Peter Johnson, president of the Citizens' State Bank of Netawaka, came to Kansas in the fall of 1869 and settled in Jackson county. He was born in 1856 in Denmark and is a son of James and Sisa (Peterson) Johnson, the former a shoemaker who owned some land in Denmark. James Johnson's death occurred in passage as he was coming to the United States.

Peter Johnson is the oldest of three children—Peter, Martha (deceased), and Christena, now Mrs. Peter Oleson, of Whiting, Kan. He lived in Denmark until twelve years old, when he came to America, landing at Quebec, Canada. From there he came to St. Louis and thence to Kansas, where his mother bought eighty acres of land in Jackson county. In the fall of 1870 his mother married Andrew Brown, who had come to Kansas at the same time she did and owned land adjoining hers. They lived happily together until his death. She survived him until 1905, when she also passed to her reward. Mr. Johnson remained on his mother's farm until 1883, when he married Ann Barbara, a daughter of Joshua and Caroline (Johnson) Banks, natives of Ohio, but who were married in Canton, Ill., in 1850. They became the parents of sixteen children, all of whom grew to maturity, the venerable parents now (1911) residing in Whiting, Kan., aged eighty-one and eighty respectively.

After his marriage Peter Johnson left his mother's farm and bought an eighty-acre farm, upon which he remained until 1890. Then, on account of sickness, he removed to Whiting, but later returned to his farm and remained there until 1892. He then bought an interest in a store in Netawaka, and was also a partner with Mr. Lueck in the grain business under the firm name of Johnson & Lueck. During this time they built a grain elevator at Netawaka. They sold their interest in the store and bought the Citizens' State Bank of Netawaka and also a farm near there. Mr. Johnson remained on his farm until the fall of 1909, when he became a resident of Netawaka and engaged actively in the banking business, selling his farm and grain business so that he could give his entire time to the bank, which is now in a very prosperous condition. Much credit is due to Mr. Johnson for his rapid advancement in business lines, as he had only the benefit of a common school education and became self-educated after coming to the United States. Mr. Johnson is a member of the United Brethren church, and in 1900 was made a Thirty-second degree Mason in Topeka Consistory No. 1. Politically he is a Republican.

Mr. and Mrs. Johnson have two children: Elmer E. is engaged in the mercantile business at Netawaka, and Flora E. is the wife of Joel Aibright, residing near Wetmore, Kan., the mother of a daughter, Vivian Forestine.