“of Williamsburg”
Johnson-Amis Cemetery
William and his family moved to Middle Tennessee around 1810, after his father’s death, to join his brother Abner and sister Ursula Pillow. They likely settled first in Rutherford Co. before moving south to the Fountain Creek neighborhood of Maury Co. by about 1812.
Like his father, William was a small-scale slaveholder. On the 1823 tax rolls, he listed three slaves to help him farm 272 acres on Fountain Creek. His eldest known son Alexander also listed three slaves for a smaller farm of 93.5 acres.William Allen and Sarah McClaren Johnson are buried in Johnson-Amis Cemetery in front of the Culleoka, TN post office in Maury Co. Among the 11 children of son Alexander was Louisa Yeoman Johnson who married Lewis Amis on July 15, 1830. The Amis couple and five of their seven children lie in the same cemetery.
Johnson-Amis Cemetery
Before his marriage, though, Gideon Jr. served as a private in July 1776 under Capt. John Armstrong of Surry Co., NC, and Lt. Joseph Tate of Guilford Co., NC. Armstrong's company joined the 2nd Regiment of the Continental Line at Salisbury, NC shortly after Gideon enlisted. He was discharged by then-Col. Alexander Martin, the later governor of North Carolina who appointed Gideon and brother Abner as his bodyguards.
Mary (Polly) Baker DE GRAFFENREID
Moved to Davidson Co., Tennessee near Nashville in 1819
?1759 ?1758
Abner is said to have been wounded at the tide-turning battle of Guilford (N.C.) Courthouse although he made no such claim when he applied for a war pension.
In October 1777, while living in the Dan River valley, Abner volunteered for militia service under his neighbor, Capt. John Nelson; if not enough volunteered, then able-bodied men were drafted to fill out the unit. Capt. Nelson's company was organized under Col. Paseley's regiment with Charles Hughes as lieutenant, Allen Walker as sergeant and George Parks and Abner as ensigns. Col. Paseley's regiment from Guilford Co. was joined with Col. Saunders' regiment from Granville County under the command of Gen. Rutherford.
The troops reported to Guilford Court House and then marched to SC through Salisbury and Charlotte, NC and Camden, SC. The destination was Smoky Camp near the town of Purrysburgh, according to Abner's pension papers. The troops ranged across the Black Swamp and as far as Augusta and Savannah in Georgia.
Around May 10, 1778, Abner was discharged, and he made his way back to the Dan River settlement with his neighbor, Capt. Nelson.
In a second stint of duty, Abner was called up for three months as a bodyguard against British and Tory attacks for "Governor Martin," who lived in the same county and was traveling to Nutbush for a meeting of the state legislature. However, a quorum of legislators failed to attend.
Finally, he again was called to accompany Alexander Martin to "Marcurian Tavern" for another session of the legislature, but again sufficient members failed to gather.
(The royal governor of North Carolina at the time was Josiah Martin. Abner, however, accompanied Alexander Martin of Guilford Co., who was only a member of the NC legislature. Alexander later became governor of North Carolina after statehood, and Abner referred to him as governor out of habit and respect in the pension papers.)
Abner's pension affidavit lists no other action except in "scouting parties" when the neighbors "were engaged against the Tories," probably simply other neighbors or small troop units sympathetic to the British.
He produced the testimony of David Dobbins, his brother Gideon and sister-in-law Sarah (Mrs. William) Johnson, but only that of Sarah has survived. In general she confirmed that the entire family lived in households on the Dan River and Abner was absent for long periods to fight in the Revolution.
Stories of service in the Revolution were often subject to embellishment, and the tale persists that Abner fought and was wounded at the Battle of Guilford Court House on March 15, 1781 despite no references in his pension papers. It is difficult to imagine that one of the bloodiest encounters of the Revolution occurred almost in his back yard and he didn't participate despite three tours of duty. Then again, the NC militia embarrassed itself at Guilford Court House, and he may have omitted the service from his official papers.
On March 15, 1781 about 2,000 men of British Gen. Cornwallis bore down on the Guilford Co. Courthouse near New Garden (NC) and the American forces under Gen. Nathanael Greene. The NC militia, the first line of defense, fired prematurely, panicked and then fled into nearby woods, exposing the VA militia. The reasons for the hasty retreat are unknown: no one from the North Carolina troops was wounded or killed in the initial action.
Like many military incidents, the British victory at Guilford Court House, however, really became a defeat, thanks to the heavy losses.
When the gunsmoke cleared, the Americans had withdrawn to the north — survivors of "one of the bloodiest (battles) of the war," says Page Smith, a historian of the Revolution and author of A New Era Now Begins. While the British took the courthouse area (now the site of Greensboro), their casualties came to 554, or one than one fourth of Cornwallis' troops. "It was a devastating setback," says Smith, and demonstrated that the American Continental Line (not the militia) could hold its own against British regulars.
Former British Prime Minister William Pitt later described the Battle of Guilford Court House as "the precursor of ruin to British supremacy in the South." The conflict would surge north over the next two years before Cornwallis surrendered to the Americans at Yorktown, VA.
Abner's wounds would have occurred in the disarray after the militia retreat. The Continental Line regulars suffered 144 dead or wounded while the militia men posted 83 wounded. The Americans, however, listed 1,084 missing or deserted, with 552 from the North Carolina militia.
He and Nancy Brackett were married on March 14, 1783. No traces have been found on the ancestry of Nancy; she does not appear to have been the Nancy Brackett who was born around 1761 (the same age) to Thomas and Judith Brackett of Amelia Co.5 However, she may have been the daughter of Thomas’ son Benjamin, who moved to that part of NC.
Abner and Nancy’s eldest children William Allen, Gideon, Elizabeth and Mary were born in Rockingham Co. before the family moved west.
Abner and his family likely came to Nashville in November 1788, with his sister Mary Ursula Pillow and her family. Abner is mentioned in Rockingham land records in 1786 and 1787, but no later; his son Abner Jr. told census takers he was born in TN in 1792; and Davidson Co. court records of the early 1790s refer to Abner Sr. In that era, little of the state was settled except for the eastern mountain counties and the Red River communities around Nashville, also known as Nashboro or French Lick.
Abner does not appear in the 1790 North Carolina census although his father and brothers William and Gideon were still located in Rockingham. Virtually all Tennessee censuses were destroyed before 1820, when Abner was in Maury Co.
He may have moved back to NC briefly because one census shows his daughter Sarah Ann (Ginger) was born there in 1804. That likely was a census taker’s error or a family member’s mistaken memory because Abner’s daughter Elizabeth was married in Davidson Co., TN in April 1804, Abner appears on the Davidson Co. tax rolls in 1805.6
The available records strongly suggest that Abner was a skilled tradesman or laborer, not a farmer. No evidence exists that – unlike his heavily landed ancestors –he ever owned real estate. Unlike most pioneer settlers who came to Middle Tennessee, Abner did not exercise his Revolutionary War land bounty rights. Instead, Abner in 1818 was among 20,485 soldiers who began drawing pensions for his Revolutionary War service under an 1816 law that allowed him $96 a year – or half pay – for five years in lieu of his land rights. He then qualified for lesser income under an 1820 congressional act for veterans who were indigent. Under laws that became effective in 1832, most veterans lost their pensions, and Abner had difficulties qualifying. But in1838 he regained his rights and back pay to 1832.
This lack of land ownership also applies to his sons and most of his sons-in-law, except for William Kenamore. The 1823 Maury tax rolls show they only paid poll tax and held no real estate. But in southern Maury Co., numerous large plantations – especially those owned by Pillow cousins -- would have provided steady work for trades plied by Abner and his sons.
Despite their lack of land – or disdain for farming – the Johnsons were considered influential by contemporaries because of their family connections in southern Maury.
When Abner first came to Maury from Davidson Co. is uncertain. An “A. Johnson” witnessed the deed for the sale of 183 acres in Bedford Co. from Joseph Rosborough7 to Joseph B. Porter for $350 on Sept. 4, 1810. Both Porter and Rosborough were residents of the Giles-Maury border area, and the deed was filed in Maury.8 In a more closely related act, an “A. Johnston” witnessed a September 29, 1812 deed involving land near his cousin Gideon Pillow’s plantation that also involved Peter Booker, whose family married into the Pillow clan. 9
Local histories suggest Abner moved his family first from Nashville to Culleoka or the Fountain Creek area in southeast Maury Co. where his brother William settled. Abner then shifted south of the county seat, Columbia, near the villages of Bigbyville and Southport. Abner and Nancy were firmly established in southern Maury Co., TN by 1820. They were close neighbors to their nephews and large plantation owners William and Gideon Pillow.
The 1820 census shows Abner and Nancy living with only sons Gideon and Mordecai and daughter Sarah Ann still in the home; the other children had married, but all lived nearby except William Allen, who died in 1819.
In 1850, Abner and Nancy were living in a household headed by their granddaughter, widow Matilda Kenamore McCaslin and her three children, with William and Mary Johnson Kenamore, Abner’s granddaughter Sarah Ann Johnson and grandson William C. Duke.
Abner died on Oct. 22, 1850, and Nancy is believed to have died in 1853. She was still alive in late 1852 when she transferred the pension benefits from Abner to herself. Their graves are unmarked, although his name is on a monument in Columbia, TN that honors Revolutionary veterans buried in Maury Co.1805 Tax rolls in Davidson Co., Tennessee
1820 lived in Maury Co., Tennessee
See Johnson Family Research by Randy McConnell for information on their children
• Mordecai Morgan was named for John Morgan who married mother Ursula Allen Johnson’s sister Elizabeth. This brother is not believed to have moved from Rockingham Co., according to reports about the relocation of the other brothers. Descendants of the Johnson family still live in Rockingham County, including Robert W. Carter Jr., publications chairman of the local historical society and authority on the Johnson and other local families in the 1990s.
Mordecai and his unnamed wife (possibly Jane), however, had landholdings in 1811 in Stewart Co., TN near his brother Peter.
Poplar Grove Cemetery
• Peter Benjamin Johnson (1766-1855, Old Springville, Henry Co., TN) fought in the Revolution and married Nancy Hubbard, daughter of William Hubbard. Peter is found in Stewart County, TN in 1820 with his wife, sons Abner and William Hubbard and five daughters. He had migrated north of Nashville with his Hubbard in-laws.
Peter was a veterinarian or “horse doctor,” and on a frontier that had few physicians, Nancy earned a reputation as an “herb doctor.”
Peter and Nancy eventually had 10 children: Abner; Joicey (m. John Leland Hagler); William Hubbard; Milbury or “Millie” (m. Horatio Nelson Marberry); Mary (m. William Kinkead); Charlotte (m. Kenneth Buchanan); Caroline (m. Willis Murphy Watson); Minerva (m. William J. Conyers); Ursula; and Thomas (m. Mary Dudgeon).
Peter and Nancy are buried at Poplar Grove Cemetery in Henry Co.
Poplar Grove Cemetery
from Amelia Co., VA
? aft 1830
• Elizabeth, likely the eldest child of Gideon and Ursula, married James Ray or Wray in 1765 in Rowan Co. with her father Gideon giving consent. Wray likely had been related to the family of the same name associated with the Johnsons in Amelia and Prince Edward Cos. The Wrays lived near her father and brothers in Guilford Co., NC in the late 1700s.
Wray died in 1806.
Sarah or Sally married Bellanfant, a Frenchman who reputedly came to America with the Marquis Lafayette’s troops during the Revolution, just after his first wife Louisa “Lucy” Yeoman died while giving birth at sea on the way home from visiting his parents in France, according to a longstanding, but possibly far-fetched family story. Bellanfant lived in the Dan River valley and had real estate transactions with the Johnsons in the 1790s.
Sally became the stepmother of seven children, including twins, all under age 12, and Jean almost immediately died -- before May 1802 -- while fighting a fire in a foundry or blacksmith shop. The eldest child, twin Mary Jessaline Bellanfant, married Alexander Johnson, the son of William Johnson and Sally’s cousin.