Father: Benjamin Johnson, Sr.
Mother: *****
Spouse: *****
Child-1: John Alford
2: James
Mallard or Mallory
3: Jane
Biographical Details:
No definite biographical details are known concerning Joseph Johnson beyond the bare fact that he was a son of Benjamin Johnson, Sr. This is affirmed by records of a a civil suit brought in Rappahannock County, Virginia, in 1843 and 1844 by his brother, James, by which time Joseph was evidently deceased. Moreover, these court records reveal that Joseph Johnson was the father of at least three children, viz., John, James M., and Jane. Accordingly, an anonymous historian of the "Red Oak Johnson Family" of Culpeper and Rappanhannock Counties in Virginia indicated that Joseph was, perhaps, the second oldest son of Benjamin Johnson; however, there appears to be no substantiated primary source for this presumption. Furthermore, this same source asserted that Joseph "went to Kentucky". Within this context, these few details are consistent with tradition current in the extended family of John A. and James M. Johnson, who both later settled in Gentry County, Missouri. Accordingly, it may be supposed that Joseph Johnson was born in Culpeper County, Virginia, about the turn of the nineteenth century, that he married an unidentified spouse sometime in the second decade of the nineteenth century, and remained resident in this locality until the 1830's. Notwithstanding the supposition that the Johnson family left Virginia after 1833, the population schedule of the 1830 US Census for Breckinridge County, Kentucky, includes the household of Joseph Johnson, which then consisted of an adult male between twenty and thirty years of age (presumably Joseph himself), a female between fifteen and twenty years (which would suggest that Joseph's wife was quite young when she married), a male child between five and ten years old, and a male and a female child both less than five. Consistent with later court records, it is plausible to identify the older male child as John A. Johnson, and the younger children as James M. and Jane Johnson, respectively. Geographically, Breckinridge County is located in northern Kentucky adjacent to Indiana directly across the Ohio River. This is circumstantially consistent with later accounts asserting that Joseph's putative sons, John and James, "removed from Indiana to Iowa at a very early date", which suggests that, perhaps, after the death of their father, the Johnson brothers may have moved across the Ohio River into Indiana. Likewise, oral tradition that John and James Johnson traveled down the Ohio River is also consistent with such a presumption. Even so, with the exception of the court records, none of this is by any means certainin and must be properly regarded as mere speculation. In any case, it would seem clear that Joseph died, perhaps, about 1840 and, moreover, it is, perhaps, significant that John A. Johnson named one of his sons "Joseph".Source Citations:
1. 1830 US Census Population Schedule for Breckinridge County, Kentucky, National Archives, Washington DC: pg. 60, (microfilm: roll M19_34; imgs. 124-5).2. Chancery Records, Rappahannock Co., Washington, VA, Case #88, (Library of Virginia, Richmond, VA, (microfilm: roll - Chancery Records #42; img. 557)).
3. Anonymous, A History of the "Red Oak" Johnson Family, privately published. (Not currently in print - facsimiles available at the Rappahannock County Historical Society, Washington, VA)