Author: T1742
Company: Home

(Transcript of letter - written about 1920)
Mrs. J.M. Dresser
Box 40 East Shore Lane
Culver, Indiana

Dear Charley, (son of James Massie Johnson, I think)

	Your cousin, Fannie McDonald of Beach, Washington, has your grandmother’s old Bible. You can write her for a copy of the family record. But, I will tell you what I can remember. 

	Your grandfather was Major Wm A. Johnson who came to Lafayette from Hillsboro, Highland Co., Ohio in the early 1830s and had a warehouse at the foot of Ferry Street, which afterwards was a dwelling called “the Old Yellow House” in which I was born in 1843. His wife, your grandmother was Sally Timberlake. They emigrated to Ohio from near Lynchburg, Virginia, I think (I wish I knew the date). Wm A. Johnson seemed to have been rather a prominent man. His hand writing was that of a man of education. I remember of thinking how even and beautiful it was when I once saw it, as a child. He died in 1835, and his father James Johnson, who lived with them, died in Lafayette, also the same week and their graves are side by side in Greenbush Cemetery. The Wabash & Erie Canal came through Grandmother’s yard down by the river and she bought 1/2 acre (I think) for $300, and built a home “to get her boys away from” the very undesirable element the canal brought. That was afterwards our home on 9th Street where you and Ella were. Their children were: Rebecca, my mother the oldest, born in 1818, died in 1851; Sarah (Auntie Kelly) died in 1885; John T. died in Watseka, Illinois 1879; James (your dear Father); and Uncle Ben H., who always lived in Ohio, and I never have kept in touch with his family, nor knew them. Also, a young man Albert, drowned at 18 years.

	Your grandmother married John Obenshain in 1842; lived a number of years in Americas (near Laf.) At his death she lived with Auntie in the old home on 9th St. (which was enlarged to make it comfortable for her) and here she died in 1866. She was a fine woman - a devoted Christian and we all dearly loved “Granma”.

	Of your mother’s family I never knew. She lived with the Falley’s, a prominent family in Lafayette - long ago dead. But their grandson and wife are friends of ours.

	In 1897 I became interested in the family history and wrote to Mr. Cyrenius Johnson, a citizen of Laf. and a relative to find out about our early history. I will copy his letter. The Earl of Shaftesbury, whom we read of in the nobility of England now is a descendant of our Lord Ashley, and there have been a good many Ashley Johnsons all along in the family.	
							(Mary Dresser - no signature)