Father: James
M. (Mallard or Mallory) Johnson
Mother: Sarah Ann Thompson
Spouse: William James Paxton - b: 1854 - Gentry
Co., MO
d: 20/Oct/1914 - St. Joseph, Buchanan Co., MO - bur:
State Hosp. No. 2 Cem.
m: 1873/1874 - Gentry Co., MO
Child-1: Rosetta or Rosella (Rosy) - b: 8/Aug/1875
- Gentry Co., MO
d: 1880 - Gentry Co., MO
2: Charles
Wesley - b: 19/Feb/1877 - Gentry Co., MO
d: 9/Dec/1950 - St. Francis Hosp., Maryville, Nodaway Co., MO - bur:
Graves Cem., Guilford
m: Mary Viola Fones - 4/Feb/1900 - Nodaway Co., MO
m: Amanda Lewis - 26/Oct/1932 - Maryville, Nodaway Co., MO
3: John
Jacob - b: 13/Aug/1878 - Gentry Co., MO
d: 28/July/1959 - Missouri Methodist Hosp., St. Joesph, :Buchanan Co.,
MO - bur: Mt. Auburn Cem.
m: Lurie Izzetta Adair - 22/Sep/1911
4: Eliza
S. - b: Dec/1879 - Gentry Co., MO
5: George
Leamon - b: 30/Jul/1881 - Gentry Co., MO
d: 2/Apr/1962 - Grant City, Worth Co., MO - bur: High Ridge
Cem., Stanberry, Gentry Co.
m: Cora Ellen Morrow - 10/Aug/1902 - Worth Co., MO
6: Bertha
Ann - b: 25/Feb/1883 - Gentry Co., MO
d: 22/Aug/1969 - bur: Amazonia Cem., Andrew Co., MO
m: George Washington Paxton
7: Grover
Cleveland - b: 12/Oct/1884 - Gentry Co., MO
d: 11/May/1973 - Savannah, Andrew Co., MO - bur: Savannah Cem.
m: Marilla Ethel Warner - 9/Aug/1905 - Flag Springs, Andrew Co., MO
8: Mary
Elizabeth - b: 27/Dec/1885 - Gentry Co., MO
d: 22/Nov/1969 - Atchison, Atchison Co., KS - bur: Doniphan
Cem., Doniphan Co., KS
m: Victor E. Yeigh - 20/Apr/1914
9: Almira
M. - b: 23/Nov/1887 - Gentry Co., MO
d: 6/Apr/1980 - Atchison, Atchison Co., KS - bur: Doniphan Cem.,
Doniphan Co., KS
m: Christian Edward Boos - 11/Jun/1907 - Atchison, Atchison Co., KS
Biographical Details:
Strong circumstantial evidence exists that Sarah Jane Johnson was born on April 10, 1850, in Harrisburg Township in Van Buren County, Iowa. Her parents were James M. and Sarah Ann Thompson Johnson. In addition, her grandparents, Julius and Sarah Thompson, were apparently living close by at the time of her birth. She was known familiarly throughout her life as "Jane". As a very young child, she would have accompanied her parents and grandparents on their travels to the West but, nevertheless, would have spent most of her childhood and adolescence living in the vicinity of the village of Island City in Gentry County, Missouri. It appears that Sarah Jane Johnson and William Paxton married in 1873 or 1874 almost certainly in Gentry County and were both charter members of the Island City Christian Church. They were the parents of at least nine children, seven of whom survived to adulthood. Unfortunately, about fifteen years after their marriage William suffered a mental breakdown and on May 9, 1888, he entered State Lunatic Asylum Number Two located in St. Joseph, Missouri (later known as St. Joseph State Hospital for the Insane). He remained institutionalized for the remainder of his life and was buried on the hospital grounds when he died on October 20, 1914. It must have been very difficult for Jane to maintain a stable household and to provide a living for her family when faced with this situation. Indeed, the population schedule of the 1900 census reveals that at least two of her older sons were boarding with and working as hired hands for farmers in Holt and Worth Counties. However, with the exception of William who was listed in census records of 1900 (and 1910) as, of course, an inmate of the state hospital, the whereabouts of the rest of the family does not seem to have been recorded in the census. It is probable that this is indicative of unstable living arrangements, but this is merely speculation. Even so, it is likely that they were living in or near Gentry County. Within this context, in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries mental illness would have subjected the family to significant social stigmatization. Even so, Sarah Jane persevered, kept her family together, and lived to a ripe old age. Accordingly, Nadine Johnson McCampbell has collected some personal reminiscences of her great-aunt, Jane, in her Johnson Family History.1 Sarah Jane Johnson Paxton died at the age of ninety-five. At the time of her death, she was living with her daughter Mary Paxton Yeigh in Doniphan County, Kansas, and is buried in the local cemetery.Source Notes and Citations:
1. Nadine McCampell, Johnson Family History, The Printery, Albany, MO, 1982: pg. 19.
"Sarah Jane, known by friends and family as Jane, was the oldest child of James Mallard and Sarah Ann Thompson Johnson. She was born in Iowa (according to census records) on April 10, 1850.
As a young child she surely learned to be a good traveler as her parents did quite a lot of moving about in their marriage. Their motto may have been 'Have wagon will travel'. Where in Iowa Sarah Jane was born I was never able to learn, but, the next two children born in the next four years were born in two different towns in Iowa, one across the state from the other. She was with her parents when they started to California around 1855. However, they didn't go all the way as they spent the winter in Utah. James Mallard's brother, John Alford and his wife Elizabeth who was a sister to Sarah Ann, had gone with them to seek gold in California and their oldest child, Sarah, was born in March, 1856. This birth helps pinpoint the time this trip occurred.
Sarah Jane and her parents came to Island City in Gentry County, Missouri and homesteaded a farm before the Civil War.
She was married in Gentry County around 1873 or 1874, to William Paxton. Most of their children were born in Gentry County. Sarah Jane and her husband, William, were charter members of the Island City Christian Church.
Sarah Jane's experiences in life seemed to vary in many directions. This experience was told to me by more than one of her family members. Sarah Jane once went blind while visiting at her brother James' home. A traveling salesman came along and told them to wash her eyes out with mare milk, they did and she regained her eyesight. After that she always wore a bandana around her head. I was told this was because she had lots of headaches.
Sarah Jane's husband, William, had a nervous breakdown when the children were young and spent his remaining years in the State Hospital in St. Joseph, Missouri. He is buried on the hospital grounds.
In Sarah Jane's 'golden years', she loved to care for her flower garden and to piece quilts and spent many hours and days doing what she loved. She lived a long life, as she died at the age of 95 at the home of her daughter, Mary Yeigh in Doniphan, Kansas. She is buried in the Doniphan, Kansas Cemetery."
back to bio.
Additional Citations:
2. 1880 US Census Population Schedule for Gentry County, Missouri, National Archives, Washington DC: pg. 535A, (microfilm: roll T9_687; img. 401).3. 1900 US Census Population Schedule for Buchanan County, Missouri, National Archives, Washington DC: pg. 193B, (microfilm: roll T623_841; img. 388).
4. 1910 US Census Population Schedule for Buchanan County, Missouri, National Archives, Washington DC: pg. 169B, (microfilm: roll T624_771; img. 343).
5. 1930 US Census Population Schedule for Holt County, Missouri, National Archives, Washington DC: pg. 272A, (microfilm: roll T626_1189; img. 1129).
6. 1940 US Census Population Schedule for Doniphan County, Kansas, National Archives, Washington DC: pg. 167A, (microfilm: roll T627_1229; img. 345).
7. List of Charter Members - Island City Christian Church, Centennial Homecoming Booklet - June 11, 1978, Stanberry, MO, unpublished.
8. Death Certificates, Missouri State Archives, Office of the Secretary of State, Jefferson City, MO, (Death Certificate No. 31541 - Bureau of Vital Statistics, State of Missouri, Jefferson City, MO).
9. Doniphan Cemetery, Doniphan County, Kansas (www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=cr&CRid=92300&CScn=Doniphan&CScntry=4&CSst=18&CScnty=905&, continuously updated).
--------------------------------------
10. Marriage Records, Nodaway County, Maryville, MO: Bk. E, pg. 354, (Missouri State Archives, Office of the Secretary of State, Jefferson City, MO (microfilm: roll 9804; img. 680).
11. Marriage Application, Nodaway County, Maryville, MO: No. 803. (Missouri State Archives, Office of the Secretary of State, Jefferson City, MO (microfilm: roll 31439; img. 559).
12. Marriage Records, Nodaway County, Maryville, MO: Bk. L, pg. 118, (Missouri State Archives, Office of the Secretary of State, Jefferson City, MO (microfilm: roll 9807; img. 803).
13. Marriage Records, Gentry County, Albany, MO: Bk. 5, pg. 413, (Missouri State Archives, Office of the Secretary of State, Jefferson City, MO (microfilm: roll 37664; img. 418).
14. Marriage Records, Andrew County, Savannah, MO: Bk. 4, pg. 332, (Missouri State Archives, Office of the Secretary of State, Jefferson City, MO (microfilm: roll 91; img. 193).
15. World War I Draft Registration Cards, National Personnel Records Center, National Archives-Southeast Region, Morrow, GA, (microfilm: roll MO-1683089; img. 2360, roll MO-1683214; img. 5704, roll MO-1683218; img. 4571, & roll MO-1683433; img. 62).
16. Death Certificates, Missouri State Archives, Office of the Secretary of State, Jefferson City, MO, (Death Certificate No. 41638 - Bureau of Vital Statistics, State of Missouri, Jefferson City, MO; Death Certificate No. 59-024250 - Bureau of Vital Statistics, State of Missouri, Jefferson City, MO, & Death Certificate No. 62-017828 - Bureau of Vital Statistics, State of Missouri, Jefferson City, MO).
17. Don Raymond,"High Ridge Cemetery", unpublished. (Gentry County MOGenWeb Archives, 2005.)
18. Amazonia Cemetery, Andrew County, Missouri (www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=cr&CRid=540773&CScn=Amazonia&CScntry=4&CSst=26&CScnty=1398&, continuously updated).
19. Death Master File, Social Security Administration, Washington, DC, continuously updated.