Horses and a cowboy hat! Those are two things that come to mind when one talks about Earnest Johnson. About the most important thing in his life were his horses. They are what brought him to Griggs County. In 1893 he brought a load of horses to Cooperstown for his father and other farmers who lived in Minnesota. Earnest decided he would like to live here, and in the spring of 1894 he came to Cooperstown, and worked for Hammer and Condy. His work was to buy and herd horses. The winters were very severe, and he endured many hardships. In 1896 and 1897, which is called the I snow winter, " he hauled the mail from Sanborn as the trains were snowbound. The only road he had to follow was the railroad track, which was often hard to find. He made six trips during the winter.
He purchased his own livery barn, and continued buying and selling horses, hauling mail and providing transportation for the doctors and others in the community. Earnest Johnson was born November 28, 1874, to Ole Lars Johnson, and Caroline Steenrup Johnson, near Farmington, Minnesota. He married Natalie Rood November 29, 1895, at Cooperstown.
The week he was to be married he was sent out to get a herd of cattle. As usual there was a blizzard. He took refuge from the storm in a small house. He waited three days for the storm to clear up. That day he remembered it was his birthday, and the day he was to be married. Rather than disappoint his future wife before they were even married, he started out driving the cattle. It was hard, slow work due to the storm. He finally got the cattle to the Hammer and Condy farm, which was eight miles from Cooperstown. He hurried his horse, and finally reached town. His bride-to-be was waiting for him, and they were married at 10:00 PM that night.
After his marriage he settled down to real bronco busting. This afforded him many runaways. On one trip the team ran away, and the pole went into the ground hurling the wagon far into the air. Earnest fell out hitting the pole. He was unconscious for several hours. When he fell, he injured his ear severely, which caused the blood to flow. As the day was very cold, the blood froze, and this cold ice caused him to become conscious again. This trip cost him much physically as his face became paralyzed on one side - this was only temporary, however - and he cracked his ear drum which caused him to be partially deaf the rest of his life.
In 1906 he took a claim near New England, North Dakota. He went to Dickinson by train and to New England by stage. Then he went by team to look for land and found some that was satisfactory, ten miles from town between Rainy Buttes and the Teepees. Their home was a one room frame shanty 14x16, and sod outside. They had three children by this time, Willie, Melvin and Olga.
In the fall his brother filed on a claim near Earnest's land. That winter there was a diphtheria epidemic. Two of his brother's children died, and Earnest started across the snow-laden hills to purchase coffins at Dickinson, which was forty miles away. His children also got the disease, and his oldest son died. The winter was very cold but they succeeded in getting sufficient fuel from the coal veins in the Badlands.
In 1907 he moved back to Cooperstown. He sold his livery barn, and bought the "West Prairie" stock farm, which was on Section 8 in Kingsley Township. Here he started raising racehorses. He made a track on the farm so he could train them.
In the spring before the roads were even dry, he would drive his horses on his cart around the neighborhood. He often named his horses after people he knew. The following were the names of some of them:
Mollie Moe, Dora Wayne, Elmer Clark, and Hal M. During the summer he would race his horses at the County and State fairs in North Dakota.
In 1925 Earnest was elected sheriff of Griggs County, and served one term. He then went back to his farm. His wife died in 1938, and he lived with his daughter, Olga, Mrs. Harry McLaughlin, of Hendrum, Minnesota, most of the time after that until his death on November 8, 1941.
His children were Willie, Casper, Melvin, and Arthur, who are all deceased, and Mrs. McLaughlin who still lives in Hendrum, and Louella Johnson of Anoka, Minnesota.
Source: Griggs County History 1879 - 1976 Page 325