Benjamin Barclay Johnson (1843 - 1922)

Born 12 Sep 1843 in Rich Square Community, Franklin Township, Henry, Indiana, United States

Ancestors

Husband of Sylvia Anna Lindley — married 11 Feb 1871 in , Wayne, Indiana, USA

Descendants

Died 17 Dec 1922 at age 79 in Fairmount, Grant, Indiana, USA

Problems/Questions Profile manager: Allen McGrew [send private message]

Biography

Birth and Early Education

Barclay Johnson was born into the Quaker family of Joel Johnson and Elizabeth Jo( Davis) Johnson on 12 September, 1843 on their farm in the Rich Square Community in southern Henry County, Indiana. The Rich Square Community was established about a decade before Barclay's birth, in 1832, by his grandmother and other Quaker immigrants primarily from Virginia and North Carolina . Life centered on the local meeting, which continued services until the year 2000 when the rural meeting disbanded due to declining membership. The 1895 meetinghouse and the historic cemetery alongside it have been listed on the National Register of Historic Places and can still be visited just south of I-70 on County Road 250 East in Franklin Township, southern Henry County, Indiana ^[1].

Being of an appropriate age to serve in the Civil War, Barclay was faced with the dilemma of many Quakers of that time, being led by faith to oppose slavery and yet also being led by that same faith to renounce military action and violence in all its forms. At that time, there being no legal provision for conscientious objection, most petitions for relief from military service on conscientious grounds were handled on a case-by-case basis and might entail, for example, providing supplies to the Union Army in lieu of service. According to family lore, Barclay was instead asked to pay the salary of a replacement who went in his stead.^[2] When Barclay's replacement failed to return alive, Barclay carried the moral weight of obligation through the remainder of his life. The role that sense of obligation may have played in his subsequent charitable commitments can only be guessed at.

Marriage and Initial Service at Southland College

Barclay qualified to teach at age 17 after being educated at the Richsquare Academy, the first high school in Henry County, which the Quakers of the Rich Square community had established in 1841 to provide for the education of their children and young people ^[3]. Barclay spent 15 years as an educator, in which capacity he met his future wife (and most gifted student), Sylvia Anna Lindley, who was not quite seventeen at the time of their marriage. Apparently, their marriage was somewhat rushed, as they had undertaken a missionary commitment to serve as teachers at Southland College -- a normal school established by Indiana Yearly Meeting of Friends in Lexa Arkansas about 12 miles northwest of Helena, the County seat of Phillips County in the Delta region, to serve the educational needs of the children of African-American freedmen ^[4]. According to family tradition, Barclay and Anna were censored by one of their home meetings due to "marrying out of unity" by failing to go through the full process of approvals by the Meeting before marrying. Visited by the elders of the Meeting to reproach them for their conduct, they asked to be left alone to discuss the matter for a few minutes. When they reconvened with the elders, they informed them that while they could not honestly say they were sorry, they would promise never to do it again ^[5]

Originally established as an orphanage for African American children, by the time Barclay and Anna taught there in 1871-72, Southland had developed into a mission of greater ambition as the first institution of higher learning for African-Americans west of the Mississippi. The founders and early directors of Southland, Calvin and Alida Clark are reported to have both been descendants of John Clark and Anne (Gibson) Clark, which would have made them second cousins to Anna’s grandparents, but whether they were aware of this distant family connection, and whether it had anything to do with the attraction of Barclay and Anna to the institution is not known.

Farming and Raising a Family

After their initial stint teaching at Southland, Barclay and Anna returned to Indiana, and settled in Grant County in 1874, where they gave birth to a family of ten children, one of whom (Earl) died shortly after his birth, and another, Myra, who died at age 4. The family placed great stock in education for both their male and female children, and when their eldest children, Ernest and Elizabeth, completed grammar school they made the decision to sell their land in Franklin Township near the little town of Herbst and to purchase a farm nearer the town of Fairmount where the highly regarded Fairmount Academy would afford Elizabeth and the younger children the opportunity of a high school education. They closed on the farm the same day that their eighth child, a son, was born, with the result that Barclay, the harried father preoccupied with the purchase of the new farm and his stock of family names at this point depleted, left it to his children to name the newborn boy by lottery. They were to put names in a hat, and the first name drawn was to be his first name, and the second his middle name. The first name drawn, "Pocahontas" had been placed in the hat in jest by a hired hand, and the second, "Willie" was supplied by one of his older sisters -- thus did the newly christened "Will" enter life without a middle name. Newborn Will's life from cradle to grave (dying at age 97 in 1982) was to be entwined with the newly purchased farm, which remained in the family until his descendants eventually sold it in 2013. The farmhouse where they raised their family still stands on the west side of Indiana St Rte. 9 at Lat. 40.442028, Long. -85.673931.

The family placed great stock in education and showed considerable educational attainment according to the standards of the late 19th and early 20th century. The oldest son Ernest and his sister, Elizabeth, began school at the Fairmount Academy the same day, graduated the same day, both worked as teachers themselves, and were married just a day apart -- he to Bertha Coggeshall and she to Walter W. Rush.^[6] Of their other children, all who survived childhood graduated from the Fairmount Academy. In addition, Clayton acquired advanced training in business, Alice and Alfred attended the University of Illinois, and Annette and Will graduated from Earlham College. The youngest, Geneva, began at Earlham College but completed her Bachelor's degree at Whittier College in California. Exceptionally at the time, all three of the younger children also pursued post-graduate education-- Annette at Bryn Mawr, Will at the University of California, and Geneva at Stanford. Most of their children at some point followed their parents in spending at least part of their careers as teachers, with Geneva and Will making careers of it. Two daughters married into the family of Nixon and Louisa Rush, prominent and widely traveled Quaker ministers and scions of a prominent farming and banking family in Fairmount. As mentioned above, Elizabeth married their oldest son, Walter, whereas Annette married Calvin, who went on to earn a medical degree from the University of Pennsylvania specializing in Eye, Ear, Nose and Throat. Calvin and Annette also served in various capacities with the American Friends Service Committee, including a year of service in China, where he diagnosed and treated a variety of visual maladies.^[7] ,^[8]. One of the Rush sisters, Olive Rush, went on to considerable acclaim as an artist and illustrator.

Into the Breach: Return to Southland College

Following the marriage of Elizabeth to Walter Rush in 1895, Barclay and Anna again felt free to answer the call to Southland in 1899, and continued as the superintendent and head matron of the school until 1903, leaving the younger children under the care of Elizabeth. The second oldest sister, Alice, followed Barclay and Anna to Southland to serve as a teacher. According to the family lore handed down through the youngest son left at home, Will, Elizabeth was not a particularly versatile cook, being skilled primarily in the preparation of rudabagas, which they had so frequently that the family took to calling them “it” – as in “We’re having ‘it’ for dinner again tonight." ^[9].

Apparently, Barclay and Anna (he as “superintendant” – a titular step down from the “president” whom he was replacing-- and she as “matron”) arrived at a particularly perilous time for its future. The previous “president” of the college, Stanley Pearson, had begun his tenure with great ambition and hopeful plans to follow the Tuskegee Institute model, but then unexpectedly died in his first year, living just long enough to see the roofs of the chapel and the classroom building torn off and the crops damaged by a tornado in June of 1899. ^[10] The following March, a suspected arsonist completed the destruction by setting fire to the two damaged buildings, and the Friends Mission Board was forced to consider whether it was time to lay-down the ill-starred ministry. Although the buildings were insured, following the fires the insurance company dropped coverage of the remaining buildings due to the suspicion of malicious arson, and some members of the mission board began to argue against the prudence of continuing the mission. With the support of Stanley Pearson’s widow Barclay was able to argue that the faith and sacrifices of their predecessors placed on them an obligation to continue the work by providing for the construction of a modern new classroom building and chapel, ^[11]

At the end of their tenure in 1903, as they sought relief from their responsibilities in order to take up again their responsibilities at home in Indiana, Barclay and Anna were able to report to Indiana Yearly Meeting that the surviving buildings had all been put in good repair, and a new heating plant installed to service them, that a substantial, three-story new classroom building and chapel had been constructed, that enrollments had stabilized and begun to grow again, and that the full teaching faculty had been retained to support the transition to a new superintendent.^[12] At that time, three-fourths of the teachers throughout the “tri-county region” of the delta were Southland graduates, and in 1901 a graduating Southland student had been chosen to read her paper on “Modern Education” to the State teachers institute in Helena. Meanwhile, in 1903 the report of the Missionary Board in 1903 thanked them for their service and reported the hiring of a promising young, new superintendent, Henry C. (“Harry”) Wolford, who was destined to lead the school through most of the next two decades:

"In making the fortieth annual report of the Missionary Board on Southland, we desire to gratefully acknowledge the blessing of our Heavenly Father which has rested down upon the labor of love and benefit done for the people of the negro race at Southland, under the care of this committee. Of its success we owe much to the earnest solicitude and watchful care of our dear Friends, Barclay Johnson and wife, who have so well served in their respective capacities as Superintendent and Matron. At their own urgent request they were relieved from further service about the 25th of Eighth month, and their places have been filled by our dear younger Friends, Henry C. Wolford and wife, who are now in charge."

For their part, Barclay and Anna proudly reported the closing of their tenure at Southland with the first commencement held in the new facilities:

"Our commencement exercises and other entertainments have all been of high character and well attended. Our assem bly room will seat about 400, and has been crowded on several occasions. The last gathering, on the 8th of Eighth month, was a Sabbath School picnic, " farewell " and " inaugural." We expected a full house, but the gathering exceeded our expectation. Amongst the regrets expressed at our leaving we almost regretted to leave ourselves, and, but for the home-coming, the regrets would have prevailed."

To illustrate the impact the Johnsons had during their brief but influential 3-year tenure at Southland, among the students whose graduation they observed that year of 1903 was Anna (Paschal) Strong who would go on to study at Tuskegee and Columbia and then to co-found the National Congress of Colored Teachers and Parents in 1926 and to be elected president of the Arkansas Teacher’s Association in 1929.^[13] Strong continued as a principle of Moton High School in Marianna, Arkansas until 1951. ^[14]

Retirement and Passing

After their return to Indiana, Barclay and Anna turned over farming to the children and retired into the community of Fairmount, where they lived until moving to Orange County, California in about 1913. Having been eldered themselves at the beginning of their marriage so many years before, Anna herself became recognized as an elder of the Fairmount Friends Meeting. ^[15] Barclay and Anna lived out their remaining days in Orange County, with her passing just shy of her 68th year of age on 17 March, 1922, and him passing nine months later at age 79 on 17 December, 1922. ^[16]

Name

Barclay /Johnson/^{[17][18][19][20][21][22][23]}

Barclay /Johnson/^[24]

Barclay /Johnson/^[25]

Found multiple versions of NAME. Using Barclay /Johnson/.

Birth

12 SEP 1843

Hopewell, Henry, Indiana, USA^{[26][27][28][29][30][31]}

1844

Indiana^[32]

1844

Indiana^[33]

1844

Indiana^[34]

Found multiple copies of BIRT DATE. Using 12 SEP 1843

Death

17 DEC 1922

Fairmount, Grant, Indiana, USA^[35][36]

1922

California

17 DEC 1922

Fairmount, Indiana, USA^[37]

17 DEC 1922

Fairmount, Grant, Indiana, USA^[38]

17 DEC 1922

Fairmount, Indiana, USA^[39]

18 DEC 1922^[40]

Found multiple copies of DEAT DATE. Using 17 DEC 1922Array

Residence

1910

Fairmount, Grant, Indiana^[41][42]

1910

Fairmount, Grant, Indiana^[43]

1920

Mountain View, Santa Clara, California^[44]

1860

Franklin, Henry, Indiana^[45][46]

1860

Franklin, Henry, Indiana^[47]

1920

Mountain View, Santa Clara, California^[48]

1920

Mountain View, Santa Clara, California^[49]

Burial

Whittier, Los Angeles County, California, USA^[50]

Object

@M50@

Marriage

FAM

@I13@

@I14@

@I146@

to Father: Natural

to Mother: Natural

@I145@

to Father: Natural

to Mother: Natural

@I144@

to Father: Natural

to Mother: Natural

@I143@

to Father: Natural

to Mother: Natural

@I142@

to Father: Natural

to Mother: Natural

@I141@

to Father: Natural

to Mother: Natural

@I7@

to Father: Natural

to Mother: Natural

@I137@

to Father: Natural

to Mother: Natural

@I140@

to Father: Natural

to Mother: Natural

@I139@

to Father: Natural

to Mother: Natural

@I138@

to Father: Natural

to Mother: Natural

11 FEB 1871

, Wayne, Indiana, USA^[51][52]

@M88@

FAM

@I162@

@I163@

@I13@

to Father: Natural

to Mother: Natural

@I166@

to Father: Natural

to Mother: Natural

@I167@

to Father: Natural

to Mother: Natural

@I168@

to Father: Natural

to Mother: Natural

@I169@

to Father: Natural

to Mother: Natural

@I170@

to Father: Natural

to Mother: Natural

@I171@

to Father: Natural

to Mother: Natural

@I172@

to Father: Natural

to Mother: Natural

@I173@

to Father: Natural

to Mother: Natural

@I174@

to Father: Natural

to Mother: Natural

31 OCT 1837^[53]

Sources

• Source: S1 Author: Ancestry.com Title: OneWorldTree Publication: Name: The Generations Network, Inc.; Location: Provo, UT, USA; Repository: #R1
• Repository: R1 Name: www.ancestry.com Address: E-Mail Address: Phone Number:
• Source: S2 Author: Ancestry.com Title: Public Member Trees Publication: Name: The Generations Network, Inc.; Location: Provo, UT, USA; Date: 2006; Repository: #R1
• Source: S22 Author: Ancestry.com Title: 1920 United States Federal Census Publication: Name: Ancestry.com Operations Inc; Location: Provo, UT, USA; Date: 2010; Repository: #R1
• Source: S23 Author: Ancestry.com Title: Web: California, Find A Grave Index, 1775-2011 Publication: Name: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc.; Location: Provo, UT, USA; Date: 2012; Repository: #R1 NOTEFind A Grave, : Find A Grave
• Source: S5 Author: Ancestry.com Title: 1860 United States Federal Census Publication: Name: The Generations Network, Inc.; Location: Provo, UT, USA; Date: 2004; Repository: #R1 NOTEUnited States of America, Bureau of the Census, Eighth Census of the United States, 1860, Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 1860
• Source: S8 Author: Ancestry.com Title: 1910 United States Federal Census Publication: Name: The Generations Network, Inc.; Location: Provo, UT, USA; Date: 2006; Repository: #R1 NOTEUnited States of America, Bureau of the Census, Thirteenth Census of the United States, 1910, Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 1910

1. ↑ National Register of Historic Places Registration Form, Richsquare Meetinghouse and Cemetery, https://secure.in.gov/apps/dnr/shaard/r/25253/N/Richsquare_Friends_Meetinghouse_and_Cemetery_Henry_CO_Nom.pdf
2. ↑ McGrew, Janet E. Johnson, pers. comm.
3. ↑ Centennial History of Grant County Indiana 1812-1912. The Lewis Publishing Co., 1914, p. 703
4. ↑ Kennedy, Thomas. A History of Southland College: The Society of Friends and Black Education in Arkansas. University of Arkansas Press, 2009, 349 p
5. ↑ Janet E. Johnson McGrew, pers. comm.
6. ↑ Centennial History of Grant County Indiana 1812-1912. The Lewis Publishing Co., 1914, page 703.
7. ↑ Xu, Guangqiu. American Doctors in Canton: Modernization in China, 1835 - 1935. Routledge, 2017, p. 35.
8. ↑ Rush, Calvin C. Treatment of Myopia, China Medical Journal, v. 34, 1920, p. 606
9. ↑ Janet E. Johnson McGrew, pers. comm.
10. ↑ Kennedy, Thomas. A History of Southland College: The Society of Friends and Black Education in Arkansas. University of Arkansas Press, 2009, 349 p
11. ↑ Kennedy, Thomas. A History of Southland College: The Society of Friends and Black Education in Arkansas. University of Arkansas Press, 2009, 349 p
12. ↑ Minutes, Indiana Yearly Meeting, 1900 - 1903.
13. ↑ Dillard, T. Opinion: In Honor of Dedicated Educators. Arkasas Democrat Gazette, Aug. 11, 2019
14. ↑ "Anna M.P. Strong: Dedicated Her Life to Improving Education for African Americans," [1]
15. ↑ Centennial History of Grant County Indiana 1812-1912. The Lewis Publishing Co., 1914, page 703.
16. ↑ https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/13199340/b-john
17. ↑ Source: #S2 Page: Database online. Data: Text: Record for Sylvia Ann Lindley
18. ↑ Source: #S5 Page: Database online. Franklin, Henry, Indiana, post office Lewisville, roll M653_266, page 72, image 73. Data: Text: Record for Barclay Johnson Object: @M7@
19. ↑ Source: #S8 Page: Database online. Fairmount, Grant, Indiana, ED , roll T624_351, part , page . Data: Text: Record for Barclay Johnson Object: @M8@
20. ↑ Source: #S2 Page: Database online. Data: Text: Record for Sylvia Lindley
21. ↑ Source: #S2 Page: Database online. Data: Text: Record for Barclay Johnson
22. ↑ Source: #S22 Page: Database online. Year: 1920; Census Place: Mountain View, Santa Clara, California; Roll: T625_146; Page: 16B; Enumeration District: 126; Image: 773. Data: Text: Record for Barclay Johnson Object: @M21@
23. ↑ Source: #S23 Page: Database online. Data: Text: Record for Barclay Johnson
24. ↑ Source: #S1 Page: Database online. Data: Text: Record for William Johnson
25. ↑ Source: #S1 Page: Database online. Data: Text: Record for Joel Johnson
26. ↑ Source: #S1 Page: Database online. Data: Text: Record for William Johnson
27. ↑ Source: #S2 Page: Database online. Data: Text: Record for Sylvia Ann Lindley
28. ↑ Source: #S1 Page: Database online. Data: Text: Record for Joel Johnson
29. ↑ Source: #S2 Page: Database online. Data: Text: Record for Sylvia Lindley
30. ↑ Source: #S2 Page: Database online. Data: Text: Record for Barclay Johnson
31. ↑ Source: #S23 Page: Database online. Data: Text: Record for Barclay Johnson
32. ↑ Source: #S5 Page: Database online. Franklin, Henry, Indiana, post office Lewisville, roll M653_266, page 72, image 73. Data: Text: Record for Barclay Johnson Object: @M7@
33. ↑ Source: #S8 Page: Database online. Fairmount, Grant, Indiana, ED , roll T624_351, part , page . Data: Text: Record for Barclay Johnson Object: @M8@
34. ↑ Source: #S22 Page: Database online. Year: 1920; Census Place: Mountain View, Santa Clara, California; Roll: T625_146; Page: 16B; Enumeration District: 126; Image: 773. Data: Text: Record for Barclay Johnson Object: @M21@
35. ↑ Source: #S2 Page: Database online. Data: Text: Record for Sylvia Lindley
36. ↑ Source: #S2 Page: Database online. Data: Text: Record for Barclay Johnson
37. ↑ Source: #S1 Page: Database online. Data: Text: Record for William Johnson
38. ↑ Source: #S2 Page: Database online. Data: Text: Record for Sylvia Ann Lindley
39. ↑ Source: #S1 Page: Database online. Data: Text: Record for Joel Johnson
40. ↑ Source: #S23 Page: Database online. Data: Text: Record for Barclay Johnson
41. ↑ Source: #S8 Page: Database online. Fairmount, Grant, Indiana, ED , roll T624_351, part , page . Data: Text: Record for Barclay Johnson Object: @M8@
42. ↑ Source: #S2 Page: Database online. Data: Text: Record for Barclay Johnson
43. ↑ Source: #S2 Page: Database online. Data: Text: Record for Sylvia Ann Lindley
44. ↑ Source: #S2 Page: Database online. Data: Text: Record for Sylvia Ann Lindley
45. ↑ Source: #S2 Page: Database online. Data: Text: Record for Sylvia Ann Lindley
46. ↑ Source: #S5 Page: Database online. Franklin, Henry, Indiana, post office Lewisville, roll M653_266, page 72, image 73. Data: Text: Record for Barclay Johnson Object: @M7@
47. ↑ Source: #S2 Page: Database online. Data: Text: Record for Barclay Johnson
48. ↑ Source: #S2 Page: Database online. Data: Text: Record for Barclay Johnson
49. ↑ Source: #S22 Page: Database online. Year: 1920; Census Place: Mountain View, Santa Clara, California; Roll: T625_146; Page: 16B; Enumeration District: 126; Image: 773. Data: Text: Record for Barclay Johnson Object: @M21@
50. ↑ Source: #S23 Page: Database online. Data: Text: Record for Barclay Johnson
51. ↑ Source: #S2 Page: Database online. Data: Text: Record for Sylvia Ann Lindley
52. ↑ Source: #S2 Page: Database online. Data: Text: Record for Barclay Johnson
53. ↑ Source: #S1 Page: Database online. Data: Text: Record for Joel Johnson

Acknowledgments

Thank you to Allen McGrew for creating WikiTree profile Johnson-17796 through the import of McGrew_2010-01-09_2013-03-22.ged on Mar 22, 2013.

Click to the Changes page for the details of edits by Allen and others.