Fayette County, Alabama

~ Starling Johnson Family ~


PHOTO
William Franklin Johnson
(1872-1944)
William Franklin JOHNSON, son of James M. JOHNSON (No. 2 below), once owned a store and a cotton mill in Fayette, the seat of Fayette County, Alabama.  William married Nora MELTON.  The couple moved to Denver, Colorado, for Nora's health in 1920.  He died in 1944, and she died in 1978.
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Starling Johnson

Starling T.  JOHNSON was born in 1819 near Spartanburg, South Carolina, and was the son of William Lemuel JOHNSON and Mary "Polly" WILSON.  He came to Fayette County, Alabama, in the 1830s, and was among the first of many settlers to obtain original land patents of Indian land.  In 1842, he married (1) Rebecca Ann CROW, daughter of Lewis CROW and Mary Catherine WRIGHT, and settled on land near Pilgrims Rest, on Beaver Creek.  Many JOHNSON families lived in the area: Lemuel, Samuel, John, Elizabeth, William Sr., and others.  They were Buckskin Pioneers-turned-farmers, living in log cabins.  On June 15, 1864, Starling enlisted in the Fayette Militia and, according to the record, was six feet tall and had blue eyes, blond hair, and light skin (see below).  Their children:

21.  Marion Lee JOHNSON (1870-1936)
22.  William Franklin JOHNSON (1872-1944); md. Nora MELTON (1887-1978)
23.  Tenny JOHNSON (1874-?) 
24.  Henry Sidney JOHNSON (1876-?); md. Bertha WRIGHT (?-1954)
25.  Curtis JOHNSON (1879-?); md. Erma NELSON
26.  Helen JOHNSON (c1881-?); md. Jessie HOLLIMAN
41.  Lovie OWENS (1897-1982); md. --- PLYLER 
Starling married (2) Harriet Elizabeth (HUGHES) HAMBY (1825-1906), daughter of Elisha Gabriel HUGHES and Margaret “Peggy” WILSON.  Their children:

8.  Julius Glover JOHNSON, b. January 24, 1864; md. Alice Lou BLACK in White County, Georgia 

9.  Drury Bascomb "Doc" JOHNSON, b. 1867; md. Addie ROBINSON in White County, Georgia

Starling JOHNSON's first wife, Rebecca Ann CROW, died a few months after giving birth to Saville JOHNSON.  Later, Starling married Mrs. Harriet E. HAMBY.  It is said that she (Harriet) was an orphan because her father HUGHES had died and left her mother and two daughters.  She was raised in her "grandfather Wilson's home," so her mother must have been a WILSON.  Harriet married (1) John HAMBY, and they had a son named William (Billy) HAMBY.  John and Billy died.  I don't know how.

In 1873, Starling and Harriet, along with Saville, Julius and Drury, left Fayette and returned to Georgia.  They lived with relatives there for five years then purchased land from William SATERFIELD in White County, Georgia.  Later, Saville (Villie) returned to Fayette County, Alabama, where she lived out her life.  It is told that she moved into the home of Mary Ann CROW.  Starling JOHNSON died on February 4, 1886, found dead outside his barn door in a deep snow. 

William F. JOHNSON, one of the sons of James M. JOHNSON, visited the JOHNSONs in Georgia many times.  There was much correspondence.  Then the correspondence stopped around the time William F. and Nora moved to Colorado in 1920.  ~ Dallas Johnson, 25 Aug 1997

UPDATE (3/10/2019)  New!

Harriet Elizabeth HUGHES was my g-grandmother and married Starling JOHNSON.  Harriet's father was Elisha Gabriel HUGHES. On page 46 of the 1830 Census of Habersham County, Georgia, you can find a series of families at the very bottom of the page:  First is James BIERD (later BIRD), whose daughter married Thomas J. HUGHES.  Then you see a Janawa JOHNSON (he and his wife are elderly Cherokee Indians; they are listed in the 1835 Census of the Cherokee Nation as being Indians).  In that household, you see a boy between the age of 10 and 16.  I have reasoned out that the boy is Starling JOHNSON, who was born in 1819 in Spartanburg County, South Carolina.  How did I come to that conclusion, you ask?  This reasoning takes a bit of a story.
 
In or about 1835, Lewis CROW and Irvin STRICKLAND went into Cherokee lands and found the land they drew in the 1832 Land and Gold Lottery.  They were of the opinion that, since they drew the titles, they could just go there and start building on the land.  The governor of Georgia sent marshals in and forced them out of the land.  It was this event that encouraged them to go west.  Lewis CROW's father, Isaac CROW, lived in Spartanburg County, South Carolina, and in or around 1794, the family moved to Franklin County, Georgia, which became Jackson County in 1796 or 1798.  The part of Jackson County where they lived became Hall County in 1818.  Lewis CROW married Mary Catherine WRIGHT in 1817, so all of their children were born in Hall County.  

So, what does this have to do with Harriet HUGHES, you ask?  Starling's first wife was Rebecca Ann CROW, born 1822 in Hall County, Georgia.  They were married in Lauderdale County, Alabama, in 1841, and Lauderdale County was on the wagon train trail his father used to take settlers to Cape Girardeau County, Missouri.  There, Benjamin JOHNSON would trade oxen for horses, and John JOHNSON would take them on out to Oregon Territory.  Families would drop off and get on as the train made its way west.  Starling JOHNSON's father was William Lemuel JOHNSON.  His brother was Lemuel JOHNSON of Fayette County, Alabama (Starling named his first child William Lemuel JOHNSON).  Another brother, Joseph JOHNSON, lived there as well.  

Rebecca Ann (CROW) JOHNSON died in 1861 following the birth of daughter Saville, leaving Starling with young children.  Harriet's husband John HAMBY and only son, William McMurray HAMBY, died around 1855.  In 1862, Harriet married Starling JOHNSON.  They had two boys, Julius Glover JOHNSON (my grandfather) and Drury Bascom JOHNSON.  My grandfather was named after a minister of a church in Fayette County, and his brother was named after a related family in Habersham County, Georgia.  There is a cemetery in Fayette, Alabama, named the Glover Cemetery.  

I don't know what happened to Janawa JOHNSON and his wife.  I assume they were taken by the army to Arkansas or perhaps died on the trail.  I believe, with good reason, that Starling was staying with relatives in Habersham County, while his father was on the trail.  The HUGHES and WILSON families were close to each other and intermarried back and forth down through the centuries from Jamestown, and Habersham in Georgia, to Fayette in Alabama.  Even in Cobb County, Georgia, where "Uncle James WILSON" lived.  In 1871, they moved from Fayette County. Alabama, to Forsyth County, Georgia.  

Elisha Gabriel HUGHES was the son of Andrew HUGHES (Rev. War Soldier), and all but two or three of his brothers moved to Habersham County in the 1820's.  In fact, Andrew HUGHES was planning to move to Murray County, Georgia, when he returned to Pickens County, South Carolina, to sell his land.  While riding around his property there, he fell from his horse and died at Charles HUGHES' house.  Several of Andrew's sons were Methodist ministers and founded several Methodist churches in this area of Georgia.  One of which is the Hopewell Methodist church in Forsyth County, founded by Elisha's brother James W. HUGHES.  James and his children are buried in the church cemetery.   

In 1871, Harriet and Starling JOHNSON located on land owned by Andrew C. HUGHES, the minister of Hopewell Methodist church.  They sharecropped for five years in Forsyth County until they could sell their land in Fayette, Alabama, and buy their own land.  During the five years, Julius Glover JOHNSON learned to read and write and cypher (a God-given advantage to my family).  In 1875, they bought the exact land they lived on in the 1820's and 1830's in Habersham (now White) County, Georgia.  They also were instrumental in founding the Zion Methodist Church, where they are buried, in White County, Georgia.  

Turning back the clock, an unmarried Starling JOHNSON grabbed a ride on a wagon train headed west.  He met Rebecca Ann CROW on that wagon train.  He was intending to go to Tippah County, Mississippi, where William Lemuel JOHNSON and family (his parents and siblings) lived.  However, Lewis CROW and family were headed for Fayette County, Alabama.  Starling married Rebecca and joined the CROW family.  Historically, the JOHNSONs had a close relationship with the Cherokee and Iroquois as far back as the 1600's.  When the U.S. Government removed the Cherokee from their lands, there was nothing left for the JOHNSONs but farming.
 
Now returning to that 1830 Census of Habersham County, Georgia, the last entry on page 46 (immediately below James BIERD and Janawa JOHNSON) is Elisha Gabriel HUGHES (listed as "Elisha HUSE").  In the house is Harriet, her sisters and James Thompson HUGHES.  Elisha's wife was Margaret "Peggy" WILSON, the daughter of Charles Pettigrew WILSON of Anderson, South Carolina.  Charles was the son of John WILSON, who was Andrew HUGHES' closest friend.  In 1840, Peggy was pregnant with William McMurray HUGHES when something "came between" her and Elisha.  She left him in Georgia and moved onto land owned by her father in Anderson, South Carolina.  There, the girls got married in the 1840's.  Peggy (WILSON) HUGHES died around 1845, and that makes me believe she was ill back in Georgia.  Her estate was administered by William McMurray WILSON.  In the 1840 Census of Cherokee County, Georgia. you will find the JOHNSON brothers along with Elisha Gabriel HUGHES.  Elisha is found in Cherokee County, which at the time was all of northwest Georgia.  (Georgia had set up counties in 1832, so you will find that there are census records for the various counties. The JOHNSON's were in Chattooga County, 1840).  In fact, Elisha had two separate houses — one under the name Elisha G. and the other under the name of Gabriel — and both homes had a woman and children.  
 
Starling's father and his uncles ran a wagon train business — taking families from North and South Carolina west across Georgia and Alabama through the Cherokee lands — between 1818 and the early 1840's.  They lived on Cherokee land at the behest of the Cherokee Indians in a place called "Chattoog," an Indian village which later became "Chattoogaville" and bears that name today.  There is a cemetery on that land called the Johnson Cemetery.  There was also a Methodist Mission there in the 1820's and 1830's, teaching the Cherokee children English and the Bible.  The Mission was operated by Allen SCRUGGS and his family.  Once the Cherokee were removed from the land, the white settlers that lived there before the Cherokee removal were not allowed to stay.  Some went with the Cherokee to Arkansas.  Many who lived in Fayette County, Alabama, also moved to Arkansas.  

Harriet HUGHES married John HAMBY in Anderson, South Carolina.  When her mother passed, the girls and their families all went to Fayette County, Alabama.  Starling JOHNSON's brothers, cousins, uncles and so on settled in present-day Fayette County around Fowler's Crossroads, as best I can tell.  His uncles settled there before Fayette became a county in 1824.  The HUGHES girls went to live with James A. WILSON, brother of Charles WILSON, their grandfather. 

My father and I visited Fayette County in 1977 and met with William Van Buren "Bert" JOHNSON and his family.  When my father brought up Harriet's name, Bert looked off in the distance and was unable to recall who she was.  Bert's wife said, "Bert, she was a Wilson," and Bert said, "Yah, I think that's right.  She was Polly Wilson's...," and he stopped there.  I wrote it down.  William Lemuel JOHNSON, Starling's father, and Mary "Polly" WILSON, Starling's mother, lived in Tippah County, Mississippi.  His brother, Raz Lemuel JOHNSON, became a medical doctor in Blythe, Arkansas.  Starling's grandfather was Lazarus JOHNSON, Jr.; his father was Lazarus JOHNSON, Sr., whose father was Robert JOHNSON of Isle of Wight County, Virginia.  The JOHNSONs arrived at James Island in 1607 and are from Stamford, Lincolnshire, England.
Articles and photo generously contributed by
Dallas Johnson

Military Record

A record roll dated June 22, 1864, lists Starling JOHNSON (A-911) who enlisted June 15, 1864, Fayette County, Alabama, and served with Captain Everett PALMER's Company, Fayette County Militia (Home Guard).  Starling had blue eyes, light hair, fair complexion; six feet tall and was a farmer.

A roll for out muster (discharge) dated October 31, 1864, lists Private Starling JOHNSON who enlisted June 15, 1864, Fayette County, Alabama, by Captain HEADEN and served with Palmer's Company, Alabama State Reserves (Home Guard).

Starling JOHNSON and Rebecca Ann CROW had two sons who were in the military during the Civil War (or, for most of us, the War of Northern Aggression).  They were James M. JOHNSON, aged 18, and William L. JOHNSON, aged 20.

JOHNSON, William L.  Private, Company A, 26th Alabama Regiment.  Confederate Archives, Chapter 10, File Number 2, Page 131, lists W.L. JOHNSON, Private, Company A, 26th Alabama Regiment.  File number 2, Page 132, lists W.L. JOHNSON, Private, Company A, 26th Alabama Regiment, died March 7, 1862, in General Hospital Number 20, of Typhoid Fever, money left: 60 cents.

File Number 26, Page 63, W.L. JOHNSON is listed on claims from soldiers in Alabama (filed in the office of the Confederate States Auditor for the War Department).  March 28, 1863, claim was filed by Starling JOHNSON, father, Bever Dale, Alabama.  The claim was filed on March 31, 1863.



For more information, see:
Starling T. Johnson
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 01 Nov 2002  |  24 Mar 2019