John "Ironman" Johnson

[riivari]

Hello everybody

I read a interesting book about the epidemic in Nome 1925 and found a interesting name.That John Johnson was a finn was familiar but that he was a swedish speaking Finn was new to me.
Below a sentence from the site below:
driven by John "Iron Man" Johnson, a Swedish Finn, came in first with an elapsed time of 74 hours, 14 minutes, 37 seconds, the best ever time for the 408 mile race held annually through 1917.
http://desertsunhuskies.com/SiberianHuskyFAQ's.html

Could anyone with access to the census for Nome do a lookup on this,just to get on the "track"?I would be interesting to know where he came from.

John Johnson never raced again after the 1914 AAS, except for a short exhibition race in Truckee, California in January 1915 (he won it.) He later became a deckhand on a trading ship plying the Bering Sea waters.
www.sdas.org.uk/part_3.htm

[syrene]

In K-G Olin's book, Alaska, Part II, Goldrushen, page 122-124
the story of John Johnson's exciting win of the 1908 "All Alaska Sweepstakes Race". Johnson was born in Åbo in 1871. He ran a team owned by Maule "Fox" Ramsay. He cites several sources on page 247.

Regards,

Syrene

[syrene]

Ancestry.com lists 83 references to John Johnson, although we don't have the newspaper service. I think the ones around the date of the first race are probably the ones you seek.
Syrene

[kpaavola]

Hi Richard,
I found the following in the 1920 census for Nome, Alaska.

Name: John Johnson
Age: 48 years
Estimated birth year: 1871
Birthplace: Finland
Race: White
Home in 1920: Cape Nome, Second Judicial District, Alaska Territory

This was the only Johnson in Nome that was Finnish (one Swedish and one Norwegian). This John was listed as born in Finland and spoke Finnish. His occupation was listed as a seaman.

Could this be him? (I just noticed Syrene's message with birth year of 1871 so it looks possible).

[kpaavola]

By the way, if I recall correctly, he immigrated in 1896. I didn't notice if he was married. I just glanced at that portion quickly but believe he was not. If you'd like me to go back and recheck, I'd be happy to.

[riivari]

Good Afternoon Kevin,

Please do the recheck that you proposed.I have tried to connect to Ellis Island tonigth(without success), just to check if I could find the guy there.It must be something wrong with the database tonight.
And thank you all for the replies.

Salutations

Richard

[jeanette]

On the Heritage Quest Scandinavians in the 1910 US Federal Census there is only one listing for a John JOHNSON in Cape Nome
Could this be the same man
JOHNSON John W. age 34 b. Finland
2 Division Cape Nome T624-roll 1749 part 1 page 119 subpage B

There is a listing for a John C. JANSON age 36 and an Aaron JANSON age 48 but no one matching the 1871 birthyear listed as a Head of Household.

Jeanette

[kpaavola]

Hi Richard,
Below I have attached the census image for John Johnson as found in Nome, Alaska. He is indeed single.

The bottom part of the image shows his occupation listed as "Seaman - coastwise". I'm not sure exactly what "coastwise" means.