The most brutal murders to occur in Chisago County remain unsolved after 75 years.
Early on Tuesday morning, April 11, 1933, twenty-nine-year-old Alvira Johnson perished in a house fire along with her seven children. She was pregnant with her eighth baby at the time.
Carrying the blame for their deaths is the father, Albin Johnson of Harris. He has never been found.
Today, the circumstances surrounding the fire are as much a mystery as they were in 1933.
Trying to get to the bottom of the case
Nan Hult of North Branch has been trying to unravel the clues surrounding the death of Alvira and her eight children for three years.
A 40-plus year resident of the area, she had never heard of the tragedy until one evening while dining with fellow North Branch resident and old-timer Clayton Anderson, who was among the fire site investigators. She was amazed that such a thing had happened and further amazed that it isn't talked about.
The case had continued to hold its secrets.
Hult has been unable to get a copy of either the coroner's report or the sheriff's report, despite repeated trips to both the Minnesota Historical Society in St. Paul and the Chisago County Courthouse. The files are missing, and both agencies say the other location must house them. She can't see a copy of the federal indictment against Albin because it is still technically an open case.
She wonders if it is a cover-up and who is being protected.
Albin's family? His father, Emil, was a respected man who built the Lutheran church in Harris with his brother. His brother-in-law, H.A. Galpin, was a well-known businessman in St. Paul.
The investigators? Did they botch the investigation as Galpin accused them of doing?
"I come to a dead end everywhere," said Hult.
"The whole thing gets stranger the farther we go," said fellow researcher Dick Lindgren of Spring Lake.
He's not in the ruins
The bodies of eight were positively identified by 4 p.m. on Wednesday, April 12 according to the Braham Journal.
Alvira had slept with four-month-old James in one room, and five children were in another. Harold, the oldest, slept in the kitchen. The basement of the house extended only under the kitchen and it was in this excavation that the body of the seventh child was found. Searchers initially expected to find Albin's body there, as well, but a thorough search with a rake on Wednesday revealed nothing.
"I went through every bit of the ruins myself, and I am as certain as I can be that [Albin] Johnson's body is not there," Deputy Coroner A. O. Stark of Harris is reported to have said.
There was the belief that if Albin had snapped, killed his family and lit the home on fire, that he may have killed himself in remorse and would be found nearby, noted Hult.
Over the course of the next few days, the small lake and woods near the home were searched for Albin's body by over 50 people.
The search team swelled to over 300 a week later who combed the St. Croix River area for a six-mile stretch between Sunrise and Rush City, but they found no trace of Albin. The river was dragged in a search for his body.
He had last been seen late in the day at both Harris and Rush City. However, he had never paid the rent of $25 for the new place in Rush City with money his brother-in-law Matt Scherer had loaned him despite the fact that his family was supposed to move there the next day.
In the St. Paul Dispatch the day after the fire, Coroner L.N. Westberg of Center City stated, "We have no evidence to indicate that the fire might have been planned. True, Johnson is still missing, but so far as we can learn, he was rational and fully intended to move."
The day before the blaze Albin had told his brother-in-law Fred Peterson that he was practically set to move, Fred told authorities.
Authorities believe the fire started at about 3 a.m.
Chief Hanson found four neighbors present when he arrived, and he immediately instituted a search of the outbuildings and surrounding fields for occupants of the home, but they were unable to find any trace of them.
As the fire burned down, one of the bodies could be seen in the burning embers, according to the Rush City Post.
Troubling authorities were the tire tracks made in the freshly fallen snow that led away from the farmhouse. Neighbors remembered hearing an automobile drive off in the middle of the night shortly before the fire was discovered.
"The terrible tragedy which has taken eight lives and leaves the fate of the missing father a mystery, has left the community horror stricken at the terrible fate of this mother and the seven children," stated the North Branch paper on Thursday, April 13, 1933.
The funeral for the 29-year-old mother and her seven children was held on Saturday at the Rush City Lutheran Church that Alvira had grown up attending. The remains of all eight fit in one flower-decked casket.
Over 350 people attended the service.
On April 15, the St. Paul Dispatch reported that Chisago County Attorney S. Bernard Wennerberg had launched an intensive investigation to determine whether the eight were slain before they perished in the fire.
Theories about why Albin might have killed his family
Some thought Albin hopped the midnight train that ran through Rush City and headed towards Canada where he had worked as a logger before. Others thought someone else might have lit the blaze after he had left. Bulletins went out, and the search included Canadian mounted police. One person in Canada reported seeing Albin, but authorities couldn't catch up with him. At one point a month later, they thought they picked him up in North Dakota – but it turned out to be the wrong guy.
Rumors were plentiful. Some said the victims were beheaded and all the heads piled up in the basement. Others thought they had all been shot, and pointed to the two pistols and rifle found in the ruins as evidence. Albin's dog was rumored to have layed on one spot in a field for several days before he disappeared, and some thought that spot must have been where Albin's body was buried.
Some remember the Johnson brothers (Ted, Albin, Henry and Hjalmer), as being rough, tough and mean men who were feared by others. They were all handsome.Cliff Bedell, who currently resides on the old Johnson farm, theorizes that perhaps it was not Albin who was the perpetrator but his brothers. "He may have argued with his brothers, and they may have committed this violence and buried Albin somewhere," said Bedell.
Albin's brothers Henry and Ted were thought to be uninterested in the search, instead smoothing over an area of one field.
A gas can was discovered that was believed to have been used to start the blaze; it was taken as evidence by Chisago County.
Authorities could never figure out how the fire started, although it was presumed it began in the kitchen where the only stove was located. Nor could they figure out how all eight remained in their sleeping positions. Surely, if Albin had killed one or two with a gunshot or strangulation it would have woken others, particularly in the room that housed five.
Dr. C.A. Erdman of the University of Minnesota speculated that they had been either beaten to death or poisoned.
An indictment was made on Oct. 20, 1933 charging Albin with first degree murder.
The home is ablaze
The blaze was first noticed in the Ragner Krantz home about one-half mile from the Johnson's farmhouse at about 3:30 a.m.
His five-year-old son woke up to see orange light flickering like waves on his walls. Padding downstairs he found his mother who had also been awakened, according to Hult. A current resident of Hawaii he remembers it as though it happened yesterday.
Ragner was the first person to summon the Harris and Rush City Fire Departments. After making the call, Krantz hastened over to the farm house.
"After giving the alarm, I drove over to the Johnson place as fast I could get there, but the house by that time was almost totally destroyed. Only one corner remained standing and after a short while that crumpled too."
She screamed and screamed and screamed
Alvira's niece, Jeanette E. Johnson, will never forget when the telephone rang in the early hours of the morning on April 11 and they learned of the fire.
Her mother, Freda, who was very close in age to Alvira, screamed and screamed and screamed.
Alvira's parents were living with Freda's family at the time. The tragedy was very hard on them, recalled Jeanette.
Alvira's family members hired the Pinkerton Detective Agency to help them find answers. Christine gathered together all the money she had - which wasn't much – to pay for the detectives.
A reward of $50 was offered for information leading to Albin's whereabouts.
Many theories were offered as to why Albin might have killed his family and then left town. He had been experiencing hard times, and his own father had evicted him 10 days earlier from the farmhouse where they were staying. He struggled to make a living as a farmer; his brother-in-law had been unsuccessful at getting Albin a job where he worked at the Rush City flour mill.
"Was a proud man who did not have the means to support his family tempted to take drastic measures?" asked author and distant relative Brian Johnson in an article published in the April 9, 1992 Post Review.
Albin's family doesn't believe he killed his wife and children
Albin's family steadfastly refused to believe that he had done such a terrible deed, and professed that he had died in the fire.
Meanwhile others, such as Krantz and Scherer, purchased guns to protect themselves in case Albin were to return.
"We were all afraid," said neighbor Mae Oscarson.
It was this fear of Albin exacting revenge that kept people from talking about the deaths of Alvira and her seven children, believes Hult. She also thinks it is why today few in Chisago County have heard about the tragedy.
Three years after the tragedy occurred, Albin's brother-in-law Harry .A. Galpin wrote a scathing letter blaming authorities for a botched investigation. This letter was notarized in the state of Nebraska.
He charged that the Chisago County Attorney S. Bernard Wennerberg, Sheriff James A. Smith and Deputy Coroner Albert O. Stark committed 31 errors in their handling of the case.
"These charges ranged from perjury to destruction of evidence to incompetence and negligence, and to railroading a murder indictment against a man known to be dead, to cover up the ghastly blunder of the Deputy Coroner who had cast Johnson's remains outside the foundation where they were trampled under foot by spectators," wrote Galpin.
Galpin insisted that relatives had found bones in a distant part of the ruins that belonged to Johnson.
He called for a burial certificate to be issued so that his family could inter those bones.
About county officials, Galpin complained, "At no time did they show the slightest inclination to guard Johnson's relatives against the possibility of placing false charge against him."
TIDBITS
• Albin's father, Emil, built the Lutheran church of Harris.
• The remains of Alvira and her seven children fit in one coffin, which was interred in the Rush City First Lutheran Cemetery east of town.
• The family had been sleeping on makeshift beds as they planned to move the next day. All of their possessions were loaded on a cart outside the door, which also burned in the blaze.
• The Johnson children attended the now defunct Chippewa Hill School, along with their cousins (Freda's children).
• The tragedy gained the attention of the entire country and beyond. Stories were printed in newspapers as far away as Texas, California and Winnipeg, Canada.
THE FAMILY
Albin Johnson, age 43
Mrs. Alvira (Lundeen) Johnson, age 29
Harold, age 10
Clifford, age 9
Kenneth, age 7
Dorothy, age 5
Bernice, age 4
Lester, age 2
James, age 4 month
Unborn child
Meet Albin
Albin Johnson was described as a strong man with large hands. A typical farmer and woodsman. He typically wore blue overalls over a dark suit and a woodsman's cap. He rose to a height of six feet, three inches and weighed 240 pounds at age 43.
While some knew Johnson as a hard worker, others considered him a mean man. Neighbor Mae Oscarson recalled him as a morose, introverted character who "never said a word."
Jeanette said her uncle would literally steal candy from babies. "When he went to town, the storekeepers who knew the famly was poor would send candy home with him for the kids. He would eat the candy himself and throw the bag away before he got home," said Jeanette.
Alvira's family was against their marriage.
Meet Alvira
The youngest of four girls, Alvira was a pretty child with blond hair, blue eyes and dimples. She had a happy and carefree childhood on the Lundeen family farm in Rush City.
She was remembered as a gentle character whose love and care for her children and home spoke of the untiring and courageous disposition which were her chief characteristics, as stated in the Rush City Post story about her funeral.
As a child, Jeanette played with Harold, who was just two years her junior. She recalled pulling him in a wagon. "Often mother would scold me for eating too much when we were visiting them, as they were poor and didn't have much, but everything tasted so good.
"Also I couldn't understand why Santa didn't leave them anything at Christmas, especially when their need was so great.
"How difficult it must have been for Alvira, caring for her seven children, so close in age, as well as taking care of her many household duties," mused Jeanette.
HISTORY OF THE FARMHOUSE
• Owned by Emil & Cecilia Johnson
• Albin, wife Alvira and seven children resided there until 1933
• Fire burns house to ground on April 11, 1933
• Albin's brother, Henry, and his wife Mary (first married to the elder brother Ted) move back and become joint tenants with Emil.
• After living first in the grainery, Henry and Mary build a home over the old housefire site in 1949.
• Mary sells the farm to Mike Willer and family in 1969
• Willer sells the farm to Cliff and Pat Bedell in June 1972
WHAT BECAME OF …
The Johnsons
Father Emil - Died in 1948. He was praised for being of strong body and sturdy character. Emil never accepted that his son killed his wife and children.
Mother Cecelia - Died unexpectedly at a young age in 1924 (before the tragedy).
Brother Ted - Moved for a time to Flint, Mich. where he went by Carl T. After his wife, Mary, ran off with his brother he moved up north and became a hermit. He married twice more. Ted died from a massive heart attack. He was found on his front lawn in Gaylord, Minn.
Sister Olga Galpin - Lived in the Twin Cities along with husband, Harry. The two pushed for an exoneration of Albin, and purportedly has discovered his bones in the far part of the basement.
Brother Henry - Married his brother's ex-wife Mary and stayed in the area. He later built a home on the foundation of the house that Alvira and her children perished in. While in his younger years, people said he was violent and liked to fight, in his later years he was known as a kind and gentle man who wanted no discourse with his neighbors. He died in 1967, and Mary passed away in 1988.
Sister Esther Lodge - Survived a stove explosion, but died of a heart ailment in 1930. She had married well-known boxer Walter Lodge, who was known as Farmer Lodge but born as Lodge Feaski. He died in 1941 from pneumonia which set in after he fell off a grain stack.
Brother Hjalmer - Buried with his parents in the family plot at the cemetery midway between North Branch and Harris off County Road 30
Sister Elsie Johnson Peterson - Lived out of state
The Lundeens
Mother Christine - Celebrated her 100th birthday at Green Acres on Dec. 24 and died one month later.
Father Fred - Died three years after his daughter Alvira in 1936. He had been ill for several years.
Sister Olga Zacherson - Moved to Minneapolis where she died in 1951. He husband, John, worked for the railroad for 52 years.
Sister Ellen Scherer - Remained in Rush City and was affectionately known as "Grandma Scherer" to all the children she babysat. Her son, Richard Vernon, died at age four in 1929 after being struck by an automobile. He was returning home from the mill where his father, Matt, worked. Her grandson, Charles W. Naslund, also died young of injuries sustained in an automobile crash.
Brother-in-law Matt Scherer - Died at age 81 in the barber chair, the same chair his father had died in.
Sister Freda Peterson - Was confirmed in 1916 at Rush City Lutheran Church, part of the last class in Swedish. The nearest in age to Alvira, the two were especially close.
THE RESEARCHERS
Nan Hult of North Branch believes it was Albin who killed his wife and children. She thinks that because he was unable to continue providing for his seven children with another one on the way that he snapped. "Apparently, it was overwhelming. He went there, killed them and started the fire," said Hult.
Researcher Dick Lindgren of Spring Lake is certain Albin either made good on his escape and was never heard from again; or he walked out into the woods and committed suicide. He leans towards the first theory, as Albin's body was never discovered despite there being an extensive search, which at one point included 300 people. "My guess is he hit the trail and was never heard from again," said Lindgren. "You could lose yourself in the millions of people out of work in the Depression. You could ride the rails. You could just disappear."
Cliff Bedell, who currently resides on the old Johnson farm, theorizes that perhaps it was not Albin who was the perpetrator but his brothers. "He may have argued with his brothers, and they may have committed this violence and buried Albin somewhere," said Bedell.
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