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| Original Plat Map overlaid with red lines indicating "The Farm" |
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| Josiah Stoddard Johnston (from wikipedia website) |
Josiah Stoddard Johnston, Rapides Parish, Louisiana
Submitted by Gaytha Carver Thompson
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http://usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm
http://usgwarchives.net/la/lafiles.htm
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SOME PROMINENT RAPIDES NAMES OF LONG AGO
by DR. G. M. G. STAFFORD
Source: Melrose Collection #66; NSU Archives; Natchitoches, LA.
Louisiana State Courier January 1985
Compiled by: Annette Carpenter Womack, editor
Typed by:
Probably of all the Rapides pioneers none shed more honor and glory upon his
name than did Josiah Stoddard Johnston. He was the eldest son of Dr. John
Johnston and his wife, Mary Stoddard, and was born in Salisbury, Conn., on
November 24, 1784. He was carried to Washington, Mason county, Kentucky, in
1788, by his parents where he spent his boyhood and early manhood. He was
first sent to New Haven, Conn. To school, but completed his education at
Transylvania University, Lexington, Ky. After this he studied law with the
famous George Nicholas. In 1805 he emigrated to the territory of Louisiana at
the age of 21. He settled at Alexandria, in Rapides parish, which was then a
frontier village.
He was elected to the first Territorial Legislature and served in that body
until 1812, when Louisiana was admitted into the Union. He then served as
judge in Rapides parish from 1812 to 1821. He married, in 1814, Miss Eliza
Sibley, daughter of Dr. John Sibley, of Natchitoches. Her brother, Dr. Robert
H. Sibley, was a prominent physician in Rapides and married Mary Wells, a
daughter of Samuel Levi Wells.
Judge Johnston's two full brothers, Darius and Orramel, settled in Rapides, as
also did two of his half brothers, John Harris and Lucius. All became men of
distinction here. Their graves may be seen in the Rapides cemetery in
Pineville. Judge Johnston had an only son, William Stoddard Johnston, who
also became district judge here. He died in the prime of life and was buried
in the Rapides cemetery.
In 1819 Albert Sidney Johnston, afterwards a general in the Confederate States
Army [killed at Shiloh - the highest ranking officer of either army killed in the Civil War], who was the youngest of Judge Johnston's half brothers, visited his
distinguished brother in Rapides and spent an entire winter with him.
When the British invaded Louisiana in 1815 Judge Johnston raised and equipped
a regiment in Central Louisiana and went at its head to the aid of General
Jackson in New Orleans.
In 1821 he was elected to the seventeenth Congress and in 1823 to the U. S.
Senate. He was reelected in 1825 and in 1831. On May 19, 1833, while en
route to Natchitoches on the steamer Lioness, he met with a sudden death and
was interred in a watery grave. His remains still lie somewhere at the bottom
of Red River. There was a quantity of gunpowder on the steamer which became
ignited and caused a terrific explosion, sinking the boat.
George Young Kelso
The following info from Gwendolyn Olson from "Louisiana in the Civil War" message board...
George Young Kelso Sr was married to Ellin Rich in 1820 in Baltimore, MD they moved to Rapides, Louisiana soon after the marriage. They had a son, also named George Young Kelso. George Sr had a daughter (my great-great-great-grandmother) named Rebecca who ALSO named a son George Young. This George sometimes used the surname of Carr, but is occasionally on the census as Kelso.
George Young Kelso was Irish/white. I believe he was from Clones, Ireland and his brothers were John Kelso and Thomas Kelso. He moved from Baltimore, MD between 1820 and 1830. I have a record of a marriage to Ellin Rich, and someone here found a marriage to the daughter of George Mason Graham. Both Mason and Kelso were white. Baltimore had a large FPOC population. It looks like they married into these families. I have a picture of Rebecca, George Y Kelso's sister, and she looks like a white woman, but was always listed as black (probably because of the one drop rule). Her daughters, and George's family married into the white community. I can send you a copy of the picture if you are interested.
The Kelso family is actually from Scotland. The earliest Kelso I can find so far, is Richard Kelso, probably born in the early 1700s. Richard and his unknown wife had 3 sons and an unknown daughter. He was a tradesman in Clones, Ireland who walked into history when he invited the great Protestant minister, and leader of the Great Awakening in the USA John Wesley into his home. This event is documented in Methodist history books and mentioned in the obituaries of two of his sons, John and Thomas. The oldest son, George Young Kelso emigrated to Baltimore, MD about 1784. Younger brothers John (b1766) and Thomas (b1784) followed in 1791 after the death of their father Richard Kelso. The brothers reunited, and with the help of a $100 investment by schoolteacher George Young Kelso, they founded the family fortune based upon a butcher shop. The shop grew and prospered leaving the brothers very wealthy millionaires. George died young in 1807, but John lived to 1850 and Thomas died in 1878. Our George Young is either the son of John or George. I believe he is John's son. George was born in Baltimore in 1795 and married Ellen Rich of Boston, Mass. Their first daughter, Rebecca R(b1828), was born in LA. George was buying up land in LA as early as the 1820s, and transporting hundreds of slaves from MD to LA to work his plantations. It appears that Ellen (actually Eleanor) did not like LA, and the family moved back to MD where the next three children, Jane (b1830), future Captain and Judge John Kelso (b1831) and Ellen R (b1833). George's wife Ellen died in 1833, and the family remained in MD assisted by what appear to be two of Ellen's sisters. George traveled back and forth to LA to continue to build his fortune, and sometime between 1834-35 he met my great-great great grandmother, Rebecca Carr, a free woman of color, born in Kentucky, who would have been about 16 at the time and took her as a 'common-law-wife' with whom he had 4 children; Clara (my great great grandmother, born 1836); Georgiana (b1839), John (b1842), and future LA Senator George Young Kelso (b1844). After Rebecca Carr and George Young Kelso separated, he gave her money to enable her to support herself and her children. Later, from what I understand, he took another wife shortly before his death around 1850. The two half brothers, both named John and George, have apparently been confusing both the legal system and genealogist for over a hundred years. I hope this answers your questions--to wit, Black Senator George Young Kelso was half brother to Captain and Judge John Kelso.
