Johanna Christine Michalena Handberg was born on March 11, 1839, in Odense-Fyen, Denmark to Marie Christina Hansen Trane and Johannes Joseph Handberg. She was one of five siblings. Johanna immigrated to the United States in April 1852, after being baptized in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on December 14, 1850. She came across the plains with the C.C.A. Christensen handcart company. They arrived in the Salt Lake Valley on September 13, 1857. She was taken in by a widowed man with a new baby in 1858, named Thomas Nicol IV. She married Thomas on March 11, 1858, and became the permanent nurse of the new baby. Johanna would go to have eleven children with Thomas although many did not survive. She lost three of her then current four children in 1865 from Scarlet Fever and Diphtheria outbreak in Heber City, Utah where they had settled. Johanna was a natural nurse and worked to save the children in the community. She was sent to Salt Lake City, Utah to study obstetrics given by Romania B. Pratt Penrose. When she returned to Heber City, she was in great demand. She learned to use and value herbs gathered from nearby canyons and is credited with eight hundred births and the loss of only one mother. To care for the family and provide for Johanna, Thomas created one of the earliest sawmills in Daniel's Canyon to supply lumber to the growing area. Johanna was widowed for ten years after the death of her husband on December 23, 1909. Johanna died on December 14, 1919, in Heber City, Utah.