Johnson Sisters
Henry, Cotta, George
Written on Back of Photo:
Taken May, 1904 the day before
Father left for Germany with Uncle Martin.
3 Jolly Brothers.
As a young boy, I collected coins and stamps. My Grandpa Abram Hey was influential in this. I vividly recall one afternoon at Grandma Hey's house. Her cousin, Robert Johnson (adopted son of Henry) came to visit his cousin, my Grandma Hey. Robert was career Air Force (as I recall), and told me that he had been in his office in Turkey (I believe), when a boy brought news that construction workers had unearthed some antiquities. Robert showed me some ancient coins that he had acquired from this find. Needless to say, I was duly impressed. (recollection by Steve J. Dean)
Henrietta & Cotta
"I had come to visit Grandma Holtzman and found her sitting in her dining room visiting with someone. She introduced me to her brother Henry, who had come from Parkersburg, Iowa, to see her. I don't recall much of the conversation except that he managed a lumber company in Parkersburg. I saw Uncle George once at Uncle Otto's (Aunt Gert's husband) funeral when Mother and I went to Ackley for the service in 1946, but did not meet him. We stopped at his home in Parkersburg to visit with him on our way back to Illinois, but he was not at home. Of course, I never met Cotta since he had died years before I was born. And I never met Aunt Jennie, who had died of cancer in the 1930's."
(recollections by Janna Hey Dean)
Following was written and transcribed from audio tape by Janna Hey Dean:
After the War, Aunt Mart moved to Sabula, Iowa, where Mother and I visited her in about 1947. She and Gerhard managed a bakery there and lived above the facility. We did not go into their home. After they retired, they moved to Eldora, Iowa, where Aunt Gert's oldest daughter Grace lived. Mother visited her there several times in the early 1970s. After Sue moved to Sterling in 1977, she and I visited Aunt Mart in Iowa where we tape recorded a conversation with her. Following is Aunt Mart's recollection about her Brother Henry and his adoption of Robert:
Brother Henry's only child (Robert) was adopted. He traveled extensively and then retired moving to Oregon and Washington before settling in California. Robert's parents had divorced, and he was sent to live with a grandmother who could not keep him and sent him back to his mother after she remarried and lived in Parkersburg, Iowa. Every day as he walked to and from work, Henry would talk to the boy, who was about two years old. He would also take the boy for walks as he had time before sending him home again. One day Robert's mother said, "Why don't you adopt him since you seem so attached to him and he is to you." So Henry adopted Robert.