WASHINGTON CO, AR - BENJAMIN FRANKLIN JOHNSON - Bio By Charles E. Johnson (chasj@juno.com) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- USGENWEB NOTICE: In keeping with our policy of providing free information on the Internet, material may be freely used by non-commercial entities, as long as this message remains on all copied material, AND permission is obtained from the contributor of the file. These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit or presentation by other organizations. Persons or organizations desiring to use this material for non-commercial purposes, MUST obtain the written consent of the contributor, OR the legal representative of the submitter, and contact the listed USGenWeb archivist with proof of this consent. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- BENJAMIN FRANKLIN JOHNSON The earliest known record of our Johnson line is the marriage on September 24, 1794 in Montgomery County, in southwest Virginia, of Benjamin Johnston, born June 12, 1773, Montgomery County, and Theodocia Willson, born November 15, 1773. Benjamin's parents are not known. Theodocia was the daughter of a Capt. Samuel Willson. Benjamin and Theodocia lived approximately four miles from Christiansburg, and on July 1, 1795 they had a son, Roswell. On January 31, 1797 they had a second son, Burk. In November, 1797, Benjamin and Theodocia were anxious to migrate south down the Holston river basin to the new state of Tennessee. They had sold their property in Montgomery County but the papers concerning the sale that had been sent to the state capitol in Richmond had not yet been returned. They undoubtedly did not want to travel in winter so Benjamin executed a power of attorney - as Benjamin Johnson - to permit his attorney to represent him, and the young family apparently set out. Just when they arrived in Tennessee or where they settled initially is not known, but a third son, James, was born in Tennessee January 4, 1799. A fourth son, Caswell, was born October 14, 1801. Then, on October 14, 1803, in Sevier County, in east Tennessee, twins were born, Benjamin Franklin, our ancestor, and Lucinda. Less than three months later, on January 4, 1804, tragedy struck the family, as Benjamin, the father, died at age 30. Theodocia was left a widow in this harsh wilderness area, at age 30, with six youngsters, the oldest not yet 9. Fortunately she was soon remarried, to one Adonijah Thomas, and the family resettled in Campbell County, Tennessee, where Benjamin's estate was closed in February, 1809. Theodocia became the mother of four more children before 1815, three daughters and a son. (Additonal information from Charles E. Johnson, Oct. 8, 1997: I have found the location of the family in Sevier County at the time of Benjamin Franklin's birth in October 1803 and the death of the father, Benjamin, in January 1804. It is a 155 acre plat located on the east side of the Little Pigeon River about half way between Sevierville, and the confluence of the Little Pigeon and the larger French Broad River. The village of Cattlettsburg is within the plat.) In about 1822, Benjamin Franklin Johnson left the home to fend for himself. He moved to nearby Anderson County, and was there engaged in farming activities. On November 12, 1826, he married Martha Muse Oliver, a daughter of the long time sheriff of Anderson County, Charles Yarbrough Oliver, and a granddaughter of two Revolutionary War veterans, Douglas Oliver, a prominent businessman of Anderson County, and Henry Nunalley, also of Anderson County. Benjamin and Martha, like his parents, apparently also had a pioneer spirit, for some time in 1828 they set out with their young daughter Caroline Frances for the newly opened Arkansas Territory. Their journey took them nearly 600 miles, and they became some of the earliest white settlers in Washington County, in northwest Arkansas, where we find them in the first federal census of Arkansas, that of 1830. For 33 years after settling in Washington County the family grew and prospered. After their arrival the following additional children were born: Eliza Catherine, born July 24, 1829 Nancy Yarbrough, born May 3, 1832 Wiley Burk Oliver, born October 17, 1834 James Caswell, born January 1, 1837 Charles Wesley, born January 1, 1839 Benjamin Franklin Jr., born September 25, 1841 Amanda Jane, born December 3, 1843 Martha Tennessee, born May 29, 1846 Mary Ann, born October 14, 1848 Sophronia Avarilla, born April 20, 1852 In the mid-1830's Benjamin's twin sister Lucinda and her family came to Washington County from Tennessee. Brother Burk and his family settled in Yell County in the 1830's. By the late 1840's Benjamin and Martha were grandparents. In 1851 Benjamin's older brother James arrived in Washington County with his family from Campbell County, having remained there until after the death of Theodocia probably around 1842. So the decade of the 1850's must have been idyllic for the Johnson's in the beautiful Ozarks with the many related families, children and grandchildren. Little did they realize what was ahead. On August 27, 1856 Wiley Burk Oliver Johnson, our direct ancestor among the children of Benjamin and Martha, was married to Mahala West, a daughter of another pioneer of Washington County, Rev. Jonathan Renshaw West, who as a young Methodist Episcopal minister had arrived in 1830 along with his wife Nancy McIntire, his parents, brothers and sisters from Jackson County, in the extreme northeast corner of Alabama. On July 1, 1857 Wiley and Mahala had a daughter, Mahala Frances. On September 6, 1859 they had a son, Wiley Burk. Unfortunately Mahala died that same day, undoubtedly as a result of complications arising from childbirth. She is buried in a marked grave in a small cemetery in the middle of a pasture on a farm known as "the old Thomas Tennant place" just southwest of Summers, Arkansas. Other Wests are also buried here, but none are our direct ancestors. In the 1860 census we find Wiley in the household of Benjamin and Martha, while the two young children are in the household of Mahala's parents. On Christmas Day, 1860 Wiley married the next older sister of Mahala, Martha West. During this period the storm clouds of civil war were brewing. Arkansas was a slave state, but its citizens were divided. Benjamin was staunchly opposed to slavery and secession and spoke out against both on many occasions. Because of this he made many political enemies. The matter of secession was voted upon in early 1861, and the secessionists won. Arkansas joined the Confederacy. The Johnson's and Wests and others who had opposed secession, were considered to be Unionist enemies in Confederate territory, which they were. Their homes in Washington County were not more than 30 miles from Missouri, a Union state. In addition, within 5 miles or so to the west was Indian Territory, and the bushwhackers among the Indian tribes were ready to take advantage of a breakdown in law and order to plunder, steal, and kill across the border in Arkansas. The Johnson families of Benjamin and Martha and the Jonathan R. West families and others were forced to leave for safety's sake, leaving behind their homes, furnishings, stocks, and grains. They went north almost 150 miles into Kansas, and settled in Bourbon and Linn Counties near Mound City, Mapleton, Rockford, Freedom, and Timberhill. Before they could get out of Arkansas three of the four Johnson brothers were conscripted into the Confederate Army, however they did not stay. The location of the family homestead in Washington County, Cane Hill, became almost a no mans land throughout the War. Because of its location so near the dividing line between North and South it was occupied at various times by both sides. A fairly sizable battle took place there. It is fair to surmise that the abandoned farms of the Johnsons and Wests suffered considerable destruction during the War. One of the costliest battles, in terms of human lives lost, of the entire War took place less than 40 miles north of cane Hill almost on the Arkansas-Missouri state line. A total of over 6500 on both sides were killed and wounded there in the battle of Pea Ridge during three days of fighting in March,1862. During the War the Johnson brothers were engaged in freighting supplies for the government from Fort Scott, which was a very large supply depot, to the many federal forts and other installations in Indian Territory, Kansas, and Missouri. While engaged in this business they very nearly lost their lives when in September 1864, near the end of the war, a supply train of which they were a part of over 200 wagons being escorted by 600 soldiers was ambushed and overrun at Cabin Creek, about 60 miles north of Fort Gibson, Indian Territory, their destination, by a large Confederate Cherokee Indian force of over 2000 led by Brig. Gens. Stand Watie and Douglas Cooper. The brothers escaped with their lives, but lost a great deal in teams and wagons. The years in Kansas were harsh. The wife of Jonathan R. West, Nancy McIntire, died in January 1863 at age 56. Her marked grave is in Mapleton Cemetery, Mapleton, Kansas. The first child of Wiley Johnson and Martha West, James Blount Johnson, born October 2, 1861 in Arkansas apparently just before the families fled, died in August 1863, not yet 2 years of age. At the end of the War, in November 1865, Martha Muse Oliver Johnson and her youngest daughter Sophie, then 13, returned to Washington County to reclaim the family property, Benjamin being ill at the time and unable to accompany them. He recovered and did join them on January 27, 1866, but on January 29 Martha Muse Oliver Johnson died of a heart attack. She was 57. She is buried in a marked grave in Bethlehem Cemetery on Fly Creek, about 4 miles southwest of Lincoln, Arkansas, or west of Clyde. Some of the Johnson families remained in Kansas. Wiley, his brother Charles, and their sister Martha and their families settled in Jasper County, Missouri probably in 1866. The second child of Wiley and Martha, John Henry Johnson, born April 3, 1865, died there in 1866. His little grave is located in an almost deserted cemetery named Gem Cemetery. The little cemetery is located right off an Interstate ramp just across from where Dudman is located. Beginning in early 1867, Wiley and Martha had nine more children, all in Jasper County, as follows: Addie May, born February 1, 1867 Charles Grant, born April 10, 1868 Emma Ruth, born July, 1870 Edward Franklin, born July 14, 1871 Claude Sherman, born January 29, 1873 Martha Belle, born February 16, 1875 Effie Gertrude, born February 21, 1877 Walter Caswell Fletcher, born February 21, 1879 Benjamin Otto, born October 11, 1880 Martha Belle died in 1885 at age 10. Emma Ruth died in 1888 at age 17. Effie Gertrude died in 1902 at age 24. All the others lived full lives, ranging from 70 years for Charles to 87 years for Walter. Wiley Burk, the first born son of Wiley Burk Oliver Johnson and Mahala West, was killed along with 50 to 60 others in a train wreck in August 1917 at Tipton Ford, Missouri, when he was age 57. Benjamin Franklin Johnson sold out in Washington County in 1867 and also moved to Jasper County. There he remarried, on September 23, 1867 at age 65, a widow with four children, Elizabeth Jane West Barker, who was an older sister of Martha and Mahala West. The marriage ceremony was performed by Rev. Jonathan R. West, father of Elizabeth, Mahala, and Martha West. Benjamin and Elizabeth thereafter had two sons, Milton Schyler, born January 28, 1869, and Henry Keck, born November 29, 1871. Benjamin died April 17, 1883, approaching 80 years of age. He attributed his robust health and longevity to "temperate methods of living, having never used tobacco in any form, or stimulants of any kind." His family bible, printed in 1856, is still in existence today. It is in the possession of Mrs. Ruby Johnson, widow of Elry Johnson, a son of Milton Schyler Johnson. Mrs. Johnson lives in Carthage. Benjamin Franklin Johnson and his wife Elizabeth, Wiley Burk Oliver Johnson and his wife Martha, Rev. Jonathan R. West, plus most of the sons and daughters of Wiley and Martha are all buried at Dudman Springs Cemetery, which is just off I-44 about five miles southeast of Carthage and just west of Sarcoxie. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------