History of the Johnston Family

This account which is said to be partly erroneous but it is not specified which part. It makes for interesting reading nonetheless.

By Arista Burr Johnston.
September 26, 1907

My ancestors Johnston came to America from Scotland. My maternal ancestor, John Linder, came to America from Switzerland. Both Johnston and Linder landed at Norlfolk, Virginia, about 1770 or 1780 from whence they moved to South Carolina, Johnston to Chesterfield District and Linder to Charleston, where they settled and raised families.

Their two oldest boys, John Johnston and John Linder, moved together from South Carolina to the Mississippi Territory or to that part now composing the State of Alabama. They first reached the Tombigbee River at or near Cotton Gin Port,where they constructed a raft to move their Negroes and goods down the river on.

Having embarked on this raft their Negroes and other plunder, the raft started down river, but it was soon wrecked and about 100 Negroes were drowned. Having repaired the raft, they continued down the river to McIntosh Bluff, now in Washington County, Alabama, where John Johnston embarked and located. John Linder continued down the river to what is known as the cutoff, it being a passage of water from the Tombigbee to the Alabama river.

Through this cutoff John Linder proceeded to the Alabama River and landed at Montgomery Hill on the east side of the river, where he settled.

The friendly relations between the Johnston and Linder families continued although Johnston was poor and Linder was rich, and their families were often together. An amusing incident will here be related in which a young couple were united by functuary not hitherto known as participating in such sacred rights.

At the House of Sam Mims (after whom Mims Fort, where the Indians massacred the whites soon after, was named), a wealthy countryman, there was a great ball on Christmas night 1800. Daniel Johnston and Miss Elizabeth Linder had for some time loved eachother. She was rich and he was poor and of course the parents of the former objected to the marriage or "pairing" as it was then called. On the Christmas night mentioned, a large party was assembled at old Sam Mims', and the ball was in full blast. In the midst of the enjoyment, the lovers, in company with several other young people of both sexes, secretly left the house, entered some canoes, paddled down the river to Fort Stoddard, where they arrived and hour before daylight. Capt. Shaumburg, Commander of the fort, who had risen early to make his Christmas eggnog, was implored to join the lovers in the bonds of matrimony. The proposition astounded the good-natured old German, who protested his ignorance of such matters and assured them he was only a military commandant., having no authority whatever to make people husband and wife. They instructed him, telling him that the Federal Government had placed him there as a general protector , etc. After the eggnog had been circulated pretty freely, the commandant placed the lovers before him and proceeded to perform the following ceremony: "I, Capt. Shaumburg of the 2nd Regiment, US Army, and Commandant of Fort Stoddard, do hereby pronounce you husband and wife. Go home, behave yourselves and multiply and replenish the Tensaw country." The happy couple entered their canoes, returned home, and were pronounced the best married or paired couple in the country.

My mother Isabella A. Johnston, was a daughter of the above couple.

John Johnston, or Col. Jack Johnston, as he was called, the oldest son of John Johnston, who moved from South Carolina, and Miss Jane Bettis, whose parents also came from South Carolina, were married. James Burr Johnston, my father was a son of this couple.

My grandmother Jane (Bettis)Johnston, came from Chesterfield District, South Carolina. Her family, as well as the Johnston and Linder families were Whigs in politics. Just before my grandmother left South Carolina, a fight took place between the Whigs and Tories, and English at a place called Old Cherow in Chesterfield District. The Whigs barricaded themselves in an old Presbyterian Church and bade defiance to their foes. The Tories and English made every effort to dislodge them, but without success, until they sent for a cannon. They then captured the old church, killing all the defenders, including three of my grandmother's brothers. (It is said that this statement is engraved on the tombs of the Bettis Brothers at Old Cherow in Chesterfield District, where it can now be seen.)

Col. Jack Johnston, as I have said, married Miss Jane Bettis, whose oldest son, James Burr Johnston, was my father. So it will be seen that my mother and father were first cousins and both named Johnston, my father being the son of John Johnston and Jane Bettis, and my mother the daughter of Daniel Johnston and Elizabeth Linder. James Burr Johnston and Isabella A. Johnston, my father and mother were married at Fort Stoddard, Alabama, in December, 1828. As stated, they were first cousins and both named Johnston.

At this place I will state how my father's middle name came to be Burr.

Co. Jack, my grandfather, lived at or near McIntosh Bluff, Washington County, Alabama, when my father was born It was about this time that Col. Aaron Burr, Ex-Vice President of the United states. was fleeing from Washington, hoping the cross the Mississippi River, where it was said he expected to be found a government composed of the States Lying West of the Mississippi River. In his flight, he passed through Washington County, Alabama, and stayed all night with Col. Jack Johnston, my grandfather. My grandparents were so impressed with Col. Burr's courtly manner and splendid address that they named their son, who was then an infant, after him.

My grandfather, Col. Jack Johnston and my father, James Burr Johnston, moved with their families to Clark County, Mississippi in 1837 or 1838.

Col. Jack Johnston was an Indian Agent for the Government. He was a lawyer, and it was he who wrote the treaty between the US Government and the Choctaw Indians, known as the Dancing Rabbit Creek Treaty. The Indian chiefs who represented the Choctaws were Greenwood LeFlore, Oakaloba and Postoak.

Col. Jack, with his son, James Burr and his little grandson Everette, finally moved the Choctaws to the Indian Nation in 1845. where he, Col. Jack, married a half-Indian woman and settled, his former wife being dead.

Col. Jack raised a family in the Indian Territory, had three sons, Douglas, Frank and Edward. Douglas was at one time Governor of the Territory.


My Great Aunt Elouise Smith Redditt did some research in the 1970's to either prove or disprove the above statements and came up with the following account:

...Obviously, much of the story of Sir William Jonstone is copied from a manuscript written many years ago entitled: "The genealogy of the Ancient and Honorable family of Johnston (1370-1893)" taken from the records of the "peerage of Scotland" by Fayette Johnstone Johnstone. So far. we have found absolutely no proof that we are descended from that line though much of the lineage has been proven and published.

St. Mary's, Florida was under Spanish rule in 1745 and therefore would not likely to have been giving land grants to British Citizens. However, there was a St. Mary's City in Virginia, near Norfolk, and it is conceivable that the Johnstons landed there instead. WE have found records of large land grants to JAMES, JOHN, JOSEPH AND WILLIAM JOHNSTON in the Colonial Plats of land granted before the late War with Great Britain in South Carolina. Also included in the records are several KILLINGSWORTH men. Since we have found no mention of KILLINGSWORTH in any other state records and if William Johnston married Honor Killingsworth, I feel this would establish their location in South Carolina about that time.

The LINDER family has been easy to trace, being an uncommon name, and the records of them are found in this document. He was in South Carolina, Georgia, East Florida as a refugee and later in Alabama.

A WILLIAM POWELL is also listed among the refugees to East Florida as is JOHN JOHNSTON. WILLIAM POWELL's will is dated Jan 23, 1796 and he states - "I, William Powell of the District of Mobeal Tombigla McIntush Bluff, -- etc." It was witnessed by Cornelius Rain at the time of writing and was certified by Cornelius Rain and John Johnston, J. P. on Feb. 16, 1803.

Joyce Powell, the daughter of William Powell, married John Johnston. Their daughter, Elizabeth, married Cornelius Rain.

The story of the marriage of Daniel Johnston and Elizabeth Linder has been copied from page 71 of a book entitled "Clarke County, Alabama", by Ball, published in 1882. (Marriage records of Wash. Co. Ala. show Daniel Johnston married Elizabeth Linder. Feb 18, 1803. I might add here that Daniel died a few years later and his widow married his brother, James Johnston, on Sept. 15, 1816).

Also related in "Clarke County, Alabama" is an account of Capt. John Linder of Switzerland on Page 55; the story of the capture of Aaron Burr is on page 83 (just who he actually spent the night with and breakfasted with is still in doubt); and on page 78 is an account of the first court held in Washington Co. Alabama.

Like a giant jig-saw puzzle, we begin to piece the story together. In the past few years we have gathered many more notes from research in libraries and genealogical quarterlies.

Though we still have no proof of the origin of the JOHNSTON clan prior to the settling along the Tombigbee River in Alabama, I would like to summarize what I do know. Firstly, one cannot depend on the spelling of the name whenever or wherever it is found. Be it JOHNSTON, JOHNSTONE, or JOHNSON. Further, in any given area or era there are virtually hundreds of men named William, John, James or Joseph Johnston. Johnston (or Johnson) is the second most numerous surname in the US, Second only to Smith.