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Elsie Wilhelmina Johnson

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Elsie Wilhelmina Johnson
birth: 1 May 1896 in Miller, Gary, Lake, Indiana to Anders Ludvig “Gust” and Lovisa “Louise” Carlson Johannesson Johnson
death: 25 July 1968 in Gary, Lake, Indiana
burial: Ridgelawn Cemetery, Glen Park, Lake, Indiana

marriage: 16 October 1919 Lake, Indiana
George Bryant Harbaugh
birth: 4 April 1894 in St. Joseph, Indiana to George Frederick and Margaret E. “Maggie” Long Harbaugh
death: 29 December 1954 in LaPorte, LaPorte, Indiana
burial: Ridgelawn Cemetery, Glen Park, Lake, Indiana

Children of Elsie Wilhelmina Johnson and George Bryant Harbaugh:

  • Betty Jean Harbaugh (1922-1988) m. William Louis Samuelson
  • George Willard Harbaugh (1924-2004) m. Dorothy Louise Skogseth
  • Glenn Robert Harbaugh (1928-1995)

Ancestor here lived in:

  • Gary, Lake County, Indiana

Other Information:

Elsie Wilhelmina Johnson was the middle daughter born to immigrants Anders Ludvig “Gust” and Lovisa “Louise” Carlson Johannesson Johnson on 1 May 1896 in Miller, now Gary, Lake, Indiana. Elsie attended the Hobart school system through grade 8, graduating on the Honor Roll on 9 June 1911. She had also received Honor Roll and Reading Awards in previous school years which is a testament to her dedication to her studies. At age 10, Elsie’s father past away leaving her mother to make ends meet by taking in borders. The family attended the Miller Swedish Bethel Evangelical Lutheran Church where Elsie received her confirmation on 21 April 1912. She became a member of the Miller Congregational Church, later known as Chapel of The Dunes and received the Cross and Crown Attendance Certificate on 22 December 1912. She found work as a mother’s helper in Miller and met George Bryant Harbaugh who was working as a security guard for the railroad. Their plans for marriage were interrupted when George was mustered into the Infantry to fight overseas in World War I. Elsie kept every letter she received from George. The couple married on 16 October 1919 in Gary, Lake, Indiana. Their first residence was on Michigan Street in Miller which had just become incorporated into Gary. The couple had two children by 1925 when George finished building a Sears kit home at 6209 Miller Avenue. The home, in a box, had been delivered via the nearby railroad. Their last child was born three years later. Elsie was active as a parishioner of Chapel of the Dunes Church, the C.O.P Club, Lake County Chapter No. 80 of the Military Auxilliary of the Purple Heart and with the Order of the Eastern Star. Her association with the Purple Heart came about due to her husband’s World War 1 injuries and must have been difficult during World War 2 when her son, George, was shot down over Italy and taken as a POW by the Germans. Her son was also awarded the Purple Heart. During this time her daughter’s husband received a military medical discharge and was living with Elsie and George Bryant. Elsie’s first grandchild died as an infant and her second was mentally handicapped. On 29 December 1954, her husband George, while working as a fireman at the Kingsburgy Ordinace Plant in LaPorte, died from injuries he received in a fall from the roof a few days earlier. By 1959 she gave her home to her daughter’s growing family and moved around the corner in a smaller home once owned by her son George Willard. Her six remaining grandchildren have fond memories of Elsie. She died on 25 July 1968 at Mercy Hospital, Gary, Lake, Indiana of hypertension. After a funeral service at Chapel of the Dunes arranged by Lach Funeral Home she was buried besides her husband and mother at Ridgelawn Cemetery, Glen Park, Lake, Indiana.

Submitted by:
Lori Samuelson
Email: genealogyatheart@gmail.com

Elsie Wilhelmina Johnson

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Elsie Wilhelmina Johnson
birth: 1 May 1896 in Miller now Gary, Lake, Indiana to Anders Ludvig “Gust” and Lovisa “Louise” Carlson Johannesson/Johnson
death: 25 July 1968 in Gary, Lake, Indiana
burial: Ridgelawn Cemetery, Gary, Lake, Indiana

marriage: 16 October 1919 Lake, Indiana
George Bryant Harbaugh
birth: 4 April 1894 in St. Joseph, Indiana to George Frederick and Margaret E. “Maggie” Long Harbaugh
death: 29 December 1954 in LaPorte, LaPorte, Indiana
burial: Ridgelawn Cemetery, Gary, Lake, Indiana

Children of Elsie Wilhelmina Johnson and George Bryant Harbaugh:

  • Betty Jean Harbaugh 1922-1988 William Lewis Samuelson
  • George Willard Harbaugh 1924-2004 Dorothy Louise Skogseth
  • Glenn Robert Harbaugh 1928-1995

Ancestor here lived in:

  • LaPorte, LaPorte, Indiana
  • Gary, Lake, Indiana

Other Information:

Elsie Wilhelmina Johnson was the daughter of Anders Ludvig “Gust” Johannesson and his second wife, Lovisa “Louise” Carlson. Anders changed his name to Gust Johnson after arriving in the U.S. from Norra Vi, Östergötland, Sweden, on 14 March 1882 with his first wife, Thilda “Anna Matilda” Johansdotter, and six children. Gust and Anna had four more children born in Lake, Indiana before she died. Gust married second on 16 September 1893 in Miller, now Gary, Lake, Indiana. Elsie was the middle child of three daughters from that union. Gust, a laborer on the railroad, died when Elsie was 10. Louise took in boarders. Elsie attended school in Miller which was under the direction of the Hobart, Lake, Indiana school district. She commenced her education in grade 8 on 9 June 1911. Elsie struggled in Algebra and excelled in all other subjects. A member of the Swedish Bethel Lutheran Church in Miller, Elsie attended the Miller Congregation Sunday School; she was confirmed on 21 April 1912. At the time she began dating her future husband, George Bryant Harbaugh, Elsie was employed as a mother’s helper to a Mrs. Meyers in Miller. Elsie and George Bryant had discussed marriage, however, WWI got in the way. Elsie lovingly saved each letter George Bryant wrote home to her during his wartime service in Europe. How frightening it must have been for her as she learned time and time again he had been injured and was recuperating in a base hospital, especially knowing that other Miller boys had been killed. George Bryant had purchased a camera for Elsie and she dutifully took photos of his Miller friends, hoping to cheer him. On 22 May 1919 Elsie received a telgram that George Bryant had made it back to the U.S. safely. The couple were wed by Edward Stark on 16 October 1919 in Lake, Indiana during a violent time in the community; a labor strike had shut down all work at U.S. Steel Corporation. George Bryant and Elsie purchased their first home on Michigan Avenue in the Miller section of Gary, next door to her mother and sister, Helen and five homes away from her sister Ruth who had married Bert Thompson. The couple purchased a Sears & Roebuck model home, the Westly, for $2,614.00 and had it delivered by railroad. George Bryant assembled the two story home and in 1925,the family moved in. Three children were born within six years, all were baptized at Augustana Lutheran Church. Since George Bryant had become a City of Gary fireman, the family was largely unaffected by the Great Depression. Luckily, the firehouse was just down the street from their new home. Elsie was a homemaker while George Bryant worked his way up to Lieutenant with the fire department. During WW2, the couple’s middle child, George Willard, was injured in a plane crash over Italy and became a POW. Like his father, George WIllard returned home to Indiana and had earned a Purple Heart. Elsie became a widow on 29 December 1954 when George Bryant died from a pulmonary embolism and pneumonia after a fall from a ladder while working as a fireman for the Kingsbury Ordnance Plant in LaPorte, LaPorte, Indiana. After his death, Elsie moved to a smaller home behind her son Glenn’s home on Miller Avenue in Gary. Her daughter, Betty, and Betty’s family, have moved into the Sear’s kit home. For a time, son George Willard also lived in the neighborhood on Howard Street. Elsie was fondly remembered by her grandchildren and dearly missed when she died of hypertension on 25 July 1968 in Gary, Lake, Indiana. A funeral service was arranged by Lach Funeral Home and conducted by Reverence C. Earl Page at the Chapel of the Dunes, Gary, Lake, Indiana. She was interred at Ridgelawn Cemetery in the Glen Park neighborhood of Gary next to her husband in Section 9, Lot 377, Grave 2 South.

For further information on Elsie Johnson and the Harbaugh family:
Lori Samuelson. Perseverence Amidst Adversity: The Ancestry of Three George Harbaughs. Amazon ebook, 2016.
Contact the submitter for a transcription of The Diary of Mary Ann Eyster Johnson. Submitter is currently working on an ebook about George Bryant’s military service during WW1.

Submitted by:
Lori Samuelson
Email: genealogyatheart@gmail.com

George Bryant Harbaugh

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George Bryant Harbaugh
birth: 4 April 1894 in St. Joseph, Indiana to George Frederick and Margaret E. “Maggie” Long Harbaugh
death: 29 December 1954 in LaPorte, LaPorte, Indiana
burial: Ridgelawn Cemetery, Gary, Lake, Indiana

marriage: 16 October 1919 in Lake, Indiana
Elsie Wilhelmina Johnson
birth: 1 May 1896 in Miller, now Gary, Lake, Indiana to Anders Ludvig “Gust” and Lovisa “Louse” Carlson Johannesson/Johnson
death: 25 July 1968 in Gary, Lake, Indiana
burial: Ridgelawn Cemetery, Gary, Lake, Indiana

Children of Elsie Wilhelmina Johnson and George Bryant Harbaugh:

  • Betty Jean Harbaugh 1922-1988 William Lewis Samuelson
  • George Willard Harbaugh 1924-2004 Dorothy Louise Skogseth
  • Glenn Robert Harbaugh 1928-1995

Ancestor here lived in:

  • St. Joseph, Indiana
  • LaPorte, LaPorte, Indiana
  • Gary, Lake, Indiana

Other Information:

George Bryant Harbaugh was the eighth child and sixth son of George Frederick and Margaret E. “Maggie” Long Harbaugh. Born on 5 April 1894 in St. Joseph County, Indiana, his father was a teacher/principal and farmer while his mother was a homemaker. Unlike George Bryant’s father who had completed high school, he likely commenced his education in the 8th grade. His early years found him surrounded by a large family that included his great Aunt Mary Ann Eyster Johnson and Great Uncle William Johnson, maternal Grandmother Betsy, paternal Grandfather Pap,and numerous aunts, uncles, and older cousins. In childhood, George Bryant accompanied his father and siblings on fishing trips; the family owned a bicycle by 1897. George Bryant’s older brother, Grover, was an avid ornithologist and the family also had pet cats. Living on a farm, George Bryant was surrounded by cows, chickens, sheep, pigs, and horses. By 1910, George Bryant was employed as a farm laborer on his family’s farm. The family had made frequent trips to Chicago, Cook, Illinois so it is not surprising that George Bryant found work there beginning on 1 May 1917 as a watchman on the Elgin, Joliet, and Eastern Railroad. His monthly salary was $96.00 with additional income for dinner, supper, and rail car fares incurred on the job. His route took him as far west as Joliet, Illinois and as far east as Gary, Lake, Indiana. With the onset of WWI, George Bryant filed for a draft exemption in Miller, Lake, Indiana based on his occupation but it was not granted. In June 1917 he was listed as a single, tall, slender Caucasian with gray eyes and dark hair. George Bryant made the news on 28 July 1917 when, in the course of his duties, he was involved in a shootout with an employee at Gary’s American Sheet and Tin Plate Company who was brandishing a gun and threatening employees. George Bryant shot the man, Peter Pavelich, in the abdomen; he later died at Mercy Hospital in Gary. It is not known where George Bryant met his sweetheart, Elsie Wilhelmina Johnson, who lived in Miller, Lake, Indiana but the couple was discussing marriage when George Bryant enlisted on 30 March 1918 in Crown Point, Lake, Indiana. He arrived at Camp Taylor, Kentucky the following day. He was disappointed as he had hoped he would be sent to Fort Benjamin Harrison in Indianapolis, closer to Elsie, instead. At the time, George Bryant believed the war would be won and he would return home by fall stating “If Kaiser Bill could see what resources the U.S. has back of her I think he would say enough.” Instead, he boarded a train on 28 April 1918 for Camp Upton, New York. During a stop in Columbus,Bartholomew, Indiana, he sent Elsie a postcard to update her on his travels. The train trip took him through the hills of Pennsylvania and only 67 miles from his father’s birthplace in Waynesboro, Franklin, Pennsylvania. Arriving at Camp Upton he learned he was supposed to have been sent to Camp Mills so after being dropped off at Union Depot in New York CIty, marching 12 blocks through New York to a ferry, he crossed the Hudson River by ferry boat, and took the NYC & H River Ry to Camp Merritt. Why he did not go the Camp Mills is unknown. On 6 May he set sail for Europe with the D Company, 112th Infantry. Ironically, that regiment began in the Civil War and included the 13th, 15th and 17th Pennyslvania Regiments that had once served at Gettysburg, The current members were composed of Pennsylvanians from the area in which his ancestors had resided for generations. George Bryant arrived “somewhere in Europe” on 15 May 1918; he was in Calais, France the following day. He was first injured by gas in the battle to capture Vaux at Chateau-Thierry. The fighting had been fierce and he reported that less than 100 men out of the company of 250 survived. Next George Bryant battled the Dutch; he wrote to Elsie, “Well, Dear, I think we have learned them that the Yanks aren’t here merely to look on, but we are here to settle the fuss…” George Bryant was injured again in the Argonne Forest and was assigned to Base Hospital 56 by 1 October. He had survived the Meuse-Argonne Offensive. George Bryant experienced Armistice Day in a hospital bed; he reported that “At 4 P.M raise H-l…I was in bed yet then but we sure yelled…Bells all over France rang and everybody was happy, believe me.” He went on boast “it was a So. Bend boy who fired the first shot fired by U.S. troops over a year ago in Alsace Lorraine.” “This war is won ‘Thanks to the Yanks.'” George Bryant was released from the hospital on 15 December and sent to a convalescent camp in Allery, France. He was looking forward to returning home; he had been offered his old job back at E. J. & E. He was hopeful that Elsie and he would wed by June. Unfortunately, he developed acute bronchitis and bronco pneumonia so he was hospitalized at Camp Hospital 52. He lost 30 pounds and was so ill, the Red Cross brought his brother, Grover, to visit him. It was then that he learned that the 1918 Flu Epidemic had impacted his family at home in Indiana. George Bryant returned to the U.S. on 22 May 1919 via the US Transport Manchuria. He was assigned to Camp Merritt, New Jersey, then to Camp Sherman, Ohio. He was discharged on 14 June 1919. For his combat injuries, George Bryant was awarded a Purple Heart. George Bryant returned to Miller, Lake, Indiana and back to his old job at E. J. & E. Unfortunately, a labor strike occurred at U.S. Steel that halted work. It was during that turbulent time, on 16 October 1919, that George Bryant wed Elsie Wilhelmina Johnson in Lake County, Indiana, with Edward Stark officiating. After the strike, George Bryant was hired as a policeman at the steel mills. The couple purchased a home on Michigan Avenue in the Miller section of Gary, next door to Elsie’s widowed mother and her sister, Helen. Elsie’s sister, Ruth, lived five homes away with her husband, Bert Thompson. George Bryant and Elsie purchased a Sears & Roebuck model home, the Westly, via the dry goods catalogue for $2,614.00. It was delivered by railroad and the two story home was assembled by George Bryant. In 1925,the family moved in. Three children were born during the next six years, all were baptized at Augustana Lutheran Church. George Bryant decided to change occupations and became a fireman, perhaps the steel strike had made him seek more stable employment. During the Great Depression, George Bryant continued to be employed as a chauffeur with the Gary Fire Department. In his free time, George Bryant dabbled as an entrepreneur; he designed and marketed a crystal radio beginning in the Winter of 1925. He charged $6.00 for the radio that did not come in a cabinet or .25 for a blueprint. Purchasers reported that they could get a signal 360 miles from their home. Even though it was Prohibition, one satisfied customer promised to send a “nice quart of wine.” George Bryant again made the front page of the local newspaper in April 1937 when he was injured while fighting a fire on Miller Avenue and Howard Street in Gary. About this time he was promoted to Lieutenant. Luckily for the family, the firehouse was a half block from their home. George Bryant’s eldest son, George Willard, was drafted into WW2. After his own war time experience, it must have been difficult for him as a father to bear. Like his father, George Willard was injured, taken as a POW, and returned home earning a Purple Heart. After WW2, George Bryant transferred from fire fighter to being a fire protection agent. He also began working as a fireman at the Kingsbury Ordnance Plant in LaPorte, LaPorte, Indiana. On 13 December 1954, at 1:15 PM he accidentally fell from a ladder while at work. He was transported to Holy Family Hospital in LaPorte. He developed pneumonia and a pulmonary embolism. After 16 days of treatment, George Bryant died. It was the third time in his life that he had made the front page news. He is buried in Ridgelawn Cemetery in the Glen Park section of Gary, Lake, Indiana.

For further information on George Bryant and the Harbaugh family:
Lori Samuelson. Perseverence Amidst Adversity: The Ancestry of Three George Harbaughs. Amazon ebook, 2016.
Contact the submitter for a transcription of The Diary of Mary Ann Eyster Johnson. Submitter is currently working on an ebook about George Bryant’s military service during WW1.

Submitted by:
Lori Samuelson
Email: genealogyatheart@gmail.com