My two sisters (Lisa and Jackie), mother (June), and my dad's (Glen Arnold) sister (Frances), traveled to upstate New York in early August of 1996. We went to locate the Johnson homestead, the home of my great, great, great grandparents, David and Seba (Ayers) Johnson. We had an old, blurry photo as a guide. We did locate the homestead, which was in 1996 being maintained as a bed and breakfast. We toured the home and visited the small Johnson/Weatherwax Cemetery located in a field behind the home and barn.
What a memorable trip it was. We found the home of David Johnson, met family, visited great cemeteries, bought artwork, took hundreds of photos and found some great family history.
The current owners of the Johnson Homestead told us about a lady, Olive Lewis, who also was related to the Johnson family. Olive just lived up the road a few miles from the homestead. We contacted Olive and we were invited to her home for lunch. Olive had in her possession a diary kept by Elizabeth Johnson (Lora (Johnson) Arnold's sister) that had been transcribed and a binder of genealogy notes by Robert Johnson. Olive let us take the binders into Plattsburgh to a small copy shop where I got two binders full of family history to bring back to Illinois.
The diary that Elizabeth Johnson recorded was written in 1866 when she received the book as a New Year's gift. There are many entries about the neighbors, family, births, and deaths in her/my family. I hope to share the pages of her diary here. And hopefully I can connect some of the names and entries for my genealogy records.
--Photos by Janice, Jackie and Lisa Arnold. August 1996.
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