631 Johnson St History - Laserfiche WebLink

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Earliest Owners; Walters Family Ownership Gideon Bruce Robertson acquired the property in question by 1903 from George W. Claybrough. Records indicate that Claybrough purchased this and nearby property from the Ajax Coal Mining Co. by 1895, not long after the Ajax Mine closed in 1892. A USGS mine map shows that the mine shaft for the Ajax Mine was located not far away, at Hoover and Lois. Gideon Bruce Robertson was an early settler in the Louisville area. He was born in about 1843 in New York. The 1885 state census shows him to have been a carpenter in Louisville with a wife, Martha, and children Laura, Frank, and Walter. In 1920, he was listed as a farmer and widower. The 1921 directory lists him as being an "apiarist," which means a beekeeper. There is evidence from directories and census records that Robertson lived in the vicinity of what is today 631 Johnson, but based on the confirmation from a Louisville resident that the house was built in 1945, he and his family would have been living in a different house nearby. By 1922, Gideon Robertson sold the property to Isaac Walters. The Walters family would end up owning this property for over fifty years, and the house for thirty years. As with Gideon Bruce Robertson, there is evidence that the Walters family lived in the vicinity of what is today 631 Johnson in the 1920s, 1930s, and early 1940s, but based on the confirmation from a Louisville resident that the house was built in 1945, the Walters family would have been living in a different house nearby during those years. Isaac Walters (1881-1967) and Lela Viola Epley Walters (1895-1974) both came from long time Louisville families. Isaac's parents, Enoch and Emily Walters, were in Louisville by 1880. Lela Walters was the daughter of Clement V. Epley and Eunice Elizabeth "Lizzie" Taylor and the granddaughter of Josiah and Lucinda Taylor, all early Louisville settlers. Records show that Isaac Walters worked as a miner and, later, as a farmer. Isaac and Lela's daughter, Eva, was born in 1919 and graduated from Louisville High School in 1937. The 1940 Louisville directory shows that she worked for the Louisville Times newspaper while living with her parents. Eva Walters married Carl Sanderson of Berthoud in 1941. He was killed in action over Germany in June 1944. Because Sanderson had married Eva Walters of Louisville, he has long been embraced by the Louisville community as being one of the nine servicemen and one servicewoman from Louisville to have died in World War II. In 1947, Isaac and Lela Walters sold 631 Johnson to Joseph and Elizabeth Walters. It is strongly believed that Joseph was Isaac's brother, as Isaac Walters had a brother named Joseph who was born in 1880. Elizabeth Walters was born in 1885. Directories show that they resided in this house. 631 Johnson passed out of the ownership by the Walters family in 1975. Later Owners In 1975, 631 Johnson was transferred by the executor of the estates of Joseph and Elizabeth Walters to Richard G. and Cheryl A. Carlson, who resided in the house and were followed as