In the 1855 census, he had been in Newcomb for only 3 months (in June; likely arrived in March), was a farmer, age 24. He was with wife Martha and child Charles R. Johnson. Also with them was a boarder, Manning R. Sutton, a 30 year old farmer from Pennsylvania. They seem to have lived on the farm of Charles and Elisha Bissell, who were among the prominent farmers of Newcomb at that time, when it was apparently just getting started. The farm reported growing hay, oats and rye on 15 acres, with 145 acres unimproved. There was also some livestock. 7 acres were plowed. This is from the agricultural information at the end of the Newcomb records in the census.187

In the 1860 Census, he lived near Stephen Martin, Jesse Corey and Scott Peck. He listed no occupation, had a personal estate worth $50 but no real estate declared, and said he had been born in New York. With him were wife Martha, and sons Charles F. and George W. There were also three farmers listed with him: Edwin Curtis, 24, born in Canada East; James Bapis (Baptiste?), 24, born in New York; Robert Hare, 17, born in Canada East.23


Philander Johnson would be in Newcomb in 1860, but William had already moved on to Brandon. Philander shows up in Brandon in 1880.

It appears that Philander and Lucy had a son named William Kimbol Johnson, according to his record in the Town Clerks’ Registers of Men Who Served in the Civil War.72 That William K. Johnson was born July 10, 1830 in Moriah, and resided (at the time of the record, possibly 1865?) in Long Lake, Hamilton County. He was a “Serj” in the 93rd Infantry, Company C, who according to this record (which also had erroneous information for William Cath) enlisted Sept. 28th, 1862 for 3 years at Long Lake (with no bounty paid), but was mustered Nov. 25, 1861, which would appear to make no sense. In a separate entry (marked “same”), the record notes that he enlisted (re-enlisted) Dec. 15 or 18th, 1863, also for 3 years. It gives his parents as Philander and Lucy Kimbol, and lists his previous occupation as a farmer. The record notes: “Discharged Dec. 19th 1863 reenlisted Wounded in the Battle of the Wilderness Discharged July 9th 1865 Still living P.O. Address Long Lake Hamilton County New York.”

There is a Joanna Johnson, 17, living as a servant with Stephen Martin in 1860; may or may not be a relation.


Bromley’s “Guides of the Adirondacks” lists William Johnson as a guide on the Lower Saranac, no dates given. Bromley also lists, on the lower Saranac, George E. Johnson, Charles Johnson (Fulton Chain), Ernest Johnson, Elton Johnson, and Frank Johnson. George and Charles are likely the same as William’s sons, but the others are a mystery. May be related, may not.

There was no biographical sketch of him in the History of the 93rd Regiment, although he was listed as the 4th sergeant, but there was a brief service record:

JOHNSON, WILLIAM K. -- Age 31, Co. C., Minerva, v.v. [veteranized] enlisted Sept. 21, ’61, ap. corporal Feb. 19, ’64, wd. [wounded] May 5, ’64, ap. sergeant Dec. 12, ’64, m.o. [mustered out] June 29, ’65. 580

In the Report of the Adjutant-General of New York State on the 93d Infantry is the following service record:
JOHNSON, WILLIAM K. -- Age, 31 years. Enlisted, September 21, 1861, at Minerva, to serve three years; mustered in as a sergeant, Co. C, November 20, 1861; returned to ranks, March 14, 1863; re-enlisted as a veteran, December 20, 1863; promoted corporal, February 19, 1864; wounded in action, May 5, 1864, at the Wilderness, Va.; promoted sergeant, December 14, 1864; mustered out with company, June 29, 1865, near Washington, D.C.; also borne as William R.73

There was an Alexander Johnson who enlisted at Minerva the same day, age 24, as a corporal; I suspect this could have been a brother. He was discharged for disease May 21, 1862.73

According to an online version of Franklin County Civil War records, he was born in Essex County, NY. He enlisted Sept. 1862 in the 93rd NY Co. C, held the rank of sergeant. He was a farmer in Brandon at the time of enlistment; he enlisted in Essex County. He was wounded May 1864 at the Wilderness. Re-enlisted in July, 1864 and still in service in 1865. (AG; 1860; 1865).522 Unfortunately, these records do not show his parents (many of them did list mother and father, which at least suggests they were not alive, but I’d have to see the originals to understand that.) Further, some of the dates of those records do not coincide with others (see above).

There is a Civil War pension record (found on Ancestry.com) That shows William Johnson filing for an invalid pension May 7, 1889 (application # 703041; certificate # 469503), from NY. The service notation looks like “F&” or “Ft” followed by “H 93 N.Y. Inf.” A widow’s pension was filed by Martha H. Johnson, but the date is difficult to make out online. It looks like Mar 8 1922, but it’s hard to read (application # 1662826).75 My Martha had of course married Jesse Corey long before then; perhaps that is when she became eligible, after Corey had died, but she would have been 87. Still 1922 was my best guess, zooming in and comparing it to the writer’s other 2’s. However, I believe she died in 1911. I have to conclude that this record belongs to the other William Johnson in the 93rd, who served in Company F and was only 18 when enlisted. [Now in 2010 I have found a competing record which shows his widow as Mary.] The 1890 Veterans Schedule also lists a William Johnson in Westville, Franklin Co., who had been a sergeant in Co. H of the 98th (from Malone and Lyons), who is not my William but can cause some confusion.

In the 1870 census, there is a William Johnson, age 39, living in Westport, with wife Mary, and sons Fred and John. He is a blacksmith born in New York.
They appear to be living with the family of a Francis and Margaret Ariel; Francis is a 64-year-old laborer, Margaret his 54-year-old wife. With them were daughter Eliza, 28; son Samuel, 19, a farmer, and Peter, 8, who was at school. Francis, Margaret and Eliza were born in Canada. Mary says she was born in New York, so it’s not clear whether she might be the daughter of Francis and Margaret. Both Francis and Margaret reported both their parents were of foreign birth, and that neither they, Eliza nor Samuel could read or write.



In the 1880 census, there is a William Johnson, age 49, carpenter, living in Elizabethtown with wife Mary, 36, and sons Fred, 12 and John, 10. Second family? Every reason to believe he lived at least until he filed a pension in 1889. It’s odd that both he and Mary list their parents place of birth as “unknown,” all others on the page have answers. It would appear, from looking at the names of his neighbors, that he did not live in the village of Elizabethtown, but some distance out on the border of the town of Westport, in a little enclave southeast of Green Hill, near the residences of Taylor, Pierson, Perkins and Churchet.

(In the 1850 census, there is a blacksmith named Julius C. Johnson, 52, born Connecticut, in Middlebury, Addison County, VT. His wife is Harriet, 48, born Vermont; his son is William, age 20, born New York, a saddler. There are other Johnsons nearby, including Edward G., a merchant. They look to be in the commercial district, if there was one, of Middlebury.
In 1860, Julius and Harriet A. are still in Middlebury. However, their son is identified as William F by another researcher, and looks like this is not a connection. See Julius’s card for info.)


In the 1850 census in Chesterfield, Essex County, there is a William Johnson, age 18, who is the son of a Nancy Johnson, apparently head of household, age 47. With them are George, Laremy, and Richard. Next door is George Johnson, 45, wife Mary Ann, 43, and Maria, John, Mary, Lorin, and some other unrelated names. Next to them is John Brown, age 65, in whose employ is a William Johnson, age 45. Likely this William is married to Nancy, and 18-year-old is their son. Nancy and George Johnson are from Ireland.

In the 1892 New York State census, William K., Mary, Fred and John are in North Hudson. William and John are farmers, Fred is a “pedler”.

In the 1890 Special Schedule for “Surviving Soldiers, Sailors, and Marines, and Widows, etc.” he is listed as living in Schroon River as William K. Johnson, rank Second Serg., Company C, 93 NY Inf., enlisted 28 Sep 1861, discharged 29 June 1865, length of service 3 years, 9 months, 1 day. He is listed in House No. 63, family no. 64. The disability incurred is “chronic rheumatism,” under remarks, “Gun Shot Wound Re enlisted”74

It is this connection to Schroon River and North Hudson, and the Mary, Fred, John family that convinces me this is William’s second family.

Have now found his record in the Civil War Pension Index. William K. Johnson, service “C, 93 NY Inf”, listed with “Widow, Johnson Mary A”. Under Date of Filing, there is an entry for 1877 Sept. 18 for Invalid (Application No. 242091, certificate No. 187953), and for 1896 May 25 for Widow, Application No. 635316, That seems to make it very clear that he remarried.

In 1894, William performed service for the Town of North Hudson that was described as “setting with board,” for which he was paid $12.50. (Most such payments were for ballot or highway services and fire fighting, so that nature of his activity is unclear; he is the only person for which that activity is described.) (Elizabethtown Post and Gazette, Thurs., Nov. 29, 1894)
In a Lake Placid News story about a double murder suicide perpetrated by William Straight, native of Jay and retired Saranac Lake grocer, it is noted that his second wife was Mrs. Mary Johnson, “who had been the wife of William Johnson, well-known Saranac Lake figure in the closing days of the last century.” Straight was a veteran woodsman. Lake Placid News, Oct. 19, 1934. (This would comport with the idea of William remarrying a Mary, then living in Elizabethtown and Westport. She was 13 years younger than him (b. app. 1844), while William Straight would have been b. app 1876.
In 1920, William and Mary Straight lived next to Eugene Lamoy’s family, and Lloyd Duquette, in Saranac Lake. He was 43, she was 45, so it seems unlikely to be the same Mary Johnson.

A William Johnson, along with a Frank and an Ernest, is mentioned in Seneca Ray Stoddard’s “The Adirondacks” (1881) as a Tupper’s Lake guide. They are all also listed as Saranac Lake, Franklin Co., guides -- it reads as follows on p. 217:
Saranac Lake, Franklin Co. -- To John A. Strong, one of the best posted guides in the entire wilderness, thanks are due for the following names: A.J. Baker - Cliff Clark - Alambert Corey - Hosea Colbath - Geo. Cronk - A.W. Dudley - Lucius Evans - Ed. Flagg - Silas Flagg - John Grover - Fitz Green Hallock - Wm. Johnson - Ernest Johnson - Frank Johnson - Jacob Loritson - Chas. Martin - Stephen Martin - Albert McKenzie - Alric Moody - Benny Moody - Daniel s. Moody - Fayette Moody - Adel Moody - Warren W. Morehouse - Wm. Morehouse - James McLelland - James Philbrook - Fred. Reynolds - Reuben Reynolds - A.P. Robins - Clark Robbins - Wm. Sheldon - John Slater - Warren J. Slater - Malcolm Smith - Peter solomon - John A. Strong - Masie St. Germain - Gen. Sweeney - Jason Vosburg - Carlos Whitney - Henry Wood - R.W. Nichols (P.O. Keene) - Chas. and Dan. Bartlett (P.O. Upper Jay).

The History of the Ninety-third Regiment, New York Volunteer Infantry, 1861-1865 (David H. King, A. Judson Gibbs, et. al.) lists William K. Johnson as Fourth Sergeant in Company C, Sept. 28, 1861. Alexander Johnson was First Corporal, Sept. 28, 1861.580 In its listing on p. 186, it shows “Johnson, William K. Age 31. Co. C, Minerva, v.v. en. Sept. 21, ‘61, ap. coporal Feb. 19, ‘64, wd. [wounded] May 5, ‘64, ap. sergeant Dec. 14, ‘64, m. o. June 29, ‘65.580

William Johnson history as posted at Hoxsie:

Updating my genealogy software for the first time in several years made me look at the state of some of my research. For starters, I’ve posted an updated version of my family tree cards which may be of use to anyone in my family.
I also found that I had done a lot of research and writing (a shorter piece was posted here) on my great great grandfather, but hadn’t put it all together and shared it on the web yet, so here it is — a tale of some of the earliest families to live and work in the Adirondacks, centered on William Kimbol Johnson:
William K. Johnson was born in 1830 in Essex County, New York. His parents were Philander Johnson and Lucy Kimbol (or Kimball — spelling was loose in those days). In later years, Lucy would become the “Mother Johnson” made very famous by the early Adirondack writers (though Philander was frequently referred to only as “Uncle”). I wrote a lot about Mother Johnson here. I haven’t learned more about the Kimbols, but this line of Johnsons had come up from Connecticut through Vermont in the years following the American Revolution, perhaps working in the iron industry, and when opportunities dried up in Vermont, they crossed Lake Champlain into Essex County, New York, then very much the wilderness but where some iron work was taking off. The Pecks and Grahams, families closely associated with this Johnson family, made the same journey at the same time.
Newcomb, New York
Unfortunately, nothing is known of William’s life until age 24, when he appears in the town of Newcomb, in Essex County. He had arrived there in March, 1855, and in that summer’s census his family included wife Martha and his first son, Charles R. Johnson, who was born in January 1854. Their second son, George E., would be born in March, 1856. Martha was the daughter of George Graham, who was born in Scotland, and his wife Harriet, who was born in Vermont in 1812. The Grahams had lived in Bridport, Vermont, and Crown Point, New York, and it appears that George died before 1860. Martha was one of six children, three girls and three boys; all of the boys worked as boating guides for Nathan Ingalls’s hotel in Crown Point in 1860, and they would have ties with the Johnson family for many years to come.
In Newcomb in 1855, the Johnsons seem to have been living on the farm of Charles and Elisha Bissell, who were among the prominent farmers of Newcomb as that community began to grow. The farm grew hay, oats and rye on 15 acres, and had some livestock. Newcomb, however, turned out to be only a waystation.

This 1892 map shows the Rustic Lodge and the Indian Carry; Upper Saranac Lake is the large lake above.
Indian Carry / Coreys
By 1860 the family had moved on to the area that would come to be known as Coreys, also known as the Indian Carry, in the town of Brandon (also known as South Woods, and later part of Harrietstown), Franklin County. William and his family were living there among other families who were entwined, commonly moving across the north country together. These included Jesse Corey, owner of the Rustic Lodge that was one of the very first of the legendary Adirondack destinations. Here, William Johnson, his sons Charles and George, his in-laws the Grahams and others would find work as the very earliest of the Adirondack guides.
Stephen Martin was there as well; he may or may not have been related somehow, but he sold land in the area in 1864 to William’s mother-in-law, Harriet Graham, land which she conveyed in 1880 to John and Nancy Dukett (Duquette). Nancy Dukett was Harriet’s daughter and the sister of William’s wife, Martha.
Also living among them was Scottoway Peck, who had left the Peck enclave in Wilmington for Brandon, possibly showing an earlier link between the Johnsons and the Pecks, possibly leading the way to a later link, when William’s grandsons Guy and Jesse would marry a pair of Peck sisters from Jay. It is hard at this remove to imagine what would drive families to move to what was essentially wilderness, and difficult-to-farm wilderness, at that, but sometime just before 1860 these families all settled together in this remote area just being discovered by the writers who were romanticizing the Adirondack experience. When it came to designating their occupations, however, all of them, even Jesse Corey, would list themselves as farmers; in later years, perhaps as the profession gained more respect or certainty, William’s sons would call themselves “hunters’ guides.”

Coreys Landing in 1865, from a stereograph by H. Tousley at the Library of Congress
William Johnson in the Civil War
Then came the Civil War. William K. Johnson enlisted in Co. C, 93rd Regiment, N.Y. Infantry on Sept. 28, 1861 in Minerva, NY, a town in southern Essex County. He was enlisted by Captain Dennis E. Barnes for a term of three years. At the time of enlistment, William was 32 years old. He was 5 feet, 5 inches tall, had a dark complexion, blue eyes, and brown hair. He listed his occupation as “laborer,” though in other military papers he listed “farmer.”
He was mustered in to Company C, 93rd Regiment, New York Infantry (also listed as 93rd NY Volunteers, and commonly known as “The Morgan Rifles”). He mustered in Nov. 20, 1861, and on Dec. 10 was appointed fourth sergeant — presumably a sergeant, the fourth grade. Below this were corporal (fifth grade) and private first class (sixth grade); above it were staff sergeant (third grade), first sergeant or technical sergeant (second grade), or master sergeant (first grade). Company C was also known as Captain Barnes’ Company, Butler’s Battalion, and Sharp Shooters. Butler was Lt. Col. Benjamin C. Butler.
The 93rd was organized at Albany, New York from October, 1861 to January, 1862 under Col. John S. Crocker, a lawyer from Cambridge in Washington County who had served in the State Legislature and was a friend of Governor Edward Morgan. Companies were organized by where they were recruited, which was geographically wide: Chester, Albany, Minerva, North Hamden, Cortland, Fort Edward, Cambridge, Boston, Argyle and Troy. Entering service as a Colonel, Crocker named his regiment the Morgan Rifles, in honor of the Revolutionary War rifle corps. The regiment was assigned to the Army of the Potomac, and was the headquarters guard of the army under McClellan, Hooker, Meade, and Burnside. Crocker took part in every battle of the Army of the Potomac, was captured in 1862 but traded for a Confederate officer, was wounded three times at the Battle of the Wilderness, and at Spotsylvania Court House.
The 93rd left New York March 7, 1862. While the Regiment mostly saw duty around White House Landing, Virginia, a major Union supply depot, in the summer of 1862, William Johnson was apparently detached for recruiting duty on August 9. It is not known where he went for that duty, but he was back with his unit in the fall. He was reported as absent, sick at Harrison’s Landing, Virginia, southeast of Richmond, “since Aug 13” 1862; whether this was associated with his time on recruitment detachment is not clear. He was reported sick at Independence Hill, presumed to be a Virginia location, just a few weeks later, Sept. 7. He appears to have gone through the winter of 1862-63 without incident, but something unknown happened in March 1863, because on March 16 he is marked as “reduced to the ranks.” There is no further mention of the cause for this reduction in rank to private.
Re-enlistment
Through 1863, the 93rd saw significant action, including the Battle of Chancellorsville, the Battle of Gettysburg, and duty on the line of the Rapahannock. William seems to have passed through all this without injury or incident. In October he was noted as due a $100 bounty for having completed two years of service. As the Union struggled to increase the size of its armies, a general order had been issued in June 1863 authorizing a force to be known as “Veteran Volunteers.” This allowed current enlistees to close out their current obligations, re-enlist for a three-year period, and receive one month’s advance pay ($13), and a bounty and premium totaling $402, to be paid in installments. The total first installment was $40. (In that year, a skilled laborer might make an average of $1.75 per day; a journeyman mechanic might make $400 per year. Even unskilled laborers might make $1.00 per day, when there was work). Still, the inducement must have looked attractive to William Johnson, for on December 19, 1863, at Brandy Station, Virginia, he was mustered out and “discharged by virtue of reenlistment as a veteran volunteer.” He was mustered back in on the next day, receiving an instant bounty of $60, advance pay of $13 and a premium of $2, and was, like other veteran volunteers, “to have a furlough of at least thirty days in their states before expiration of original term.” He was given a medical examination, found free from “all bodily defects and mental infirmity,” and inspected by Lt. Waters W. Braman, recruiting officer of the 93rd.

The only photo I have that MAY include William Johnson. This is Company C of the 93rd New York Infantry in Bealeton, Virginia, in August 1863.
It appears that the Regiment Veteran Corps returned home for January 1864 under the command of Col. John S. Crocker. They spent time in Albany and then in New York City on their way back to Brandy Station, but it is not clear if soldiers were allowed or able to return to their distant homes across New York State.
He was mustered back in as a private, still in Company C of the 93rd. On February 19, 1864 he was appointed corporal (“per R.O. [regimental order] 22 of Feb. 19. 64”). It was noted that he had due to him the second installment of his bounty as a veteran volunteer, $50.
Wounded at The Battle of the Wilderness
In May of 1864, the 93rd was engaged in the Battle of the Wilderness of Spotsylvania, a tangle of rough terrain in central Virginia that was the first battle of Lt. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant’s overland campaign. On the first day of the battle, May 5, William K. Johnson was shot through the thigh.
Lt. Bramhall of Company E wrote a letter to his brother on May 10, which was printed in the New York Tribune on May 20. In it he describes the Battle of the Wilderness, and describes an unnamed corporal who could very well be William Johnson. “One instance I would mention, I saw a corporal in the ranks of my company wounded in the leg, while in the act of loading his gun; he deliberately aimed his piece and fired, exclaiming ‘Take that,’ he then turned and said ‘Lieutenant, I am wounded and can do no more.’ He went to the field hospital and had his wound dressed, and soon after came back to the line, saying, ‘I must have another pop at the rascals.’ That corporal must be promoted.”
William’s captain, Dennis Barnes, a corporal and three privates from Company C were killed; William was one of 27 wounded (as was Lt. Bramhall). He was apparently moved to the United States General Hospital at Fairfax Seminary (Alexandria), Virginia, where on May 17 he was granted a furlough:
The bearer hereof, W.K. Johnson 93rd a Corpl of Captain DE Barnes C Company of the 93 Regiment of NY
aged 34 years, 5 feet 5 inches high, Dark complexion, gray eyes, Brown hair, and by profession a Farmer; born in the state of N.Y., and enlisted at Albany in the state of N.Y., on the 28 day of Sept eighteen hundred and sixty one, to serve for the period of 3 years, is hereby permitted to go to Crown Point, in the County of Essex, State of N.Y., he having received a FURLOUGH from the fourth [?] day of May, to the 16th day of June, 1864, at which period he will rejoin his Company or Regiment at Fairfax Semmary [sic], Va or wherever it then may be, or be considered a deserter.
Subsistence has been furnished to said Wm. K. Johnson, to the 16th day of May 1864, inclusive.
Given under my hand, at U.S.A. Gen’l Hospl. Fairfax Sem’y, Va., this 17th day of May, 1864.
[signed] Daniel P. Smith, Surg., U.S. Vols., Commanding the Hosp’l.
It is not known with whom he would have stayed in Crown Point; by all accounts his wife and family were still in Brandon. Three of his wife’s brothers were in Crown Point then, working as boatmen (and probably fishing guides) at the hotel of Nathan Ingalls. It’s certainly possible William joined his brothers in law for a convalescent period, and Crown Point was much easier to reach then than the distant wilderness of the Rustic Lodge. (There were no Johnsons listed in Crown Point in 1860, though there were some in Ticonderoga, Westport and some other locations around Essex County.) In any event, his shot through the thigh had not healed when it was time for him to return to the regiment, and he saw George Page, M.D. of Crown Point, who wrote the following “Med. Art. for Ex. of Furlo” [sic]:
Crown Point June 15, 1864. I have this day examined William K. Johnson Co C. 93d Regt. N.Y. St. Vol. and find that he has a gun shot wound through the thigh. The wound is discharging profusely. He is improving but is not able to travel with safety and will not be for thirty days at least from the date of this.
Return from Medical Furlough
The regimental records show that Corporal Johnson returned from his medical furlough on July 27, 1864, when the regiment was in the First Battle of Deep Bottom (Henrico County, Virginia). It is not clear if he would have been stationed with his company at that time, and he was carried on the regimental records as “absent wounded” until Sept. 17, 1864. but he recovered and was able to avoid further injury during a series of engagements throughout the end of 1864 that made up the Siege of Petersburg. He was noted as having served at Poplar Spring Church (Peebles Farm) on Oct. 2, and at Boydton Plank Road on Oct. 27-28, 1864. He was on sick report for no noted cause on Nov. 9 and 10, and again Nov. 22 and 23, and he is noted as being owed the third and fourth installments of his bounty, a total of $100, in December. On January 10, 1865, he was promoted to sergeant, back to the rank he had lost for unknown cause near two years before. The next spring finally brought the Fall of Petersburg, on April 2, 1865, the day William received his second wound, this one characterized as “slight.” After the Fall of Petersburg came the pursuit of Gen. Lee until his surrender, April 9, at Appomattox Court House.
From Appomattox, the 93rd marched to Burkesville, Virginia, arriving April 13 and remaining there until beginning the march to Washington D.C. on May 2. They arrived in D.C. on May 15, and were part of the Grand Review, May 23. The 93rd was mustered out on June 29, 1865. During the course of the war, the 93rd lost 6 officers and 120 enlisted men killed or mortally wounded, and 2 officers and 130 enlisted men were lost to disease, for a total loss of 258 men.
William K. Johnson was mustered out as a sergeant. He had been last paid through Dec. 31, 1864. He was still due $190 in bounty money, and owed the U.S. $6.71; that amount is not explained. He also owed a debt of $17.00 to “G.C. Parmeter, Butler,” for an unknown reason. (I find no “Parmeter” in the regimental roster; though Butler was the Lt. Col., I suspect this is a job title, not a name.)
Return to Civil Life
Where he went from there is a mystery. He may have returned home to Martha and their sons, by then aged 11 and 9. He may have returned to Crown Point and whomever he had stayed with there during his convalescence. Or perhaps he moved to Westport, nearby on Lake Champlain.
By 1870, William and Martha were no longer together. She and her younger son George were living with Jesse Corey and his children Charles, Lem, and Charlotte, presumably working the farm and the Rustic Lodge. Martha was Jesse Corey’s third wife, and he had six children by the previous wives. Although Martha was only in her thirties when they joined (Jesse was around 60), they had no children together. Sometime before 1880, Martha’s brother Charles Graham moved to Brandon, living as a boarder with Martha’s son George, already a noted Adirondack guide, and working as a boatman. Martha’s mother, Harriet, had also come to the area by then, and Martha’s sister, Nancy Dukett, was there with her family as well. Martha and Jesse lived together until his death in 1896. Perhaps after Jesse’s death she had had enough of living in the wilderness, for she and her stepson Charles Corey, a hunter’s guide and Civil War veteran who had not married, had moved to North Elba by 1900, where he was farming. At some time before 1910 they moved to Keene. There she lived until her death in May 1911, at age 77.
That leaves the question of what happened to William. A special census was undertaken in 1890 for “Surviving Soldiers, Sailors, and Marines, and Widows, etc.” In that census, William K. Johnson, clearly the same William as shown by his enlistment dates, rank, and more, is listed as living in Schroon River, town of North Hudson, New York. He is listed as suffering from the disability of “chronic rheumatism”; under marks is the note “Gun Shot Wound Re enlisted.” This record notes that he served 3 years, 9 months, and 1 day. Looking at the pension records, it appears that he had filed for an invalid pension on Sept. 18, 1877. On May 25, 1896, a widow’s pension was applied for — by Mary A. Johnson.
A Second Family
Where did William go after the war? Whether he returned home to Coreys is not known, but his convalescence in Crown Point would suggest that he had some reason to be on the eastern side of Essex County. All that is known is that in June 1870, William had taken up residence in Westport, a small community 18 miles up Lake Champlain from Crown Point. He then had a wife, Mary, a one-year-old son named Fred, and a 5 month old son named John. He was working as a blacksmith and had a personal estate worth $100.
By 1880, the family was recorded as living in Elizabethtown; they appear to have been on a stretch of road now known as Megsville Road, well out of the village of Elizabethtown, and it’s possible that they had been there before, as this location is right on the border between Elizabethtown and Westport. (The section was also known as Jonas Morgan’s Patent). He was working as a carpenter; Fred, now 12, and John, now 10, were attending school, which was nearby. They lived next to Orin Taylor, who was a cooper, and not far from land marked as belonging to the Kingdom Iron Ore Company of Lake Champlain. It’s entirely possible the local residents of this out-of-the-way corner of Essex County hoped that iron would bring the prosperity it had brought to other reaches of the county, particularly Mineville and Jay, but the 1300 acres of undeveloped mining land accredited to Kingdom were part of a sophisticated stock fraud, and were tied up in a lengthy court action that wasn’t resolved before the 1890s. By then whatever opportunity was there had been missed. William and Mary were named, along with a great number of their neighbors, in a foreclosure action brought by a Susan Demmon on November 17, 1883, with an auction scheduled for January 5, 1884. The foreclosure included much of what was described as lot number six in Jonas Morgan’s Patent of 4800 acres lying in Westport and Elizabethtown.
Perhaps the failure of the area to boom, and the resultant foreclosure, is the reason William took his family away, to the area of North Hudson and Schroon River, two communities so close together, by Adirondack standards, as to be nearly indistinguishable. It was in Schroon River that he was noted, in 1890, as suffering from chronic rheumatism. The family was still altogether in 1892, in North Hudson. William and John were described as farmers, and Fred as a “pedler.” In 1894, William performed service for the Town of North Hudson that was described as “setting with board,” for which he was paid $12.50. (Most such payments were for ballot or highway services and fire fighting, so that nature of his activity is unclear; he is the only person for which that activity is described.) It is likely that William finished his life here, for on May 25, 1896, Mary applied for a Civil War widow’s pension. He was 66.
What happened to his new family after that is not clear. Mary is not found again with certainty. Fred appears to disappear entirely, and John may have moved to Lincoln, Vermont, where he may be the divorced 30-year-old John B. Johnson working as a teamster on a farm.
His First Family Continues
His original family went on. As already noted, Martha lived until 1911 with her stepson, Charles N. Corey. Her elder son with William, Charles, married a woman named Ellen around 1876. Continuing to live in the area that would be called Coreys, Charles worked as a hunter’s guide, and they had four sons, Lee Roy, Eugene, Guy and Jesse.
In 1897, William’s step-brother Charles Corey brought a foreclosure action against Charles Johnson and a number of others, which may have forced Charles Johnson’s move to North Elba, where they were farming in 1900, probably in the area along Cascade Lake called Cascadeville. He lived at least until 1910 by which time the family had moved to Keene, on Edmunds Hill Road, where they owned a farm. Ellen lived at least until 1920, but not much else is known about them.
Charles’s brother George appears to have remained in the Coreys area, where he married a woman named Emily or Emma around 1876. It appears they had no children, though he may have adopted children in a second marriage around 1910.
Charles’s sons remained the North Elba area. Lee Roy (who may have been called Leroy), who was born in 1877, reported that he was married in 1920, but nothing is known of his wife, and there is no evidence of children; when he registered for the WWI draft, he listed his mother as his nearest relative, so it’s unclear whether he ever really married. He died in 1946, and is buried in North Elba Cemetery on the Old Military Road.
Eugene, who was the second son, born in 1885, would appear never to have married. He didn’t occasion much mention in the newspapers, showing up as being paid for labor during a scrap drive in 1942, being fined for reckless driving in 1944, and operating illegal fishing tip-ups in 1947. He died that same year, and is also buried in North Elba Cemetery.
Guy Johnson
Guy Johnson, my grandfather, was born in 1887. He held various jobs as a laborer throughout his life, in North Elba, Crown Point, and elsewhere. He was working on a farm in Warren, Vermont, when he registered for the draft in World War I, and ended up in the Army, Company F, 101st Ammo Train, serving time in France.
When he returned he developed or maintained a relationship with his grandmother’s brother William Graham, a prominent farmer of Crown Point, frequently visiting William and wife Electa throughout the late and ‘20s. He lived in the Crown Point area for some time, working as a blacksmith on his return from the war and buying what was known as the Ingallston Place in nearby Factoryville. He was noted as hunting on some occasions, and may have occasionally worked as a guide.
In 1920, Guy’s younger brother Jesse, who had been born in 1890, married into the Alfred Peck family, which had moved from the Jay/Wilmington area into North Elba (the farm of Alfred Peck would later become the Craig Wood golf club). There had been a related Peck family in Coreys, as well, so the family connections went back a long way, and the Johnson, Peck and Graham families may have even been connected in Vermont around 1850.
Jesse married Agnes, one of Alfred and Eunice Peck’s 11 children, who at 20 was 10 years younger than he was. The long family connections and Jesse’s marriage probably brought Guy into close contact with the Peck family; in January 1927, a 39-year-old Guy married almost-19-year-old Gladys Peck, Agnes’s sister. Their first child, Lois, was born later that year, and the family began to split time between Lake Placid and Schenectady, where Guy is found working at General Electric in 1930. He, Gladys, Lois, and Phyllis were renting in a four-family house at 108 Johnson Street in Schenectady, a now-gone street between Chapel and Franklin Streets, just below Nott Terrace. Ultimately, from 1927 to 1947, Guy and Gladys would have 10 children, and there seem to have been times when Gladys and children would remain in Lake Placid while Guy worked in Schenectady. Later, the family would move to Schenectady’s Front Street, where the children would attend the Riverside School in the 1940s, and Liberty Street in the 1950s. Guy retired from General Electric as a crane follower in 1952. He and Gladys divorced, he moved to Jay Street, and Gladys married Paul “Ray” Bourdeau around 1956. Guy lived on until 1966. Gladys died in March 1972.

The Johnson family line as I wrote it in 2015:

The Johnson Family Line

Preface
The farthest back I’ve been able to trace the Johnson family line is to Israel Johnson, and whether that’s right depends on whether his grandson was William Kimbol Johnson. For a while I was unsure that William was the son of Philander and Lucy; all I had was name, geography, and trade – we know that Lucy’s maiden name was Kimbol (also spelled as Kimball). Lucy was the legendary “Mother” Johnson made famous by Seneca Ray Stoddard and others, and ran one of the earliest guide houses in that part of the Adirondacks, and William and his sons were all guides in the same area as well. It’s a strong association, not proof, but without it, the farthest back I could trace the Johnson line would be William. But at some point, William appeared in the “Town Clerks’ Registers of Men who Served in the Civil War,” and there he named his parents as Philander Johnson and Lucy Kimbol.

First Generation: Israel Johnson
The first generation is Israel Johnson. There’s an entire book about the search for a genealogical connection to Israel Johnson, titled “Clear Pond: The Reconstruction of a Life” by Roger Mitchell. [MANY MORE DETAILS TO FOLLOW]. Israel was born around ???? somewhere in Massachusetts, and married Rhoda Harmon. Around 1807, they had a son named Philander Johnson.

Second Generation: Philander Johnson (b. ~1807) and Lucy Kimbol Johnson (b. ~1812)
Philander first shows up in New York records on the 1830 census as Philander M. Johnson, living as the head of a household in the town of Moriah in Essex County. He was there at least through 1840. 1850 is the first time we get the name of his wife, Lucy, but by then they were living in Crown Point. They moved west to Newcomb in the Adirondacks by 1860, and probably before 1855. Today that’s a distance of 55 not particularly easy miles; in 1855 it was a long venture from relative civilization on the shores of Lake Champlain to an especially remote part of the state. The area had been settled and farmed around 1816, and McIntyre’s Adirondack Iron Company opened a forge there at what came to be called Tahawus, but as late as 1830 there were only eight families living there permanently. Among the earliest settlers was a family named Bissell, and it was on a farm owned by Charles and Elisha Bissell that we first see William Kimbol Johnson. (It seems very likely that the spelling was the much more common Kimball; however, the only time it’s found in the records, it’s spelled ‘Kimbol,’ so I’ve left it Kimbol for the purposes of this story.) Even as late as 1885, the Methodist Church at Newcomb was the furthest inland church from Lake Champlain, excepting only a church at Long Lake. Lumbering took precedence over the ore operations, which only enjoyed brief success, and by the 1880s the area had become something of a resort.

In 1830, Philander (about 23) and Lucy (probably 18) had a son named William Kimbol Johnson, who later said he had been born in Essex County, most likely in Moriah (the census records at that time didn’t take detailed names other than from the head of household). Around 1836 it looks like they had a daughter named Sylvia M (though in 1880 she was recorded as Selva. Census-takers weren’t always focused on accuracy, spelling or penmanship). Sylvia doesn’t figure into this story much, but she married a hotelier by the name of Clark Farmer, who ran the Hiawatha hotel on the Stony Creek Ponds in the 1870s. Sylvia’s daughter, Jennie Farmer Morehouse, wrote that she was related to Charles and George Johnson of Axton (also known as Coreys), which gives us a bit more faith in this connection.

Philander was listed as a laborer in Newcomb in 1860, with a personal estate worth $150. At the time, he was reported as 56 years old; Lucy was only 47. There’s a brief mention of Philander in 1864, in the town of Brandon, in Franklin County, but some of what was in Brandon is now in Harrietstown, which includes the area of Raquette Falls that the family seems to have settled in. Brandon was a lumbering town more than anything else at the time. Philander is noted as owing a tax penalty of 50 cents.
We don’t know exactly when Lucy Kimbol Johnson, my great great great grandmother, became the “Mother” Johnson of Adirondack fame, known for her pancakes and her hospitality in the middle of what was then some pretty remote wilderness at Raquette Falls; some reports say 1860, some say after the Civil War. We don’t know why her husband Philander isn’t mentioned by name in any of the accounts of her lodge, inn, or house, however it might be described, though he is mentioned as “Uncle” Johnson. We don’t get much of a description of what she provided other than pancakes and fish that may have been trout, and and we know that Uncle did some boat dragging and portaged luggage with oxen. But her place on the Raquette River was considered a must-visit by several of the writers who made the Adirondacks famous, including Edwin R. Wallace, Rev. William Henry Harrison Murray, and Seneca Ray Stoddard. It was Murray who first mentioned her and apparently started a stream of visitors to her house.
W.H.H. Murray wrote a book titled “Adventures in the Wilderness: Camp-life in the Adirondacks,” published in 1869. This was one of the earliest guidebooks for city folks looking to get away to the wilderness, and in it Murray provides every particular of how to get there, including where to make rail connections and which hotels to write to in order to make arrangements. It was all very complicated, and the roads were very bad at the time. Hardly anyone lived in this region, which was of course part of the attraction; those few who did ran hotels or worked as guides. There’s hardly a prominent innkeeper or guide in the Saranac/Raquette region that this family isn’t connected to in one way or another. This is what Murray wrote about Mother Johnson’s in his listing of hotels:

“Mother Johnson’s.” – This is a “half-way house.” It is at the lower end of the carry, below Long Lake. Never pass it without dropping in. Here it is that you find such pancakes as are rarely met with. Here, in a log-house, hospitality can be found such as might shame many a city mansion. Never shall I forget the meal that John and I ate one night at that pine table. We broke camp at 8 A.M., and reached Mother Johnson’s at 11.45 P.M., having eaten nothing but a hasty lunch on the way. Stumbling up to the door amid a chorus of noises, such as only a kennel of hounds can send forth, we aroused the venerable couple, and at 1 A.M. sat down to a meal whose quantity and quality are worthy of tradition. Now, most housekeepers would have grumbled at being summoned to entertain travellers at such an unseasonable hour. Not so with Mother Johnson. Bless her soul, how her fat, good-natured face glowed with delight as she saw us empty those dishes! How her countenance shone and side shook with laughter as she passed the smoking, russet-colored cakes from her griddle to our only half-emptied plates. For some time it was a close race, and victory trembled in the balance; but at last John and I surrendered, and, dropping our knives and forks, and shoving back our chairs, we cried, in the language of another on the eve of a direr conflict, “Hold, enough!” and the good old lady, still happy and radiant, laid down her ladle and retired from her benevolent labor to her slumbers. Never go by Mother Johnson’s without tasting her pancakes, and, when you leave, leave her with an extra dollar.

So we have a mention of Mother Johnson and even of her husband, whose name is given in none of these accounts. Seneca Ray Stoddard, in his “The Adirondacks: Illustrated” from 1874, also mentions Mother Johnson:

Mother Johnson’s is on the Raquette, seven miles above Stony Creek. All admirers of the Rev. W.H.H. Murray, and readers of his romantic and perilous adventures in the Adirondacks, will remember his struggle with the pancakes, and Mother Johnson is the one who had the honor of providing them. We reached the house at noon, and the good-natured old lady got up a splendid dinner for us; venison that had (contrary to the usual dish set before us) a juiciness and actual taste to it. Then she had a fine fish on the table.
“What kind of fish is that, Mrs. Johnson,” I inquired.
“Well,“ said she, “they don’t have no name after the 15th of September. They are a good deal like trout, but it’s against the law to catch trout after the fifteenth, you know.”
Mother Johnson move here with her husband in 1870, and they pick up a good many dollars during the season from travelers, who seldom pass without getting at least one meal. Boats are dragged over the [Raquette Falls] carry nearly two miles in extent, and a very rough road at that, on an ox sled, at a cost of $1.50. A few rods above the house is Raquette Falls, laying claim to the honor of being Mr. Murray’s “Phantom Falls.” The actual fall here is probably not over twelve or fifteen feet. Mother Johnson entertains a very exalted opinion of Mr. Murray, with good reason, too, as his Adirondack book first turned the tide of travel past her door, and was the means of converting her pancakes (we had some) into greenbacks; and although she may subscribe heartily to the belief that “man was created a little lower than the angels,” it is no more than natural that she should make an exception in the case of the Nimrodish divine alluded to [meaning Murray].”

Stoddard also writes a fanciful, outlandish, absurd history of the Battle of Plattsburgh (citing for instance that the attacking squadron, under Commodore Columbus, included the Santa Maria Smitha and the Mayflower) in which he namechecks Mother Johnson, 19th century style:

Soon other reinforcements began to arrive. Fred Averill’s dragoons came in Harper & Tuft’s four-horse coaches. Kellogg advanced from Long Lake, and Martin came Moodily over from Tuppers. Old Mountain Phelps slid down into the enemy, creating a panic in the commissary department; while Mother Johnson turned such a fierce fire of hot pancakes toward them that they fell back in confusion, and when Bill Nye arrived with his mounted Amazons, they fled totally routed seeing which, the attacking fleet withdrew, badly riddled, the commodore’s ship to discover America, the Mayflower only floating long enough to land its commander on Plymouth Rock, where he climbed into the gubernatorial chair and remained there until he was translated in a chariot of fire – which way the historian fails to state.

Edwin R. Wallace’s “Descriptive Guide to the Adirondacks,” 1876, says that Mother Johnson died in January 1875, “but the house will probably be continued as a hotel,” and provides us with a drawing of the house which appears to be taken from a photograph by Seneca Ray Stoddard:

His text must have been written before his appendix, for the text says,

At Raquette Falls, “Mother Johnson’s famous pancakes” may be procured, and “Uncle” Johnson may be employed to transport baggage over the portage with his oxen, for which he charges $1.50 per load. The house is a sort of blocked log concern, pleasantly overlooking the river. The falls, ¼ mile distant, are very pretty and romantic, and are entitled to all the notice they receive. . . A “blazed” line extending 3 m westerly from “Hotel de Johnson,” terminates at Folingsby’s [sic] Pond, to which the water distance is 12 ½ m.

By the way, meals at Mother Johnson’s were listed by Wallace as being 50 cents, or $1.50 for the day, $7.00 per week. By comparison, the nearby Dukett & Farmers’s lodge at Spectacle Ponds (where Lucy Johnson’s daughter Sylvia likely lived) charged 50 cents, $2.00 for the day, or $12.00 for the week, the same rate as Corey’s near Upper Saranac Lake. Jesse Corey’s inn also figures into our story. At this time, train fare from New York City to one of the Adirondack stations cost from $5 to $8. At the time, a blacksmith might have earned $18 a week (for 60 hours), a laborer somewhat less than $10. So these provisions were not on the cheap side, but all food probably had to be brought in from Newcomb and likely well beyond, so the cost was likely very high.

If we had any doubts about whether “Mother” Johnson was Lucy Johnson, Christopher Angus, in his “The Extraordinary Adirondack Journey of Clarence Petty: Wilderness Guide,” says that:

Predating even these hearty timbermen was a woman by the name of Lucy Johnson. A former lumber camp cook from Newcomb, Mother Johnson, as she was called, took up residence at Raquette Falls around 1860 with her husband, Philander. Even at this early date, the secluded spot was a natural location for the distribution of supplies to lumbermen working high on the slopes of the Seward Range.

Mother Johnson remained at the site for many years as a revered cook and innkeeper, and her legendary pancakes were immortalized in Adirondack Murray’s book. After her death during the winter of 1875, a hermit by the name of Harney snowshoed ten miles to Hiawatha Lodge [which her daughter and son-in-law Sylvia and Clark Farmer owned] to arrange for a coffin for her burial. She was supposedly buried at the foot of the cascade, but there is no sign of her grave. Christine Jerome, author of An Adirondack Passage: The Cruise of the Canoe “Sairy Gamp,” notes that a marker bearing the name Lucy Johnson stands among other stones of the same era in the Long Lake Cemetery. The tradition Mother Johnson began of providing lodging at Raquette Falls continued for nearly half a century beyond her death.

Hiawatha House was Dukett’s place on Stony Creek Ponds. Harney the hermit was Harney Frenia, who was listed as living with Philander Johnson in 1875. The Duketts were the house next door, though next door may have been about seven miles down the Raquette and some ponds away. Christine Jerome, in recounting the adventures of George Washington Sears, better known as the Adirondack writer Nessmuk, says that at places like Mother Johnson’s, out-of-season deer was identified on the menu as “mountain lamb.” This is certainly taking liberties, as it is extremely unlikely Mother Johnson’s had a menu.

Jerome also writes that:

Although she had asked to be buried in Long Lake, her request had to be deferred in the face of January realities: a frozen river, thigh-high snowdrifts, and miles of forest in every direction. The burial itself proved difficult enough. Harney had to snowshoe ten miles to find someone who could make a coffin, and then several miles farther to get the lumber. In the meantime a shallow grave was hacked out of the frozen earth on a knoll behind the inn. There was no real ceremony; besides the family only three mourners were present. The plan was to move her remains in the spring, when the river opened.

A mystery attends the final disposition of Lucy Johnson’s remains. Some historians believe she still lies beneath her knoll, but there is no trace of her grave at the falls. There is, however, a marker in the Long Lake cemetery bearing her name, and it stands among other stones dating back to her era. (Her headstone is a curious affair. On one end of the small slab someone chiseled “Old Mrs. Johnson” and then thought better of it, turned it upside down, and chiseled “Mother Johnson.” The original inscription is still visible at the grass line.) A married daughter [likely Sylvia Farmer] ran the place for a while, and for the next forty-odd years a succession of other innkeepers came and went, although the house continued to be known as Johnson’s.



Jerome goes on to say it became a residence after WWI, owned by a New York City lawyer named George Morgan, who died in 1944 and was buried on a knoll nearby; and that the final inhabitant was Charles Bryan, former president of the Pullman railroad car company After his death the state acquired the land.

A Sept. 12, 1973 newspaper article in the Tupper Lake Free Press Herald tells the story a little differently. It recounts a fire that destroyed the Raquette Falls lodge, which had been built on the site of Mother Johnson’s. It said that Charles DeLancett of Tupper Lake built a lodge there in 1910, which burned and was replaced by a new lodge by George Morgan, who died there in 1944. The article says that Philander and Lucy A. Johnson came in from Newcomb “shortly before the outbreak of the Civil War and built a crude log house in a clearing off the river, below the falls. There they catered to the needs of the passing sportsmen, trappers and loggers for food and shelter and there, on January 27, 1875, ‘Mother’ Johnson died. To get boards for a coffin it was necessary for Harney, a hired hand who had driven the oxen to haul boats around the carry for the Johnsons, to hike down river to Indian Carry and on out to Bartlett’s, between Upper and Middle Saranac Lake. ‘Mother’ Johnson was buried on the knoll behind the original log cabin, where a bronze plaque set in a rock now marks her resting place.
“Philander Johnson gave up his lonely wilderness hostelry soon after his wife’s death, leaving the area in 1876.”

In addition to all these remembrances from now-famous writers, we do have a small bit of remembrance from a family member. Sylvia Johnson Farmer’s daughter, Jennie Farmer Morehouse, wrote to the Tupper Lake Free Press in 1938. The paper incorporated her letter into a general remembrance of Mother Johnson:

The reason for this item lies in a letter received at the Free Press from a direct descendant of that grand old character – Mrs. Jennie Morehouse of Indian Lake, great-granddaughter [incorrect: she was the granddaughter] of Mother Johnson. Mrs. Morehouse is 63 years of age, and she recalls many a colorful incident from her childhood at Axton. Her father, she says, shot several panthers in that sector in the early days. His grave, and those of her grandfather and grandmother, are at Raquette Falls, where stands the old Johnson barn – more than 80 years old, and put together, in pioneer fashion, with wooden pegs instead of nails. Nails were a rare and expensive commodity in the North Woods in the middle of the 19th century.
 
“My father’s name was Clark Farmer; my mother was Sylvia M. Johnson,” Mrs. Morehouse writes. “I was born at Axton. I had two cousins, Charley and George Johnson, who lived there 40 years ago – yes – 50. I wonder if the Johnson boys, or men, who go to Raquette Lodge would by any chance be Charley Johnson’s sons, or grandsons? George had no children. Charley’s oldest boy was named Leroy. I don’t recall the others; I was only 19, or around that, at the time.”

 “I am 63 years old now, and my one desire is to see again the place where I spent my childhood,” Mrs. Morehouse writes. “That is why I am writing this letter. I want to take a trip to that dear old spot, and drop a line through between [sic] the logs of the old bridge where we used to cross the river on our way to Axton. I used to catch trout there with twine for fishline and a bent pin for a hook! I am wondering just how to get there – as we used to in the old days, by rowboat from Stony Creek, above Axton, or if there is a road so I can go by car. Please let me know if I should go in on the Wawbeek trail.”

With the passage of the half-century or more since Mrs. Morehouse lived there, it has become considerably easier to reach the old Johnson homesite near Raquette Falls, which lays claim to being the original “Phantom Falls” in the Rev. Murray’s exciting yarn. Today Mrs. Morehouse can travel by automobile from Indian Lake through Tupper Lake to Coreys – Axton, in her youth. A letter to George Morgan, proprietor of Raquette Falls Lodge, will undoubtedly result in arrangement to meet her near the Stony Creek bridge, and the remainder of the trip, about seven miles, must still be made by boat.

For the information of those of our readers who, like ourselves, arrived in the Adirondacks in a day when good highways and automobiles have replaced the guide-boat as a means of “getting places,” we can offer a little information about “Mother Johnson.” She moved, with her husband, to Raquette Falls in [illegible - 1860?]. Travel from Long Lake to Tupper was all by boat in those days, and it fell to Mother Johnson’s lot to feed the travelers, who invariably turned to her door while their boats were being dragged by ox-sled over the rough road around Raquette Falls carry. Mother Johnson became known far and wide for her pancakes, and many a man whose name was well-known throughout the country gratefully sampled her wares.

Mother Johnson died on January 27, 1875, after a short illness. Stoddard, in his volume “The Adirondacks,” printed in 1875, notes that “at the request of her husband, she was buried on a little knoll back of the house . . . the snow was so deep at the time as to make the way almost impassable, and but three, besides the family, were present at the time; but with their aid the body was laid away, with no ceremony save the sad good bye of those who loved her.”

Thanks to Jennie Morehouse’s letter, we have further confirmation that all these Johnsons were related; until uncovering a Civil War record wherein William directly named his parents, it was all hearsay and happenstance. The Charley and George she refers to as her cousins were Lucy’s grandchildren, William’s boys. They, too, became Adirondack guides. Charley did have a son named Leroy (or Lee Roy), and also had sons named Eugene, Guy and Jesse. Guy was my father’s father, so we get a little closer to the current generations.

After Lucy’s death in 1880, Philander was living in Brandon very close to Charles and George Johnson, his grandsons (through William); his daughter Sylvia Farmer was living with him. He was also very close to John and Nancy Dukett, who ran a lodge at Corey’s, at the Indian Carry. Nancy was from the Graham family, which Philander’s son William married into. Nearly everyone in this part of the woods was related in some way; not too surprising considering how few people there were in that area.

So, uncharacteristically for the time, we know very little about Philander but at least a bit more about his wife Lucy. It appears that they had son William K. in 1830, and daughter Sylvia (Farmer) around 1836, in Moriah. There also appear to have been children named Betsy (1844) and Henry (1847); I haven’t done more to track the later children down, though Wallace (1876) mentions a Raquette River guide by the name of H.D. Johnson who could be reached through the Potsdam Post Office.

93rd Infantry Regiment
Civil War
Washington County Regiment; Morgan Rifles; Northern Sharpshooters; New York Riflemen

History
The following is taken from New York in the War of the Rebellion, 3rd ed. Frederick Phisterer. Albany: J. B. Lyon Company, 1912.
Mustered in: October 1861 to January 1862.
Mustered out: June 29, 1865.
This regiment, Col. John S. Crocker, was organized at Albany February 1, 1862, by adding to the companies recruited by him those recruited by Maj. B. C. Butler for a battalion of sharpshooters, A, B, C and D, and one company, E, originally recruited for the 76th Infantry. Major B. C. Butler had received authority from the War Department, August 14, 1861, to recruit four battalions of sharpshooters. The regiment was mustered in the United States service for three years between October, 1861, and January, 1862. In June, 1863, some of the three years' men of the 22d Infantry were transferred to this. At the expiration of its term of enlistment the men entitled thereto were discharged and the regiment continued in service, but consolidated in November and December, 1864, into seven companies, A, C, D, E, F, Hand 1. June 2, 1865, the men of the 124th Infantry, not mustered out with their regiment, were transferred to this.
The companies were recruited principally: A at Chester; B Hobart's Company, 2d United States Sharpshooters at Albany; C at Minerva; D at North Hamden; E at Cortland Village; F at Fort Edward; G at Cambridge; H at Boston; I at Argyle, and K at Troy.
The regiment left the State March 7, 1862; served in Palmer's Brigade, Casey's Division, 4th Corps, Army of the Potomac, from March, 1862; Companies B, C, D, E, G and I at the White House, Va., the other companies as Provost Guard, Army of the Potomac, from May 19, 1862; the regiment, as such, from July, 1862; in 2d Brigade, 3d Division, 2d Corps, Army of the Potomac, from March, 1864, and it was honorably discharged and mustered out, under Col. Haviland Gifford, June 29, 1865, near Washington, D. C.
During its service the regiment lost by death, killed in action, 6 officers, 78 enlisted men; of wounds received in action, 1 officer, 43 enlisted men; of disease and other causes, 2 officers, 141 enlisted men; total, 9 officers, 262 enlisted men; aggregate, 271; of whom 1 officer. 22 enlisted men, died in the hands of the enemy.

On Google Books, “The Honors of the Empire State in the War of the Rebellion” by Thomas Seaman Townsend lists the following description of the 93rd, the “Morgan Rifles” --
“Ninety-Third Regiment.--”Morgan Rifles.” Capt. Walter W. Bramen is enitled to great credit for his coolness during the bombardment at night on the James River. He was officer of the night, and had many prisoners in the guard-house,a nd notwithstanding the whole guard had to move to a safer place, he did not lose a man. The regiment for a long time filled the responsible post of headquarters and provost guard to the Army of the Potomac, and during this service they seized and turned over to the authorities at Washington over 20,000 prisoners.
The Ninety-third participated gallantly in fifteen great batles -- Yorktown was the first; Boydton Road the last. The Ninety-third was commanded by Col. John S. Crocker, with Benjamin C. Butler Lieutenant-Colonel. Capt. Charles A. Quinn, a gallant officer, died recently.”

According to King’s “History of the Ninety-third Regiment, New York Volunteer Infantry, 1861-1865,” “The Ninety-third Regiment of new York State Volunteer Infantry was recruited and organized in the latter part of the year 1861 and early in 1862, and John S. Crocker, of Cambridge, Washington county, State of New York, was commissioned colonel. At a convention of delegates from all of the town in the county of Washington, representing all parties who were in favor of sustaining the Union at all hazards and suppressing the Rebellion, convened at Argyle in the county of Washington and State of New York, on the 10th day of October, 1861, for the purpose of making nominations and transacting other important business . . . .”580

======

TROY DAILY TIMES.
SATURDAY AFTERNOON, JUNE 18, 1864.
The Casualties in the Ninety-Third.
Correspondence of the Troy Daily Times.
WASHINGTON, June 14th, 1864.
I send you a correct list of the casualties in the Ninety-third New York regiment, Major Samuel McConihe commanding, up to May 31st. Some of the slightly wounded have returned to the regiment for duty, since the above date, and consequently are not reported. It is taken from the morning report books of the several companies.
W. M. C.
[only including Company C]
COMPANY C.
Killed--Capt. D. E. Barnes, Corporal A. A. Perry, privates R. Wallace, W. H. Ross, Geo. Hettinger.
Wounded--First Lieut. S. D., Second Lieut. C. Barnes, Sergeants C. W. Wallace, C. F. Myers, Corporals R. C. Wallace, W. R. Johnson, H. C. Taber, privates J. M. Brown, B. F. Emerson, C. L. Hastings, J. Hanratty, W. Holden, P. Lally, T. Mason, H. G. Morse, O. McGuire, J. McNealy, B. M. Richardson, M. Riley, M. Rodgers, T. Ryan, J. C. Shaw; H. D. Spicer, J. A. Tupper, J. Whitehead, M. Harrigan, J Burns.
Killed--Privates T. Kennedy, A. Lewis, E. Moore, T. Wilson, E. Rice.
Wounded--Sergeants T. Kirkham, A. T. Potter, T. Purcell, Corporals E. Brown, G. H. Bontly, Privates A. Armes, H. F. Babcock, J. Costello, A. J. Cook, W. J. Evans, A. Gardner, J. Masters, L. Swart, E. Van Slyke, W. E. Osborn, Erwin Green, J. Booth, J. H. Lawrence, A. C. Bently, J. Moore.

Possible parentage - William reported on his enlistment papers that he had been born in Essex County.

In 1840, there is a William Johnson in Minerva, who has a male between 10-14, a male 50-59, a female 5-9, a female 40-49. Given the later connection to Minerva as a recruitment place for William K. there’s a possibility this is his family.

In the 1850 census, there is a blacksmith named Julius C. Johnson, 52, born Connecticut, in Middlebury, Addison County, VT. His wife is Harriet, 48, born Vermont; his son is William, age 20, born New York, a saddler. There are other Johnsons nearby, including Edward G., a merchant. They look to be in the commercial district, if there was one, of Middlebury.
In 1860, Julius and Harriet A. are still in Middlebury. However, their son is identified as William F by another researcher, and looks like this is not a connection. See Julius’s card for info.

In 1840 there is also a William Johnson in Elizabethtown, but he appears to be 30-39 and lives alone.

In the 1850 census in Chesterfield, Essex County, there is a William Johnson, age 18, who is the son of a Nancy Johnson, apparently head of household, age 47. With them are George, Laremy, and Richard. Next door is George Johnson, 45, wife Mary Ann, 43, and Maria, John, Mary, Lorin, and some other unrelated names. Next to them is John Brown, age 65, in whose employ is a William Johnson, age 45. Likely this William is married to Nancy, and 18-year-old is their son. Nancy and George Johnson are from Ireland.

In the 1850 census in Athol, Warren County, there is a William B. Johnson, age 20, son of William and Alice Johnson, other children named Alice, Willard, susan, Burton, living next to Ebenezer Johnson.

In the 1850 Census in Saratoga, there is a William Johnson Jr, age 21, no occupation (but his brother George is a saddle and harness maker), living with William and Dorothy Johnson, other children are George, Margaret, Ann.