CHAPTER FIVE
WILBERT F. JOHNSON'S
ANCESTRAL HERITAGE
(Pages 377-380) This Chapter: Johnny J. Johnson, Jr. and Emily Tomlinson's daughter Amanda, born on May 16, 1897, married Wilbert Franklin Johnson of St. George, Georgia. Wilbert was born on January 14, 1887, in Canaan, Ohio, to Monroe Marion Johnson and Bertha
Pfeiffer. The individualistic spirit and social responsibility of Wilbert Johnson can be best grasped by understanding Wilbert's ancestral roots. Wilbert's bloodline stems from two prominent and respected families, Johnson and Caughey of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. Wilbert Franklin Johnson was the great, great, great grandson of John Johnson and Francis Caughey. Both of these families were people of means and as such referred to as yeoman. The presence of these
families in Lancaster County became apparent about 1750. It is thought that these families came to Lancaster County from Scotland in the early eighteenth century. When Pennsylvania was established by William Penn in 1682, the area had few inhabitants, except for native Americans. Penn was a Quaker and had suffered for his nonconformist religion. He invited people from Europe to come and enjoy the freedom that could be found in Pennsylvania. In the early 1700s, most of the
people settled near Philadelphia. In the first half of the eighteenth century numerous settlers from Scotland and Ireland accepted Penn's invitation to come to Pennsylvania to enjoy freedom. They sought to escape from the tyranny imposed upon them by the English in their homelands. The new settlers traveled farther west from Philadelphia into Chester and Lancaster Counties where Indian raids were a constant problem. As Scots, both the Johnson and Caughey families possessed
the strong Presbyterian concept of spiritual and political freedom common to the Scots. This belief developed men and women of indomitable courage to espouse a cause that had as its purpose the removal of the shackles from body, mind and spirit. They took extraordinary interest in the development of our country and the formation of its government. The Johnsons were settlers and builders of vast landholdings, while the Caugheys established themselves as farmers and then
because of their restless energy felt the need to be pioneers of the frontier and helped push the American frontier farther and farther westward during the early years of our country. This Chapter: | 
