Dear Ms. Watson: The work you have done on Grant County cemeteries is just amazing! Thank you so much! I am the gggson of James N. Johnson, born 1821, born in Ohio, died at Upland, Grant County, 1910. He and his father, John Johnson, born Washington County Pa., and his brother, Jesse Johnson, born 1824 died Grant County 1914 (who never married) migrated to Grant County about 1840 or '45. These are the Johnsons who are buried in section A of the Jefferson Township cemetery which you have so well recorded. I thought I remembered from my boyhood (I'm 52 now!) that my grandfather, S. Alva Johnson (once Grant county auditor) showed me a family cemetery near Upland. However, I have checked with my father, William G. Johnson (81 and living in Florida) and he tells me that, apart from the graves in the Jefferson Township cemetery, which he believes were removed from a family cemetery at Upland, he is aware of no Johnson family cemetery surviving in Grant County. Of course, our family were not the only Johnsons in Grant County, but I think they were the only Johnsons in Jefferson township. ............... All the best. Michael A. Johnson
Dear Ms. Watson: ............ They are pretty well written up in Shinn's history (1914) (NOTE: I think he means Whitson's History pages 932 thru 934 sdw) and in the 1904 History of Grant County (which entries I presume they wrote themselves and paid for appropriately, although they didn't go for any photos - Presbyterians and Scots-Irish, you know!). I haven't got a copy of the earlier history of Grant County (was it 1884?). As I recall, my aunt Betty Wood (my father's sister) had a copy, but no one in the family seems to know what happened to it. Since she and her husband (Fred) taught at Fairmount high school for many years (Yes, James Dean was one of her students), she may have given it to the school. Unfortunately, the Newberry Library here is Chicago doesn't have a copy. By the way, in case you hear from others, our family names in Grant County before 1900, in addition to Johnson, are: Burnside, Seybold, Connelly (or Conley), Wise and Burns. After 1900, my grandfather's sisters married Marley and Snyder and one of their daughters married a Peacock, and my father's sister (Betty) married Fred Wood, whose mother was a Lindsey. My father's older brother married in Cincinnati and his wife's name was also Johnson, so my cousins have an even more wearisome task than mine - Johnsons everywhere in the family tree! None of our family Johnsons lives in Grant County anymore and we sold the farm (in Liberty Twp.) to Mac and Vivian Love in 1990. That property was purchased in the 1880's by my ggrand-father, James Noah Johnson. The original place was the one in Jefferson Twp., which was entered (apparently) by my ggggrandfather, John Johnson from Guernsey County, Ohio (born Washington County, Pa. 1787) in 1835. I still have the original deed to the Liberty Twp. farm, issued to a Dix in 1836 and signed by Martin van Buren. So, there was some kind of Johnson farm in Grant County for 155 years... And you thought you rambled on! Well, enough for today. And, once again, I can't congratulate you enough on your work on the cemeteries of Grant County. I have surfed all over the Web looking at such things, and your work is the very best, bar none. The fact that you have made it available free of charge says a great deal about what a kind person you are. Thanks again. Mike Johnson
...Original page by Sheila D. Watson
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