Meet the Johnstons

Into the modern era

When Charles Kiewel retired from Grain Belt in 1953, he and his wife moved to Crookston and sold the home to Victor and Fern Johnston in 1957. A local optometrist, Victor, maintained an office on the southeast corner of 5th and Main St. Their daughter, Barb, remembers her mother shopping for Victorian furniture at the Boutell Brothers Furniture Company.

“I know she didn’t pay a whole lot for that front room furniture, as I recall visitors not “believing” it was all repro, and she’d reply, ‘Well, we could never afford all original antiques!’ As I recall, the furniture was there soon after we moved in, in 1957, but in the late 1960s, she {Fern} redecorated--drapes and wallpaper, but she couldn’t sacrifice the carpeting. The carpeting was laid in strips and my mother always wanted to replace it, but she was too frugal to rip out anything still serviceable. She’d lament, ‘All wool! It just won’t wear out!’ The woodwork stayed the light finish, which she always claimed was ‘Southern.’”