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Featuring Carroll County Patriot, James Johnston: Freedom, Family, and Faith

 

Thank you to Mark Smith, Carroll County Historian, for providing historical information and stories related to our border county to the northeast.  Tippecanoe County and Carroll County pioneers had close connections during the canal days. This blog will be regularly featuring posts from the Carroll County Historian in commemoration of the America/Indiana 250 Celebration.


By Mark A. Smith, Carroll County Historian

       

    Our honored patriot, James Johnston, had three parts to his being: freedom, family, and faith.

        His entrance into the world was on October fifth of 1755 on the Delaware River. His service came as he served as a volunteer from Mecklenburg County, North Carolina, 1780 under Captain Samuel Flanegin. He also fought in South Carolina in the battle of Hanging Rock. His second enlistment came in 1781 under James Osburn, and Colonel Hobert Ervine’s Regiment of riflemen. Documentation on his service is found under number 16168.  He applied in Carroll County, Indiana on March sixteenth of 1835 for transfer from Tennessee to Indiana Rolls in order to live with his son who had moved from Tennessee to Indiana.(Pension application of James Johnston(Johnson), Will Graves. The last payment of his pension was made on April 28th of 1838. (Roster of Soldiers and Patriots of the American Revolution Buried in Indiana, compiled and edited by Mrs. Roscoe C. O”Byrne, Chairman. Franklin Printing Service 1981 for Daughters of the American Revolution.

Documentation can be found at http://www.carolana.com/NC/Revolution/revolution_battle of_ramseurs_mill.html and http://www.carolana.com/SC/Revolution/revolution_battle _of_hanging_rock.html ,  as well as print-out of his pension statement transcribed by Will Graves 10/28/08 Rev’d. 10/30/08 &rev’d 1/23/16.

        The Delphi Times, page two, of June 5th, 1891, states that “He was the great-grandfather of James (John?) H. (Ham) Johnson of the Globe Clothing Store in Delphi, Indiana. He was also a hero of the revolution.”

        Although there is no documentation on his aforementioned son, his grandson was James Harvey Johnson, whose death occurred in March of 1907 and was recorded in the Carroll County Citizen Times as being in his home at Sleeth at 90 years of age from pneumonia. James Harvey Johnson was an enterprising sort being involved in grain shipping and general merchandise. Other accounts have him serving as the Postmaster of that small Chicago, Indianapolis-Airline Railroad settlement. His offspring included: James of Albia, Iowa; John(“Ham”) of Brookston; Russell of Wabash; Robert and Mary of Sleeth. At the time of his death Miss Johnson was enroute home from St. Joe, Missouri where she was called by the death of her sister, Mrs. Jennie Rice. The funeral was held Thursday afternoon at 1:00 from the residence and burial was made in the Seceder Cemetery.

        The Carroll County Citizen of April 28th, 1894, states that “Johnson, Jennie and Rice, Hercules of Wilsonville, Nebraska was married on Wednesday, April 25th of 1894 at the home of the bride’s in Sleeth, Indiana. By Rev. Stewart. The bride is a sister of J.H. Johnson of Delphi. The couple left for Wilsonville, Nebraska where the groom is in the banking business.”

        Although he may not have been a communicant, his final resting place was the cemetery at Pleasant Run, a small Seceder Presbyterian Church cemetery in Tippecanoe Township.

        According to an entry in the Carroll County Legacy Book—2005, p. 251, the flock was formed by a faction from the main body at Adams Township in 1834, the parent body having been established there in July of 1831. Those surnames constituting the main flock and who were laid to rest in the cemetery were: George Malcolm and Ann, his wife; David Scroggs and wife Margaret, and James and Margaret McCully Others followed to constitute the flock of Pleasant Run Seceder Presbyterian Church.

        The church edifice was partially demolished when the congregation diminished and finally met its demise in 1969. It was situated on the Edgar E. Fountain farm.

The Reverend Paul Hindman whose ties there were in both the Hindman and Anderson families there spoke the final message from the pulpit there in 1944.  Hindman’s parents were John and Stella Rae Anderson Hindman, both laid to rest in the same churchyard as our patriot we are honoring today.

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