My Genealogy Hound

Samuel L. Johnson has worked at farm labor since a young boy, his father having died when he was but two years of age, and the mother when the son was eighteen years old. At the age of fifteen he was employed as a farm hand in Monroe County, but shortly after started to learn the trade of blacksmithing, soon returning to farm labor, at which he was employed until he bought a farm of his own. He now owns 280 acres of fine farming land in Lee County, with half of it under cultivation. Mr. Johnson was born in Monroe County January 4, 1850, his parents, Hardin and Elizabeth (Davis) Johnson, being natives of Mississippi and South Carolina, respectively. They removed from Mississippi to Arkansas in 1842, and located in Monroe County on a farm, on which Mr. Johnson lived until his death in 1852. Two years later Mrs. Johnson married James Ganberry, and survived until 1868. Mr. and Mrs. Johnson had a family of four children, three of whom are still living: Julia (wife of William Moy, a farmer of Monroe County), Thomas B. (a resident of Illinois), and Samuel L. (the principal of this sketch). The latter was married March 20, 1880, to Miss Nannie Ruscoe, of Alabama birth, who lived only two years after her marriage, leaving two children, one of whom, Laura E., still survives. He was married to his second and present wife, Mary A. Jeffcoat, a native of this State, April 4, 1883. She was a daughter of William K. and Nancy J. (Fisher) Jeffcoat, both now deceased. By this marriage there was born one child, Bessie V. Mr. Johnson is a Democrat, and takes an active interest in the success of his party. He and wife are leading members of the Presbyterian Church, and live upright Christian lives.