Nine children were born to Anna and Karl Johnson of Smolan, Sweden. They were Emma and Wilhelm who died in infancy, John, Claus, S. Gustaf, Carolina Johnson, Jo Hanna (Larson) Josephina (Erickson) and Matilda (Larson). Gust was born Sept. 5, 1866. Gust was 19 years old when the family emigrated to America in 1885, settling in Scandia, Kansas. In 1886 he moved to Rawlins county where he took a preemption on a timber claim. The land is located in Laing township, NE V4 section 7-3-31. Gust and Hulda lived there the next 68 years until moving to Oberlin, Kansas, in 1944. Treeless prairies did not provide lumber for buildings, therefore, Gust made, and lived in a dugout for five or six years.

During this period other settlers came to his dugout where they were taught to speak, read and write the English language. Gust had some schooling in Sweden, but this was the extent of his education in the United States. Settlers were faced with many difficulties. Water wells had not yet been drilled and fire wood was scarce except on creeks. Gust hauled water a mile in a barrel on a sled pulled by a team of mules. This practice was continued until a well was drilled which is still operational in 1987. Prairie fires were common. On one occasion Gust fought a fire by plowing the sod with a walking plow pulled by a team of mules. He became so exhausted he did not know when he put the team in the dugout barn, or when he went to bed. The dugout horse barn was replaced with a frame barn in 1906. Gust replaced the dugout home with a sod house, which was later replaced with a frame house in 1920.
1974