Remembering Amanda Matilda Johnson Nilsson born July 14, 1864.

Amanda Matilda Johnson (1864-1940)
By Ada N. Ford her Daughter

Amanda Matilda Johnson was the first child born in North Bend, now known as Fairview, Sanpete County, Utah on July 14, 1864. She was the third child in a family of six children born to Carolena and August Johnson who had immigrated to Utah from Jonkoping, Sweden. Because of Indian hostilities in this area the family moved to Salt Lake City in October 1865 it was there that Amanda spent a happy childhood.

Amanda, always eager to learn, attended school whenever one was available. Her teachers were often well-educated ladies from the East who made a deep impression on her. She especially enjoyed attending dramatic presentations in Salt Lake Little Theater and at times have roles in the plays given there.

Intuitively Amanda loved people. As a child she spent many hours with neighborhood children reading to them, organizing games and plays and reciting poems often of her own composition. She loved to pick the wildflowers that grew along the city creek near her home. She loved the stately mountains and the shimmering waves on Great Salt Lake.

During her early teens Amanda often visited her married sister who lived in Monroe, Utah. This Salt Lake City teenager was quite possibly the most vivacious person ever to visit this hamlet. She had a zest for good, plain fun quite alien to the Victorian sentimentality of that day. Her smallness of statute was compensated by flashing responses made more striking by her dark hair and pale, clear skin. These qualities made her the central focus of most any group. This prominence became a lifelong habit and was an inherent part of her nature.