I recently wrote a blog post about my third-great-grandfather, Charles Randall Johnson (1802-1864). During the recent Christmas, my dad and I set out for the Johnson Grove area of Crockett County, near Alamo, Tennessee, to find the graves of Charles and his wife, Margaret Louisa “Louisa” Wood Johnson (1808-1862). A cemetery transcription for Castellaw Cemetery lists both Charles and Louisa there, which matched what I hoped we would find.
This part of Crockett County can confuse a genealogist because Charles and Louisa lived there when the area still belonged to Haywood County. Crockett County was formed in 1871 from parts of Dyer, Gibson, Haywood and Madison counties, with Alamo as the county seat. That explains why records connected to the Johnson family often point back to Haywood County even when the places sit in present-day Crockett County.
After a few wrong turns and a couple of conversations with kind strangers along the way, we finally found the cemetery. In case you ever want to visit Charles and Louisa, drive past Tucker’s Grocery on Castellaw Road, then turn left at Johnson’s Grove Baptist Church.
Johnson’s Grove Baptist Church has a direct connection to Charles. He donated the land on which the church stands. In an 1851 deed, Charles gave the church “one acre and nine poles” of land, which was slightly more than one acre, for the house of worship already standing there. The deed also helps show how deep the Johnson family’s roots ran in this community.
Johnson’s Grove Baptist Church had already become an important rural church by the middle of the 19th century. A history of nearby Providence Baptist Church says members from Johnson’s Grove organized Providence in 1854, only three years after Charles signed the deed for the Johnson Grove church land.
| Number 711 C. R. Johnson To Deed Baptist Church Filed 1st Nov. 1857 Reg’d 3rd Nov. 1857 at 4 o’clock noon Haywood County Tennessee Know all men by these presents that I, Charles R. Johnson of the State and County above named, have this day conveyed unto the Baptist Church of Johnson’s Grove one acre more or less in Haywood County, bounded as may [by/right] road to Troy, more land [mine] lots of the land upon which said church house stands, the title to said [land] and [interest] vested in church titles as they shall use the same said land for worship as a Baptist Church, leaving the privilege to said subscriber to other denominations. [Same/as] a matter of courtesy, which land is thus described, beginning at a stake, pole 220 links east of a large post oak, which stake is the N.E. corner of my 150 acre tract and running west 13 poles with the western boundary line of said 150 acres to a stake from hickory, black oak marker as pointers. Thence south 13 poles to a stake with a black oak and white oak pointers. Thence east 13 poles to a stake in the line of Dr. [Gresham’s] field on the road. Thence north with said line 13 poles to the beginning, containing as above stated one acre and nine poles, more or less, for the purpose of making this deed gift, hereby and [ratifies/ratify] and that this above named land may be used as above provided. I hereunto in the presence of these witnesses signed on this day of eighteen hundred and fifty one do affix my name and seal. C. R. Johnson [Seal] J. G. Edwards Gabriel Robertson |
Charles and Louisa were there, along with many other members of the extended Johnson and Castellaw families.
My father, Bob Williams with the headstones of his second great-grandparents.
One of the most interesting connections involves John Edward Castellaw (1833-1896). He married two daughters of Charles and Louisa. In 1854, he married Margaret Wood Johnson (1836-1870). Years later, after Margaret’s death, he married her sister, Nancy Mariana Johnson Castellaw (1844-1921), my second-great-grandmother. She was the mother of my great-grandfather, Robert “Bob” Casteallaw (1868-1954), the father of my grandmother, Elizabeth Castellaw Williams (1915-1998).
The family connections get even more tangled from there. John Edward Castellaw was also the half brother of Nancy’s first husband, Thomas Jefferson “Tom” Castellaw Jr. (1841-1879). John Edward and Tom had the same father, Thomas Jefferson Castellaw Sr. (1808-1878). In other words, Nancy married two men from the same Castellaw family, and the second was both the widower of her sister and the half brother of her first husband.
Once we left Castellaw Cemetery, we drove a few roads west and found the graves of another of Charles and Louisa’s children, William R. Johnson (1834-1887), and his wife, Mariah J. Johnson (1831-1919). Their two headstones sit surprisingly close to the road on the edge of a field.
At one time, each grave stood beside a tree. The trees have died now, and only the stumps remain. Those trees may have saved the headstones from farming equipment over the years.
I have not found children for William and Mariah, however, after Charles died, William took care of the family’s younger children. William’s own will, dated May 16, 1887, named his wife, Mariah J. Johnson, as his executor and left her his personal property and land for her lifetime. The will also refers to nearby land as the “old C. R. Johnson tract,” another small reminder of how closely these farms and families connected in Johnson Grove.
As we headed back out of town, I noticed what looked like a possible cemetery in the middle of a field. Out in the country, a clump of trees that a farmer has left untouched often means one thing: somebody may be buried there.
I ran through what looked to me like grass, though I make no claims as a farmer, and pushed through the growth until I found a single grave.
The marker belonged to Maj. J. F. Varner (1842-1873), who was born March 11, 1842, and died Feb. 15, 1873, at age 31. The square and compasses on his stone identify him as a Mason. A useful clue appears in the Crockett County Guardian’s Bonds Index, which lists E. M. Varner and J. F. Varner as minor heirs of J. F. Varner in 1883, 1886 and 1887. That suggests this man may have been the father of the later Jason Frank Varner, a Johnson Grove-area merchant who died in 1950 and was buried in Johnson Grove Cemetery.
Jason Frank Varner’s obituary named his wife as Mrs. Lillie Varner and his brother as Ned Varner of Bells, which may connect Ned to the “E. M. Varner” listed in the guardianship record. I have not yet found a Civil War service record proving the “Maj.” title, but the marker, guardianship record and later obituary provide several promising leads.If you have been looking for your Varner ancestor, this may be him.
For more of my genealogy research, visit rscottwilliams.info.
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