Fifth Generation

1. John Fred Johnson was born on the 09 of July 1875 in Maury County, Tennessee and died in 1947 in Memphis, Tennessee. He married Annie Blanch Isbell on 12 August 1899 in Dyer County, Tennessee and is buried in Obion County, Tennessee.

PARENTS

2.  Wiley W. Johnson was born on 23 November 1844 in Maury County, Tennessee and died on 08 April 1905. He fought in the Civil War for the Union Army of Tennessee.

3. Mary Frances Huff was born 16 of Sep 1844 in WIlliamson County, Tennessee and died on 03 October 1915 in Gibson County, Tennessee.

GRANDPARENTS

4. Wiley Johnson was born about 1797 in North Carolina and died after 1869 in Maury County, Tennessee.

5. Martha Nichols was born abot 1804 North Carolina.

6. William Samuel Huff

7. Ann Pace

Great Grandparents

8. Burrell Johnson was born about 1775 in North Carolina

12. Martin Huff was born about 1805 in Tennessee

13. Hannah Baker was born about 1800 in North Carolina

14. Thomas Pace was born in South Carolina and died in 1868 in Williamson County, Tennessee

15. Catherine Donahoo was born in Virginia and died in 1865 in Williamson County, Tennessee

John Fred Johnson is my great great grandfather on my mother’s mother’s side. I am almost finished with my fifth generation! If you notice my fifth generation is getting younger and younger. That is because my mother is the oldest child and my father is the youngest of the youngest.

John Fred Johnson was born July 9, 1875 in Maury County, Tennessee. Maury County is in central Tennessee and the county seat is Columbia. His parents were Wiley Johnson and Mary Huff both from that area in Central Tennessee. He had five sisters and five brothers though his sister Margaret died when he was 12 years old. I believe he grew up poor with such a large family in a rural area. My grandmother makes jokes about the Johnsons, how they are wild and bandits but she likes to tease about her family. I know the Johnson family supported the Union during the Civil War, and did not own slaves. John Fred’s father fought in the Civil War for the Union in the 5th Tennessee Calvary Regiment from 1863- 1865 and received a pension. According to the census Wiley was a farmer and could not read or write though his wife and children could. John Fred Johnson probably went to a small country school and learned the basic reading, writing, and arithmetic.

When he was 24, on the 12 of August 1899, he married the 13 year old Annie Elizabeth Isbell in Gibson County, Tennessee.  They moved around a lot for a few years looking for work. They had a daughter, Mary, in 1900. She was born in Dyer County, Tennessee. Annie’s mother, Helen Missouri Lee Isbell lived with the young couple in Maury County, Tennessee at that time. Joseph Odel in 1903 was born in Obion County, Tennessee. In 1905, Elvine Gerene Johnson was born in Denton, Texas. The same year that Elvine was born, little Mary Frances died in Texas.

Heartbroken, the family moved back to Tennessee. I suspect that Annie Blanche left Texas after the death of Mary Frances and John joined them later. Thelbert Venise Johnson was born on March 20, 1907 in Trimble, Tennessee. Ishmel Rudolph was born in 1910 and Vilous Wayne was born in 1912. There is a gap and John Fred Johnson Junior was born in 1924 also in Gibson County, Tennessee.

He was a farmer all of his life. It is said he spent a lot of time away from his wife and his boys. He died in 1947 and is buried in the Union Grove Cemetery, Obion County, Tennessee.

We found John Fred Johnson in the census records. In the 1900 census he is in Maury County, Tennessee. He is listed as being 25, his wife, 14. They have listed as living with them Missouri Isbell, Annie’s mother and a baby orphan named Willy C. Hide living with them. They live next door to Joseph Isbell, Annie’s brother.

1920 Census- John Fred Johnson is 35 his wife Annie is about 24. She is listed as having 4 had 4 children but only three alive. (Mary Frances). Listed as sons are: Odell, Elsen (Elvine), and Folbert (Thelbert). John and Annie have been married 11 years and lives in Dyer County, Tennessee.

1920 Census- Kenton, Gibson, Tennessee- John Fred Johnson is 42 and his wife Annie B. is 34. They are renting a place and do not own it. They have listed Joseph, Elvine, Thelbert, Ishmael, and Vilous. They live next door to a Norton and a Harris. Both John Fred Johnson and Annie Isbell are listed as being able to read and write.

1930 Census- The family lives in Gibson County, Tennessee. John Fred Johnson owns his property. None of his sons attended school that year. They were either too old, or too young (John Fred Jr.). The boys helped out on the farm. Elvine’s wife Gleava and their infant daughter Doris were also living with the family. We have a copy of Elvine’s marriage license which says that he married Gleva Wagoner on October 11, 1929.

14. Vilous Wayne Johnson was born on September 30, 1912 in Trimble, Dyer, Tennessee and died December 18, 1974 in Trenton, Dyer, Tennessee. He married Nannie Mildred Warren on December 20, 1932, in Trenton, Gibson, Tennessee. His parents were John Fred Johnson and Annie Blanche Isbell.

I also do not know much about his young life, but he was known as “Pill”. All of his brothers had nicknames. He grew up on a farm and there is a picture of him as a child. My grandmother describes his family as being rough, though her father was always kind. He had tanned skin with high cheekbones, black hair, and blue eyes. He was tall I think. He had it rough during the depression and even had to spend time as a sharecropper to make ends meet. During WWII, he worked for the Milan Arsenal. It was not long after this time that he bought a house in Dyer, TN near his wife’s relatives. The house had no bathroom or electricity, but he updated the house over the years. This was this house I would go to for Thanksgiving as a child. I last went there in 2004. The only other story I remember about him is the one told by my grandmother. She told me that she wasn’t allowed to see Gone with the Wind because there was a curse word in the end (”Frankly my dear. . . “) but she retorted back that she heard her Daddy say that word all of the time! I am sure she got her humor from her dad but I need to make sure.

15. Nannie Mildred Warren is the great grandparent I know the best. She passed away only a year ago and wrote down her autobiography. She was born July 26, 1914 in Dyer, Gibson, TN. She died on April 22, 2007 in Trenton, Gibson, Tennessee. She is buried next to her husband in the Oakwood Cemetery in Dyer, Tennessee. Most locals know this cemetery well. For some weird reason the local teens hang out in the cemetery. There are many pictures including one of my great grandmother as a young woman hanging out in the cemetery. She is the daughter of William Clint Warren and Willie Inez McDonald.

She was known as Mildred because she hated her first name Nannie. She also grew up on a farm and was very poor, but was not the poorest. She lived nearby family most of her life, She played the mandolin and sang with her family. She even wrote her own songs. She got to perform on the radio when she was young. I got to meet most of her brothers and sisters though one brother died before she was even born. She attended school in Dyer and survived a tornado that destroyed everything they had. No one was killed but several people were hurt. She wrote about how she met her husband “Pill” in her autobiography but I forgot. She went into detail about all the trials they suffered during the Depression. She was a great cook and always loved to cook for people. For Christmas they would give their children oranges and put nuts in the trees to feed the birds. She worked most of her life. After her husband died in 1974, she would take care of elderly people and did this until she herself got too old sometime in her 80’s. She was always in excellent health. Everyone loved the way she talked for she had a very strong country accent and would call everyone “hun”. She died at the age of 92 and lived a full beautiful life.

Children of Vilous Wayne Johnson and Nannie Mildred Warren:

1. Peggy Juanita Johnson 1934- Married Bobby Gene Paschall

2. Nancy Jane Johnson 1936- Married James William Etheridge

3. Billy Wayne Johnson 1938- Married Joy Dickey

6. James William Etheridge was born in 1930 in Trenton, TN. His parents are James Ollie Etheridge and Lena Irene Burns.

I have heard nothing but the best of his parents who raised him to be an honest, hard working man. He ahs a younger sister and a younger brother. He lived in Trenton his entire childhood. I don’t know exactly how he was affected by the Depression. I know he played the clarinet in hsi school’s band and wore glasses from a young age. He had sandy blond hair and big blue eyes. He loved technological type of things. When he was 22 he met a beautiful girl from Dyer, TN. He had never seen her before. She looked like the type of girl you might see in the movies. She had black hair, blue eyes, and smooth ivory skin and was a little taller than average. He fell in love and they dated. He then found out later that she was only 15 years old. They still dated a while, and when she was 16 they eloped. She still finished school, while my grandfather did work with the Tennessee National Guard. My grandfather trained to fix radios and later TVs. They lived together as man and wife and lived in a trailer. When my grandmother was 20 she had my mother. Two years later my grandfather joined the LDS church and worked hard to help the church grow in West Tennessee. He later became Branch President. He traveled to Utah a few times to go to the temple as there were no temples close by at the time. He moved to Jackson, TN where he owned a sound equipment business with his brother Robert, who we call Uncle Bob. He moved his business to Memphis not long after his parents died. He did the sound for many concerts and he does the sound for the Miss Tennessee pageant every year. He worked for the LDS Memphis Stake for many years and did a lot of genealogy work. He later became the first counselor of the Memphis, TN Temple. He is still alive and doing well.

7. Nancy Johnson was born in 1936 in Dyer, TN. She is the daughter of Vilous Wayne Johnson and Nannie Mildred Warren.

She was a pretty girl who hated the farms and hated farm animals. She had an older sister Peggy who was her exact opposite and a younger brother named Billy. They had a rough time during the Depression and moved around a lot. They even had to help pick cotton. My grandmother got appendicitis as a child and nearly died. She loved school and had many friends. Because she was a little tall she played basketball. She was very pretty and looked older for her age. She attracted the handsome 22 year old James Etheridge when she was 15 years old. She skipped school and married him in Mississippi to the shock of her mother. She finished school and everything worked out. Since she has the RH negative factor there was worry that she should not have children. She had four. They were afraid to have more and adopted a son. She joined the LDS church with her husband and was a very faithful and always fulfilled her callings. She moved to Memphis and still lives there. She loves children and babysits children for extra money. She is a lot of fun and has an interesting kind of humor. She is my husband’s favorite relative. He loves her straight talk.

1. My father was born in Ripley, TN in 1956. His name is Charles Henry Lee Jr. He was named after his father, Lt.Col. Charles Henry Lee Sr.His mother is Frances Tucker.

He has one older brother and two older sisters. His father was in the Army reserves and was a pilot who fought in WWII. When he was young they went to Kentucky and were stationed at Fort Knox. Then they lived in Jackson, TN where my father lived around the corner from his future wife. They moved to Memphis when my father was 6. A couple of his uncles lived in Memphis. His mother’s parents were passed away, his father’s parents lived in Chattanooga, TN. They loved to go on trips to Florida and would visit their grandparents in Chattanooga. He also had an uncle in Johnson City, TN and one in Florida. He went to Grandview Elementary, GEorgian Hills Junior High, East High, and then Trezevant High, which he hated. He loved speech class and drama and was supposed to be very good. He loves reciting poems to this day and is an excellent speaker. He grew up Presbyterian and also went to a Baptist church sometimes, but then he met my mother when he was 17. She was LDS. When he was 19 he was baptized into the LDS church. He also attended Memphis State University and studied Accounting. After my mother graduated from High School, they married. One year later, they traveled to Utah to get sealed in the temple. My father dropped out of university when my mother became pregnant with me. After a couple of years he started his own business. He had a glass company. He lived in my grandparent’s house in Memphis after they retired to Florida. He had to pay rent. He was real close to his brother and sisters and would visit them on the weekends. He was also very active in the LDS church and became a second counselor of our ward. When I was around 4, he went back to school and got an Associates degree in Computer Science. He still ran a business on his own at the time. He switched his business when I was older to Property Management and managed 180 properties throughout Memphis. After several years, he decided on a change. The business wasn’t go all well and he did not like the dishonesty of the property owners. He also believed that Memphis wasn’t the best environment for his children. He looked around for jobs, but the economy was bad at the time. He moved his family into his grandmother’s house in Chattanooga. My mother took care of her while my father did what he could to provide for his children. After 6 months, he finally found a job doing computer work. He is still with the company to this day. In Chattanooga, he and my mother took care of his grandmother until she died in 1992 and then they took care of his own parents when they became too ill. He stayed in Chattanooga to care for his parents until his father passed away in 2005. His sister MArsha took over the care of his mother and soon after he bought property in Alabama. He built his dream house. Now he is busy as the Branch President. He is a great example of faith and optimism and taught me to never give up n matter how difficult life becomes.

3. My mother is Patti Etheridge. She was named after a contestant in the Miss Tennessee pageant. She was born in Humboldt,TN in 1956 but was raised in Jackson, TN until she was 16. She is the daughter of James William Etheridge and Nancy Jane Johnson.

When she was two, her parents became members of the LDS church. Her favorite memories are of going to her father’s mother’s home, Lena Burns Etheridge. She was real close to her. She called them Mamaw and Papaw. Her great grandfather was still alive and she called him Papa Burns. They lived in Trenton, TN along with her Aunt Gerry. Her other grandmother lived in Dyer, TN. She wasn’t as close, but she still has wonderful memories of her and loved the way she talked. She also loved seeing her grandfather and staying at her Aunt Peggy’s farm. She loved farms and animals unlike her mother who hated them. My mother was a beautiful child with long black curly hair, white skin, and huge blue eyes. She entered a beauty contest but lost to the mayor’s daughter. My grandmother still kept my mother’s hair from when she was a child and showed it to us. My mother thought that was disgusting. She had two younger sisters and one younger brother. When she was a teen her parents adopted another brother. My mother went all over the United States. They went to Utah to go to the temple and be sealed together as a family. They visited my grandfather’s cousin in Chicago. They still have film of these adventures. When my mother was 16 her family moved to Memphis, where my grandfather had a sound equipment business with his brother. My mother went to Trezevent. There she was great in Biology class and History. She was put in an advanced level Biology class that was equal to a college course and excelled. She met my father at this time. When she was 18 she married my father. She had five children, one girl and four boys. Her dream was to have a comfortable home and this was promised to her in a blessing. She never seemed to have her home. We lived in her parents in law’s house, and then when she and my father bought a house, the neighborhood soon went bad and was unsafe. Then she had to live in her husband’s grandmother’s small 50 year old home with five children. She never gave up her faith that she would someday be blessed with her own home. She was faithful in church and became a great genealogist and helped many people with their genealogy in the Chattanooga Family History Center. She took care of her in-laws even when they weren’t so grateful. She took very good care of her children and protected them as much as she could. Her sons went on missions all over the world and all were married in the temple except the youngest who is too young at this time. He is preparing to go on a mission this year. She is a very intelligent detailed woman who loves to tell you stories about her family. She is an excellent grandmother and wants to be like her Mamaw Lena Burns was and follow her example. She is still very close to her parents who come to visit often. Finally, in 2005 she built her dream home and it is a place of comfort and love for the entire family to gather. The home she was promised was finally given to her.