If one were to say that one twentieth of all the buildings in Chicago have been constructed by Swedes, one would not be far wrong. Particularly within the last ten years, a great number of Swedish builders have established themselves here, and, with few exceptions, have been very successful. That our introductory statement is no exaggeration is readily seen when we tell you that the man whom we are forthwith going to introduce has constructed more than one thousand buildings of various kinds. And he is still a young man, who does not at all pretend to be the biggest Swedish contractor in Chicago.

Frans Oscar Johnson was born in Fuhr, about three Swedish miles from Carlskrona, August 26, 1862. His father was an innkeeper at Fuhr and was well known all over Blekinge and part of Smaland. He was also something of a trader.

At the age of eleven Frans, having already gone through the public school, was sent to a private institution, where he took up bookkeeping among other subjects, 2later on keeping books for his father. He worked as a bookkeeper in Carlskrona for a few years, and finally went to Stockholm, which in the mind of every country boy is the real El Dorado. However, he soon found that there were more bookkeepers than bookkeeping jobs in that city, and he was glad to take any employment that could be had. He found a job in Bolinder's machine shop, and being mechanically inclined he learned a lot there. He also worked in machine shops in Oskarshamn and Kalmar until he enbarked for America, in 1883, with Chicago as his destination.

Strange to say, he did not seek employment in the machine trade, but started in as a bricklayer apprentice with the well-known Abraham Lund. Three years later, as a full-fledged bricklayer, he obtained employment on the State Capitol in Austin, Texas, which was then being erected. Upon his return to Chicago in 1887, he married Miss Jennie Fagerlund, of Memphis, Tennessee, and three boys have been born to them.

After the great fire in Seattle, Washington, he obtained a good position as a 3construction foreman in that city; but the climate did not agree with him, and after two years he again returned to Chicago. Here he established his own business as a building contractor in 1891, and he has been in that business ever since. We do not have the space here to list all the residential and commercial structures he has built, but we will mention a few of the most recent ones: Montgomery Ward's great building on the West Side; the apartment building, which covers a block at Cottage Grove Avenue and 45th Street; McKinlock's thirty-five-thousand-dollar residence in Lake Forest; the addition to the Edgewater Saddle and Cycle Club; a seventy-thousand-dollar structure at 31st and State Streets for the Schlitz Brewing Company; Harry Howard's hotel at State and Taylor Streets; and the Independent Brewing Company's building at Adams and Jefferson Streets.

Mr. Johnson is a charter member of the Knights of Pythias; he also belongs to the Royal Arcanum and the Canadian Foresters, as well as to the Chicago Masons and Builders Association.

He is very much engrossed in his business, which he knows to the smallest detail. He is a rather quiet and reserved man whose chief characterists are kindness and friendliness.