The Johnson Family of
St. Williams
The picture of Ann (Edwards) Johnson at right is from the collection of my great-great grandmother Helen Marr (Dease) Woodward of St. Williams has written on it “Mrs. Jerry Johnson.” This would have been Ann (Edwards) Johnson of St. Williams, Charlotteville Twp. She was born to Richard and Elizabeth (Watts) Edwards at Churchill, Oxfordshire, England on November 23, 1813. Her father made a first trip to the Long Point Settlement with his four oldest children about 1819 then returned to England to bring over his wife and the younger eight children in 1822 according to a declaration of Ann’s brother Henry.
An interesting item from family researcher Jacqueline Merritt Edwards mentions a Bible record copied by Nettie Edwards, wife of Dr. Eliphalet Parke Edwards which placed this second trip a year earlier in 1821: “I Henry Edwards, born Jan 20 1798 Somerset England, left Banbury Oxfordshire England in Oct ‘20 for America arrived At New York 25 Dec 1820. Left New York 1st of Jany 1821, came to upper Canada in March 1821 to Long Point."Ann Edwards married on 24 April 1833, Jeremiah Johnson (son of Larrance and Margaret (Montross) Johnson). Jeremiah was born in Charlotteville Township near St. Williams on August 19, 1810. The couple farmed in Charlotteville Township near St. Williams all their lives. Jeremiah’s father Larrance Johnson served in the Loyalist forces during the American Revolution and, after a period in New Brunswick, settled on Lot 3 Concession A Charlotteville Township on the road between St. Williams and Forestville. His maternal grandfather was Loyalist soldier Peter Montross who settled on Lot 1 Concession A. This passed to Jeremiah Johnson and then to his son James Lemuel.
Jeremiah Johnson died in Charlotteville Township on December 23, 1881 and Ann died there on April 16, 1886. They were buried in Hillcrest Baptist Church Cemetery, Forestville.
Ann Edwards Johnson
The James Lemuel Johnson Family
The three pictures below were provided by descendant family researcher Ronald Johnson. He received them from Evelyn Pearl (Johnson) Leaver, a daughter of Pearl Johnson of St. Williams.
James Lemuel Johnson was born in Charlotteville Township to Jeremiah Johnson and his wife Ann Edwards on October 5, 1853 and lived all his life farming in the village of St. Williams. James married on November 18, 1873, Mary Eleanor Griffin, a daughter of Robert Allen Griffin and his wife Margaret Johnston. Mary was born in Middleton Township on December 2, 1853, a descendant of the pioneering Griffin family of Smithville, Clinton Township, Lincoln County.
The couple had eight children, six of whom were born by the time of this picture: Chester George (1874), James Clarence (1876), Minnie (1878), Havilah (1881), Anne Frances (1883) and Margaret Elizabeth (1885). After the picture the couple had two more sons: Robert (1889) and Pearl (1892).
James Lemuel died in 1931 and Mary Eleanor died in 1946. The couple were interred in the Johnson Cemetery at St. Williams.
James Clarence Johnson, second son of James Lemuel and Mary Eleanor Johnson farmed and worked as a blacksmith in Clear Creek, Houghton Township. The harvests were a major event on the Norfolk County farms with all of the neighbours helping each other to bring in the crops. Note the steam tractor at the left of the picture, probably a novelty in the area at the time.
By 1901, the descendants of Jeremiah and Ann Johnson were many. This Johnson family picnic circa 1901 included some of them. Not all the names are known. Those identified are mentioned in the caption below the picture. An additional identification given by Peter Johnson is that his great-grandfather Lawrence Johnson (1817-1925) is the gentleman with large white whiskers seated on the bench to the left. Beside him is his wife Margaret (Backhouse) Johnson.