mae Annette Fox Sharp writes that her grandfather walked in his sleep and his daughter, her mother, had to keep a wet towel by the outside door as he would go into the pantry and mix up all the barrels of peas, beans, and rice in his sleep.
The family’s log house was just above the waterfront; later Morris’s store and house was in front. Mae Annette’s brother built a big playhouse in the yard, with a five-gallon gas can as the stove. At some point it burned down and it wasn’t until many years later that she learned her brother had done it on purpose because their friend Louie and a girl were “necking” in it! When the family moved, the Morris family bought the property and built another house.
Hattie died March 3, 1931 and Andy died July 13, 1940. They are buried beside each other in the Seldovia Cemetery, Plots #36 and #37.**