Bruce Morton Garver, a great-great nephew of Sarah Ann (Morton) Johnson (1836-1929), has written her "bio" and welcomes suggestions for its improvement. Bruce's maternal great-grandmother, Elizabeth (Morton) Morton (1847-1933), is the youngest sister of Sarah Ann (Morton0 Johnson (1936-1929).
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SARAH ANN MORTON JOHNSON's PARENTS & NINE SIBLINGS: Sarah Ann Morton was born on October 8, 1836, in Milford Township of Butler County, Ohio, to Delaware-born Benjamin Morton (1805-1858) and Yorkshire-born immigrant Mary Jane Clifton Morton (1805-1898). Of their ten children, Sarah Ann Morton Johnson is the fifth-born and is interred at Darrtown in Butler County, Ohio, at Darrtown Pioneer Cemetery beside her husband Thomas Johnson and close to her parents, Benjamin and Mary Jane Clifton Morton and five of her nine siblings: (1st-born) John William Morton, (2nd born Rebecca Jane Morton, (4th-born) David Morton, (6th-born) Andrew J. Morton, and (9th-born) Abraham Morton. Sarah Morton Johnson's brother, (3rd-born) Joseph Hinsey Morton, and sister, (8th-born) Martha Morton Glasgow, are interred in Oxford Cemetery at Oxford in Butler County, Ohio. Sister (10th-born) Elizabeth Morton Morton (Mrs. George Reynolds Morton), is interred in Somerville Cemetery at Somerville in Milford Township of Butler County, Ohio. The location of the grave of sister, (7th-born) Mary Ann Morton York (1840-1864, Mrs. James York), has not yet been ascertained. Her husband, James York (June 1, 1838, to Sept. 24, 1924) is interred in Ritchie Cemetery at Versailles in Morgan County, Missouri and is the subject of a Find a Grave Memorial. Bruce Morton Garver, who manages this Memorial for Sarah Ann Morton Johnson, is a great-grandson of Elizabeth (Morton) Morton and George Reynolds Morton and a great-great grandson of Benjamin Morton and Mary Jane Clifton Morton, the parents of Sarah Ann Morton Johnson, Elizabeth (Morton) Morton, and the eight other Morton children mentioned above.
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SARAH ANN MORTON's MARRIAGE TO THOMAS JOHNSON: On September 17, 1856, in Butler County, Ohio, Sarah Ann Morton wed Thomas Johnson who had been born on December 5, 1829, in Ross Township of Butler County, Ohio, to Joseph Johnson (Oct. 23, 1794, in Butler County, Ohio, to Nov. 10, 1869, at Dayton, Ohio) and Elizabeth "Betsy" (Mustard) Johnson (Dec. 1, 1804, in Pennsylvania, to August 11, 1874, in Ohio). Joseph Johnson & Elizabeth Betsy Mustard had wed on February 18, 1819, in Butler County, Ohio.
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THE TWELVE CHILDREN OF SARAH ANN MORTON JOHNSON & THOMAS JOHNSON: Together, on their family farm in Milford Township of Butler County, Ohio, Sarah Ann Morton Johnson and Thomas Johnson raised twelve children who are briefly described immediately below in the order of their birth and more explicitly described further below in Bruce Morton Garver's detailed caption for the second attached photograph which depicts the nine (9) children who assembled on Sept. 3, 1906, to celebrate the 50th anniversary of their parents, Sarah Ann Morton Johnson & Thomas Johnson.
Of the twelve (12) Johnson children, the eight (8) who have Find a Grave Memorials are each identified by a **double asterisk; and their Memorials have been linked below this "bio" to each other and to those of their parents.
[1]** William Johnson (1857-1857), [2]**Andrew Jackson ("Jack") Johnson (1858-1942), [3]**Charles Johnson (1859-1936), [4]**Mitchell Johnson (1861-1934), [5] Martha Alice Johnson (Grismer, 1862-1961), [6]**George Morton Johnson (1864-1958), [7]**David Johnson (1866-1867), [8]**Wilmer Butler Johnson (1867-1960), [9] Sarah Elizabeth Johnson (Everson, 1870-1970), twins [10]** Allen Johnson (1875-1907) and [11]**Ellen Johnson (Curliss, 1875-1951), and finally [12]**Benjamin Franklin ("Ben") Johnson (1878-1944). Fraternal twins Allen and Ellen Johnson were born on September 6, 1877, and received first names which rhyme.
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THE MORTON AND JOHNSON FAMILIES ESTABLISHED FRIENDLY AND LONG-ENDURING RELATIONSHIPS by means of attending birthday celebrations, weddings, christenings, and funerals in one another's families. From 1903 into the early 1930s, an annual Morton-Johnson Family Reunion was held, usually during the Labor Day weekend in Butler County, Ohio. These reunions attracted not only families residing close by in southwestern Ohio and southeastern Indiana but also occasionally families who resided in other American states. Attached to Sarah Ann Morton Johnson's Memorial are two photographs of 50th wedding anniversary gatherings and one photograph of the Sept. 1, 1919, Morton-Johnson Family Reunion, all of which Sarah Ann Morton Johnson happily attended.
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THE DEATH & INTERMENT OF SARAH ANN MORTON JOHNSON & THOMAS JOHNSON: After fifty-two years and two months of marriage to Sarah Ann, Thomas Johnson died on November 12, 1908, in Butler County, Ohio, where he was interred at Darrtown Pioneer Cemetery in Milford Township. Sarah would be interred beside him after her death twenty years and two months later on January 10, 1929.
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CAPTION FOR THE FIRST ATTACHED PHOTOGRAPH: On September 28, 1915, Sarah Ann Morton Johnson was one of fifteen Morton family members who gathered on McGlynn Street in Hamilton, seat of Butler County, Ohio, to celebrate the Golden Wedding Anniversary of George Reynolds Morton & Elizabeth Morton Morton, the youngest of Sarah's four sisters. The third photograph attached to this Memorial depicts fourteen of the fifteen Morton relatives present at that 1916 event.
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CAPTION FOR THE SECOND ATTACHED PHOTO DEPICTING THE 50th WEDDING ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION OF SARAH ANN MORTON JOHNSON & THOMAS JOHNSON: Courtesy of Steve & Kathy Strasser and Judy Ann Morton Brueneman: At an annual reunion of the closely related Morton and Johnson families on Sept. 3, 1906, in Butler County, Ohio, Sarah Ann Morton Johnson (1836-1929) and her husband, Thomas Johnson (1829-1908), posed for this photograph with their nine adult children who attended this reunion and the simultaneous celebration of their parents' fiftieth wedding anniversary forthcoming on Sept. 17, 1906. Son Charles Johnson (1859-1936) did not attend, and his brothers William (1857-1857) and David Johnson (1866-1867) had each died in infancy. Seated at the center of the front row are Sarah Ann Morton Johnson and Thomas Johnson, whose marriage had taken place on Sept. 17, 1856. Also seated in front are George Morton Johnson (1864-1958) on the left and Andrew Jackson ("Jack") Johnson (1858-1942) on the right. In the back row, from left to right, stand Martha Alice Johnson Grismer (1862-1961), Benjamin Johnson (1878-1944), Mitchell Johnson (1861-1934), Sarah Elizabeth Johnson Everson (1870-1970), Wilmer Butler Johnson (1867-1960), Allen Johnson (1877-1907) and Ellen Johnson Curliss (1877-1951). Twins Allen and Ellen Johnson were born on Sept. 6, 1877, and given names that rhyme. Discussion: I, Bruce Morton Garver, concur with Judy Morton Brueneman in our identification of each of the nine adult Johnson children present in photograph made on Sept. 3, 1906. I did so after having read Judy's transcription of a family member's hand-written identification of the same nine adult children who appear in an enormous companion portrait of all of the Morton and Johnson relatives who celebrated on Sept. 3, 1906, the forthcoming 50th wedding anniversary on Sept. 17, 1906, of Sarah and Thomas Johnson. After downloading and photoshopping Judy's JPEG of this large professionally-made photograph into my PC, I enlarged the photo enough to view clearly the face of each of the nine adult Johnson siblings and to match each face in the large group photo to the same face in the small group photo, a task that was facilitated by the fact each sibling wore the same distinctive clothing in one photo as he or she wore in the other photo. In doing so, I independently confirmed Judy's identification of the same individuals by means of essentially identical methods. My having thus ascertained the identity of each of the nine Johnson siblings was also facilitated by my having read Judy Morton Brueneman's PDF document entitled "Descendants of Eli Johnson" in which she provides the birth and death dates of each of Thomas Johnson's and Sarah Ann Morton Johnson's twelve children. Sarah Ann Morton (Mrs. Thomas Johnson) was the fifth born, and Elizabeth Morton (Mrs. George Reynolds Morton, 1847-1933) was the tenth born of the ten children of Benjamin Morton and Mary Jane Clifton Morton, the great-great grandparents of Bruce Morton Garver, Ann Clifton Garver Bell, Judy Ann Morton Brueneman, Lois Jean Ernst, Kenneth Morton, William Morton Strasser, Shirley Ann Strasser, Donald Paul Strasser, and Robert Jacob Strasser. Whenever this JPEG photo is distributed in digital form, please give credit to Bruce & Karen Garver and "the Garver-Morton-Lotz-Bippus-McCloskey Family Digital Photograph Collection" at Lane Public Library in Hamilton, Ohio.
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CAPTION FOR THE THIRD ATTACHED PHOTO, THAT OF ELIZABETH & GEORGE R. MORTON's 50th WEDDING ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION: On September 28, 1915, fifteen members of the large Morton family gathered on McGlynn Street in Hamilton, Ohio, to celebrate the Golden Wedding Anniversary of George Reynolds Morton (1846-1920) and Elizabeth Morton Morton (1847-1933). All five Morton grandchildren are depicted along with two daughters-in-law, one son, Will, the only one still living of the four children of George and Elizabeth. Present too are George Morton's brother, James Willis Morton, and two of Elizabeth Morton's sisters, Martha Glasgow and Sarah Anne Johnson. The names of persons portrayed in this photograph conform to Ruth Ernestine Morton Garver's handwritten identification of each person in the photograph. Her son, Bruce Morton Garver, has added contextual information to make the relationships between these Morton relatives intelligible to today's younger generation of Morton descendants. Ruth reported that Mildred Morton (1875-1924), daughter of James Willis Morton and Martha Markle Morton, attended the 50th anniversary celebration and probably made this photograph. Standing in the back row from left to right are: (1) James Willis Morton (1844-1918), who, during the Civil War, had served more than three years in Company "C" of the 93rd Ohio Infantry Regiment within the U. S. Army of the Cumberland. (2) Anna Schultheiss Morton (1879-1950) is the wife of William Welsh Lewis ("Will") Morton (1871-1931), the older son of George Reynolds and Elizabeth Morton Morton. (3) Edith Elizabeth Morton (Jan. 12, 1905 to March 4, 1988), daughter of David Hinsey ("Dave") Morton & Emma Lotz Morton, would wed John Arthur Bippus on June 30, 1938. (4) Mary Elizabeth Morton (the future Mrs. William Strasser, April 21, 1901, to Dec. 9, 1968), is the daughter of Will Morton & Anna Schultheiss Morton. (5) William Welsh Lewis (Will) Morton ((Sept. 9, 1871, to Nov. 9, 1931) had been preceded in death by his brother David Hinsey Morton (1878-1914) and their sisters Cornelia ("Nellie", 1867-1887) and Mary Ann (1869-1892). (6) William David ("Bill") Morton (June 4, 1903, to March 11, 1955), the eldest son of Will and Anna Morton, would marry Hilda Beatrice ("Betty") Niehaus (1906-1966) on April 18, 1928. (7) Mrs. Rebecca ("Jennie") Morton Adams is a half sister to George Reynolds Morton and James Willis Morton. (8) Paul Morton (Dec. 2, 1904, to Feb. 19, 1987), the younger son of Will and Anna Morton, would marry Elizabeth Adele Higgins (1905-1974) during August 1931. Sitting in the front row from left to right are: (9) Martha Morton Glasgow (March 10, 1842, to July 6, 1930) had married Isaac H. Glasgow on January 11, 1864, and is one of the four older sisters of Elizabeth Morton Morton. (10) Emma Lotz Morton (Nov. 4, 1877, to Nov. 24, 1962), mother of Edith Elizabeth Morton and Ruth Ernestine Morton, is the widow of David Hinsey ("Dave") Morton (1878-1914), the younger son of George Reynolds Morton & Elizabeth Morton Morton. (11) Elizabeth Morton Morton (Sept. 29, 1847, to April 12, 1933) is the youngest of the ten children of Benjamin Morton (1805-1858) and Mary Jane Clifton (1805-1898). (12) George Reynolds Morton is the second-born son of William Wack Morton (1809-1859) and Eliza Walden Morton (1824-1847). George Reynolds Morton and his wife Elizabeth Morton are fourth cousins as well as man and wife. (13) Ruth Ernestine Morton (August 23, 1907, to Feb. 19, 2004), Edith Morton's sister, would marry Lee William Garver on July 17, 1931. Ruth sits on the laps of her paternal grandfather George and her great "Aunt Matt" Markle Morton. (14) Martha Markle Morton (1837-1924) is the wife of James Willis Morton with whom she raised their two children, Mildred Morton (1875-1924) and William Thomas Morton (1877-1900). (15) Sarah Ann Morton Johnson (1836-1929), the second oldest of the four sisters of Elizabeth Morton Morton, had on Sept. 17, 1856, wed Thomas Johnson (1829-1908) with whom she raised twelve children. Noteworthy is the fact that each of the two sons of George Reynolds Morton and Elizabeth Morton Morton -- Will (1871-1931) and Dave (1878-1914) -- married a daughter of German immigrants. As I was growing up, my mother Ruth frequently encouraged me to follow the advice of her grandfather, George Reynolds Morton, to study diligently and read widely because, as he repeatedly told her, "What you have in your head, nobody can tke away from you." Not present in this photograph on McGlynn Street on Sept. 28, 1915, was a sixth and much older Morton grandchild, Leonard (Lee) Cross (1886-1950), the son of Frank Cross and Cornelia ("Nellie") Morton (1867-1887), the oldest of the four children of George Reynolds Morton & Elizabeth Morton Morton. During childhood and adolescence, I, Bruce Morton Garver, frequently visited my mother's Morton and Lotz first cousins and their children in Hamilton or Cincinnati, Ohio. Thereafter, we continued to meet occasionally and to exchange correspondence throughout adulthood. But, I met my mother's first cousin, Lee Cross, only once. That meeting occurred circa 1948 to 1949 when my maternal grandmother, Emma Lotz Morton, introduced me to Lee Cross — one of her many nephews — at the Saturday farmers' market on the square surrounding the Butler County Courthouse in Hamilton. I cannot remember anything about the physical appearance of Lee Cross, except for his grey hair, nor do I recollect having afterward asked Grandma or my mother any questions about him. Perhaps I have never forgotten my one encounter with Lee Cross because he shared a first name with my father, a first name given to no other close relative until Karen and I named our son, Lee Albert Garver, after his grandfathers, Lee William Garver and Albert Francis King. Bruce Morton Garver, a great-grandson of the 50th anniversary couple, last revised this photo caption on October 16, 2020. Whenever this JPEG photo is distributed in digital form, please give credit to Bruce & Karen Garver and to "the Garver-Morton-Lotz-Bippus-McCloskey Family Digital Photograph Collection" at Lane Public Library in Hamilton, Ohio.
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CAPTION FOR THE FOURTH ATTACHED PHOTO, THAT OF THE SEPT. 1, 1919 MORTON-JOHNSON FAMILY REUNION: This photograph of the Morton-Johnson Family Reunion of September 1, 1919 (Labor Day), portrays eight children who are cousins to one another and include at least two – and possibly three -- pairs of siblings. According to a newspaper account, 188 people attended this Reunion held on the grounds of the Millville Public School in Butler County Ohio. Bruce Morton Garver has assigned a number to each of the eight children in this photo in order to facilitate anyone's discussing any one of them. Standing left to right in the top row are (1) Mary Elizabeth Morton (Strasser, April 21, 1901, to Dec. 9, 1968), daughter of William Welsh Lewis Morton (1871-1931) and Anna Schultheiss Morton (1879-1950). Mary Morton's first cousin is (2) Edith Elizabeth Morton (Bippus, January 12, 1905, to March 4, 1988), eldest daughter of David Hinsey Morton (1878-1914) and Emma Lotz Morton (1877-1962). (3) Ruth Irene Collum (Bauer, Feb. 7, 1907, to Dec. 31, 1995), is the eldest daughter of Cora Mae Jewell Collum (1884-1960) and John Harvey Biddle Collum (1881-1961). Standing left to right in the front row, the first child is (4) Mary Lou Collum (Lauer, June 12, 1910, to August 22, 2003), younger sister of Ruth Irene Collum (Bauer). The two Collum sisters are second cousins once removed to the other six children is this photograph. In the front row, standing third & fourth left to right, are sisters (5) Mary Jane Johnson (Kramer, June 16, 1903, to October 16, 1982) and (6) Sarah L. Johnson (Mistler, April 20, 1906, to August 12, 1977) who attended the 1919 Reunion with their parents, Eli Johnson (1870-1955) and Elizabeth Jane Dinwiddie Johnson (1874-1944). Mary Jane & Sarah L. Johnson are GREAT-NIECES OF SARAH ANN MORTON JOHNSON & THOMAS JOHNSON and second cousins once-removed to Mary Morton and Edith Morton and also to the two tentatively identified Sanford siblings. Standing at the right end of the front row is a girl plausibly, albeit tentatively, identified as (7) Ruby May Sanford (1902-1984). Judy Ann Morton Brueneman bases her suggested identification of Ruby primarily upon the way in which Ruby in 1919 "wears her hair, pulled back from her face" much like she wore her hair in a circa 1908 photo (JPEG e1c02019). The boy (8) who stands second from the left in front has facial features resembling those of the girl thought to be Ruby May Sanford — eyes, nose, and shape of head (an oval tapered toward the chin. Therefore, for purposes of discussion, Bruce Morton Garver has very tentatively identified boy (8) as Russell Faye Sanford (1908-1993), the younger of Ruby May Sanford's two brothers. Pertinently, Judy Ann Morton Brueneman reports that the three Sanford siblings are among the Morton descendants who appear on Edith Morton Bippus' list of attendees at the Reunion of Sept. 1, 1919. Benjamin Morton (May 2, 1805, jn New Castle County, Delaware, to Jan. 28,1858, in Butler County, Ohio) and Mary Jane Clifton Morton (1805-1898) are the great-great grandparents of the Ruth and Mary Lou Collum and are also the great-grandparents of the other six children in this photograph. Whenever this JPEG photo is distributed in digital form, please give credit to Bruce & Karen Garver and to "the Garver-Morton-Lotz-Bippus-McCloskey Family Digital Photograph Collection" at Lane Public Library in Hamilton, Ohio.
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CAPTION FOR THE FIFTH ATTACHED PHOTOGRAPH: Circa 1871, sisters (left to right) Martha Morton Glasgow (1843-1930), Sarah Ann Morton Johnson (1836-1929), and Elizabeth "Liz" Morton Morton (1847-1933) posed for this daguerrotype in Butler County, Ohio. This photo is presented courtesy of Stefanie Sharpe.
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THE 6th & 7th ATTACHED PHOTOS DEPICT THE GRAVESTONE of Sarah Ann Morton Johnson (1836-1929), and the 8th ATTACHED PHOTO DEPICTS THE GRAVESTONE of Thomas & Sarah Ann's first-born child, William Morton (1857-1857), who forf three weeks after his birth during the year 1857.