From the Blue Ridges to the Sandhills:
            The History of 4 North Carolina Families

Children of Henderson W. &
Amelia (Milly) Jones Johnson

Henderson and Milly had six children:

1.  Henderson and Milly Johnson had six children living with them in 1850: Mary, age 23, Matilda, 14, Nancy, 11, Allen, 8, Rufus, 5, and Christina, 2. Mary Johnson was considerably older than the next child, and her birth date would fall around 1827, before Henderson and Milly's marriage. She appeared again with the family in the 1860 census, at age 33.

2.  In 1860 Matilda Johnson was age 25, which would make her 74 in 1909. Moody Funeral Home recorded the death of Matilda from paralysis January 1, 1909. J.H. Hall and her brothers R.R. (Rufus Rite) Johnson and Allan Johnson were responsible for payment for the funeral. She was a farmer, single, and died at the age of 74 years, 4 months, and 1 day, which would make her birth date August 31, 1834. She was buried in the Norman Cemetery.

3.  Nancy Johnson would have been born about 1839. She was still with her parents in 1860, when she and Matilda were both listed as being age 25. She appeared again in the 1910 census, age 72, in the household of her brother Jesse Allen Johnson in Westfield.

4.  In 1860, when the family were listed in the Hollow Springs, Jesse Allen Johnson was married and living in his own household nearby. Jesse A. Johnson signed a bond to marry Elizabeth Gray on December 2, 1859 in Surry County. Their bondsman was William Mays. In the 1860 census, "Allen," age 20, and his wife Elizabeth, and their infant child (Lindsay) Jackson Johnson, appear to have been tenants, along with Henderson, of Allen's grandfather, Reverend Wright Johnson.

Jesse Johnson was conscripted September 17, 1864, for the Civil War. He served as a Private in Company B of the Second Battalion, North Carolina Troops. He was taken prisoner March 25, 1865 and confined at Point Lookout in Maryland, and he took the Oath of Allegiance June 3, 1865.

In January of 1877, Jesse A. Johnson, age 37 married Triphena Everhart, 32, in Surry County. In 1880, Allen and Triphena were in the Westfield district of Surry, farming near his brother, Rufus, and his uncle and aunt, Isaac and Nancy Norman. Roswell Johnson, age 14, farm laborer, lived with them. Roswell would have been born about 1866, and may have been the son of Elizabeth. This would date her death between 1866 and 1877.

In the 1910 census, Allen and Triphena were listed in Mount Airy Township, with his sister, Nancy. In 1920, Jesse A. and Triphena Johnson, now aged 85 were still in the Mount Airy district. Jessie A. Johnson's obituary said that he died February 20, 1920, and was buried in the Norman Cemetery.

According to Lemuel Kallam, one of William Norman's (author of A Portion of My Life) sisters said that Jessie A. Johnson, who married Tryphena Everhart, was buried at the Old Jackson Norman Homeplace on Tobe Hutson Road, which is near Dobson. The birth, death, and marriage dates he gave were the same as records cited above. Jesse's death certificate said his residence was in the village of Brim, which is east of Mount Airy near the Stokes County and Virginia state lines. The location would fall within the area identified as Hollow Springs and Westfield in the census. The death informant was William Everhart, his undertaker, who said he died of "a general breakdown, supposed to be some dropsy," and was buried in "Norman Cemetery."

5.  Rufus Rite (probably a variation of Wright) Johnson, was born March 1844. He was listed in the 1850 and 1860 census in his father's household. He married Frances Norman on April 4, 1867. Francis, called Fannie, was the daughter of Peter and Elizabeth Norman, neighbors of Henderson Johnson. By 1880, when Rufus was 36 and Fannie, 34, they lived in the Westfield District and had three daughters, Martha, Ann, and Millie.

The next available census record is 1910, when Rufus was aged 66, and he and Fannie are still in Westfield. According to this census, Fannie bore no additional children. When the census was taken in 1920, they were still in Westfield. He died of apoplexy on December 2 of that year and was buried in the Jackson Norman homeplace cemetery. His death certificate states that he was a farmer, employed by "none but self."

In the 1930 census, Fanny Johnson is listed as a widowed mother-in-law in the household of Joe H. and Iris Hall. Iris appears to be Rufus and Fannie's daughter Millie. J.H. Hall and Iris Johnson married March 26, 1899 in Westfield. They are listed in the 1910 and 1920 census as Joseph H. and Permila I. Hall, next door neighbors of Rufus and Fannie. In 1910 they had been married eleven years and had four children. Fannie N. Johnson died December 13, 1933 in Surry County.

Rufus and Fannie's home on Slate Mountain can be seen in a book on Surry County architecture, Laura A. W. Phillips's Simple Treasures : The Architectural Legacy of Surry County, as a typical log cabin home of the times in North Carolina.

6.  Christina Johnson, born ca. 1846, married James M. Collins on October 13, 1867. In the 1870 census they were farming in the Westfield district, with a one-year-old daughter, Mary. Apparently Christina passed away soon after, and around 1872, James remarried, to Elizabeth Norman, with whom he had several more children.

Sources

Census Data:

1860 U.S. Census, Hollow Springs District, Surry County, North Carolina, Series M653, Roll 914, (Washington: National Archives and Record Service) p. 143.

1870 U.S. Census, Westfield District, Surry County, North Carolina, (Washington: National Archives and Record Service) pp. 3-4.

1880 United States Census, Westfield Township, Surry County, North Carolina; Roll T9-983, (Washington: National Archives and Record Service) Enumeration District 177, p. 12.

1910 U.S. Census, Mt. Airy Township, Surry County, North Carolina; Series T624, Roll 1133, (Washington: National Archives and Record Service) p. 162.

1910 U.S. Census, Westfield Township, Surry County, North Carolina; Series T624, Roll 1134, (Washington: National Archives and Record Service) Enumeration District 144, p. 30.

1920 United States Census, Westfield Township, Surry County, North Carolina; Series T625, Roll 1316; (Washington: National Archives and Record Service) Enumeration District 267, p. 4A.

1920 United States Census, Mount Airy Township, Surry County, North Carolina; Series T625, Roll 1316; (Washington: National Archives and Record Service) Enumeration District 256, p. 13B.

1930 U.S. Census, Westfield Township, Surry County, North Carolina; Roll 1722, (Washington: National Archives and Record Service) Enumeration District 24, p. 5A.

Vital Records:

Jesse A. Johnson, Certificate of Death, North Carolina Death Certificates, Vol. 522, Surry County, (Raleigh: North Carolina Department of Archives and History) p. 287.

Rufus R. Johnson, Certificate of Death, North Carolina Death Certificates, Vol. 591, Surry County, (Raleigh: North Carolina Department of Archives and History) p. 232.

Fannie N. Johnson, "Ancestry.com. North Carolina Death Collection, 1908-1996" [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: The Generations Network, Inc., 2005; http://www.ancestry.com/, accessed May 6, 2007.

Marriage Bond of James Collins and Christeena Johnson, October 2 ,1867, and Certificate of Marriage of James Collins and Christeena Johnson, Surry County, North Carolina Marriages, Microfilm #C.091.60001, (Raleigh: North Carolina Department of Archives and History).

Books and Web Sites:

Betty J. Camin, Records of Moody Funeral Services, Mount Airy, North Carolina, 1903 to 1914 (Published by the author, 2904 N. Main St., Mt. Airy, NC 27030, 1990) p. 21, line 40.

Brent Holcomb, Marriages of Surry County, North Carolina 1779-1868, (Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co., 1982) p. 111.

Hester Jackson, Surry County Soldiers in the Civil War (Box 707, Dobson, NC 27017) p. 102.

Louis H. Manarin, North Carolina Troops: 1861-1865 A Roster, Vol III, Infantry, (Raleigh: NC State Dept of Archives and History, 1971), p. 284.

Lemuel Wallace Kallam, Kallam Survey of Cemeteries of Surry County and Surrounding Counties, Vol. 30, (Dobson: Surry County Genealogical Association) p.146.

Lemuel Wallace Kallam, Kallam Survey of Cemeteries of Surry County and Surrounding Counties, Vol. 28, (Dobson: Surry County Genealogical Association) p. 138.

Laura A. W. Phillips, Simple Treasures : The Architectural Legacy of Surry County, (Siloam N.C.: Surry County Historical Society, 1987).

Kathy Deford Johnson, transcriber, "Early Johnson Marriages," North Carolina GenWeb Project, http://www.geocities.com/~surryco/johnmar.html accessed May 6, 2007.

Laura Wareh, transcriber, "Norman Marriages," North Carolina GenWeb Project, http://www.geocities.com/~surryco/normmar.html, accessed May 6, 2007.

Laura A. W. Phillips, Simple treasures : the architectural legacy of Surry County (Siloam, N.C.: Surry County Historical Society, 1987) p. 272.

Elaine McKinley, Surry County NC Marriage Bonds and Abstracts 1780-1868, (Cimarron KS: Mrs. Robert Taylor, 1975) p. 30.

Hester Bartlett Jackson, editor, The Heritage of Surry County, North Carolina, Volume I, (Winston-Salem, N.C.: Surry County Genealogical Association in cooperation with Hunter Pub. Co., 1983), articles #111, 114. (Sandra W. Luffman, "Anthony Collins," "Rev. Samson Collins")

From the Blue Ridges to the Sandhills: The History of 4 NC Families /
Children of Henderson W. & Amelia (Milly) Jones Johnson
© 2001 by Glenda Alexander, updated August 2008        Standard copyright restrictions apply.