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"Tennessee Trails"
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Rufus Bell Johnson (27 or possibly 25 Aug 1860 - Dec 22, 1928) born in Corinth, Miss, and rasied in Decatur Sounty (Scotts Hill) TN, came to Obion County in 1886, settling near Kenton. He came with his young wife, Cynthia Brantley Kenndy (2 February 1868 - 17 April 1909). They travelled by covered wagon, bringing all their possessions and their three year old son, Jessie Blain (1883 - 1951). They made their new home in the "Forks of the River" (junction of the Rutherford and Obion Rivers). Here their family grew to 9 children and over the years they pioneered the development of the area. They cleared land of virgin timber and eventually brought some on-thousand acres under cultivation. The completion of the "Big White House" in 1908 marked the peak of success and fulfilled the dream of this pioneering family. When they moved to the new home, Rufus started the first school for blacks (in the area) in the old family home. A black school teacher walked from Kenton daily to teach there. Cynthia died in 1909 and Rufus was remarried in 1911 to Martha Rosalie Laster (Chandler), widow with four children, Robert, Thelma, Lora, and Lois. The issue of this marriage was Cleo Dell and William Frederick. Rufus Johnson was descended from John Lee Gibbs, alias John Lee Johnson, who settled in Anson County NC after the Revolution. Gibbs came to the Colonies from Liverpool, England with the British Army. He served as a Captain under Gen. Tarlton who fought against Gen. Francis Marion, the "Swamp Fox" of South Carolina. During a truce for the exchange of prisoners, Capt. Gibbs was so impressed that he went back and told his comrades that "soldiers who could survive on such rations and fight like Marion's men must really be fighting for a just cause". Gibbs later deserted the British Army and joined the Colonists, changing his name to John Lee Johnson, mis mother's maiden name. In doing this, he, as heir, lost the inheritance rights to the family estate in England and the property reverted to the British Crown because of his desertion. Gibbs, alias Johnson, was married to Winnie Presley also of Anson Co NC. One son Lewis Rufus Johnson was born in Anson County near Lanes Creek in 1781, was married to Winnie Pierce and joined a caravan which was assembled in Anson County in 1826 and migrated westward. In this caravan was Shadrack Eason, born in the same house as Lewis Rufus in 1780. They travelled in covered wagons drawn by Oxen over the Blue Ridge and Cumberland Mountains into the "Territory South of the Ohio", or "The Hunting Grounds of the Chickasaw Indians", which had been won from them by General Jackson in a series of battles, culminating int he treaty that ceded the land to the United States. This Territory became the State of Tennessee. Lewis Rufus Johnson's group first settled in the Nashville area on the Tennessee River. They later moved to Corinth, Mississippi and bought a farm there. Lewis then resettled in Decatur County, near Scotts Hill, where he bought a farm of 700 acres from Armstead Eason (born 1808), son of Shadrack who had settled in that area previously. Lewis Rufus and his son Rufus Pierce, born in ANson County in 1826, year of the departure, farmed this land while continuing to farm the land in Mississippi. Rufus Pierce was married to Elizabeth H. Sims whose family had also come from NC and settled in the Lexington TN area. She was born Jan. 5, 1831 and died Dec. 8, 1904. Rufus Pierce died Dec. 24, 1884 while under anesthesia of the newly developed anesthetic, chloroform. His leg was being amputated for gangrene from a saddle wound incurred while riding to and from his Mississippi farm. Rufus Bell grew up on the farm in Decatur County. This farm is still in the Johnson family. Young Rufus attended school there and under the tutelage of his parents learned the art of survival in pioneering days as well as some of the learned and cultural arts. He was excellent at calligraphy, learned to play the violin and developed a repertoire of English folk songs and Civil War tunes. He became a gifted speaker and story teller, and in later years in Obion County, was often called to court as character witness, a duty he enjoyed. He was also a crack rifle shot with the muzzle-loading rifle and used to win turkeys at turkey shoots in Decatur COunty. In his young days, he became well known for his ability to dance as well as "fiddle". The pioneers in this westward movement were a very close group. They had to be closely integrated to survive. The settlers who came in 1826 to what is now Tennessee came into this wilderness in a large caravan which included families whose lives and destiny would be closely woven for the next 175 years, or perhaps longer. The Louis Rufus Johnsons, Shadrack Easons, the Shadrack Kennedys, the Bennetts, the Stegalls, the Austins, Holmes and the Sims. These names show up repeatedly in marriages. Shadrack Eason figured prominently in the Johnson's lives. He had brought his son Steven L. Eason (1816-1894) and Shadracks' wife Mary Stegall, from NC. Young Steven walked behind the wagons all the way. Shadrack Eason and Louis Rufus Johnson died in the same house in Decatur County. Martha Rosalee(Laster/Lassiter) Johnson, second wife of Rufus Bell Johnson was a grandaughter of Steven L. Eason. Rufus Bell came from a large family. In order of their births, with dates where known, they were; Louis Sims; William Henry; John Thomas; Hickman Marion 1857-1941; Mary Elizabeth 1855-1920 married John Davis; Rufus Bell 1860 - 1928; Nancy Jane 1863-1951 married Samuel Carter Kennedy 1893 s/b 1863-1952; Kissah Emaline married Robert E. Eason son of Steven L. Eason; Joe Lafayette Ausut 27, 1869-May 21, 1948) and Jessie Zachariah 1875-1953). Rufus Belle born at the beginning of the Civil War always remembered the soldiers, both the grey clad Rebels and the Blue Tailed Yankees who passed through their farm in Decatur County, as the armies moved up and down the Tennessee River Valley near Shiloh, where a bloody Civil War Battle was fought. Young Rufus stood nearby watching from behind a tree. He saw a sight that he had never seen before. Instead of muzzle loaded rifles, the soldiers used rifles that kept on shooting without reloading, and they spit out shiny, yellow cases. Rufus was entranced, and stood with his gaze fixed on those empty cartridge cases laying on the ground. One of the soldier noticed his interest, and picked up a handful of empty brass cases and gave them to Rufus. The Union Army had just introduced the repeating rifle which helped bring a decisive end to the cruel Civil War. Incidentally, the old cedar tree used for the target practice still stands on the Old Johnson Homesteaad. Rufus lived through a great transition of farming in America, from the oxen, to horses, to tractors. His grandfather's covered wagon had been drawn by oxen in the caravan from North Carolina. Oxen were used for plowing, especially in the heavy soils of the bottom lands, until the steel mold board plow was introduced around 1847. Horses and mules simply could not pull the wooden plows through the tough soils. With the steel mold board plow, horses and mules gradually replaced oxen. Rufus used oxen in ploughing the "new ground" in Obion County, but shifted to mules and horses as the land was developed. He loved animals and treated them kindly. He kept a stable of the finest mules around, and always had good "saddle horses". Tow that we children remember well were "Ole Tom Geeter" who could "fox Trot" and Ole Clipper who did the "single foot" trot. Riding these horses was like floating in air. Rufus saw his first tractor in Texas in the early 1920's. This was a steam powered tractor used to pull the big wheat comgines. He reluctantly changed to travel by car. He bought his first car, a Model A Ford in 1926, but he preferred to let us children do the driving. His way of life wsa disappearing and he departed from this earth before all his ways had changed. Contributed by Kathy Gautney
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