First child of Frances Margaret Tilby and her first husband, James Yorgason aka James Y. Johnson.

Spouse of Martha Matilda "Mattie" Butts Yorgason, a midwife. They were married April 28, 1899 in Los Angeles.

Both the Los Angeles county marriage records and the 1900 U.S. Census show that he and his wife lived in Los Angeles under the assumed name of Johnson. As newlyweds, they lived next door to his father, who had assumed the alias Johnson after leaving Utah in the 1890s.

With his father, he worked in the daily operations of the Los Angeles Pigeon Farm, which supplied squab to the restaurant industry. It was the largest pigeon ranch in the world, and was located on land along the Los Angeles River, in what was then known as East Los Angeles.

The business was quite profitable, until its total destruction by a flash flood in 1914. The Los Angeles Flood Control District was established by the California legislature in 1915. In 1916, the land was sold to the City of Los Angeles.

Currently, part of that land is covered by the concrete channel of the Los Angeles River, a 51-mile long public works project completed in 1960. The remainder of the land not incorporated into the channel is part of the Metrolink Central Maintenance Facility property. The former location of the Los Angeles Pigeon Ranch is where Interstate 110 crosses over the Los Angeles River, just to the west of the intersection of I-110 and I-5.

For more information about the pigeon farm, look at the brief article at page 1817 of http://books.google.com/books?id=sMJQAQAAIAAJ&printsec=frontcover&vq=Johnson&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q=Johnson&f=false

The 1910 U.S. Census shows that John Johnson and his wife Mattie had had one child in the preceding ten years, but that child was no longer living.

After the death of his father James in 1917, he eventually became the adoptive father of three:
--Meredith Opal Yorgason Coleman (1920-1992) [adopted from the Longsons, she was the youngest of seven when her birth mother died]
--Bessie Frances Yorgason (1922-1922)
--John Andrew Yorgason (1924-1992) [whose birth mother's name was Cohen]

Grandfather of Joann Jean Coleman and Charles John Coleman. Great-grandfather through grandchild Charles.

Note: Both the California Death Index and his gravestone show his year of birth as 1878, but he was born in 1877.

In the 1880 U.S. census, he is claimed to be 3 years old (thus born no later than 1877). In both his WWI Draft Registration card (1917) and his WWII Draft Registration card (1942), he stated he was born in 1877.