Person:James Johnson (130)

James and Ann, although removed several generations from the original Pennsylvania settlers, were possessed with the same pioneering spirit. Following their marriage, they made their home on the farm in Colerain Township in Lancaster County that James owned jointly with his brother John. While James and Ann were living on the farm, they became parents to Franklin A., born on February 28, 1830; Eliza R., born May 25, 1832; and Phebe Jane, born on June 3, 1834. Ann's mother, Elizabeth Kerr, died in December 1832, followed by her father, John Caughey, six months later. Her father's will, which was probated in May 1835, bequeathed two hundred and fifty dollars to Ann, at that time a sizable sum of money. With the war for American independence won and the Indian problem solved, the west was opened for settlers. In late 1835, James sold his interest in the Colerain farm to his brother John. James and Ann loaded their three children and belongings in the Conestoga wagon they had purchased and leaving the security of their ancestral Pennsylvania home, the family headed west to settle in the new frontier of Ohio.

Most of Ann's brothers and sisters had already made a trek west. Many of James' cousins, as well as several families from the area, had also traveled to the Ohio frontier. These families included the Whitesides, McConnells, Coulters, Strattons, Deahuffs and Shoemakers. Most family friends and relatives settled in Medina and Wayne Counties, Ohio. James and Ann settled in Canaan Township in Wayne County. The land of Wayne and Medina Counties was heavily laden with trees and relatively flat with some minor variations in elevation. Once the land was cleared, broken and tilled, it became rich and highly productive for farming. As a new frontier, the land was available to all who would work the soil. The first land entry made about Canaan Township in 1812 was about the first log cabin to be built. Among the early settlers in the Canaan area was the Joseph Stratton family from Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, in 1817. On May 5, 1819, the twenty-one men, only males were allowed to vote, of the area organized the township. By 1825, twenty-five to thirty families had settled in Canaan Township. In the next few years migration was very rapid so that about half of the quarter sections of tillable land had upward to seventy cabins on them. The James and Ann Johnson family was among the early settlers to Canaan Township where they acquired eighty acres of land, composed of the east half of the northeast quarter of section 27, in township 17, of range 13, of Wayne County. With the help of friends and relatives James was able to clear some of his land to begin his farming. As his farm prospered, James much more acreage to his farm. His property was located a few miles north of the city of Wooster and a short distance south of the town of Creston. Today the location of the James' farm property can be best described as on the north side of the east-west road, one mile south of Route 604 and immediately west of Route 3, with a mile frontage on the east-west road and 1/2 mile frontage on Route 3. Isaac Notestine an old resident of Canaan Township, in 1880 offered the following recollections of those early times. Mr. Notestine, who was born on March 24, 1822, was a professor at the Canaan Academy that closed in 1875. The following are his reminiscences as reported on page 773 in the book, History of Wayne County, Ohio. Almost every family, men and women, wore "home-spun" at home and abroad. The only difference between the dress to go to "meetin" and that of the field or the clearing was in being fresh washed for the former. The diet, too, was of the plainest kind, quite limited in variety, and frequently also in quantity. Corn, in its various forms, whole or ground, with buckwheat, potatoes, beans, pork, venison, and other wild meats, were the chief articles of food. Game abounded, and many families depended upon getting their meat from the forest. Though the pioneers could get but little for the wheat they sold, the articles they bought cost much more than at present. As late as 1825, salt sold for eleven dollars per barrel, and before this cost still more. William Ewing used to pack it from Canton on horseback, traveling all the way through the woods. Wooster was the nearest point of trade, but it was a poor place to sell produce of any kind. Wheat and flour were often hauled to Cleveland, and hogs were driven there as the nearest market. The first church organized in Canaan Township was by the Presbyterians in Jackson, on May 25, 1827 with sixteen members. In 1838 the congregation called its first and last regular pastor, the late Thomas H. Barr, who served it nearly forty years. The membership is presently 155 members (1880).