52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks – Week 24: Father’s Day: Life of Thomas Newton Johnston

I am working on this year-long prompt, hosted by Amy Johnson Crow. I will write each week in one of my two blogs, either Mam-ma’s Southern Family or at My Trails Into the Past. I’m looking forward to writing about my children’s ancestors in new and exciting ways.

My great-grandfather was Thomas Newton Johnston, born 25 July 1885 in Comanche Co, Texas to Reuben Mach Johnston and Olivia Jane Jones.[1] He was the fourth child of thirteen.

He married Nell L. Hutson, the daughter of Peter H. Hutson and Sarah H. Selman, on 6 June 1907 in Comanche Co, Texas. They had six children, five who lived to adulthood. Unfortunately, Nell died young in 1919 at the age of 31.[2]

Thomas started out a farmer, renting a general farm.[3] Later, he worked as a salesman at a lumberyard.[4]

He married Zilpha E. Burford on 12 Dec 1931 in Stephenville, Erath Co, Texas.[5] This was the only “grandmother” my mother knew.

Tom died 20 February 1951 at the age of 65. He did make a trip out to California to visit his son, Tom Jr. Unfortunately, he died before I was born.

"Daddy Tom" with my mother, Lela and her cousin, Sarilyn

[1] For birthdate: Tombstone photo for Thomas N. Johnston, West End Cemetery, Stephenville, Texas. For parent’s names: Texas Department of Health Bureau of Vital Statistics, death certificate, digital image, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org), Erath Co, No. 7051, Thomas Newton Johnston, 1951; citing FHL film 1845915.
[2] "Mrs. Tom Johnson Dead," Comanche Chief, 18 Jul 1919.
[3] Texas, Comanche Co, 1900 U.S. census, pop. sched, Justice Precinct 3 (part of), ED 7, sheet 1a, p. 168a, dwelling 8, family 8, Thomas N. Johnston, digital images, Ancestry (http://www.ancestry.com: accessed 23 Nov 2011), NARA T623, roll 1541.
[4] Texas, Comanche Co, 1920 U.S. census, Comanche, ED 70, sht 7a, p. 47 (stamped), dwelling 136, family 138, Thos N. Johnson household, digital images, Ancestry (http://www.ancestry.com).
[5] "Texas, County Marriage Records, 1837-1977," digital Images, FamilySearch (http://www.familysearch.org), 1931, Erath Co, Marriage Record Bk R, p. 150, T.N. Johnston to Mrs. Zilpha E. Burford; citing FHL 4820400.

Copyright © 2018 by Lisa Suzanne Gorrell, Mam-ma's Southern Family

Comments

Post a Comment

All comments on this blog will be previewed by the author to prevent spammers and unkind visitors to the site. The blog is open to other-than-just family members particularly those interested in family history and genealogy.

Popular posts from this blog

Happy Blogiversary & Happy 100th Blog Post!

Image
Today is a big milestone. This is the 100th blog post I have written and the 6th anniversary of the beginning of this blog. I began the blog on January 15, 2011, through a blog writing class I took at California Genealogical Society, taught by Craig Siulinski. It was something I wanted to do but wasn’t really sure what I would focus on. I finally settled on writing about my grandmother, Pansy Louise Lancaster’s family and this was my first post . In the beginning it was hard to get started. I learned from the Geneabloggers website, that there were blogging memes I could use and I have done that off and on, especially at the beginning. But I finally learned that what worked best was to write about my discoveries as I researched my grandmother’s family. So what have I written in six years? I discovered I have only written four posts specifically about my grandmother: “Mam-ma was a Tomboy” “Fearless Females – Day 12” “Mam-ma 1913-2013” “My Grandpar
Read more

John Coor of Copiah County Made an Agreement with Joel Hoggatt

Image
This week at RootsTech 2024, FamilySearch announced a new feature that an every-word search was available for U.S. deeds and probates. It is still in the trial mode and can be found at https://www.familysearch.org/en/labs/ . This is the search screen. It clearly states it is for US land and probate records and Mexico notary records. You can do a keyword search or if you click on the “more options” you can add a name. My Find I immediately gave it a try and searched first for records of the COOR family using the keyword search. Up first came deeds from Wayne County, North Carolina.  At the top, you can filter using record year, record type, record place, and collection. For the past few days, I have mainly filtered by record place. I filtered down to Mississippi. You can even filter to the county. The first entry was a document I had not seen before. It was an 1826 agreement between John Coor and Joel Hoggatt to build a set of grist and sawmills. John Coor is my 4x-great-grandfath
Read more

Using the Attendees at Lela Ann (Loveless) Lancaster’s Funeral to Discover Residences

Image
Lela Ann Lancaster, my maternal great-grandmother, died on 17 May 1951. [1] She had died in Wichita Falls, Texas, at the state hospital. The doctor’s handwriting is nearly illegible so the cause of death is difficult to determine. She was conflicted with Parkinson’s Disease which probably contributed to her death. Her funeral was three days later. [2] Lela Ann (left) with Warren, daughter Pansy, granddaughter Lela Nell, and son Wayne, c. 1935 Obituary Tells Story of Life Two obituaries were published on the same day in the Stephenville Empire-Tribune on two different pages. One gave information about her life and the funeral, and the other was about who attended her funeral. The transcription of the first is here: "Mrs. Warren G. Lancaster"    Funeral services for Mrs. Warren G. Lancaster, 55, who died at 4:30 a.m. Thursday at a Wichita Falls Hospital, were at 3 p.m. Sunday at the First Baptist Church with the Rev. Felix Gresham and the Rev. Ernest Rippetoe officiating
Read more