That challenge is the reason I try to include so many disclaimers in these posts. I want people who come along behind me to know where I had to make guesses, and if they have better information, to let me know when I might have made mistakes.
In the meantime, I do my best, and I try to explain how I got the answers I've given!
III. Mercy Elizabeth "Libbie" Scott (1859–1898)
The third child of George and Lucetta (Beach) Scott was born on 23 May 1860. She was named Mercy Elizabeth, after her maternal grandmother, Mercy Yaw, but she favored the name Elizabeth, which was shortened to the nickname "Libbie."
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| Johnson family Find-A-Grave memorial |
Alfred's story was a bit tricky to figure out. Beginning with the 1900 Census, which listed his arrival date in the U.S. as 1871, we have a few facts to work with. There were a surprising number of men named Alfred Johnson farming in the Rockford, Illinois, area during this time, and his headstone was never marked with his death date, but eventually, I located a record for his death in the Illinois, Deaths and Stillbirths Index, 1916-1947. That record told us that his birthplace was Smoland, Sweden, and gave his father's name as "Carl Johnson." It also listed his spouse as Marie Johnson.
By 1910, Alfred's and Libbie's elder daughter, Ida, was married, and their younger surviving daughter, Ethel, lived with her. Ernest was married and living with his young family in Sheridan County, North Dakota. There is an Alfred Johnson listed in Sheridan County that year whose wife is listed as "Mary E." who might be the same person as the Marie listed in Alfred's death record.
In 1920, Alfred appears on the census in Rockford, living with his sister and brother-in-law, Matilda and Stephen Harris. Matilda's death record also gives her birthplace as Smoland, but lists her father's name as "John Faust." Her date of arrival in the U.S. was the same as Alfred's, and I did find an immigration record for Matilda Faust who arrived in the States on 23 October 1871 on a ship called the England, along with Ida Faust and Alfred Faust - possibly another sister and our Alfred.
I conclude from all of this that it is possible that the three were siblings (Matilda and Alfred certainly were), and that when they arrived in the U.S., Alfred followed the Scandinavian tradition of taking his father's first name as his surname (ie, "John's son") rather than the name Faust. I was unable to find any more information about Ida, but Alfred may have given her name to his eldest daughter.
Alfred died on 4 December 1932 in Rockford, Illinois. Presumably, he was buried with his wife and two small daughters in the North Burritt Cemetery there.
A. Ida M Johnson (1882–1975) was born on the first of May 1882. She was 12 years old when her youngest sibling was born, and 16 when her mother died. She married John W Johnson (1874–1958) on 28 February 1900, when she was 18.
Despite the common surname, John and Ida were not related in any direct way. John was born on 5 January 1873 in Boros, Sweden, and immigrated to the U.S. in 1891. His parents' names were given as John L Johnson and Amanda Anderan. He had a sister, Anna, who came to States in 1910 and married one George H Aspelin (1889–1953) in 1911.
John and Ida had five children between 1900 and 1908. They lived in Shirland, Winnebago County, Illinois, until relocating to Delavan, Wisconsin, where they lived on a farm from 1916 to 1919. After that, John was a truck driver for the Doyon-Rayne Lumber Co. for a number of years until retiring. He was a member of the Modern Woodmen of America. He died in their home at 85 years of age on 21 August 1958. Ida survived him until January 1975. They were buried together in the Spring Grove Cemetery in Delavan.
1. Floyd Wilburn Johnson (1901–1918) was born on 16 May 1901, in Illinois. He was a student when he died at age 17 on 13 December 1918, in Rockford, Illinois. He was buried in Spring Grove Cemetery in Delavan, Wisconsin, where his parents would eventually join him.
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| Find-A-Grave photo courtesy of D.L.James |
2. May Elizabeth Johnson (1903–1988) was born on 26 January 1903 and grew up on her father's farm. After the family moved to Delavan, she remained at home and worked as a telephone operator. She died on 27 August 1988 in Delavan and was buried in Spring Grove Cemetery near her parents.
3. Ralph Alfred Johnson (1904–1997) was born on April 17, 1904, in Illinois. He married Glennethel Grames (1912–2007) on 25 June 1938. Her parents were Edwin E Grames (1884–1965) and Irena O Hughes (1885–1964) of Warren County, Indiana.
Ralph died on 17 August 1997 in Delavan, Wisconsin, at the age of 93. Glennethel died on 14 January 2007 at the age of 94. There was an obituary published, but as of this writing, it was not available online.
4. Carl H Johnson (1906-1979) was born 27 August 1906 in Illinois. The 1930 and 1940 Census records say that Carl was employed as a golf teacher. He seems to have remained in the Delavan area most of his life. He died on May 13, 1979, in Delavan, Wisconsin, at the age of 72, and was buried in the Spring Grove Cemetery.
5. Hazel A Johnson (1908–1999) was born on 29 November 1908. She married Eugene Bernard Cummings (1908–1979) on 5 April 1940, and they had two children, both still living.
Eugene was a veteran of the U.S. Navy in World War II. He was a co-owner of the Tally-Ho Inn in Darien, a club manager of the Swedish Club of Chicago, and a manager of the Big Foot Country Club in Lake Geneva. He died in Elkhorn, Walworth County, Wisconsin, on 2 March 1979, and was buried in Saint Andrews Cemetery in Delavan. Hazel joined him on 12 July 1999.
B. Mamie A Johnson (1883–1884) was born on 3 May 1883 and died just after her first birthday on 22 May 1884. She was buried in North Burritt Cemetery in Winnebago County, Illinois.
C. Ernest Elmer Johnson (1885–1951) was born on 2 November 1885 in Harrison, Illinois. He married Exilda L Ray (1878–1947) on 15 February 1905 in Outagamie, Wisconsin. They had two sons. Exilda was born on 30 October 1878 in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, to Samuel Ray (1852–1929) and Jane Sweet (1851–1937).
Elmer worked for a short time as a teamster but settled into farming for most of his life. He died in 1951 at the age of 66. Exilda had preceded him on 9 May 1947. They are buried in North Burritt Cemetery.
1. Lewis R Johnson (b. 1907) was born on 27 September 1906 in Winnebago County, Illinois. He married Margaret Ruth Caroline Palmquist (1910–1997) in 1928 in Boone County, Illinois, and they raised three children, all still living, in Rockford. Lewis died on 22 May 1961 and was buried in Willwood Burial Park, in Rockford. Margaret remarried and died on 13 August 1997 in Mountain Home, Arkansas.
2. Leland E Johnson (1909–1996) was born 15 December 1909, in North Dakota. He married Ila E Main (1909–2007) on 7 July 1930, in Belvidere, Boone County, Illinois. Ila was born 5 April 1909 in New Milford, Illinois, the daughter of Carlton T Main (1872–1939) and Alma G Robinson (1880–1938). Ila was a graduate of New Milford School.
Leland died on 8 November 1996 at the age of 86, and Ila died 28 July 2007 at 98. They were buried in New Milford Cemetery.
a. Leland Carlton Johnson (1932–1992) was born on 14 December 1932 in New Milford, Illinois. He was married in 1956, in Winnebago, Illinois, and his wife is still living. They had two children who also survive him and several grandchildren. He died on January 15, 1992, in Rockford, Illinois, at the age of 59, and was buried in his hometown.
D. Bertie L Johnson (1887–1896) was born on 26 September 1887 and died at eight years of age on 23 April 1896. He was buried in North Burritt Cemetery in Winnebago County, Illinois.
E. Ethel May Johnson (1894–1987) married Frank Willard Petitt (1891–1957) on 14 December 1912 in Beloit, Rock County, Wisconsin. He was the son of David Erwin Petitt (1859–1920) and Ida Ethelena Vinton (1858–1941). They had six children in the next dozen years. Frank worked in a shoe factory.
Sometime after 1930, the couple divorced; Ethel would later remarry Charles W. Schlichter (1894–1950). She died in Beloit in 1987.
1. Lyle F Petitt (1913–1980) finished high school and stayed in Beloit until the mid-1930s, when he relocated to Silverton, Marion County, Oregon. He married his first wife, Geraldine, in 1938; they had a daughter before they divorced and Geraldine remarried in 1944. Lyle remarried about the same time, after moving across the country to Erie, Pennsylvania.
His second wife was Maxine A Adams (1917–1962) and they had five more children, most of whom are still living.
a. Sandra Lee Petitt Richins (1939–2003) remained in Oregon with her mother, Geraldine, after her parents parted. She was married and died in Clackamas, Oregon, on 21 April 2003.
b. William Clyde Petitt (1947–1948) was the son of Lyle and Maxine Petitt; he died on 4 August 1948 in a car accident at fifteen months of age.
c. Patricia Petitt Holland (1948–2010) died after a fiercely fought battle against pancreatic cancer on 18 March 2010, while vacationing in Kailua, Hawaii. Pat was raised and attended school in Girard. She and her husband and son resided in the Girard and Lake City area until her retirement from EMSCO Erie after a 20-year career as a highly respected and valued foreman. She was survived by her husband, son, three grandchildren, a great-granddaughter, a brother, a sister, and her beloved dogs Snoopy and Crystal.
2. Edna Irene Petitt (1915–2005) married farmer Floyd A Lehman (1914–1962) on 29 July 1933. They had a son and daughter, still living, and raised them in Rock County, Wisconsin. After Floyd's death in 1962, Edna married Carl Ambrose Steindl (1912–1977) in January 1966, and she lived in Beloit until her death on 6 March 2005.
3. Deloss Enoch Petitt (1918–1944) was born on October 16, 1918, in Durand, Illinois, and he enlisted in the U.S. Army on 14 May 1941. He served in the 1202nd Army Air Force Base Unit and died on November 16, 1944, in North Africa. He was buried in Tunisia at the North Africa American Cemetery and Memorial near Carthage.
4. Lawrence Elliott Petitt (1920–1984) was born on 12 March 1920, in Winnebago, Illinois. He married twice, but I don't know if he had any children. He died on 1 June 1984, in Westfield, Wisconsin, at the age of 64.
5. Fern Eleanor Petitt (1923–2010) was born on 6 September 1923, in Winnebago, Illinois. She worked at the Wisconsin Telephone Company and at C.Z. Chemical Company and she married August Charles Blake (1918–1995) on 25 February 1950, in her hometown. They had two children during their marriage, both of whom are still living. She died on 21 December 2010, in Beloit, Wisconsin, at the age of 87, and was buried there.
6. Clyde Franklin Petitt (b. 1925) was born on 26 January 1925, in Winnebago, Illinois, but much of his story remains a mystery to me. We know from his brother Lyle's 1980 obituary that Clyde was living in New Orleans, Louisiana, at that time; and we know from his sister Fern Blake's obituary that he died before her death in 2010.
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In case this isn't obvious, I've had to slow down my genealogy research for the time being. I've gone back to school to finish my long-dormant music degree, and time is very short these days. I'll keep working as time allows, and if you're a descendant of any of the folks in these posts, I hope you'll reach out so I can fix any mistakes or fill in any blanks.
You can comment below, or email my Gmail address (callintad) - I hope to hear from you!
