Benjamin Johnson was born about 1790 in South Carolina [1,2], but the exact location is unknown. He married Margie Beasley [Arzy Squyres, granddaughter], who was born about 1800 in South Carolina, and the family lived in Georgia in 1836 where son William M. was born. The exact location of the Johnson residence in Georgia is unknown.
Benjamin and Margie had the following children [1,2,4]:
One of the sons Hall or Burrill who moved to Johnson Co was known as "Hic." [4]
Bill Johnson was born in Georgia in 1836 and moved to Simpson Co., Mississippi as a teenager. By 1860 he was married to Malissa and had several children. In the Civil War Bill Johnson served in Co. B, 16th Regiment of the Mississippi Volunteers and was wounded at Second Battle of Manassas (Bull Run). He went home and never returned to the army. [8]
Bill and Malisa had the following children [2]:
Between 1868 and 1870, Bill Johnson in a fit of vengenace killed a man who had attacked his father Ben Johnson. The story goes that Ben and the other man ran cattle together, and both had cow dogs. The other man talked Ben into letting their dogs fight, and when Ben's dog was getting the better of the fight, the other man stepped in and kicked Ben's dog. A fight ensued between the two, which ended when the other man whacked Ben on the head with the lead-filled handle of a buggy quirt. Ben was seriously injuryed and appeared to be near death. Bill Johnson had a volcanic temper, and when he heard about the incident, he grabbed his gun and went and shot Ben's assailant[3,4]
Bill abandoned his family to avoid prosecution and relocated to the Pensacola, Florida area. He apparently tried to take his family since stories of his hiding his children under a log have come down through the generations. At the time of Bill's flight, the Florida Panhandle was a "no man's land" where all sorts of people fled to avoid the law. There he met Elizabeth L. (Bettie) Johnson, the daughter of Allen Columbus Johnson (no known relation) and Emily Watson Johnson. Allen and Emily were from Wilcox Co., Alabama; but Allen was killed in the Civil War at Vicksburg, and Emily relocated to Florida. Emily was part Creek, and she apparently moved to join Creek relatives who had fled to Florida to avoid removal to Oklahoma in the 1830s.
Bettie and Bill Johnson
(with grandchildren Wes Moore, Vesta Squyres & Lizzie Moore ca. 1908)
Bill and Bettie were married, apparently without Bill's having a divorce from his first wife. They moved to Clarke County, Mississippi by 1875 and thereafter to Texas. At various times the family lived in Desoto Parish, Louisiana, Angelina Co., Texas, probably Nacogdoches Co., Texas, and Johnson Co., Texas, twice or more in some places. The movements of the family are impossible to ascertain other than that they lived in Johnson County near Alvarado in 1892, DeSoto Parish, Louisiana in 1893, and Angelina Co., Texas about 1897. Bill died in at Burke in Angelina Co. in 1924 and is buried at Ryan's Chapel Cemetery west of Burke. [5]
Elizabeth (Bettie) Johnson (1856-1939), wife of William M. Johnson
Bill and Bettie Johnson had the following children [3,4]:
Bill's first wife also moved to Texas, and Bill's grandchildren George and Steve Johnson encountered her in Kaufman Co, Texas. When the younger Bill and family first moved to a new farm, he sent George and Steve to a neighboring farm to fetch water to prime a well pump. When they were drawing the water, the neighbor lady asked the boys' names. They replied, "Johnson, Ma'am", and she quickly asked their father's name. When they replied, "Bill", she was very interested. Later that day she visited the Johnson farm, and she turned out to be the former Malissa Johnson, whom Bill the elder Bill had abandoned in Simpson Co., Mississippi in his flight from the law. When Bill the younger related the story to his mother, it caused a serious rift with her husband since she was not aware of the earlier marriage.
Emma, Bill and Bettie Johnson's eldest daughter was born in Clarke County, Mississippi in 1875. About 1892 when the Johnsons lived at Alvarado, Johnson Co., Texas, she met a young man named Charlie Baker, or perhaps Charlie Brown, and they conceved a son Frank under yet unclear circumstances. The Johnsons moved to Robeline, Natchitoches Parish, Louisiana where Frank was born. The family moved to Angelina Co., Texas, where Emma married widower Arthur Arrington of Burke in 1897. Arthur died in 1915. In 1916 Emma married Robert Hiram Lafayette Samford of Shelby County and lived there in 1920. He died in 1922, and Emma then married Jim Daniels. They were divorced in 1927, and she was single thereafter and used the name Samford until her death in 1962. During her life she traveled around East Texas and served as a midwife.
Benjamin Johnson's youngest son was Burrill Henry Johnson, who ultimately moved to Johnson County, Texas. Benjamin Johnson was born in South Carolina in 1790. Among those listed in South Carolina patriots of the American Revolution was a Burrill Johnson. Another of my ancestral familiies is that of Patrick Johnson of South Lousisana, who was a member of the mixed blood group known as Redbones. One of the Redbones married a Johnson woman, who was said to be the granddaughter of Revolutionary War hero Burrill Johnson.
None known.
None known.
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