Ebook The Johnson Memorial

One of my reasons for preparing this history is to prevent the memory of my grandparents from lapsing into obscurity, as it would naturally in the course of a few years more, and to preserve for the younger and future descendants a record of the patriotism, industry, and christian character of their ancestors. An English historian once said that "A man that has no ancestry of whom he is proud, will have no descendants to be proud of him." Whether that is true or not, it is great inspiration to the young to know that their ancestors helped to lay the foundation of this Republic and and that they bore an honorable and patriotic part of the burdens in every struggle for liberty and its preservation from 1620 to the War of 1861-'65; and that in the company that signed the compact in the cabin of the Mayflower they had two representatives; that in the first Legislature (General Court) of Massachusetts, they had at least two representatives; that in two instances their ancestors suffered for their religion in the Huguenot persecution in France. In several instances they assisted in the organization of the first church in the town where they settled. It may be truly said that this country was founded by people who suffered on account of their religion. The Committees of Safety: the militia of the Colonial Period; and the French and Indian Wars; the patriots of the Revolution and the War of 1812 were imbued with a spirit of true freedom and religious liberty. We do not know that our ancestors had royal blood in their veins, nor do we claim descent from the nobility. We came from a race of tillers of the soil. Our emigrant ancestors who settled the towns around Boston from 1620 to 1640 were mostly farmers, as well as patriots. President John Adams, (who was a grandson of Ruth Alden Bass,) when his literary cousin, Hannah Adams, referred to their humble origin, said that he would much prefer to come from a line of sturdy New England farmers for a hundred and fifty years, than to come from a line of royal scoundrels from the flood.