Martha Johnson runs the Fremont store at 104 years old
Thu, 09/10/2020 - 4:05pm
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Martha Johnson is a lively lady who is still active at 104 years old. She was born in Clearbrook in 1916 and still gets the Leader-Record delivered to her. She is an active storekeeper at the Fremont Store. The other day Kris Bergan, her helper, was reading the article about Colorado Pete that was published in July 29, 2020 edition of the Leader-Record.
That story came from the Clearwater County History Center in Shevlin. It was "P is for Poet, Colorado Pete" that Tamara Edevold sent.
The story was about Arthur Owen Peterson who was one of four sons of P.H. and Minnie Peterson. They moved to Bagley where in 1898 his father started the second general store in the new town of Bagley. Not long after starting that business, Arthur's uncle Hans came from Norway and the brothers operated the Peterson Hardware together for many years with their descendants continuing the business for over 80 years It was located where the Dental Office is today, the northwest corner of Highway 2 and 92.
While the Peterson family lived in Bagley, Martha (Rydeen) Johnson was a maid for that family in the 30's. She was curious if there were any relatives of this family that she could visit with.
Martha stills runs the Fremont store with the help of Kris Bergan. “As a little girl, when they came to Fremont on vacation, her grandmother would bring her to this store,” Kris Bergan said.
Martha was one of eight children born to Edward and Louella (Schneider) Rydeen. They include: Dorothy, Edna, Edmund, Ernest, Florence, Reuben and Lucille.
She married Martin Johnson and they lived in Clearbrook where her first son Donald was born. He attended first grade in Clearbrook before the family moved to Lewiston, which is just down the road from Utica near the Fremont Store.
Don and his mother started working at the Fremont Sore in 1979. That store had been started by Frank Root. Don's father and Martha's husband managed the creamery in Fremont before he passed away. When Don passed away in 2004 his mother Martha kept the store going by herself and she is still doing that today with some help.
Martin and Martha had three other children: Derald and Helen; David and Pat and Mary and Roger Nahrgang.