Willoughby: Otto Johnson — stellar example of community commitment

This may seem like an odd way to measure the relevance of an individual community member, but if you scan The Aspen Times’ funeral write-ups from the 1930s through the 1940s, you frequently see the name Otto Johnson, as a pallbearer. Through his many years in Aspen, you find him involved in many facets of Aspen’s community and public service life.

Johnson was born in Sweden the year Aspen was founded. His family immigrated that year to Minnesota, and when Otto turned twenty, he headed west to Aspen to pursue mining with his elder brother who was a doctor. His brother worked in Aspen as a doctor for a short time then moved to Cortez around the time Mesa Verde National Park was formed. 

By 1900, Aspen had several ethnic immigrant populations: Cornish miners, the Irish, Italians, and the Swedes. Many from Sweden lived, as did Otto, in Oklahoma Flats, the lowland area between the Roaring Fork and the Smuggler mining area.

One of Johnson’s first jobs was operating the mine shaft lift, to roll ore cars into and out of the shaft cage. His footing slipped and an ore car got away and crushed his fingers. Not long after that, he was working as a driller with several other miners. Without warning, the ceiling above caved in completely covering him. He nearly suffocated before they were able to shovel enough material, so he could breathe.  

He had better luck finding a wife. Alma Peterson, who immigrated to America around the same this as Otto, also came to Aspen in 1900. They were married in 1902, and they had four children, including Elmer, one of my uncles. They survived an outbreak of scarlet fever in 1913 and the pandemic of 1918.

Johnson worked for the Enterprise Mine for a number of years and as the superintendent at the Hope Mine that was pushing a tunnel from Castle Creek near the Conundrum fork that was intended to undercut the Little Annie Mine. Later, he worked for the Spar Consolidated Mine in the Veteran Tunnel in the 1930s and had leases on parts of the Newman Mine and the Durant.

His civic involvement sprang from his and Alma’s connection to the Methodist Church as well as the many fraternal orders he belonged to, like the Swea Lodge and the Odd Fellows and later the Elks and the Lions. He was elected to the board of Citizens Hospital in 1918.

He ran and won a seat on Aspen’s city council in 1927. At that time, there were four Aldermen and the mayor, my grandfather Fred D. Willoughby. Otto served on the council for nearly fifteen years.

He was appointed Aspen’s city marshall in 1939. There was little crime in those years, but he had to enforce unpopular dog laws. The city, beginning when he was on the city council, faced a debt to pay off that they inherited from previous city councils in the first decade of the 1900s. With a small city staff, Otto filled in on many projects like helping repair the roof of the Wheeler and filing in chuck holes in the streets. After Aspen’s major downtown fire in 1941, he spent a long time cleaning up the remains. He also had to handle the legal work involving properties that were years in arrears with their property taxes.

In 1942, he was appointed Pitkin County sheriff and did both the marshal and the sheriff jobs simultaneously for a while. In that position, he was immediately involved in tasks related to the war. He headed emergency programs, was involved in the Red Cross, led the U.S. Citizens Defense Corps, and handled county fires as the official fire warden.

He had to run for the position in 1942 and got five times the number of votes his opponent did. In 1944, he was elected again — that time no one ran against him. Lorain Herwick, who later replaced him, ran against him in 1948, but Johnson won with around 70% of the vote. He was 63 when he began as sheriff but died in office in 1950 at the age of 71.

Tim Willoughby’s family story parallels Aspen’s. He began sharing folklore while teaching at Aspen Country Day School and Colorado Mountain College. Now a tourist in his native town, he views it with historical perspective. Reach him at redmtn2@comcast.net.