Local

Claus Fredrick Johnson is pictured in the early 1920s. Born in Sweden in 1862, he came to the U.S. in 1877, living in Red Oak, Iowa, until adulthood. Traveling to Colorado, he homesteaded a tree claim 3 miles southwest of Paoli. In 1910 he moved to land 1 mile east of Haxtun, and he farmed there until he retired. He was a resident of the community for 72 years and helped build the railroad through Haxtun. According to his 1955 obituary, there were many times when, due to the lack of roads in his early days in Phillips County, he walked across the prairie to Julesburg or Sterling for supplies. — Source: Phillips County Museum