Stephen Johnson

Stephen Johnson was one of my maternal great-great-great-grandfathers. From the information that I have gathered about him, he was born around 1834-1835 in New York state. He grew up in Cortlandtown, New York, and married Catherine Connors/O'Connor sometime between 1860-1868. He lived in Cortlandtown until at least 1870, when he moved to Newark, New Jersey, where my great-great grandmother, Anna Johnson, was born in 1874. In 1875, the whole family moved to Yonkers, where he lived until he died.

He was a stone moulder and, I believe, he served in the Civil War. While I was just beginning this research, I came across the obituary of my grandmother's aunt, Anna L. O'Connor (my great-grandmother Gertrude Knapp's sister). In the obituary, it mentioned that she belonged to the Ewing Circle of the Ladies of the G.A.R. After doing some research, I found out that to be a member of the Ladies of the G.A.R., you had to be a blood descendent of a Union veteran. After getting more obituaries and other paperwork, I found out that Anna Johnson, Elizabeth Johnson (her sister) and Elizabeth (Waldron) Powers Linehan (the daugther of Elizabeth) were all members of this same circle.

One day over the summer, I was walking in St. Mary Cemetery when I came across a government stone. There was a G.A.R. flag holder in front of the stone and the name on the stone was "Stephen W. Johnson." Below is a photo of the stone:

For this stone being 107 years old and most likely not having people coming to visit it in 70 years, it has faired quite well. While I was at the Archives on Wednesday, I got his burial card for the Works Progress Administration and it had some valuable information. For one, it showed his date of death as April 10, 1900, not April 12 as his stone says. April 12 was actually his burial date. I went to the Library today and was able to find this write-up on his death (This is from the April 10, 1900 edition of the Yonkers Statesman):

Stephen Johnson, a member of Kitching Post, G.A.R., died at his residence, 137 New School Street, this morning of pneumonia.

Unfortunately, it isn't as long as I would have liked it to be, but it is better what I had, which was nothing. I then looked up the Kitching Post of the G.A.R. and found out that their papers are held at the U.S. Army Military History Institute in Carlisle, PA. I sent them an e-Mail request on Thursday and have yet to hear back.

That's it for now on Stephen Johnson. Unfortunately, I have almost no information on my great-great-great grandmother, Catherine. Hopefully, I can find something out on her soon.