Soloman Johnson and Mary Herring were the parents of:

Soasbe Johnson, son of Soloman Johnson and Mary Herring, was born about 1760 in what is now Sampson County, North Carolina.  He married Sarah Elizabeth Miller (born in 1760) in Sampson County in 1779, and they settled on Clear Run Creek, along with Soasbe’s older brothers, Solomon Jr. and Ephriam. Their land occupied about ten square miles.  Soasby was a farmer, and also a harvester of naval stores and logs, which he rafted down the river to Wilmington, NC.  During the Revolution, he served as a private in Captain Benjamin Coleman’s  Company in the 2^nd North Carolina Regiment, which he and his two brothers Ephraim and Solomon Jr. joined   [Reports that the three brothers were in the 10^th NC Regiment are in error.] 

The 2^nd North Carolina Regiment

The 2^nd North Carolina Regiment was formed by order of the North Carolina Provencial Congress on September 1, 1775.  It was taken into the Continental Line on November 28 of that same year, and assigned to the defense of the coast and to round up local Tories.  It was involved in the defense of Charleston in June, 1776.  ( See  discussion of the Southern Campaign of the American Revolution in Chapter I.) 

In May, 1777, the 2^nd North Carolina Regiment was ordered north to join the troops under George Washington .  They marched through Williamsburg and Richmond, Virginia, and paused at Alexandria.  After participating in many famous battles in the northern colonies and enduring the harsh winter at Valley Forge, the 2^nd North Carolina Regiment was ordered south to assist in the defense of Charleston again.  This time, the British laid seige to Charleston and captured it in May, 1780.  All the men of the 2^nd North Carolina Regiment were taken prisoner. 

In August, 1781, a new 2^nd North Carolina Regiment was formed, and the three Johnston brothers are believed to have joined this new regiment.  The new regiment saw action at the Battle of Eutaw Springs, South Carolina, on September 8, 1781, suffering heavy losses.

After the Revolution, the Johnsons remained on their same property.  Solomon Johnston Sr., Solomon Johnston Jr., Ephraim Johnston, and Soasby Johnston all appear on the 1784 tax list for Sampson County, North Carolina.  1784 was the year that Sampson County was formed from Duplin County.

Soasbe Johnson and Sarah Elizabeth Miller both died in 1822 in Sampson County, North Carolina. 

Children of Soasbe Johnson and Sarah Elizabeth Miller were:

In the early 1800’s, roads were built and maintained by regular citizens who were required to donate their services without compensation, and the Johnsons were no exceptions.  An entry in the court minutes of  Sampson County for February 16, 1818, shows that John, Joel, Joab, Axel, Soasby, and Nathan Johnson were assigned to work on the road under Alexander Merritt.  The Johnsons were called for road work so often that by May 18, 1819, they were simply called “Johnsons”, instead of being named individually.  On February 24, 1825, the court required the services of the “hands of Sally Johnson.”  If this Sally was the daughter of Soasbe Johnson and Sarah Elizabeth Miller, it’s strange that she was still using her maiden name.

Soasbe Johnson , Jr., son of Soasbe Johnson and Sarah Elizabeth Miller, was born about 1791 (his tombstone says January 6, 1778, but this is probably in error) and died July 20, 1856 in Coffee County, Alabama.  He married Barbara Boykin , who was born about 1802.  About 1835, they moved from Sampson County, North Carolina, to Screven County, Georgia, probably to Bulloch County, Georgia, and then to Dooly County, Georgia.  After a few years, Soasbe and his wife (and a number of kin) went to Coffee County, Alabama.  Soasbe Johnson, Jr., and his wife are buried in Zoar Cemetery in Coffee Copunty, Alabama.

Children of Soasbe Johnson, Jr ., and Barbara ----- were:

Ephraim Johnston , son of Soasbe Johnson and Sarah Elizabeth Miller, was born about 1796 and died about 1835 in Bluesville, NC.  Ephraim had a son named George Johnson.

Cheap Land, the Move to Georgia, and on to Alabama

Solomon Johnson, son of Soasbe Johnson and Sarah Elizabeth Miller, was born in 1779 in Sampson County, North Carolina.  He joined a Christian church in 1797.  He married his wife Sarah (perhaps Sarah Sanders) , who was born in Georgia in 1780, in 1801 in Sampson County, NC.  Both Solomon Johnson  and Sarah  attended school.

In 1832, President Andrew Jackson  vetoed legislation which would have renewed the charter of the Second United States Bank.  The bank ceased operations in 1836, and this may have lead to the Crisis of 1839.  During the Crisis, cotton prices fell, which forced many marginal producers out of business.  This resulted in a drastic decline in the price of land for cotton farming, and the promise of cheap land in Georgia may have helped the Johnsons decide to move to Georgia.

By 1840, Solomon Johnson  was living in Dooly County, Georgia, where he had horses, cattle, hogs, and sheep, as well as corn and potatoes.   Interestingly, his will mentions neither cotton nor the slaves necessary for economically competitive production of cotton, which leads one to speculate that he may have decided not to produce cotton.  He had seen what could happen to small farmers who did produce cotton.   When he died in 1852, Joshua Johnson  (below) signed his will as a witness.

Dooly County was created by an act of the Georgia Legislature on May 15, 1821, from lands acquired from the Creek Indians under the first treaty of Indian Springs.  It was named for Colonel John Dooly, a Revolutionary War soldier, who was killed by a band of Tories in 1780.  Parts or all of Pulaski, Lee, Worth, Wilcox, Macon, Crisp, and Turner Counties have been taken from the original area of Dooly County. 

Altogether, at least twenty-five members of the Johnson family moved from Sampson County, North Carolina, to Georgia sometime between 1835 and 1840, but it is not clear whether they moved in one large group or in several smaller groups.   [There is some thought that there may have been as many as 400 Johnsons and relatives who left North Carolina, and that they originally intended to go to Texas.]  Sometime after the death of  Solomon Johnson , Sarah Sanders (?)   and most of the children except Joshua moved to Alabama.  Sarah Sanders (?)   died in Coffee County, Alabama, after 1870.  

Children of Solomon and Sarah Johnson were:

Isaac Johnson, son of Solomon Johnson and Sarah Sanders, was  born about 1820.  He married 1^st Anna Johnson , 2^nd Carolina Driggers , and died after 1880 in Monroe County, AL.  This Anna Johnson was the daughter of John Johnson, who was the son of Soasbe Johnson and Sarah Elizabeth Miller.

Washington Solomon Johnson  (born in 1837) was Elizabeth Johnson ’s son.

Rolled Along in a Hogshead

Joshua B. Johnson, son of Solomon and Sarah Johnson,  was born in Sampson County, North Carolina, perhaps at Salem, August 13, 1813.  He was a wheelwright and a farmer.  On January 21, 1836, he married Sarah Anna , a cousin, born December 10, 1816.  He joined the Methodist Episcopal Church in 1837.  They came to Sumter County, Georgia, in 1839 with their first child, Phoebe Johnson , a horse, and all the family belongings, which were packed into a tobacco hogshead and rolled along by the horse.  (This means of transportation was sometimes used by those who couldn’t afford a wagon.)  By 1840 they were living in Dooly County, Georgia, where Joshua Johnson bought land from a fortunate winner of a land lottery.  He was always active in his church, and considered it his greatest business to serve his God.

After Sarah Anna  died on  February 23, 1871, Joshua  lived almost twenty-four years, and died at the home of his son Elihu S. Johnson  in Byromville, GA, January 24, 1895.  At one time he owned 250 acres of land, and he willed 100 acres of land to his daughter Marcella Johnson .  In 1870, Joshua’s estate was valued at $1090.

Altogether, Joshua and Sarah Anna  had at least eleven children.  They were:

The Johnson Girls and the Lockermans

Their daughter, Phoebe Johnson  (Mar 21, 1837 – June 24, 1887), married 1^st Enoch Ward Lockerman  on August 5, 1860, and her sister, Dorcus (January 9, 1839 – March 27, 1870), married Enoch’s brother, John Allen Lockerman  (born December 8, 1843, died December 10, 1924) on July 18, 1865. John Allen Lockerman  and Dorcus Johnson  had one son, William Joshua Robert “Bob” Lockerman , who married 1^st Laura Wright  and 2^nd Rosa Mae Burgess .  (Louise Lockerman  was a daughter of William Joshua Robert “Bob” Lockerman  and Rosa Mae Burgess .)

Interestingly, Enoch Ward Lockerman’s and John Allen Lockerman’s parents were John Lockerman  and Georgia Rebecca Wilson  – from Sampson County, North Carolina.  John Lockerman served in the Confederate army.  Altogether, John Lockerman and Georgia Rebecca Wilson had at least four sons – Enoch Ward Lockerman, John Allen Lockerman, Charles Lockerman, and Chester “Chess” Lockerman .  Charles Lockerman could not read nor write, but he could read music.

Charles Lockerman , “Chess” Lockerman, “Bob” Lockerman (above), and their cousin, Jesse Johnson , had a quartet and sang southern gospel music all during the 1930’s.  Jesse’s wife, Scebright Wilkes Johnson,  played piano for the group.   

After the deaths of Enoch and Dorcus, Phoebe Johnson  wed John Allen Lockerman  on June 19 ,1870.  Phoebe and John Allen Lockerman  had at least one son, Elijah “Lige” Lockerman , who married a schoolteacher named Mallie . 

After Phoebe’s death, John Allen Lockerman  married another sister, Harriet Caroline Johnson , (Dec. 24, 1852 - Nov. 23, 1921).  John Allen Lockerman  and Harriet Caroline Johnson had one son, Ray Ashel Lockerman , who was born August 27, 1889 and died April 20, 1906.

Marcella Johnson, daughter of Joshua Johnson  and Sarah Anna,  was born in1841. Marcella Johnson  was a seamstress.  Never married, she lived with her sister, Harriet Caroline Johnson and John Allen Lockerman  in her later years. John Allen Lockerman  looked after the Johnson property for Marcella after Joshua’s death. 

A Musician in the Army

Enoch Ward Lockerman  joined Company A, 7^th Regiment, Georgia State Troops, as a private on November 16, 1861.  He mustered out in May, 1862, and re-enlisted as a private in Company C, 55^th Georgia Regiment, CSA, on May 3, 1862. He was appointed a musician in December, 1862, captured at Cumberland Gap, TN, Sept. 9, 1863, died of meningitis at Camp Douglas, Illinois, February 12, 1865, and was buried in the Chicago City Cemetery, Block 3, Grave 735.  In 1867 all the graves in the Chicago City Cemetery were moved to Oak Woods Cemetery, about five miles south of the camp.

Camp Douglas was located in Chicago, on land donated by the estate of Stephen A. Douglas, the same Stephen Douglas who defeated Abraham Lincoln in the 1858 election for a Senate seat .  It was built as a training camp for Union soldiers, but was used as a prison camp for captured Rebels.  About 4000 prisoners, perhaps as many as 6,000, died there during the course of the war of various diseases – smallpox, malaria, diarrhea, dysentery, anemia, consumption, rheumatism, scurvy, bronchitis, pneumonia, pleurisy, wounds, other injuries, and various other diseases..

John Allen Lockerman  was born December 8, 1843, in Dooly County, Georgia.  He joined the Dooly Light Infantry, Company I, 18^th Regiment, Georgia Volunteer Infantry, Army of Northern Virginia, on June 22, 1861.  He was wounded at Sharpsburg, MD, on September 17, 1862 during the Battle of Antietam (to use the Yankee name for it), and captured in the Shenandoah Valley at Cedar Creek, VA, October 19, 1864.  He was paroled at James River, VA, March 30, 1865.  He died November 23, 1921.

The Battle of Antietam

The Battle of Antietam was a turning point in the War between the States.  Confederate General Robert E. Lee  hoped that by achieving a significant victory on Northern soil, the North could be forced into negotiating an end to the war on terms favorable to the South, or at least, that a Southern victory might persuade foreign nations to come to the aid of the South.  John Allen Lockerman  was a part of this attempt.

Although the Union Army was twice the size of Lee’s army, the battle had inconclusive results caused in large measure by Union General George B. McClellan’s  overly cautious tactics.  September 17th was the bloodiest single day of the entire war; the Union lost at least 11,650 killed and wounded, and the Confederacy lost at least 9,300.  Skirmishes continued on September 18^th.  After dark on September 18^th, Lee withdrew his Army of Northern Virginia, so the battle is considered to be the first major Union victory of the war.  McClellan failed to pursue Lee, so President Lincoln replaced McClellan with Ambrose E. Burnside on November 10, 1862.

Sensing that the time was right, President Lincoln  issued his Emancipation Proclamation after the battle of Antietam.  For the North, the Proclamation changed the war from a war to preserve the Union into a war to end slaverey.

What Happened to Richard Allen Johnson?

Richard Allen Johnson  (born 1843), son of Joshua Johnson  and Sarah Anna , died in the War Between the States.  He joined Company F, 12^th Regiment of the Georgia Volunteer Infantry, or Davis Guards, on June 11, 1861, as a private.  He was captured by Federal Troops at Gettysburg, PA, on July 2, 1863.  The Federals paroled him on April 27, 1864, and he was admitted to Chimborazo Hospital Number 3 in Richmond, VA, with chronic diarrhea on May 1, 1864.  He was given a 30-day leave from the hospital.  The last record of him at the hospital, dated August 31, 1864, shows him absent, at home.  Apparently, he never arrived at home, and no one knows what happened to him.

Chimborazo Hospital

Chimborazo Hospital was hastily built on a hill in Richmond after the beginning of the war.  It was not a pretty hospital, but with over 3000 beds, it was one of the largest hospitals in the South.  Despite various wartime shortages, the innovative leadership of Dr. James McCaw  made it one of the best southern hospitals, with a patient mortality rate of only 20% -- quite good by nineteenth century standards, before the days of antibiotics, antiseptic surgery, or widespread understanding of the germ theory of disease.  Named after a volcano in Ecuador , in 1862 Chimborazo Hospital hired Phoebe Yates Levy Pember  as its first matron, or nurse, who opened the way for southern women in the field of nursing just as Clara Barton  did in the North.

Sarah Ann Johnson  (born 1855), daughter of Joshua Johnson  and Sarah Anna , married Henry Barry  July 18, 1865 and lived near Vienna, GA.  Their children were Jessie Barry  and Lonnie Barry .

The First Person Buried in the Cemetery

Steward E. Johnson  (born 1857), son of Joshua Johnson  and Sarah Anna , died as a teenager and is said to be the first person buried in the Johnson Cemetery south of Dooling, GA.

William Biswell Johnson  was another son of Joshua Johnson  and Sarah Anna .  More about him below.

Amanda Johnson , daughter of Joshua Johnson  and Sarah Anna , married Charles Blankenship  January 2, 1877 and moved near Lake City, FL.

Anyone Desiring a Husband

Elihu S. Johnson , (1855 – 1926), son of Joshua B. Johnson and Sarah Anna, married Adella “Della” Long  (1856 – 1935).  They had three sons, Jesse , George W., and John Johnson .  In 1905, George W. Johnson  placed the following advertisement in the Vienna, Georgia, News:  “I am desirous of securing a wife anywhere from 16 to 60 years old.  I am an experienced farmer in Dooly County and have a good crop, a pair of fine mules and plenty of house furniture to start off housekeeping.  I have been ‘Batching’ it for twelve months and need a wife very badly.  Anyone desiring a husband will please write me at once.”

Jesse Johnson, son of Elihu S. Johnson and Adella Long, had a store at a little settlement called Bakersfield, Georgia.  He sang in a southern gospel quartet with Charles and “Chess” Lockerman.  He married Scebright Wilkes. 

Annie M. Johnson , born January 1861, daughter of Joshua Johnson  and Sarah Anna , married James Thompson  and had two daughters, Annie Maude Thompson , who married Abe Cannon , and Eula Lee Thompson , who married Chester “Chess”Lockerman .  Annie M. Johnson  lies buried near Bell, Florida.

William Biswell “Bill” Johnson , son of Joshua Johnson  and Sarah Anna , was born Feb. 7, 1849.  He was married near Vienna in Dooly County, GA, by Reverend J. R. Fields Oct. 22, 1871 to Lucy Allen  (See Chapter 18), and later they lived abut two miles north of Byromville, Georgia.   The Johnsons were members of Friendship Methodist Church in Byromville.  William Biswell Johnson  paid taxes in Dooly County at least from 1874 through 1918, but was late paying taxes in Dooling, GA, in 1914.  In 1880, he borrowed $23 from John F. Lewis  and son, and pledged a bay mare named Puss and a colt as collateral.  In 1903, the Atlantic and Birmingham Railroad was built through the Johnson farm.  It later became the Atlantic, Birmingham, and Atlanta Railroad, “the Bee Line,” and in 1926, the Atlanta, Birmingham, and Coast Railroad, or ABC.  William Biswell Johnson  died October 24, 1919, of cancer of the eye.

People had large families during these years.  Between 1870 and 1900, the population of Georgia nearly doubled, from 1,184,068 to 2,216,331.  The Johnsons were no exception.

The children of William Biswell Johnson  and Lucy Allen were:

William Biswell Johnson and his family

A Sheriff in Florida

Eugene Allen Johnson (Aug 11, 1872 – November 23, 1948), son of William Biswell Johnson  and Lucy Allen , married first Eula Weaver . He became a sheriff in Florida, and he was also a farmer in Calhoun County, Florida.  His first wife, Eula Weaver, died and is buried in Florida, and Eugene Allen Johnson returned to Georgia. 

He married second Mrs. Georgia L. McGlamery Downing from Ideal, Georgia, widow of John Downing and daughter of John McGlamery and Henrietta Shirah. According to the family story, Georgia Lou McGlamery had a stroke while still a relatively young woman. She attempted to commit suicide, and was institutionalized in Milledgeville, Georgia, where she died.

Henrietta Shirah, above, was the daughter of Ephraim Shirah and Mary Ann Hall.

She Wouldn’t Leave Home

Eugene Allen Johnson married third Dossie Slade Ingram. According to another family story, Dossie Slade Ingram had a nice house near the Pateville community in present-day Crisp County, Georgia, where she and Eugene Allen Johnson lived after their marriage. But Eugene Allen Johnson wanted to move back to his run-down home near Vienna, Georgia. Dossie Slade Ingram refused, so they divorced.

Eugene Allen Johnson married fourth Sallie Hall -----.

Among the children of Eugene Allen Johnson and Georgia L. McGlamery Downing was Olin Wyatt Johnson, who was a large landowner and farmer in Georgia, and was very successful at everything he did. Later in life, Olin W. Johnson was about to become the pastor of Ebenezer Baptist Church, but died before he could assume his duties. Among Olin W. Johnson’s children was Faye Lutrelle Johnson Davis, and Edward R. “Dave” Davis III was her son.

Annie Irene “Rena” Johnson, daughter of William Biswell Johnson  and Lucy Allen , was born Aug. 9, 1876.  She married first C. W. Johns, who at one time was marshall of Vienna, and who also owned a hotel in Marshallville.  When he died, she inherited the hotel and a house next door.  She married  second J. E. “Jim” Cheek of Perry, Georgia ., who had a farm on the road between Marshallville and Perry, and raised peaches among other crops.

Eva Estella Johnson , daughter of William Biswell Johnson  and Lucy Allen , was born Oct. 16, 1878.  In 1899, she taught school at Mount Pleasant School for $25 per month.  She married 1^st W. G. Gunn  on Nov. 17, 1901, and they had a son, John Ed Gunn .  Eva Estella Johnson married 2^nd James Starkey Castelow , and they had two sons, James  and Jeff Castelow .

We’ll skip William Edwin “Ed” Johnson , son of William Biswell Johnson  and Lucy Allen , and return to him in a moment.

Minnie Bell Johnson, daughter of William Biswell Johnson  and Lucy Allen ,  was born June 1, 1888.  She attended school in Vienna, GA.   She met Benjamin Ezra Lewis  when he was a stemshovel operator, widening the railroad cut through the johnson farm, and she married him on December 26, 1906.  Their daughter Corrine married ----- Dalmus, whose parents were natives of Germany.

William Edwin “Ed” Johnson , son of William Biswell Johnson  and Lucy Allen , was born July 25, 1881, in Dooly County, GA.  On Nov. 26, 1905 he married Robert Elizabeth  (Bobbie) Smith  (See Chapter 21) in a ceremony performed by Reverend George Taylor.  He drove a horse and buggy about twenty miles to his wedding near Cordele, and then with his bride, twenty miles back to his father’s house afterwards.  William Edwin Johnson  and Robert Elizabeth Smith were members of the Byromville Methodist Church, and he was a member of Masonic Lodge 494 in Byromville, GA.

Ed Johnson was a farmer.  His first car was a 1918 Maxwell.  It proved unreliable, so when the opportunity came along, he traded – even – for a 1917 Model T Ford, which he drove for several years.  He eventually traded the 1917 Ford for a new 1924 model.  It did not have a self-starter (an extra-cost accessory), but Ed’s son Roy soon installed one. 

During the Great Depression, money was scarce on the farm, and so were store-bought items such as clothes and shoes.  Patches were the order of the day.  But there was never a shortage of food.  Besides cotton, the Johnsons raised their own hogs and chickens for meat.  They took their own corn to the mill to be ground into meal, and they raised sugar cane, from which they made cane syrup, to be traded at the store.  Miss Bobbie canned a lot of her own vegetables, too.  Sometimes a carload or more of neighbors and relatives would arrive un-announced at the Johnsons for Sunday dinner, and Miss Bobbie always seemed prepared.  And sometimes the Johnsons showed up at someone else’s house.   Telephones were few and far between in rural Georgia

For the young people, there were square dances on Friday and Saturday nights in private homes.  They’d push the furniture aside, or sometimes carry it outside, and sprinkle corn meal on the floor to make a dance floor.  A fiddler, banjo player, or guitarist provided music, and there was ususally someone to call the dances.  For the whole family, there was occasional all-day Southern Gospel singing at the nearby camp ground or in a church.

One of Ed Johnson’s barns burned one night in 1930.  The mules were saved, but the barn and all the feed for the mules were destroyed.  Neighbors supplied enough feed for the mules to last until Ed made a new crop, and Ed built a new barn with timber cut on the farm.

No Goats or Bicycles

William Edwin Johnson  did not insist that his sons finish high school, but those who didn’t finish high school had to work on the farm as long as they lived at home.  And there were two things William Edwin Johnson  wouldn’t allow on his farm – goats and bicycles. 

Encounter with a Bank Robber

In 1946, William Edwin Johnson sold the family farm and moved into Dooling, Georgia.  On July 1, 1963, William Edwin Johnson went to the bank in nearby Byromville.  While he was there, someone robbed the bank and struck 81-year-old Mr. Johnson on the head with a pistol.  Mr. Johnson was shaken but otherwise un-hurt, and the robber escaped with $20,000 in cash.  William Edwin Johnson  died September 10, 1975.

William Edwin Johnson and Robert Elizabeth Smith

Children of William Edwin Johnson  and Robert Elizabeth Smith were:

Lucy Mae Johnson  (Feb. 20, 1916 – June 17, 1920) and Warren Johnson  (May 4, 1911 – Oct. 17, 1912), children of William Edwin Johnson  and Robert Elizabeth Smith, both died as children. 

William B. (Bill) Johnson, son of William Edwin Johnson  and Robert Elizabeth Smith,  was born September 8, 1906. He married Lizzie Ree Moon  (Feb. 6, 1912 – Apr. 15, 1997) and died December 16, 1977.  Growing up, Bill and his brother Roy took turns going to school.  Roy went one year, Bill went the next, and they worked on the farm when they weren’t in school.  Neither completed high school.

Roy Edwin Johnson, son of William Edwin Johnson  and Robert Elizabeth Smith,  was born at Byromville, Georgia, June 26, 1908.  He completed the eighth grade.  He joined the Navy on July 20, 1926, and worked his way up, retiring as a Lieutenant Commander in 1956.   Beginning in November, 1926, he served aboard the USS Texas, USS New York, USS Wyoming, USS Concord, USS Chicago, and USS Salt Lake City.

He was expert in Naval gunnery, and received a commendation for service aboard the U. S. S. Salt Lake City (nicknamed “Swayback”) against the Japanese during the battle of the Komandorskie Islands in the Bering Sea on March 26, 1943.  In that battle, an American force prevented a Japanese force twice its size from reinforcing Japanese forces on Attu and Kiska.  Roy E. Johnson participated in the bombardment of Japanese-held islands of Wake and Marcus in the face of return fire from shore batteries in September and October, 1944.  He was also in the battles of Tarawa and Apamama.  He  participated in the Battle for the Philippines in October, 1944, and in day and night bombardment of the Japanese-held island of Iwo Jima in November and December, 1944.  He was promoted to Lieutanant Commander on July 1, 1954, and he died in San Diego, CA, January 22, 1996.

Roy E. Johnson married Beatrice Queen, daughter of W. T. Queen, September 2, 1940, in Nevada, but had no children.  He was her third husband.   

James Alvin Johnson, son of William Edwin Johnson  and Robert Elizabeth Smith,  was born January 24, 1923.  He graduated from Byromville High School in Byromville, GA, in 1939 and joined the Navy at the beginning of World War II. He was a seaman second class, and he died of typhoid fever in Key West, Florida on August 23, 1943, while in training to be a Radar operator. Seaman Second Class John M. Simms  escorted the remains back to Dooling, Georgia,where they were burried in the Johnson Cemetery.

Carl Eugene Johnson, son of William Edwin Johnson  and Robert Elizabeth Smith,  was born Oct. 22, 1913, in Dooly County, GA.  When Carl was a boy, his father usually assigned Carl to dothe lighter chores around the farm and to help his mother with the housework while his older brothers helped their father in the fields  As Carl grew older, he often took his turn plowing with a mule. 

In school, Carl was usually a good student.  One of his favorite subjects was Agriculture, and Geometry was among his least favorite subjects.  He left school after six weeks in the tenth grade, about 1929, so he could help his father on the farm.  Carl met Louise Kirksey, his future wife, in grammar school. 

Times were tough, so in 1934, he joined the Civilian Conservation Corps, or CCC.  Established in1933 as part of President Roosevelt’s New Deal, the CCC put more than 2,000,000 unemployed young men to work in forests, parks, and range lands.  Carl worked for six weeks building roads for the Forest Service near Toccoa Falls, Georgia, and then his company was sent to Brunswick, Georgia, where he worked building a state park.  During his retirement years, Carl attended several annual reunions of the “CCC Boys” at Pine Mountain, Georgia.  

In 1935, he worked for Georgia Kaolin Co.  Leaving there, he sharecropped for his father until 1938.  He married Louise Kirksey  (See Chapter 22) on Oct. 23, 1938, in a ceremony performedby Reverend J. Shirra in Byromville, Dooly County, GA.  In 1939, he worked for theWPA. 

1941 found him driving a dump truck back at the kaolin mine. In 1943 he was a farm overseer, and he also worked at a service station that year.  About 1944, he was called to Fort MacPherson in Atlanta for induction into the army, but did not pass the physical examination.  In

1945, he began driving a propane truck, and he delivered propane for 33 years.  Carl Eugene Johnson joined the Masons after the Johnsons moved to Fort Valley, Georgia, in 1952.  After retirement in 1985, Carl and Louise moved to Greensboro, NC. 

They had two daughters, Vivien Elizabeth Johnson , and Carole Louise Johnson , who was born and died June 6,1942,inDooly County, Georgia.  

Carl Eugene Johnson and Louise Kirksey

Vivien Elizabeth Johnson, daughter of Carl Eugene Johnson and Louise Kirksey,  was born in Dooling, GA, March 26, 1941.  She began the first grade at Montezuma Grammar School, Montezuma, GA, in 1947. She graduated from Fort Valley High School, Fort Valley, GA., in 1959.  She married Charles Ferdinand Carson , Jr. (See Chapter 1), in Fort Valley, GA on Sept 5, 1959.  The young couple moved several times during the early part of their marriage, finally settling in Greensboro, NC. Vivien Elizabeth Johnson earned a BS degree in Nursing from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, NC in 1980, graduating magna cum laude.

How Fort Valley Got its Name

The way Fort Valley got its name is interesting.  According to legend, Fort Valley got its name when an application for a post office at Fox Valley was misread, but that’s not true.  The truth is that James Abbington Everett  from North Carolina established a trading post in the 1820’s at the intersection of two Indian trails, where downtown Fort Valley is now.  Everett named the little village that was growing around the trading post Fort Valley after his good friend, Arthur Fort , who was a Revolutionary War veteran and a legislator from Milledgeville, Georgia.  Arthur Fort  was the son of John Fort  (1686-1753) and his wife Agnes.  This John Fort was the son of Elias Forte, Jr ., and his wife Sarah (See Chapter 13), who were ancestors of Lula Clyde Ricks (See Chapters 1 and 13)

References: 64, 81, 82, 91, 143, 174, 175, 177, 191, 229, 231, 232, 233, 247, 248, 281, 282, 289, 291, 292, 296, 298, 364, 366, 368, 369, 370, 372, 378, 394, 404, 422