Compiled by P. Davidson-Peters © 2001-2006

Special thanks to Judith Funk & Marlena Hays for their research & contributions.

Seth M. Johnson was born on 03 Mar 1782 in Cheshire, New Haven County, Connecticut and was christened at the Cheshire Congregational Church on 28 Apr 1782. He was said to have descended of good old New England stock and English ancestry, his parents being Seth and Eunice (Hitchcock).

The elder Setih married Eunice in Wallingford, CT on 26 Dec 1771 and died before 20 Jun 1823. His surviving children were listed as: Eunice Hills, Esther Benham, Mary Kelsey, Seth Johnson, william Johnson and Philo Johnson. Two of Seth's children were buried in 1774 and 1775.

Seth, Jr. married Mary Hough, the daughter of Ebenezer Hough in 1806 in Connecticut. Mary had been born on 24 Jan 1786 in New Haven, Connecticut and after their marriage and birth of their first two children, they emigrated to Chenango County, New York and settled in the heavy timber near Bainbridge.

There he and his wife encountered the hardships of a pioneer life and diligently toiled until they had improved and cultivated a good farm on which they spent the remainder of their days. Seth, who was said to have been a member of the Baptist Church and an active Whig, died at the age of fifty-seven, and his wife who lived until the venerable age of eighty years died on 28 May 1865. They were buried in the West Bainbridge Cemetery.

The family is listed In 1810 and 1820 in Jericho, in 1830 listed in Bainbridge. It appears Seth had died prior to 1840 as a Mary Johnston is listed as residing in Bainbridge Village - her children matching the correct ages of: William, Marcus, Harvey, Seth, Deforest, Mary & Estella. A few households before Mary's is the household of an Ebenezer Johnson, but not to be confused with her oldest son "Eben" who was by this time living in Sugar Grove, Lee County, Illinois and enumerated in that county during that year.

After the death of Seth, Mary was enumerated in the 1850 and 1860 census living in the household of her son Marcus in Bainbridge.

Note: Birth and death dates of Seth and Mary have been taken from West Bainbridge Cemetery.

CHILDREN OF
SETH JOHNSON & MARY (HOUGH)

View Census Worksheets
Charting the location of Seth, Mary & their children from 1810-1880

Generation II

Jannet "Polly" Johnson (1805)-?

Daughter of Seth and Mary Hough, she married Harrison G. Conant who was born about 1806 in New York.

Harrison was the only Conant located in the Chenango County census records and his wife was repeatedly listed as Polly. In 1840 he is listed in the census records with what appears to be himself, his wife, one male under age 5 (Rufus) and two females under age 5 (Calista & Polly). In 1850 the family consisted Harrison, Polly and their children Rufus, Coletta, Polly, and Caroline. In 1860 the family was still residing in Greene Twp. and daughter Calista was listed as a teacher. In 1870 only their daughter Esther is listed in the household.

Please note that this is speculated but not proven to be the same as Jannet. If you can confirm this information, please contact Patti.

CHILDREN OF
JANNET "POLLY" (JOHNSON) & HARRISON CONANT

Daughter of Seth & Mary (Hough), she married Reuben C. Fosbury on 17 Nov 1832 in West Bainbridge, Chenango, NY. They were enumerated in the census records in 1850, 1860, 1870, and 1880 residing in Bainbridge.

Her husband Reuben was born in 1807 in New York and was listed in the 1869-70 Bainbridge Business Directory along with Abel Fosbury and other Johnsons as follows: Abel C. Fosbury (Bainbridge) lot 41, farmer; Reuben C. Fosbury (Bainbridge) lot 41, farmer (130 acres); Davis Johnson (Bainbridge) lot 73, retired; Jefferson Johnson (Bainbridge) lot 66, farmer (124 acres); and Marcus T. Johnson (Bainbridge) lot 41, farmer (200 acres).

Reuben died in Bainbridge in 1880, and Frances in 1890. They were buried at West Bainbridge Cemetery.

CHILDREN OF
FRANCES (JOHNSON) & REUBEN FOSBURY

Ebenezer "Eben" Johnson 1810-1885

Son of Seth and Mary (Hough), he was born on 05 Jul 1810 in Bainbridge, New York. Eben left home before his majority and engaged in various pursuits until his marriage, directly after which he came west, arriving in Lee County, Illinois in 1838 where he settled at Palmyra.

According to a biographical sketch, Ebenezer married Sarah Johnson, the daughter of Capt. Jonas Johnson and Sallie McCray. Sarah was born on 10 Aug 1808 in Blanford, Hampton, Massachusetts and died in May 1885 in Palmyra, Lee, Illinois.

From a letter written by Eben and his wife Sarah to his mother back in Bainbridge on the 18th of November in 1838, he writes: "We arrived in Illinois Oct. 9th after a prosperous journey of five weeks, one of which was spent with relatives in Ohio. We first went to Monmouth, where our friends had preceded us and we first thought of settling, but after viewing the country over, they all concluded to settle here, 110 miles north of that place. We are in a very handsome country, five miles from Dixon's Ferry, and have been three weeks in our new situation."

"We find the county mostly settled by eastern people which makes it very pleasant. The majority are from New York and New Hampshire, with quite a number from Massachusetts, Vermont, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana and Kentucky. Father and mother will remain with a brother till spring, when they will rejoin us here. (Mrs. Johnson's father was Capt. Jonas M. Johnson, a veteran in his 76th year, who greatly enjoyed the new country during the remaining four years of his pilgrimage..)"

Eben was listed in the 1840 census residing in Sugar Grove, Lee Co., Illinois and in the 1850, 1860, 1870, and 1880 census residing in Palmyra, Lee County, Illinois. He died on 29 Aug 1885. The Amboy News of October 24th states that probate records list "Howard Johnson to be appointed administrator of the estate of E.H. Johnson, deceased, under bonds of $300."

View Outside link to IL Trails - Lee Co., Illinois

CHILDREN OF
EBENEZER JOHNSON & SARAH (JOHNSON)

Marcus T. Johnson 1815-?

The son of Seth & Mary (Hough), was born in Bainbridge on the 11th of March 1815. Listed in the Bainbridge Business Directory of 1869 -1870, he was a farmer who owned two hundred acres in lot 41, but at one time he and his brother William had been clock makers in New York City.

Sometime before 1847 Marcus married Alice Parsons, daughter of Augustus Parsons and Lydia. Alice was born in 1821 in New York and died in 1901. They were enumerated in the census records in 1850, 1860, 1870, and 1880 residing in Bainbridge.

CHILDREN OF
MARCUS JOHNSON & ALICE (PARSONS)

Daughter of Seth and Mary (Hough), she was born about 1816 in New York. She married Timothy Stephen Lane, son of James Lane and Lois, in about 1835. Timothy was born about 1816 in New York.

They were enumerated in the census records in 1850, 1860, 1870, and 1880 residing in Bainbridge.

CHILDREN OF
CORNELIA (JOHNSON) & TIMOTHY LANE

Harvey E. Johnson 1819-1887

Born on 11 February 1819 in Bainbridge, Chenango Co., New York, Harvey was the son of Seth and Mary (Hough). He remained in New York until about 1845 when he removed to Lee County, Illinois where his brother, Eben H. Johnson (known to many as Uncle Eben), had settled in 1838 in Palmyra which had been settled only four years prior by John and Harvey Morgan and Benjamin Stewart. Here, Harvey E. Johnson purchased a farm and three years later, on 31 Dec 1848, he married Mary Jane Wheat who was the daughter of Josiah and Mary (Black) who were early settlers of China township in Lee County, Illinois. 

In 1850 Harvey and Mary were listed with their three month old "infant" son whom they named Deforest. By 1860 their family had grown and were living in the town of Palmyra (post office Dixon), and Harvey was listed as a farmer with real estate valued at $5,085 and personal estate valued at $1,100.  They continued to reside in Palymra Township and were listed in the 1870 with children Deforest, Florence, Frank and Adaline. In 1880 the census indicates Mary's parents were both born in Vermont, and both of Harvey's parents were born in Connecticut. The census records his son Deforest as living next door with his young family.

Harvey died on 15 Nov 1887 in Palmyra, Lee County, Illinois and was buried in Sugar Grove Cemetery. His wife Mary (Wheat), who was born on 08 Feb 1827 in China Twp., Lee County, Illinois, died on 19 Mar 1892 in Meriden, Cherokee County, Iowa.

CHILDREN OF
HARVEY JOHNSON & MARY (WHEAT)

Daughter of Seth and Mary (Hough), was born on 9 Jul 1822 in Bainbridge, Chenango, NY. Estella married David Orlando Ingersoll, son of David Ingersoll and Hannah (Holcomb) on 19 Aug 1845 in Afton, Chenango, New York.

David was born on 15 Jun 1823 in Lisle, Broome, New York and died on 9 Aug 1890 in Oxford, Chenango, NY. Estella died on 22 Jun 1894 in Oxford, Chenango, NY.

They were enumerated in the census records in 1850, 1860, 1870, and 1880 residing in Oxford, Chenango Co., New York.

CHILDREN OF
ESTELLA (JOHNSON) & DAVID INGERSOLL

Daughter of Seth and Mary (Hough), she was born about 1825 in Chenango Co., New York. She married Nelson Ireland in Bainbridge in about 1843. Nelson was born about 1818 in New York and was possibly the son of James Ireland and Lydia (Ingersoll).

They were enumerated in the census records in 1850, 1860, 1870, and 1880 residing in Bainbridge or Bainbridge Village in Chenango Co., New York. Nelson died on 03 Apr 1865 in Bainbridge; and Mary died on 25 Jan 1901. They were buried in West Bainbridge Cemetery.

CHILDREN OF
MARY JOHNSON & NELSON IRELAND

Son of Seth and Mary (Hough), was born on 12 Mar 1826 in Chenango Co., New York. He married (1) Ednah "Jane" Bartholomew who was born about 1835 in Oxford of that county and was the daughter of Ira Bartholomew and Nancy (Stimpson). They were married on 10 Sep 1856 in West Bainbridge, Chenango, New York.

They were enumerated in the census records in 1860 and 1870 residing in Bainbridge, and then removed to Henderson County, Illinois in the spring of 1871. Jane died in 1874 in Little York, Warren, Illinois of tyberculosis and was buried in Little York Cemetery.

On August 16, 1877 DeForest married (2) Eliza Macklin in Henderson County, Illinois and they were listed in the census records for 1880 residing in Henderson Co., Illinois. Deforest died there on 11 Jun 1897.

View The Japhets of Upstate New York (Outside link by Cory Panshin)

CHILDREN OF
DEFOREST JOHNSON & "JANE" (BARTHOLOMEW)

Family Sketches

Photos Relative to The Johnson Family

Palmyra Plat Map (H.E. Johnson etc.)

Family Chronology in Chenango Co., NY

Outside link to IL Trails - Lee Co., Illinois

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Updated 07 Jun 2008
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