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Jonthan and Margaret {Miller} Johnston
Hopefully this is only a start in your quest to your roots, some may dig backward into the earlier history of the name and relationship of all who bear the name. The resent past and the present are available to discover. The distant past is not so easy. Many treasure a faded photograph, a worn bible or a garden patch in their back yard remembering and preserving the memories establish a family heritage.
The information herein will help you to communicate with living members of your family. This is only a starting point for you the reader. Your unique family heritage is called “clues to the past”. These clues can unlock interesting adventure the clues learned from other members of the family teach the story of your origin.
Research on information available; county records, birth, death, marriage and census - direct contact with individuals. The responses are rewarding. The records in old family bibles; births of babies, wedding dates and the availability of historical regional centers.
This has been an effort to record and bring to date {1997}, information about our common ancestral background.
The connected kinsfolk in this Johnston/Johnson
Family Genealogical Compiled Research file, total 1,239 members and 426
families.
JONTHAN JOHNSTON, was born in the
year of 1804, Bath County, Virginia.
Married, MARGARET MILLER, December 25, 1829.
JOHN and MARGARET JOHNSTON came to western Virginia in the early 1800’s, settled in what became the Sutton area of Braxton County, West Virginia.
Considering JOHN and MARGARET JOHNSTON, the progenitors, this work introduces eight (8) generations.
We have tried to document all facts and list sources. As in all works of this type, there will be errors found.
This history would not have been possible without the help of many of you. We thank each and everyone of you that provided information for your own branches of the family and apologize to those of you we were unable to contact.
We are thankful to have the opportunity
to bring some of the history together.
The Johnston’s who settled in Braxton County, West Virginia in the early 1800’s.
Who were those people who gave us our family name? Where did names come from? Where did our namesakes settle? How long did they stay? Why did they leave their home lands? The immigrants settled in groups to give their own character to a certain area.
Name - Which a person is known.
Family Ties - Surname
Descendants - A person who is an
offspring however remote of a certain ancestor, family.
Surname - A family name is distinguished
from a given name or Christian name - last name.
Family - All those descendants
from a common ancestor.
Family Tree - All the ancestors
and descendants of a given family.
The name of Johnston and or Johnson was found both forms in this research, in reference to the same family surname. It was found written both ways, on the same persons birth record document and their marriage documents. It was easy to reference one to the other as the lineage was worked forward and backward.
The information herein, evolves
from all these descendants from a common ancestor.
The guns fell silent in 1865 and
the armies of the Blue and Gray returned to their homes, those of the South
to a land desolated by defeat, those of the North to new and perplexing
problems that were the out-growth of victory.
..
A Nations tragedy, this war engulfed two sections of the United States, the north and the south, from April 1861 until April 1865. It was a war between brothers, born of fate, fed by hate and misunderstanding. It took the lives of more American men than any other war including the two World Wars.
This war greatly affected this area of western Virginia. Western Virginia furnished 36,500 soldiers for the Union, and 7,000 for the confederate Armies. The guerrillas were irregular soldiers, usually volunteers that made surprise raids against supply lines, ect. Behind the lines of the invading Army.
JONTHAN JOHNSTON, was a volunteer guerrilla aiding against the North.
There were 32 companies of troops in state service. Some counties having one or two companies. Their duty was to scout and protect against guerrillas. These companies were called Home Guards, organized in 1861.
Family members against each other. Neighbor against neighbor.
Two causes for the war - the different economic systems struggle for supremacy in the new territories - traced to slavery. A third - state rights. This belief led to succession. The South did not think it would have to fight to secede. All southerners believed they would win if war did not occur. Today we know the South was mistaken. The confederacy began to seize Federal property in it’s territory.
Virginia had not yet decided to join the seceding states; this state was essential to the southern cause. Would Virginia join? The answer was “yes”, if the North was going to oppose secession. So the South began the war firing on Fort Sumpter, April 12, 1861. Two days later the fort fell; Virginia came into the confederacy. Brother against brother, and father against son. West Virginia sided with the Union and formed a separate states. The war was on.
Four years of war left the nation in a bad state, nearly 600,000 had been killed by bullets and disease. Brutal conditions the world had never seen like the struggle between the states. Prisoners of both sides led a terrible life. But, the prisoners taken by the North were left in seclusion and most of them starved to death.
The war destroyed the economic system of the South and created hardships in the North. The South was forced to seek new ways of living. Rebuild homes and farms, divided plantations with nothing to use for money. An added problem, four million free Negroes and most did not know how or where to make a living , or how to survive.
The South still remembers the evils of reconstruction. Many scars have not yet healed.
The war did accomplish two things. It removed the slavery and it’s attendant evil, and proved no state could secede from the Union.
<<<<<<<<<<<<The
years pass and the legend
covers them both
The victor has his victor
for his pain>>>>>>>>>>>>
rrj
"Granny" was gazing at the distant hilltops, seemingly unconscious of the fact of the activity going on around her. You soon learned two things; one that "Granny" was deaf and two, she had a mind of her own and usually did as she pleased.
There was quite a bevy of her children, grand -children, and great grand-children gathered around. The posterity of these large families scattered all around the country.
The subject matter in the conversation around "Granny" was if she would allow her picture to be taken.
A young lady shifting a youngster off her lap went to where "Granny" was seated and said, "Granny, we want to have your picture took". Her reply was, "what do you want my picture for you can see me right here". The young lady answered,”"because it’s your birthday". "Granny" replied, "lets get on with it".
The next discussion would be; should she be dressed in her new dress, or to be photographed as she was. It was decided on the new dress.......................................
Pen Picture of “Granny”
Margaret Miller, Born 1804, Bath County, Virginia
A small woman, but five feet tall, her form is bent which made her appear smaller, her faced wrinkled and furrowed. She always wore a kerchief and from underneath there strayed small wisps of snow white hair. The hands were thin and appeared to be gloved in wrinkled skin. By her side her cane, an aid for walking about the house and to venture a few yards out the back door to walk in the flower garden. This would have indeed been a quaint picture....
It wasn’t hard to realize the fact she had seen sunshine of so many summers, - it would not be possible to capture the far away look of her steady gaze in a picture.
The years have erased from MARGARET ( MILLER ) JOHNSTON’S memory the recollections of events, except those of earlier years.
When asked questions, her answer’s were usually, “ I don’t remember, it was so long ago”. The history of her life from the time of her birth, could be read like a magnificent story book.
MARGARET MILLER, Was born in the year 1804, in Bath County, Virginia . The daughter of William Jacob Miller, he being a farmer.
She married JOHN JOHNSTON, December of 1829. Their first son was born in Bath County, (western ) Virginia, James William Johnston, born 1831.
They immigrated westward over the Allegheny Mountains.
After the French and Indian War ended in 1763 the pass through the Mohawk Valley was opened making safe wilderness roads, many settlers traveled the roads. The English, Scotch-Irish, Germans - either formed settlements in these valleys or drifted farther west into Kentucky. At times groups of families would break from the main stream of pioneers and settle in the mountains where their descendants still live.
MARGARET and John chose the Elk River Valley, ending their journey near the town of Sutton. This region soon became part of Braxton County in 1863. Divided from parts of Lewis, Kanawha and Nicholas Counties.
More children were born to MARGARET and JOHN, all total of twelve. Some married, some died, Louvinia Alice, born February 11, 1859, died soon after birth.
The biggest trial came when her husband, John, was taken prisoner during the War between the states. The Civil War.
MARGARET, was left to stand alone amid a new generation. To meet the challenges of survival of every day. She was always in good health and lived to see her children well into their years. Her late years were spent setting in the sunshine that stole through the roof of the old front porch, her eyes fixed on the hills around her home near Sutton, West Virginia.
A slender cord to be broken, a little
thread to snap, and MARGARET ( MILLER) JOHNSTON, drifted across the silent
river to the home where her loved ones waited.
.
Margaret and John Johnston’s children were:
James W. Johnston,
born 1831, died 1909
married Amanda Louisiana Bond,
born 1835, died 1909
Maria Johnston,
born 1832, died 1904
married first Thomas Russell, born
1803, died 1877, second marriage, James Foster
Mary Ellen
Johnston, born 1834,
died 1864
married 1855, Jackson Smallridge
Benjamin Earl
Johnston, born 1836
married Carolin Amos, born 1840
Jacob Johnston, born 1838
Virginia Johnston,
born, 1840
married 1859, James Brown, born
1839
Blanche Johnston,
born 1843
married 1885, Asa Long, born
1827, died 1905
Nancy Johnston,
born, 1845
married 1864, Samuel Frame
Tamar K Johnston,
born, 1848, died 1924
married 1867, Benjamin Franklin
Skidmore, born 1846, died 1929
Elizabeth
Johnston, born 1849
married 1871, John Barnes, born
1850
Abraham Johnston,
born
1856, died 1883
married: 12-3-1877, Nancy
Ann Long, born 6-22-1856, died 11-26-1926
Nancy Ann Johnston, born 1856, died 1926
Louvinia Alice
Johnston,
born 1859, died 1859
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