Six Degrees of Richard Polk Johnson - A Goose Creek Island Connection

I recently received an email from William "Bill" Low who stumbled across my Goose Creek Island Journal.  He has been tracing the roots of his great grandfather, Richard Polk Johnson of Craven County.  Through his extensive research, William has found us on Goose Creek Island!!  Below is a bio of his research and the connections to Goose Creek Island.  I thought many of you would be interested.  Thank you Bill for allowing me to share your story.  I have included Bill's email address at the bottom of the story for those of you who would be willing to correspond with him.

Six Degrees of Richard Polk Johnson

Some of you may be familiar with the concept known as "six degrees of separation." It’s the idea that any two people on Earth are seldom more than six acquaintance links apart. (There is even a parlor game based on this idea known as "Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon" in which participants attempt to link, within six steps or less, any actor in Hollywood with the actor Kevin Bacon through common film projects.)

Genealogy offers us the chance to see that those surprisingly few degrees of separation mark not merely the relationships of acquaintances but of kin as well.

My name is William Low, and I have spent time recently putting together my family tree. One of the main branches of that tree is my great-grandfather Richard Polk Johnson (1844 - 1921). Many people mentioned on this blog can also trace a bit of their ancestry to him.

Richard was born December 30, 1844 in Craven, North Carolina to Jordan and Sarah Elizabeth Ives Johnson. He was the fifth child of eleven (though only five of his siblings lived to adulthood). His brother George Stevenson Johnson moved to Provincetown, Massachusetts and became a whaler. His four sisters Nancy Elizabeth, Susan M., Julia Ann and Ellenor Susan remained in the Pamlico area and married into families whose surnames may be familiar to you. 

Nancy married William Wallace Leary and then Bernard Carawan. Susan married Daniel Morris Lupton. Julia Ann married Andrew Dixon and then Tilmon Gaskins. And Ellenor married William Howard Lupton and then Robert Lupton Ireland.

Richard, unlike his more adventurous brother, stayed near his place of birth and made his living as a farmer. He met his first wife Martha Ann Messick (1851-1883) through her father John R. Messick. Both Richard and John had served in the same unit during the Civil War. Martha was quite a bit younger than Richard when they got married in 1865. (His father had even admonished him unsuccessfully to “take that little girl home” when Richard first brought her around.) When his father died, he took his mother and sister Ellenor and relocated to Richland, Beaufort, North Carolina. During this time he cofounded the Mount Olive Free Will Baptist Church in Spring Creek. He and Martha had seven children, but Martha did not survive the birth of what would have been their eighth child. 

Richard then married the even younger Josephine Sawyer (1860-1904) and had ten more children. Josephine, like Martha, did not survive the birth of their last child, though this time the child did survive. Richard then married the even younger still Ada Lucille Caton/Cayton (1879-1963) and had four more children. He died October 17, 1921.

Below is a list of some of the people mentioned on this blog who can trace some kinship to Richard:

Colton and Henry Carawan — Their brother Leland married Amanda Tetterton. She was a sister of Veda Tetterton, who was the wife of Richard's son Herbert.

Melissa O'Neal Carawan, Melissa Howerin Lewis, Albert Campen — All are related to Richard through his sister Nancy's second husband, Bernard Carawan.

George Jarvis Jr. — He was a nephew of Arlie Jarvis, the husband of Richard's granddaughter, Jessie Agnes Johnson.

Tildon Potter — He was the father-in-law of Richard's great-granddaughter, Opal Annetta Johnson.

Bryan Rice — He was the father-in-law of Richard's daughter, Mary E. Johnson.

Mollie Rowe Gibbs — She was the mother-in-law of his stepson, Hayes W Clark Jr.

Richard was also connected to the Mayo and Lupton families through his sisters Ellenor and Susan.

Currently a few of us are trying to trace Richard’s family back as far as we can. We know that his grandfather was named James Johnson and his grandmother was named Elizabeth but the trail goes cold beyond these names. Perhaps there is a surprising connection among this blog’s readership that can help us. 

William "Bill" Low

wlow3@hotmail.com