Re: Andrew OLIVER in Texas
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In reply to:
Re: Andrew OLIVER in Texas
Darlene Trussell 3/09/07
How ironic that you were born at Port Arthur. That’s where my parents were married, October 19, 1944. My mother (still living) is Yvonne and she is the eldest child of Jewel Earl Johnson (1903-1981) and Lennie Evelyn “Eva” Hutto (1904-1985) of Center. Her brother was George Raymond Johnson (1929-1978) also of Center, and he has a son and daughter still in Shelby County while the rest of the kids have moved elsewhere. Jewel was the youngest surviving child of Benjamin Milam Johnson (1838, TX-1915) by his second marriage (1886), to Martha Harriett Seago (1868, TN-1933) whom are buried in the old A.R. Johnson family cemetery near the A.R. Johnson home place also known as the Johnson-Henrietta Cemetery on the Austin Harris property.
Though county officials are unaware of its existence, Alvey R. Johnson established another graveyard just north of his home place, for which I have field notes, and it was quite an enormous cemetery (some 17 acres) along the north boundary line of the 200 acre tract he sold to Jeremiah Bowlin in 1852. Not that there is any record known of the burials there, it lies between the Bowlin property and the (Four Mile) or Chicken Bayou of Tenaha Creek in the old Henrietta Community. Although it is not known when Alvey first settled in this area, but when the McKelvey HR was surveyed by Richard Hooper on December 4, 1838, he described the property as “situated on Chicken Bayou where Alva R Johnson now lives about 12 miles N.W. of Shelbyville in Shelby County”, so we know that he was residing in this vicinity at that date and had on February 3, 1838 received an order of survey from the Board of Land Commissioners for Shelby County for a labor of land that Alvey was entitled as an immigrant of 1830, and also he had purchased the third league certificate of John Scarborough (issued April 28, 1838) on June 28, 1838.
Originally from North Carolina, Alvey’s parents had evidently moved to Lincoln County, Tennessee before 1810 (where Balda C. Johnson was born), and had a affidavit from the then acting JP (shortly afterwards Chief Justice) of Fayetteville, Lincoln County, Henry Kelso, addressed “to any member or members of the Texas Association at Nashville” on January 9, 1826 indicating that Alvey had intended to immigrate to Texas as early as 1825 when the Texas Association obtained a grant from the Mexican government that was known as Leftwich’s Grant, latterly as Robertson’s Colony. Within two years, Alvey was living in Caddo Township of Clark County, Arkansas Territory, when he appears on August 30, 1828 as deputy sheriff of Clark County under Sheriff James Miles and latterly served as deputy under Sheriff Joseph Butler who left office sometime in early June and was replaced by Sheriff Abraham Wells on June 24, 1830.
On June 21, 1830 Alvey gave promissory note payable to William Denton for $50 to be due on or before March 1, 1831 which on August 1, he gave another promissory note to Denton for $3.50 to be discharged on sale of Alvey’s cotton in the fall market delivered to Moses Collins’ gin. Sometime between this date and September 15, Alvey packed up and left for Texas, as he was to appear in his official capacity in one case in the Clark County Circuit Court’s September term, in that court records show that on September 15 the defendant’s attorney in that case went to the Sheriff’s Office to seek a summons in order to have Alvey present when it was learned that Alvey had “gone to Texas”!
As a consequence, William Denton together with Moses Collins and Josiah Tweedle (the representative of Mary Tweedle) each filed separate complaints against Alvey R. Johnson for debt relating to his having removed his assets from Arkansas Territory leading to the seizure of 160 acres of land he had purchased from Jacob Stroope (though the land was not yet held by a legal title) along with other property he had behind left with friends and relatives, each of whom were garnished for the possession of this property as well as any debts they owed to Alvey. Singled out by Denton and Collins was Allen H. Johnson, then a JP for Caddo Township, who though indebted to Alvey for about $4, Denton latter tried to seize a horse that Allen had sold to Balda, for which the sheriff seized by force of arms and was sued for damages by Balda C. Johnson.
It seems evident from the circuit court records that Balda may be the teenage male (age 15-20) listed in the household of Allen H. Johnson in the 1830 Census, as is noted in the year 1830 and 1831, Allen and Balda were sharecropping together, and in December of 1831 Allen conveyed a deed of mortgage to Balda for a great portion of Allen’s various household and kitchen furnishings and also his livestock, after which Allen removed to Union County where he became magistrate for the township of Ecore Fabre, afterwards renamed Camden in 1841 when Ouachita County was formed from Union County. As a result of a dispute with Collins over Allen and Balda’s cotton crop of 1831, this led into suits and countersuits between Balda and Collins that was finally appealed in Collins v. Johnson (1834) in Territorial Superior Court which ultimately upheld the circuit court judgment against Collins. In 1836 Balda joined the Texas Army and fought in the Texas Revolution, afterwards settling up in Red River County where he died in 1852.
In an undated letter found among Alvey’s papers, the letter appears to date from the fall or winter of 1830-31, perhaps just a few weeks after Alvey went to Texas, and in which mentions James Miles, Jacob Stroope, and Balda, as well as references to “Father” and “Pappa”, evidently indicating that Allen’s father was alive and was traveling to and from where Alvey had settled in Texas. Based on the 1830 and 1840 Census, Allen appears to have been born between 1790 and 1800, such that his father might have been in his early 50s or 60s when the Johnson clan moved to Arkansas, and then into Texas.
[page] 3…But I will have some person to come out if I Should have it in my power to Send you any thing – I Shall Send out the Caller in the Spring, if I find that I Can get them Away but make no calculations on me till I give you further information and do not know now what I may have in my power –
I found your pocket Book about 5 weeks after you left here by Craws field it was very much Injured by the Wet the purchasers name was almost entirely faded out on two of the Bills; I let Pappa have them but I do not know Whether they will answer him any purpose or not –I have Sent Enclosed to you the Notes that was in it; also a Note on James Miles Which Jacob Stroope Wants you to wryte got from him and it to me and if you cannot get any of it Send the Note back same time.
I find that Jacob Stroope has not made you a legal title to the land Which if I [page] 4…Send to you the papers Necefsary I want you to apply to James Miles and get title to the land in my Name and Sent it on to me – I will know Whether this can be done as soon as I get to See Jacob Stroope – I Should of Send the papers by Father if I could of got them but I had not time to see Stroope – Father & Balda Can give you any further information that you may Want; they know how things stands here pretty well –
I received your Second letter last Sunday. Write to me as soon as convenient and let me know what arrangements you and Pappa And Balda makes and Whither you Will take the trip with them –I recollect Nothing else as presing but Still remain Yours &c
A.H. Johnson {scroll}
The above signature matches the signature of Allen H. Johnson in various court records, and also found among Alvey’s papers was a receipt dated on “January 8, 1831, Received of Allen H. Johnson Thirty Dollars fifty six and a fourth cents in Cotton receipts; A. Stroud”. Adam Stroud was a Clark County coroner and magistrate, 1823-1831, in whose home the Clark County Circuit Court was convened until a new courthouse was built at Greenville and held its first session in March 1831. Adam Stroud appeared as a material witness in Balda C. Johnson v. Moses Collins (1832).
In a deposition taken from Alvey R. Johnson given in the District Court of Rusk County, Texas, on May 13, 1852, as a witness in a dispute over the Arthur Willis Headright on Hogan's Bayou (alias Martin's Creek) in Rusk County, William Vardeman was plantiff, and Hayden H. Edwards, defendant, and the case was presided by Robert Turner, Chief Justice of State Court, Alvey testified that he had first settled in the vicinity of Hogan’s Bayou in the year 1832. When asked whether the creek ever went by the name of Hogan's creek or Hogan's bayou, and to state at what time it went by said name and what name said creek was known or called in the year 1835 or about that time, Alvey replied that the creek was always called Hogan's Bayou until old Daniel Martin settled on it in the fall of 1835.
According to an article submitted by Christopher Long for The Handbook of Texas, it reports much the same as Alvey had testified in 1852, noting that the community was named for Daniel Martin, but says Long, ‘this man settled on Martin's Creek in 1833 and with John Irons built a small fort and trading post’. Long suggests that the fort lying on Martin's Creek experienced periodic attacks until 1839, but which according to Alvey’s testimony, Indian attacks continued about another ten years before anyone could return to live there. In the unfinished title for Arthur Willis (1835) it describes his land as “situado sobne las aquas del rio Sabina en el arroyo de Hogan” or Hogan’s Creek just as Alvey had testified. Daniel Martin’s affidavit of October 1835 by Radford Berry, then Alcalde of Nacogdoches, states that Martin came to Texas in 1833 settling first at Nacogdoches before settling on Hogan’s Bayou in 1835.
In a similar an affidavit of November 19, 1834 given by Vital Flores, then the Alcalde of Nacogdoches, attests that Alvey R. Johnson was an immigrant of 1830 and had met all the requirements of the Colonization Law of 1829, and notes that Johnson and his family (a “wife and two children”) had been settled by William Brookfield in Burnet’s Colony, north of the Sabine. In July 1835 Brookfield completed the survey of a league of land for Alvey which was granted by title on September 21, 1835 in what would in 1839 become Harrison County, afterwards part of Upshur and then finally Gregg County. It was during the Third Congress of the Republic of Texas when Alvey represented Shelby County that Harrison was established, and on June 19, 1839 Alvey sold his league of land in Harrison County to Matthew Talbot, later Chief Justice of Matagorda County, Texas.
It is suspected that Alvey may have first settled on the Flat Fork of Teneha Creek in the year 1836, having obtained a promissory note on a labor of land owned by Hardin Wright situated on the south boundary line of the David Strickland HR (near Cedar Yard), and was latterly incorporated into the John Beck Soldier’s bounty later purchased by Samuel McAddams (brother-in-law of Claiborne T. Hilliard Sr.). But two subsequent indentures made by Hardin Wright conveyed to Alvey in May 1837, refers back to Wright’s original promissory note of December 5, 1835 when he agreed to sell his labor of land, and by the indentures of May 1837 agreed to sell and convey his right to a league and labor of land he was entitled to as a lawful citizen of Texas. Alvey had previously, on March 18, 1836 obtained by purchase a league and labor of land from Henry Hobson, evidently unaware that delegates to the Convention of March 1, 1836 adopted and affirmed the Constitution of the Republic of Texas included the following statement in Section 10 of the General Provisions:
And whereas many surveys and titles to lands have been made whilst most of the people of Texas were absent from home, serving in the campaign against Bexar, it is hereby declared that all the surveys and locations of land made since the act of the late consultation closing the land offices, and all titles to land made since that time, are, and shall be null and void.
Thus all such land transfers executed after November 11, 1835 (the date the Consultation ordered the land offices to close) were so affected. In 1845 Alvey successfully recovered the Hobson land through a lawsuit in the District Court of Shelby County.
While many people assume that the Shelby County records were all destroyed when the courthouse burned in 1882, the county’s land records were less affected because many of the records lost were merely duplicates of records held by the Texas General Land Office in Austin. Of Alvey’s property deeds, only one deed was destroyed in the fire and it was a duplicate. The original bill of sale for the Scarborough HR was recorded on the back of Scarborough’s certificate, and so could not be removed from the Land Office. In 1886, a new duplicate was ordered by my great-grandfather, and was recorded at the courthouse so it is what is today on record there. Of the records lost included the marriage registers and probate records as well as many of the state and county tax records that were held by the county and not yet forwarded to Austin.
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