Johnson Family

Massacre of Joseph Johnson's Family
                      By Emory L. Hamilton
                                
     From the unpublished manuscript,
Indian Atrocities Along the Clinch, Powell and
Holston Rivers, page 178-180.

     John Anderson writing to Lt. Col. Arthur
Campbell, regarding the killing of Joseph Johnson's
family: (1)
          Blockhouse, May ye 17th, 1789
     Dear Sir: I wrote you a few days ago,
wherein I informed you respecting Mr. Wallen's
being driven from home. Wallen lived at the
mouth of Stock Creek. I seen (sic) a certain Mr.
Joseph Johnson a few hours since, who informed
me that on the 15th instant he had his family,
which consisted of his wife and eleven children,
all killed and taken, except two. He found his wife
and youngest child about three quarters of a mile
from his house. He lived on Clinch, where the
path crossed the same between here and Rye
Cove. They burnt his house, and he found the
bones of one of his children in the ashes. The
others he allows they took prisoner. I am fully
persuaded from the many and late hostilities
committed in that quarter that the inhabitants will
move off if they don't get some assistance shortly.
I am surprised to think we guarded our frontiers
in the time of the late war, when we were attacked
on both sides, and now can get no help. I am
doubtful the government has false representatives,
or else none at all. You may depend the people in
our situation, in this quarter, are much alarmed
by the many and late acts committed. Please write
me the first opportunity.
          I am your affectionately,
               John Anderson

     Lt. Col. Arthur Campbell, writing to
Governor Randolph, on July 20, 1789, relative to
the Indian depredations on the frontier, states that
sometime ago I received the enclosed. The enclosed
being a letter to Campbell from Alexander Barnett,
County Lieutenant of Russell Co., VA. (2)
as follows:
          Russell, May 20, 1789.
     Sir: On Friday last, the Indians fell ont he
family of Joseph Johnson in the Rye Cove
settlement, it being twelve in number, of which but
three in number, himself and two sons escaped.
His wife and one child was found about one
quarter of a mile from the house, killed and
scalped, the bones of one child burned in the
house, and the others I have not been informed
whether killed or taken.
     After reporting the incidents of the Johnson
family, Barnett goes on to make a plea for
assistance similar to that made by John Anderson,
although lacking the bitterness of Anderson's letter,
he begs:
     Attempts have been made by voluntary
enlistment to raise the number of fifty men in our
county, but to no purpose, it appears they cannot
be got. I request you in behalf of our county to
furnish us with the number of fifty men and their
proportion of officers, to be continued on duty
until the 1st of September, or longer, if needed,
and provisions to supply until that time. Present
necessity requires part for the Rye Cove and the
remainder in Powell's Valley.
     The two Carter boys, Elijah and Morgan,
sons of Thomas Carter, had been taken out of Rye
Cove and had been restored to their parents
through the friendly offices of Governor Simcoe of
South Carolina, and William Fatham in a letter to
the Governor of Virginia, under date of July 26,
1793, asks that an effort be made to restore the
Johnson children, and furnished the Governor with
the following facts concerning them. (3)
     Joseph Johnson, living now upon Flat
Lick (Duffield area), had his wife and three
children killed on May 15, 1789, and five others
taken by the Indians on the road leading to the
Flour Ford, near the Rye Cove on Clinch.
     [1} Isabel, now 21 years old; [2]
Matthew, now 15; [3] Elizabeth, now 13 years;
[4] Rebecca, now 10; [5] Joseph, now 8 years
old.
     Isabel was carried by the Cherokees near
to the Guyandot Nation, where she was sold and
brought back to the Cherokee nation, and was
there purchased and sent to her father. Elizabeth
is now in the possession of the Otter Lifter (a
warrior of that name near John Meton's, a trader
on Cheakonskie in the Cherokees). The other
three are said to be in the Guyandot Nation,
together with Mary Ann and Elizabeth Carter, and
a boy called Cooper, who were taken from the
neighborhood.
     We know according to the letter of
William Fatham, that one of the Johnson children,
Isabel, was returned to her father, but the records
are silent as to the fate of the others, as well as the
two Carter girls, and Cooper. It might be
reasonable to assume that they were eventually
returned as the whereabouts of all seemed to be
fairly well known.
     Mary Ann and Elizabeth Carter were the
daughters of Joseph Carter of Rye Cove, and
Cooper was a slave boy belonging to some of the
Carters. He was probably the same who was taken
out of Rye Cove with Morgan and Elijah, the sons
of Thomas Carter.
 
(1) Virginia State Papers, Vol. IV, page 442.
(2) Virginia State Papers, Vol. V, page 4-5.
(3) Virginia State Papers, Vol. VI, pages 463-4.

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