Biography, Richmond Johnson Madison County, AR

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Submitted by: Carole Hammett & Rhonda Jameson
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Richmond JOHNSON was born September 7, 1836, and is a son of Martin and Lydia
(HAWK) Johnson. 

The father was born in Warren County, Tenn., June 5, 1812, and his father,
Martin JOHNSON, was a native of that State, did active service in the War of
1812, and died in Madison county in 1850, having located here in 1832. The
father of our subject came here when seventeen, and is the only man living
here who was a resident prior to 1830. He married in 1831. 

He is a member of the Baptist Church, and is a Republican. His first wife, the
mother of our subject, was born near Abington, East Tenn., in 1814, was the
mother of eight children, and died February 5, 1845. He afterward married
Sally BAILEY, by whom he had twelve children. 

Richmond JOHNSON grew up on the farm, receiving most of his education at home.
April 19, 1855, he married Ruth J. Burchard [BURCHETT]. He settled upon a
farm, and did not participate in the war until 1862, when he enlisted in
Company C, First Arkansas Cavalry, and served to the end, being discharged
August 23, 1865. He was in the battles of Prairie Grove and Fayetteville, and
on Price's raid. 

Returning home he found his farm devestated, but sturdily went to work and,
with the aid of his wife and daughters, made another comfortable home. For
three years after 1868 he went into the mercantile business at Huntsville. He
afterward traded a farm for a grist mill, which he sold in 1877. He afterward
engaged in saw-milling with his brother, but later returned to farming, two
miles northwest of Huntsville. 

Mrs. JOHNSON was born in Lee County, Va., December 6, 1838, and came with her
parents to this county in 1852. She is the mother of six children: Mary J.
(wife of Monroe NEAL), Lydia A. (wife of Thomas SULLIVAN), Samuel M., Elinor,
Palistine and Sally. Mr. JOHNSON and family belong to the Baptist Church and
he is a Royal Arch Mason." (Goodspeeds' History of Northwest, Arkansas...)