This winter season has been a good one to stay indoors and do
a lot of the things that we tend to put off when the weather is nice. In
nicer weather one wants to be out exploring the hills and countryside
looking for old homesteads and cemeteries of our Magoffin County area.
For now, we are going to concentrate on getting some of the books we have
been working on into print and also try to help some of those who write to
us for some clues on their family research.
We had a message from Diana Johnson who tells us that Jennie
Runyon and Joseph Bailey were her great-great-great grandparents and she
would like info on them. We have a pretty good record of that family in
our Bailey family books that were printed in 1986. We feel sure that a
great deal of info has been discovered since then and we are always
interested in receiving additional material for our quarterly Journal of
the Magoffin County Historical Society. Our Journal is how we keep our
members in touch with others who are researching some of the same families
and also let them know about updated family history, as well as keep in
touch with the happenings here at the “home twenty”.
Back to Diana Johnson’s query: When we worked up an ancestor
chart on her family we see that it is covered in several of our other
publications as well as the Bailey book. Her paternal grandparents were
Walter Scott “Jack” Johnson who married Goldie Wireman. Jack Johnson was
a son of Claiborne Johnson and Alifair Shepherd. Claiborne was a son of
Hiram Johnson and Susannah Shepherd. Goldie’s parents were George Wireman
and his 2nd wife Usley Prater.
George Wireman was a son of Fielding “Uncle Pea” Wireman and
Sally Sizemore. As an aside, this reminds us that we have grave markers
for Uncle Pea and his wife that need to be set as soon as we can get a way
up to their cemetery on Trace Fork of Licking River. Traditional stories
handed down in the family tell that when Uncle Pea’s wife died he hand
carved a headstone for her grave but it has long since weathered away. It
will be good to get these new markers for two of our early settlers of
Magoffin County set so their descendants can visit the site.
George Wireman’s wife Usley Prater was a daughter of James
Prater and America Bailey. James Prater was a son of Riley Prater and
Lucretia Shepherd. America was a daughter of Joseph Bailey and Jenny
Runyon.
Hiram Johnson (father of Claiborne or Clabe) was a son of
Walter Johnson and Lucinda “Kitsy” -?-. We think Kitsy may have come to
Magoffin County with her children, one of whom was the above mentioned (1)
Hiram Johnson who married Susannah Shepherd. Her other children as told
to us by the late Nannie Howard Conley (wife of Wes Conley) were (2) Liza
Jane Johnson who married in 1872 to William “Doc
Bill” Howard, also (3) Sarah Ann Johnson, (3) Camelite Johnson (female)
and (4) Mace Johnson.
Walter Scott “Jack” Johnson was born
18 Jan 1903 in Magoffin Co. KY and died
7 Dec 1977 at Hammond Lake,
IN. His first wife Goldie Wireman was born 15 Jan 1912 in Magoffin County
and died in 1936. Goldie was first buried on Big Branch located off KY
Rt. 7 here in Magoffin Co. KY but her grave was relocated on 13 Jul 1994
to the Bailey Chapel Cemetery in Wakefield, OH where her husband is
buried.
The children of Jack Johnson and Goldie Wireman were Oma,
Ethel, Robert (Diana’s father), and Erma Jean.
Jack Johnson married 2nd to Betty Bailey in Floyd Co. KY
and their children were Carl, Clark and Emogene.
When we copied the cemetery where Goldie Johnson was
originally buried in 1977 we found only the one grave with no headstone.
Our directions to that original gravesite were “off KY 7 about 3 miles
from Howard’s Branch near head of Big Branch on hill on left.” This lone
grave was in the vicinity of the Jefferson Shepherd Cemetery and the
information was given to us by the late Kate Shepherd, wife of Harlan
Shepherd. On the Jefferson Shepherd Cemetery, Kate identified one unmarked
grave as that of a “Clabe Johnson” and this may well be the Claiborne
Johnson who married Alifair Shepherd. Alifair died in Scioto Co. OH 19 May
1959.
We found Alifair and Clabe as newlyweds in the 1900 Floyd Co.
KY census. He was age 20 and she was age 19. In their household was a
cousin Lee Shepherd age 28.
By 1910 Clabe and Alifair were in Magoffin Co. KY and lived as
neighbors to Dan Wireman near the Mouth of Brushy, Rt. 7. Their voting
precinct was Trace Fork and their post office was listed as Gypsy, KY.
In 1910 Clabe was age 32, Alifair was also age 32; they had
been married 10 years and had these children in their household: (1) John
M. Johnson age 8, Walter Johnson age 6, Robert Johnson age 5, Ida Johnson
age 4 and Kelly Johnson age 3.
The 1920 Magoffin Census has Clabe Johnson age 33, Alifare
Johnson age 30, and children Morgan Johnson age 18, Walter Johnson age 16,
Robert Johnson age 15, Ida Johnson age 14, Kelly Johnson age 12, Frank
Johnson age 10, Hiram Johnson age 6, Susie Johnson age 6 and Mort Johnson
age 4 months.
Apparently by 1930 Alifair had remarried to a Dave Shepherd.
They appear in the 1930 Scioto, OH census with the following family
members: Dave Shepherd age 57, Alifair age 50, Henry Shepherd age 20,
Olive Shepherd age 15, Maud Shepherd age 8, Bryce Shepherd age 23, Susie
Shepherd age 16, Robert Johnson age 24, Hiram Johnson age 21, Kelly
Johnson age 22 and Martin Johnson age 15.
It would be of interest to us here at the Magoffin County
Historical Society to have more information about any of these Johnson
families that have been mentioned. Please write us at PO Box 222,
Salyersville, KY 41465 (email
[email protected]) or come in at
191 South Church Street
if you are in the Salyersville, KY area.