(Much of the following history is taken from Bethiah Garnsey by Paddy Spillsbury, Ezekiel Johnson by Clara S. Johnson and Johnson Gems by Cluff and Gibson pp.2-48 as edited for Benjamin Franklin Johnson Family - A Royal Legacy, by Loni Gardner.)
Ezekiel Johnson was born to Bethiah Garnzey 12 January 1773 in Uxbridge, Worcester, Massachusetts, where she was living with her stepfather, Ebenezer Smith, and her mother Bethiah Lee Garnzey Smith. Bethiah was hauled into Worcester Court and fined five shillings for bearing a child out of wedlock. Bethia refused to name the father of her child in court. However, by November 1775, she was calling her son Ezekiel Johnson.1
For almost two hundred years, the descendants of Ezekiel Johnson (1773-1848) have worked to identify Ezekiel’s biological father. Recent DNA testing has established the link to Ezekiel Johnson (1750-1808), the son of Isaac and Suzannah Thayer Johnson, of Bellingham.
Life in Uxbridge may have been uncomfortable for the Smith family after Ezekiel’s birth. They moved south to Douglas, Massachusetts, where they were "warned out" of the town, 2 January 1776: "Smith, Ebenezer, w(ife) Bethia [our Bethia's mother], ch(ildren) Sarah, Patience, Lewis, Abel, 'Bethia Gansey, and her child, Ezekiel Johnson. Nov. 1775'"1
Spillsbury notes that town fathers throughout the colonial period felt strongly that they should not have to provide support for a family coming from another town. In order to avoid that responsibility, colonial acts were passed forbidding "strangers or stragglers who appeared in communities" from settling there "for any length of time, unless some reliable persons furnished security for their behavior and support."1
On 1 January 1776, the day before the warning out was made official, intentions to marry were registered for Bethia Garnsey and Jonathan King, of Douglas. Because he took responsibility for the support of Bethia and her son, the Smith family was able to stay in Douglas. Ezekiel would have been about 3 years old at the time of his mother’s marriage. 2, 3
Jonathan King was a widower with adult children. In one deed, he is called a "yeoman", and in another, Jonathan states that he is a "husbandman." He sold his property in Douglas on 30 December 1775, two days before posting his intentions of marriage to Bethiah, and bought property in Ashford, Connecticut. Ezekiel was four years old when this farm in Ashford was sold. But it is entirely possible that the family continued living in or near Ashford while he was growing up.2
Ezekiel’s stories to his children indicate his dislike for his step-father. When Ezekiel was a teenager, his stepfather gave him a calfskin pocketbook with the name of James King and the date, April 1742, stamped on it (both Jonathan’s father and grandfather were named James), and sent him on an errand to collect a debt owed to him by a neighbor. Ezekiel collected the payment and placed it into the pouch as instructed, but it occurred to him that he had within his grasp the financial means to provide for his needs for a while and to be able to live on his own. He made the decision to take the money and run away. Family tradition says that Ezekiel never saw his mother or father again. Bethiah and Jonathan, eventually, moved south to New London, Connecticut. From the time he left his childhood home in Ashford, Connecticut, until he married Julia Hills in Grafton, Massachusetts, in 1801, Ezekiel may have traveled extensively around the Eastern Seaboard.2
Julia Hills was the second of the three children born to Joseph Hills and Esther Ellis Hills. She was born in Upton, Massachusetts, on 26 Septembr 1783. She had an older brother, Joel, and a younger sister, Nancy. Her father, who was a blacksmith, died, possibly of tuberculosis, when Julia was four years old, and was buried in the Old Oak Street Burial Ground in Grafton, Massachusetts. Her mother, Esther, married Enoch Forebush of Grafton on 27 January 1793 when Julia was 10 years old. Enoch was a widower with three children, Stephen, Chloe, and Enoch. He and Esther had several more children together: Joseph, Seneca, Diadamia and possibly Stephen. Julia and her brothers and sisters were given the opportunity of an education. The family seemed to be very close, and Julia expressed much love and respect for her mother and sisters in her letters.4
Thirteen years after her father’s death, 17-year-old Julia married Ezekiel Johnson of Uxbridge, on 12 January 1801 in Grafton. Ezekiel engaged in "land speculation" or real estate development. He would buy land, subdivide it, build cabins on the lots, and sell them. He was ten years older than she, a handsome, stalwart individual, proud and high-spirited. He stood about 5 feet, 10 inches tall and had a solid build. His eyes were a steel blue, and his features well-molded. He had fair skin, and his hair was fine textured and light brown.6
Their first son, Joel Hills Johnson, named for Julia’s brother, was born in Grafton on 23 March 1802. Shortly after his birth, the Johnsons moved to Northborough, Massachusetts, and Nancy Maria, named for Julia’s sister, was born there on 1 August 1803. Two years later, on 7 February 1805, they bought a 20-acre farm in Royalston, Massachusetts, where Ezekiel was listed as a "housewright." Seth Guernsey, named for Ezekiel’s grandfather, was born there seven days later, on 14 April 1805. Then Julia’s beloved uncle and aunt, Amos and Meletiah Ellis Partridge, encouraged Julia and Ezekiel to come and live near them in Westford, Vermont. The next four children were born in Westford: Delcena Diadamia (19 November 1806), Julia Ann (9 November 1808), David (10 September 1810), and Almera Woodward (12 October 1812). Ezekial continued to build houses for settlers.9
Ezekiel mastered the skills of a carpenter, owned a brickyard, and even did a little inventing. Fireplace cooking was the general method used to prepare food in those days. Ezekiel designed an oven for his wife that allowed her to bake pies, turnovers, cakes, and puddings.9 Julia’s mother came to visit, and later, Julia’s brother, Joel Hills, who was moving from Canada to Ohio, where their sister, Nancy, lived, stopped to visit, and took young Joel with him.9
In 1814, the family left Vermont and moved south as far as Pomfret, New York. Because of the glowing reports given by Joel Hills of the Ohio wilderness, Ezekiel left his family in Pomfret and followed him there to investigate the opportunities in the Ohio country and to retrieve his son, Joel. Not satisfied with the results of the Ohio preview trip, Ezekiel and 12-year-old Joel retraced the distance to Pomfret by foot through 500 miles of heavily forested wilderness. They had to pass near isolated cabins where Indians had recently killed the occupants. For protection, Ezekiel carried a small shotgun with two barrels. Ezekiel often humorously referred to this gun—an old gun with silver trimming—as Old Bess.9
Upon the return of Ezekiel and Joel, the Johnson family settled in the township of Pomfret, Chautauqua County, New York on lot 21 and stayed for the next 17 years. Pomfret had only been settled for about 7 years when the Johnsons arrived. It was still largely wilderness and the Johnson’s worked hard to clear the land.9
Their house stood on a rise of land that gave it a pretty view of the surrounding countryside. The bell of the local school could be heard clearly from the Johnson dooryard. In their early years in Pomfret, wolves and bears freely roamed the nearby woods and occasionally were seen in the local fields. Ezekiel found employment as a miller in the gristmill of Elijah Risley, Sr., and worked as a carpenter in Fredonia, a village in Pomfret Township.9
Although Ezekiel was a fine man of great fortitude, patience and strength, he seems to have taken little or no interest in religious matters. Julia always had a strong religious conviction. From Ezekiel, their father, they learned the habit of hard work and acquired skills in carpentry, husbandry and agriculture. They learned to clear virgin land, plow and plant crops and to harvest and preserve them for food and seed. They learned to survive meager times and means and to enjoy the fruits of their honest labors."9
From Pomfret, on 11 November 1818, Julia wrote to her half-sister, Diadamia Forbush, mourning the death of their mother. On 21 December 1818, Ezekiel acted as agent to sell some property which had belonged to his mother-in-law, Esther Hills, to her step-son, Enoch Forbush, Jr.9
Nine more Johnson children were born to Julia and Ezekiel while the family lived in Pomfret:9
Susan Ellen (1 December 1814)
Joseph Ellis (28 April 1817)
Benjamin Franklin (28 July 1818)
Mary Ellen (7 February 1820)
Elmer Wood (26 May 1822)
George Washington (19 February 1823)
William Derby (27 October 1824)
Esther Melita (12 January 1827)
Amos Partridge (15 January 1829)
Julia always expressed her opinion that each child was the dearest addition, and she made a permanent place for each of them in her heart. Although understanding and sympathetic to each child, nevertheless, she was a strict mother and required each to fulfill his farm and household chores with dependability and promptness. In their world of planting and harvesting, making of clothes, bed-linen, and toweling from flax and wool, manufacturing of shoes, candlemaking, knitting of gloves and hosiery, creating soap from animal fats and wood ashes, drying fruits and storing them for the winter, preparing hominy, making pickles and kraut, and processing syrup from the nearby maple forests, there were plenty of opportunities for each child to learn valuable skills and complete equally important survival chores. Their property hummed with industry. Like their parents, many of the children loved the soil and through their own adulthood, planted orchards, vineyards and gardens wherever they tarried long enough to do so.9
Baby Elmer Wood died at 18 months old and was probably buried in the Laona Cemetery in Pomfret Township. Benjamin wrote about the "deep and lasting sorrow and grief" he felt about this first death in their family.6, 7, 8
The Johnson family was in Pomfret for almost 19 years – the longest time they ever lived in one spot. The Johnson children had fond memories of their time there. In their writings, the Johnson sons mention swimming and fishing in Lake Cassadaga and "the brook," presumably Canadaway Creek.4
"In Pomfret, Nancy was thrown from a horse and her thigh bone was broken close to her hip socket. Nothing medically could be done for her in those times, and Nancy was left crippled and could walk only with the aid of crutches. Most of the time, she was in considerable pain."9
Benjamin records, "My father, for a series of years, wrestled with the herculean task of clearing off the forests, but worn with incessant labors and the care of so large a family, he sought stimulus, and in my earliest childhood became addicted to the use of ardent spirits. Neither his labors, nor his love for his family seemed to diminish, yet the fiend of unhappiness had entered our home to break the bonds of union between our parents and to destroy the happiness of their children."6
Pomfret is where the majority of the Johnson family were converted to the Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ. Joel Hills Johnson had married Anna Pixley Johnson in 1826. They sold their farm in Pomfret in 1830 and moved to Amherst, Ohio. David went with them to help with the move and with getting them established in their new home. While there they encountered missionaries of the Church of Christ (later named the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints), were converted and baptized. Joel sent a copy of the Book of Mormon to the family and he and David returned home to Pomfret from Ohio in December 1831, to testify of the truth of this new religion.
When two missionaries, Joseph Brackenbury and Edmund Durfee, called on them, the Johnson family warmly welcomed them. They taught with such conviction that Julia and her son-in-law, Lyman R. Sherman, were soon baptized. Shortly after the baptism, Elder Brackenbury was poisoned by opposers in Pomfret, and died on 7 January 1832. After Elder Brackenbyry’s burial, local men came to dig up the body, and the Johnsons had to prevent his body being stolen. Benjamin says that entire family except Ezekiel now believed, and the other Johnson children who had reached their majority were baptized.6, 7
Ezekiel, however, was not interested in accepting membership in the Church and would not consent to baptism for any of the younger children.6 As his opposition to the Church grew, he determined to sell the farm in Pomfret and went to Chicago to purchase land.
Before leaving, Ezekiel told his wife that he would send for the rest of the family before the first of June when the new owners would take possession of the farm. When Julia had not heard from him by then, she took her family to join Joel in Kirtland, Ohio, and there traded their team and wagon for a home on Kirtland Flat. When Ezekiel returned and found his family in Kirtland, he decided to move to Kirtland with them, but his disappointment caused him to become bitter.9
In spite of great opposition, persecution, trials and many sacrifices required to live with her decision and the demands of moving west with the Church as one of the early pioneer families, Julia never questioned the decision or wavered in her faith. The true gospel was restored, and to her it was always simply a matter of paying the price and doing whatever the Lord required or put upon her. 9
These events had just the opposite effect upon Ezekiel. Because of the tragic influence of alcohol, his pride and stubbornness, Ezekiel refused to unite with his family in the Church in Ohio, and he eventually separated from Julia and from this time on, he was seldom with his family again, which brought him, Julia and all the children much sorrow. Benjamin remembered, "What little light there had been, soon disappeared and for whatever reason, he seemed to be possessed of the devil. Most men knew him as a good and honest neighbor and as a parent and husband, he had been the most loving and kind. But his habit of intemperance changed his whole nature." 9
Julia assumed the full weight of the responsibility of caring for her large family. She provided a livelihood by manufacturing men‘s neckwear (called stocks) and palm leaf hats, and she found comfort in her Church duties—ministering to the poor and needy and nursing the sick. She taught her daughters in all the skills of making hats, neckties, and needlework. Their home was close to the schoolhouse where Susan and Seth taught. The entire family gave everything they had, including much labor, to the building of the first temple in this dispensation. Julia and Ezekiel‘s two oldest sons, Joel and Seth, and their son-in-law, Lyman Royal Sherman, assisted in laying the cornerstone of the temple. Julia aided materially in its construction by toiling industriously to help provide food and clothing for the builders, considering this an inestimable privilege. 9
David, her third son, now 22 years of age and unmarried, measuring six-foot-three inches, worked through the damp and cold to secure wood for the temple brick kiln. He took a severe cold that quickly aggravated his consumption (now known as tuberculosis). Before they realized how really ill he was, David died on 30 October 1833. Ezekiel and Julia soon learned that this was only the beginning of their deep sorrows. Seth had suffered from the effects of cholera while participating in Zion‘s Camp and had never fully regained his health from that experience. On 19 February 1835, he also died. The following month, on 16 March, daughter Susan passed away at the age of 22 years and 7 months. She had been a loving daughter and faithful to the tenants of her new faith.9
Nancy still struggled with her injuries from the accident which had never healed properly. Elder Jared Carter healed her hip by performing what is generally recorded as one of the first miracles performed after the Church was organized. Elder Carter commanded her in the name of Jesus of Nazareth, to lay down her crutches and walk, and she was able to do so. Shortly after this miraculous healing, Nancy, at age 33 and unmarried, became ill and died 30 October 1836. Four unmarked graves now lay side-by-side on the hillside back of the family home in Kirtland.9
Julia‘s life was now completely tied with the Church. In the spring of 1838, when mob violence became very great in Kirtland, Ohio, the Saints were compelled to leave their beloved temple and move west. Julia and her family followed. The Prophet asked the presidency of the Seventies, Joel being one of them, to supervise and assist the remaining Saints on the trek from Kirtland to Missouri. This group, consisting of about 520 people (including the Johnson family), became known as the Kirtland Poor Camp. Sixty teams and wagons were found to carry the needed supplies. Money was very scarce, and all were of poor circumstances. The trip was a hard and trying one. They were often without food, and there was much sickness among them. They stopped at Dayton, Ohio, for a month, where many died of typhoid fever. While there, Julia traveled to Cincinnati to visit her brother’s family and to take the gospel message to them.9
In the late fall, when approaching Springfield, a Brother Samuel Hale and wife fell ill and died and left their 10-year-old daughter, Mary Ann, to Julia’s care. Julia willingly took Mary Ann to live with her family. This act of compassion was to have eternal effects on the family, for six years later, in 1844, Julia’s son Benjamin married Mary Ann Hale as his second wife. Julia’s son-in-law, Lyman R. Sherman, also died in the Kirtland Camp, leaving his wife, Delcena, and six children. Julia herself and younger son, George, were also ill and barely escaped death.9
Leaders of the camp were now seeking a suitable place to settle, and Commerce, a small village at the Mississippi river rapids, was chosen. The name was changed to Nauvoo, meaning City Beautiful. Julia conceived the idea of taking up land and creating a Johnson family village. Consequently, the Johnsons settled in Ramus, 20 miles east of Nauvoo, and she and her children began to seek out industries and products that they could produce and sell to sustain themselves. The family banded together, supporting each other, each striving to add to the family resources. Later, the name of Ramus was changed to Macedonia and then to Webster. Joel became Macedonia’s first Stake President.9
On 9 May 1842, Amos Partridge Johnson, only 13 years of age, became ill and died.6 On his way back from his mission to Canada, Benjamin had stopped in Kirtland and stayed with Julia and Almon Babbit, his sister and brother-in law. In June 1842, with his new wife, Melissa LeBaron, Benjamin brought his father, Ezekiel, and sisters Esther and Julia Ann back to Nauvoo with him.6 Almon made the journey by boat to bring merchandise with him. Ezekiel’s company arrived in Ramus on 1 July 1842, only a few weeks after the death of Amos.6
Julia and her family became very close to the Prophet Joseph Smith and his family while living in Nauvoo. On one occasion, the Prophet gave Julia a special blessing in which he promised: "For your faithfulness and acceptance of so unpopular a doctrine, and bringing such a numerous family into the Church, that when the crown should be made for your brow in the Eternal World, everyone of your jewels (children) will be there." Having separated from Ezekiel, Julia was sealed to the Prophet’s uncle, Patriarch John Smith, as a plural wife on 24 January 1846. 9
For the Johnsons, the very foundation of the earth was shaken with the martyrdom of the Prophet Joseph Smith. Ezekiel, at age 74, had been making his home with his daughter, Esther, and her husband, David LeBaron. With the tragic death of the Prophet, he seemed to become a changed person and now defended the Mormons as earnestly and spiritedly as he had heretofore denounced them. The government of the State of Illinois had set the date for the expulsion of the Mormons from the State, but some of the members of the militia had decided to stage a surprise attack on the City of Nauvoo to speed up the expulsion. When word came that the militia was attempting to enter the city of Nauvoo in a treacherous surprise attack, Ezekiel rode furiously through the night to meet the troops on the outskirts of Nauvoo, carrying his trusty gun, Old Bess. Crashing out of the woods in the darkness, he charged into the road ahead of the mounted militia! He poured forth such a tirade of fury and abuse for their treachery that they reined in their startled horses. Ezekiel told them they would have to cross his dead body before they entered further into the city and ordered them to retreat or he would blow the head from the captain. The group was taken completely by surprise. Realizing the deadly earnestness of the man, the company hastily withdrew, but only to attempt a side street entrance into Nauvoo.9
Ezekiel, anticipating their intentions, was again there ahead of them, every bit as threatening as before. Promising violence and vengeance equal to that of the previous non-Mormon mobs, Ezekiel succeeded, and the militia abandoned their attempt to take control of the city. But Ezekiel had made dangerous enemies, and his name and face were now known. To avoid mob violence, Joel finally persuaded his father to stay with him in Knox County. Joel‘s small cabin was already bursting at the seams with his own family members, so Ezekiel cut short his stay and determined to return to the home of his daughter, Esther and David LeBaron. On his return trip, Ezekiel walked straight into a mob. He was recognized and beaten so badly that he never recovered from the assault. Ezekiel died in Nauvoo on 13 January 1848 at the age of 75 years. But with the family’s grief, there was much consolation, for during the last year of his life, Ezekiel had ceased to use ardent spirits and had realized the wrong done to himself and his family by his opposition. President Wilford Woodruff declared that Ezekiel was one of the first martyrs to the cause of Christ in this dispensation. He was buried in Nauvoo.9
Julia and most of her family did leave Nauvoo with the exodus of the Saints, and for a time, they lived in the camps set up by the Church in Council Bluffs in the Iowa Indian Territory. Julia went back to Nauvoo in 1851 to nurse David and Esther LeBaron’s family through a bought of smallpox, and then returned to Pottawattamie County, Iowa, where she stayed. Julia lived part of the time with her son, Joseph Ellis Johnson, but she had a home of her own.9
In addition to Joseph, other Johnson children in the vicinity included Julia and Almon Babbitt, Delcena Sherman, William Derby and Jane C. Johnson and Almera and Reuben Barton. Sons Joel Hills, Benjamin Franklin and George Washington had gone on to the Great Salt Lake Valley with their families. When Julia’s health began to fail, she moved into the home of William Derby and his wife, Jane. She died on 30 May 1853, just four months short of her seventieth birthday.9 Her son, Benjamin Franklin Johnson, was fulfilling a mission in the Sandwich Isles when he received word that his mother had passed away. He wrote of her, "Such a God-fearing, patient and loving mother, few others ever could have known." 6
Bethiah Garnsey by Paddy Spilsbury
Endnotes:
Records of the Court of General Sessions of the Peace from the County of Worcester, Massachusetts, 1731-1862. volumes 3-4, 1775-1780, September, 1773. SLFHL film 859240.
Blake, Francis E., ed.1899. Worcester County, Massachusetts, Warnings, 1737-1788. Franklin R. Rice: Worcester, Massachusetts. Reprinted 1992 by Picton Press: Camden, Maine. FHL US/CAN 974.43 N2w
Rice, Franklin P, ed. 1906. Vital Records of Douglas, Massachusetts, to the end of the year 1849. Worchester, Massachusetts: Rice. FHL 974.43/D1 V29.
Johnson Gem, A Small Collection of Writings and Stories Related to Benjamin Franklin Johnson by Judy Cluff and Franklin K Gibson
Ezekiel Johnson, Clara S. Johnson’s 1960 report to the Ezekiel Johnson Family Organization of her research trip to the East Coast.
My Soul Rejoiced by Linda J. Thayne
Probate Court, Worcester County, Massachusetts, Probate Records, 1731-1916, docket 29433, 1731-1881, FHL microfilm 859178.
My Life’s Review by Benjamin Franklin Johnson
A Voice From the Mountains, Life and Words of Joel Hills Johnson compiled by the JHJ Arizona Committee 1982.
J.E.J., Trail to Sundown by Rufus Dvid Johnson
Benjamin Franklin Johnson Family ~ A Royal Legacy, by Loni Gardner