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Home > Ohio > Hamilton County Biographies > TopicThe Abner Johnson Family
Posted by Carol Eddleman
The Abner Johnson Family
June 14, 2011 01:17PMAdmin
Registered: 6 years ago
Posts: 5,120THE FAMILY OF ABNER JOHNSON
Abner Johnson was born in New Jersey in early June 1759 and by
1777 was a wagoner with George Washington's troops in the Battle
of Princeton which cleared all but a small part of eastern New
Jersey from the British under Cornwallis.
Abner was married to Jemima Hampton and had two sons Carey and
Abner. One or both of them "went west" after the Northwest Territory
was opened, coming up the Miami valley, one of the first streams to
be followed away from the broader and more frequently traveled Ohio.
Together with some of the Hedges family they selected land in the
valley and extending up the timbered hills rising above it in the
area of Ft. Dunlap. Later Abner had married Jane Kirkpatrick and
they had six sons and three daughters who grew up in a log cabin
on the hills overlooking the "Big Bend" of the river.
The daughter Hannah was married first to Anthony Ludwig Hedges.
Their children were Jane (Matson), Eliza (Sater), and Mary (Lamb).
None of them moved far away and their husbands were all active in
the Cincinnati and Coleraine area.
After the death of Anthony Hedges at the age of 29, Hannah mar-
ried George Tabor Marsh. Marsh had earlier been married to Sarah
Ann Smith and had a daughter known to Hannah's children as "Aunt
Lockey". They had lived in Cincinnati, but George Marsh and his
daughter became integrated in the Venice (later called Ross) neigh-
borhood.
The family cemetery was established on the low land near the
river where repeated floods and natural build up of the soil over
the years covered foot stones and low headstones.
Jane and Abner lie side by side near a tall well-marked stone,
and George Marsh lies by his daughter in another part of the ceme-
tery.
This neighborhood drew Hannah Johnson's children into the same
circles as the Gilliland family. James Gilliland, a Presbyterian
minister had made a missionary journey along the Ohio in 1809 and
had been pastor at Red Oak, Ohio for many years. His son, Adam
Baird Gilliland was with the church in Venice for a long time.
And so it came about that Adam Gilliland's son married the
daughter of Hannah Johnson Marsh. Their daughter Sarah Johnson
Marsh became my grandmother about one hundred years after Hannah's
death.
Norma Kidd Green
(Mrs. Roy M. Green)
Lincoln, Nebraska
(Mrs. Green is a member of the Colerain Historical Society and her
contribution is greatly appreciated).
An article by "Conteur" in 1924 stated: "In 1790 John Dunlap
and a small group of settlers had established themselves in a remote
part of the great tracts purchased by John Cleves Symmes from the
Government . In the following years the little colony called Dunlap's
Station was abandoned after the route of St. Clair's army because of
fear of attack by the victorious Indians. They could recall that in
January, 1791, Shawnees led by the famous Blue Jacket, had besieged
for two days and nights in great force the 11 pioneers and 13 sold-
iers from Ft. Washington until they were driven off by a re-enforce-
ment from the fort.
Meanwhile, new pioneers had steered their flatboats from Redstone,
Penn., now Brownsville, to Dunlap's Station. These new recruits cheer-
ed the hearts of the Dunlap settlers and again roused the desire to
reclaim the partly cleared region of the Great Miami country. Among
these new colonists at Dunlap, in 1792, were Issacher Bevis and Abner
Johnson, who had married the sisters Jane and Ann Kirkpatrick."
(Source: Bicentennial publication: Our Heritage: Colerain Township, Ohio. Colerain Twp. Bicentennial Committee, 1976.)
Re: The Abner Johnson Family
August 21, 2012 01:15PMRegistered: 1 year ago
Posts: 1Looking for a link to trace the forebearers of my great-great-great grandfather Matthias Johnson (born Nov. 5, 1803 in Stillwater, Sussex County, NJ). Abner Johnson seems to be the closest connection, as his name appears in that area (married Catharine Vogt Sep. 11, 1799) at the time, but no other records have been found.
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