ANCESTORS AND DESCENDANTS
OF
THOMAS VESTAL JOHNSON
SON OF
WILLIAM HARRISON JOHNSON AND
NANCY WOOD JOHNSON
With Allied Families Included
Edited
by Carolyn Johnson Smith
Note: This began as an attempt to record the oral
history of Pearson/Pierson Madison Johnson as told to his children. As it expanded through research,
correspondence with family members, and correspondence with other genealogists
of this and allied families, it has grown to include many branches of this
family. Where material supplied by other
people is used, an attempt has been made to give each person credit for his or
her contribution.
William
Harrison Johnson, was born in Georgia on January 18, 1818, and his wife Nancy
was born in South Carolina in 1822, according to the 1850 and 1860 census
records. On the death certificate of
Thomas Vestal Johnson, his mother's maiden name is given as Wood. According to Cliff Hill, Nancy Wood and
William H. Johnson were married in Spartanburg, South Carolina, on 15 January
1839.
The
Wood Family
Henry Wood, Jr., was the son of Rev. Henry
Wood, Sr. and Susan Mayfield Wood and was born 19 July 1786 in Warren County,
North Carolina. Henry, Jr., moved to
Georgia where he married Nancy Ford. He
died 15 August 1873 in Cherokee County, Georgia.
Henry
Wood, Sr., was the son of Penuel (Pennell/ Pennuwell) and Constance
"Conney" Wood and was born 16 December 1756 in Granville, Bute County
(which later became part of Warren County), North Carolina. Penuel Wood was born circa 1733 to William
and Mary Wood of Virginia, and the family moved from Lunenburg County,
Virginia, between the time he was listed as a deed witness on 16 January 1752
and on 8 October 1754 he was listed on the muster roll of a militia regiment in
Granville
County,
North Carolina. Sometime between 15
October 1770 when Penuel sold his 100 acres of land for 30 pounds to his
brother Bennett, and 15 July 1774 when Penuel purchased land on Broad River
including an island, Penuel moved from North Carolina to South Carolina. In 1800, he was conveyed 1300 acres of land
by governor John Drayton of South Carolina.
Penuel's will is recorded in Spartanburg County, dated 3 June 1809, and
it is believed he died around 1810.
J. Glenn Wood and Robert D. Wood in Our Time In History: This Wood Family,
state that it is believed that Henry and his family lived with his parents
until about 1800. Henry first married
Susan Elizabeth Mayfield in 1777 and they had eleven children: Ann, John, Elizabeth, Mary, Henry Jr.,
Daniel, Charity, James, Lotty, Mahalah, and Isham. After the death of his first wife in 1800,
Henry later married Nancy Burns/Burnes about 1818 and they had three
children: James D., Nancy, and
Lucinda. Henry Wood, Sr., applied for
pension under Act of 7 June 1832, pension application R-11, 785:45590-160-55,
on 19 March 1833 when he was a resident
of Spartanburg District. In that
application he stated that he enlisted in the 3rd North Carolina Militia and
served in the Revolutionary War a greater part of his tour, then substituted
Richard Thomas of Wake County to take his place. For this, he gave Mr. Thomas a valuable mare
and cash, according to the agreement, the value of 1200 pounds of tobacco. Henry Wood served another tour, but became
ill and furnished a Mr. James to take his place for two horses valued at $27.10
and four yards of homespun cloth. Henry was at
the Battle of Bunker Hill and was at the surrender of Cornwallis.
When he was about thirty (circa
1786), Henry Wood moved to Georgia until after 1810, when he returned to South
Carolina. The church begun by Rev. Wood
is now Woods Chapel Methodist Church at Greer, Spartanburg County, South
Carolina. Many descendants of the Wood
family are still members of the congregation.
According to information from Bill Glenn, both Henry and Nancy Wood are
buried at Woods Chapel. Bill Glenn, who
lives at Taylors, South Carolina, is a descendant of Rev. Henry Wood. As demographics shifted due to the
industrialization of the area, the membership has dropped. The church is still in good repair and has a
memorial dedicated to Rev. Wood. The
original chapel has been replaced by a modern red brick structure which is
within site of a large Mercedes Benz plant.
Henry Wood, Jr., married Nancy Ford
and they moved to Georgia. This couple
is thought to be the parents of Nancy Wood.
Nothing is known yet of the parents of Nancy Ford.
The 1850 Georgia census shows
William and Nancy Johnson in DeKalb County for a time. Later, but before the birth of James in 1855,
Nancy and William Johnson moved to Rome, Georgia, (Floyd County). According to the NORTHWEST GEORGIA HISTORICAL AND GENEALOGICAL SOCIETY QUARTERLY,
Page 18, Vol. 25, No. 4, William died on 9 March 1899, and is buried in the
Oakland Cemetery at Kingston Avenue and Church Street in Rome, Georgia. Several other family members are also buried
in this cemetery, including Nancy Johnson who died 2 Jan 1912 in Rome, Georgia,
according to Cliff Hill.
According
to records located by Donald Johnson, the parents of William H. Johnson were
William Bailey and Leatha C. Hardeman Johnston.
According to census records and
records supplied by Cliff Hill and taken from an old family Bible in the
possession of W. H. "Bill" Johnson of Cartersville, Georgia, the
children of Nancy and William Harrison Johnson, all born in Georgia, were:
o
William Riley, born 11 July 1842
who married Julia V. Waters on 13 Sept
1868 and who died 3 Dec 1893;
o Robert
J., born 30 Jun 1843;
o Thomas Vestal, born 31 July 1844(45)
whose life events are covered below;
o Parmelia
C. Wood, born 15 Oct 1847 and died 3 Sept 1859; Sallie, born 1848(?) and died
17 June 1870;
o Martha
Anjeline, born 10 Sept 1849 who married Guice Winfield on 22 Oct 1874 and died
14 Dec 1925;
o Frances
Gertrude, born 14 Aug 1852 and married John Arrenton May on 26 Nov 1871 and
died 27 May 1936;
o James
Healy, born 19 Sept 1855 who married Ophelia Nailor on 13 Nov 1879(81) and died
2 May 1942;
o John
Wesley, born 18 June 1857 who married Mattie K. Matthews on 9 Nov 1879 and died
15 Oct 1923; and
o
George Hillyer, born 5 Apr 1859
who married Ardecie Louisa May on 26 Nov
1884 and died 17 Aug 1935.
Those
children born before 1855 were born in Dekalb County, Georgia. James Healy Johnson and the children
following him were born in Chattooga County, Georgia before it was divided and
the part in which they lived became Floyd County. Some researchers believe this is in error and
that Sallie was Parmelia’s nickname.
When the Civil War began, William
and his sons Riley and Thomas joined the Sardis Volunteers of Company G of the
6th Cavalry of the Confederacy. William,
a Private, was wounded and was in a prisoner of war camp and hospital. Thomas was so young that he was a bugle and
water boy, and was captured and paroled. He was wounded in the thigh and in the
arm, and lost a finger. Robert J.
Johnson served in the 22nd Georgia Cavalry.
According to Luda Johnson in a letter to Jolene Doering, the Johnsons owned a big plantation with a
lot of slaves before the war. When
Thomas came home from the war, they had lost everything except one mule and a
seventeen-year-old former slave. The
former slave killed the mule rather than let his former owner have the
animal. Thomas Vestal Johnson did not
say what happened to the former slave, only that he would never kill another
mule. Luda says, "so we can just
guess what happened to him."
Some
researchers believe that William Harrison Johnson’s cousins, who were the line
related to Lyndon B. Johnson, coerced William into enlisting in the Confederacy
with the threat that if he did not, his home and crops would be burned and
family killed. No one knows, but William
did not serve long before he walked away from a Union prison hospital and went
home. Yet in a photo taken in his later years, William appears to be wearing
his Confederate uniform. The photo was taken at the home of William and Nancy’s
youngest son, George Hillyer, who lived in Rome, Georgia, at the corner of
Broad and Peachtree Streets.
Information Source