THE JOHNSONS AND THEIR KIN of RANDOLPH JESSIE OWEN SHAW 514 - 19th Street, N.W. Washington 6, D. C. October 15, 1955 Copyright 1955 by Jessie Owen Shaw PRINTED IN USA BY McGREGOR & WERNER. INC. WASHINGTON. b. C. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The compiler desires to express her deep apprecia­ tion to each one of the many friends whose interest, encour­ agement and contribution of material have made this book possible. Those deserving particular mention are: Joseph H. Alexander, Selmer, Tenn.; Henry H. Beeson, Dallas, Tex.; Augustine W. Blair, High Point; Mrs. Evelyn Gray Brooks, Warwick, Va.; George D. Finch, Mrs. Eva Leach Hoover and Will R. Owen, Thomasville; Miss Blanche Johnson, Knox­ ville, Tenn.; the late Miss Emma Johnson, Trinity; Mrs. Myrtle Douglas Loy, Plainfield, Mo.; W. Ernest Merrill, Radford, Va.; John R. Peacock, High Point; Mrs. Erma John­ son VanWinkle, Clinton, Mo.; the late R. Clark Welborn, Baldwin C it y, Kans.; Mrs. Audrey Stone Williamson, Lexington. iii To the memory of Henry Johnson Who gave his life for American Independence iv PREFACE The historic interest of a place centers in the people, or families who found, occupy and adorn them, and connects them with the stirring legends and important events in the annals of the place. Robert Louis Stevenson spent years tracing his Highland ancestry because he felt that through ancestry one becomes a part of the movement of a country's tradition and history. To be proud of one's ancestry, or to wish to be proud of it, is an almost universal instinct. At a very early age every normal child begins to boast of the superiority of his, or her immediate ancestors to the immediate ancestors of other children. Cultured people everywhere are becoming more and more interested in genealogy. Considering how one's ancestors multiply by geometrical recession, so to speak, it is obvious that not even the most passionate genealogical zealot can hope to learn even the names of more than a relatively small number of the vast multitude of his ancestors. V I ()p.,11,t-,cl/ CJ,.,,d. GUif.FORD COUNTY A I • NofAu Hu.•f'. J.. I I _._. - -- - ~ - - - - - - - - -- - - - -------- I 13USI-I I-I/LL a I l A//<11 V I Pft,4,54.nf R«lcl.104 J( <.... Linl.s•v Lu,,u CW«ll,o,11 11,J/) H6Pf1JELL CHURCH C0/11'/_JJNITY A UNION fNsT/TUTE /&59• JUO (Courtesy of the Bureau of Public Information, Duke University) This section of central North Carolina was the home of the institutional ancestors of Duke University. Most of the early settlers were Quakers, but many were Scotch-Irish Presbyterians. Most of the Presbyterians and a few of the Quakers turned Methodists. Religion was strongly emphasized in the community, and Dr. Craven advertised that "the Bible is attended to" at Union Institute. There were about 300 conversions in relie:ious services at the school during the period, 1843-50. CONTENTS Page Preface ................... · .......... V The Kelly Johnson Letter .. 1 Evolution of a Family Name . 4 Explanation of Coat of Arms 5 Migrations . 6 They Fight for American Independence 9 They Start a School . .. 24 Genealogies, Sketches: Johnson 35 Blair .. 63 Brown 72 Clark. 77 Dear .. 89 Elder . 93 Finch, and related families 100 Kearns . 104 Laughlin 104 Swaim .. 106 Wood ... 108 Gray 111 Leach 123 Lee .. 136 Mendenhall . 148 Merrill . 160 Veach . 174 Welborn . 179 Uwharrie River; Origin of Counties Shown in Map of Union Institute Community 189 Location of Graves ...... 190 Lytle Family Burialground 191 Abbreviations . ..... 191 References 192 Index .... 193 vii THE KELLY JOHNSON LETTER On Saturday morning following Thanksgiving Day, 1947, came the message that during the previous night Emma Johnson's house and all her belongings in storage there had been destroyed by fire. To those of us who knew the history of this little house that had stood just off the campus of Trinity College in Randolph, this message brought peculiar sadness. To Emma-eighty-three and known to possess unusual christian fortitude-it brought tears of grief. After the death of Emma's sister, Rose Leach Johnson, on May 25, 1941, Emma was the only surviving member o~ her immediate family. Reluctant to leave the house that had been occupied by her family for over seventy years, Emma decided to live there alone. It was the home her father, the Reverend Dougan Clark Johnson, had established for himself and his family in 1873, after he had lost his voice and was compelled to retire from the Ministry. A few years later Emma was permanently injured from a fall and it became necessary for her to rent out her home and enter a nursing home in High Point. Lack of room in her new quarters made it advisable for her to leave behind everything except personal neces­ sities. Even such treasures as family photographs, the Family Bible, and her father's books and papers were left in storage at the old homestead. Among the books that were burned with the old home that November night were the two Bibles that had been presented to Dougan Johnson and his brother Lemuel back in 1853 when these two composed the first graduating class of Normal (later Trinity) College. Perhaps the next most treasured possession lost in that fire was the original Kelly Johnson Letter which had been left in the custody of Dougan Johnson years before by the Reverend LeRoy Johnson (to whom the letter was written} when the latter was moving to the West. Fortunately, Rose and Emma Johnson had permitted a relative to copy that letter and there were a few copies of it still in existence. The loss of the original gave birth to the idea of taking steps to insure the preservation of the family history it contained. The first plan was to place typewritten copies of the letter in a few of our most widely used genea­ logical libraries and in the Duke University Library. Easy access to the abundant resources for genealogical research in Washington led to findings of such value as to warrant expansion of the initial plan. The Revolutionary War pension records of John, Robert, and Joseph Johnson verify Kelly Johnson's statement that all. four brothers served in that war, also that Henry was killed by the Tories. Through these pension records it was possible to identify the particular locality in Lancaster county, Pennsylvania, in which the Johnson family lived as Paxtang township-now Dauphin county. These resources and the untiring cooperation of interested and resourceful persons have made it possible to develop the Kelly Johnson Letter into "The Johnson and Their Kin of Randolph." It can now be said of the Kelly Johnson Letter that it has stood the test of careful re­ search; it has served as the key to the early history of the Johnsons and their kin. 1 "Maud, Nov. 13, 1890 "Dear Son: "I will now try to fulfill a promise I made some time ago. "About the year 1773 or 4, four young men and a young woman (their sister) came to N. C. from Lancaster County, Penn. Their names were: Robert Johnson, John Johnson, Joseph Johnson, Henry Johnson, and Mary Johnson. They settled in the upper part of Ran­ dolph County. In a year or two the Revolutionary War came on and they all served as sol­ diers through the war. They talked very Irish. Their parents came from Ireland and settled in the county and state named above-Lancaster, Penn. "In those days there was a young man by the name of Henry Lytle who married Peggy Harmon and settled about one mile east of W. N. Elder' s store. They had three children, to wit, Betsey, Rosie, and Nancy (Irish). After the war the above Johnsons .settled down. Betsey Lytle married Daniel Merrill. They settled a little south of where Uncle John Elder died. Betsey, his wife, died away back yonder. Merrill then went to Guilford County, N.E. of Greens­ boro, and married the Widow Polly Thomas, mother of John W. Thomas. She, as you will see became my father's aunt. "I do not know who Robert Johnson married. He settled on Caraway on the south side of the old Asheboro road, 1/ 4 mile east of the Isaac White place, where Newby Farlow now lives. Robert sold out and left this country when I was about 12 years old. "John Johnson married Rosie Lytle. They settled about 1/2 mile from Robert on the north side of the old Asheboro road, and about 1/2 mile east of Neas Elder' s store. They were the father and mother of Aunt Polly Mendenhall. "Joseph (my grandfather) married Nancy Lytle (my grandmother). They settled and died at what we called "the old place," now owned by Lee Elder. He died Nov. 11, 1839. My grandmother died April, 1843. "Henry Johnson was killed by the Tories about the close, or just after the close of the Revolutionary War, two or three hundred yards east of Dorsett' s old store (Floyd's). Joseph and Henry Johnson bought a large tract of land and divided it between them. Grandfather settled on the northern part. Henry took the southern part which included all the Dempsey Brown and Whit Kennedy lands. Henry was not married when he was killed. "Mary Johnson married Benjamin Means (very Irish). They settled and died where Elias Elder now lives. The house Oliver lived in before he left was one of the houses Means built and lived in. "John Veach, your great grandfather, was of Irish descent and a native of Pasquotank County, N.