Ch 2, West to Kentucky and Indian Territory

When the Revolutionary War ended, William Charles Johnson came into possession of the farm he had settled in Georgia. The old property laws that existed under British rule no longer applied and William Charles was now a Landowner. He married Anne Carter in 1785, and a few years later they started their family with the arrival of Samuel Johnson (b. 1790), Thomas C. Johnson (b. 1797), Alexander Johnson (b. 1798), Nancy Johnson (b. 1802), and William Johnson who was born in 1804.

With the influx of settlers after the Revolution, William Charles found it profitable to sell his farm. He yearned to return to the open land of Kentucky near where his father had been buried and in 1808, that is what he did. The family move a little farther north than the previous location at Boone’s Station, and settled on wooded farmland in what would later become Owenton, Kentucky. Here, the Johnson clan finally found the peaceful lifestyle that had eluded them for so long. The kids grew up and all homesteaded parcels of their own, and William Charles and his wife Anne Carter lived to the ripe old ages of 87 and 70, respectively.

In the meantime, William and Liddie (Raisor) Miller and their 3 year old daughter Mary Elizabeth had just arrived from Georgia in 1815, and settled on an adjacent farm near the Johnsons. Mary was only 16 when she married William Johnson Jr., and he was 24. They lived with his parents, William Charles and Ann Carter and inherited the farm when they both passed away. Together, William and Mary Elizabeth had eight children of their own. They were William (b. 1829), Obediah (b. 1833), Martha (b. 1838), Jonathan (b. 1840), Elisha (b. 1844), Olive (b 1847), Mary Elizabeth (b.1852), and Robert Owen Johnson who was born on May 18th, 1843.

 Robert Owen Johnson (1843-1931) and Nancy Jane Mefford (1849-1935)

All the children grew to adulthood on the family farm and were there when the differences between the North and the South threatened to erupt into war. Few of the family remained in Owenton, Kentucky during the Civil War era, as the state was sharply divided between the North and the South which created a situation that can only be described as neighbor against neighbor. When Robert Owen was 20, he traveled west to the town of Mayfield, Kentucky, where he met Cassandra Long. He married Cassandra and when she became pregnant, he took her back to the farm in Owenton Kentucky where Cassandra gave birth to Mary Elizabeth Johnson on the 23rd of December, 1864, just as the war was winding down. Sadly, Cassandra died during childbirth.

After the loss of Cassandra, Robert Owen married a second time on the 10th of March 1867, to Nancy Jane (Jennie) Mefford who was born on October 26th, 1849. The ceremony took place in the home of the bride’s father, John Quincy Mefford, and because Nancy Jane was only 17, her father had to sign a document giving his permission for the marriage.

Robert and Jennie had ten more children over the next twenty one years and they included John Nicholas (b. Oct. 15, 1867), Albert Sydney (b. March 13, 1870), Frank Joseph (b. April 24, 1872), Martha Ann (b. July 13, 1874), Thomas Jefferson (b. Aug. 13, 1877), Robert E. Lee (b. Nov. 13, 1880), Laura (b. Jul. 22, 1882), Edgar (b. Mar. 5, 1884), Ollie (b. Jun 13, 1888) and William Henry Johnson, born September 3rd, 1876.

 Robert and Jennies son, William Henry Johnson

(William Freeland's Father)

After several years, Robert Owen and Jennie left Kentucky, crossing the Mississippi River at Hannibal Missouri. They arrived by wagon and team in 1898 at a small town just south of Fort Smith Arkansas where their 22 year old son, William Henry met his future wife, Gertrude Bell Amos.

Gertrude Bell Amos, just prior to her death in 1933

Gertie Bell’s father, Michael Amos died when she was just a baby, and her mother, Susan (Mileham) Amos had remarried and started a whole new family. Gertie Bell was 18 when the Johnsons came through town, and she went with them when they crossed the Arkansas River and settled in Indian Territory (IT) near the town of Cowlington, where William and Gertie were officially married. Indian Territory and Oklahoma Territory were combined in 1907, and became the State of Oklahoma.

William, Gertie, and the rest of the Johnson clan continued their Westerly trek until they reached the town of Gore, Oklahoma where they started sharecropping. Always looking for a better opportunity, William and Gertie sharecropped at may locations in and around Muscogee, Oklahoma over the ensuing 20 years. During that time they had 10 children, beginning with Johnny who died at birth, then Edna (Sept. 24, 1901), Iva Mae (Oct. 11, 1903), Leonard (March 18, 1907), Lee M. (Oct. 8, 1908), Robert Owen (Dec. 15, 1911), Francis Eugene (Jan 11, 1914), one girl who was stillborn and was never named (July 16, 1920), Charles Sosbee (Sept. 4, 1922), and, the subject of our story, William Freeland (Aug. 16, 1918).