Monday, May 4, 2020

1864/1865 Payments on Behalf of Family in Robbinston, Maine, of Civil War Soldier George E. Johnson; in 1860s/1870s Ledger of Financial Transactions of Robbinston


George E. Johnson, age  27; then serving in Company D of the 18th Regiment; payments made in 1864 and 1865 to his parents in Robbinston, Maine.

Found on numbered page 17 in a ledger of Robbinston, Maine, financial transactions from the mid 1860s to the 1870s.

Payments were made on behalf of:
  • Benajah Johnson, age 67; father
  • Nancy Johnson, age 55; mother

According to his FindaGrave memorial, George E. Johnson (1837-1914) was born 5 October 1837 at Robbinston, Maine, the son of Benajah Johnson (1801-1884) and Nancy (Pottle) Johnson (1809-1880).

A record in Maine, State Archive Collections, 1718-1957 confirms:
  • George was born in Robbinston
  • He was single and a farmer at the time of his enlistment on 25 July 1862
  • He mustered in on 21 August 1862 at Bangor, Maine
  • At one time he was sick in the hospital at Portsmouth Grove, Rhode Island.  
  • On the reverse of the form [click next image], his date and place of death: 6 March 1914 at Robbinston, Maine.

Page 281 in The First Maine Heavy Artillery, 1861-1865: A History of Its Part and Place in the War for the Union, with an Outline of Causes of War and Its Results to Our Country, published by Horace H. Shaw and Charles J. House in 1903:
  • George E. Johnson was promoted to corporal on 1 March 1864
  • Was wounded on 18 June 1864
  • Was discharged on 6 June 1865

On 17 October 1865, George E. Johnson married Martha J. Goulding, daughter of James Goulding (1812-1884) and Martha F. (Clark) Goulding (1815-1895) of Robbinston.  George and Martha farmed at Robbinston, apparently on George's parents place, and had six children, one of whom died young.  

It's fun to think that the farm might have been the same farm on Robbinston Ridge Road, or nearby, of George E. Johnson's grandson Oscar Howard Johnson (1891-1959), whom my family would frequently visit.

A record in Maine, Veterans Cemetery Records, 1676-1918, notes:
  • George was living in Robbinston, Maine, at the time of his death from paralysis on 6 March 1914
  • He rose from the rank of private to corporal
  • He's buried in the Robbinston Ridge Cemetery at Robbinston, Maine
  • He served in Company D, 18th Regiment Infantry, Maine Volunteers and in Company D, 1st Heavy Artillery, Maine Volunteers
  • Next of kin named on the form: Parker Johnson, George's son Parker Melvin Johnson (1879-1930)

Martha J. (Goulding) Johnson (1847-1917) died a few years after George.

If you have information on the family of George E. Johnson, please leave a comment or contact me directly.

The ledger measures about 13" by 8" by 1/2" and contains entries for almost 50 families and many pages of other financial transactions. About half of the 178 numbered pages have entries. The ledger is missing its covers; the first page of what remains is shown below.


Soldiers and sailors listed in the ledger
  • The numbers in parentheses indicate specific pages in the ledger.
  • Many of the men listed below were born in New Brunswick or Nova Scotia and may have returned to Canada after the War.  See the map below to see how close New Brunswick and Nova Scotia were, particularly in the Age of Sail.
  • If you have information on any of the men listed below, please leave a comment or contact me directly.

The List, Alphabetized


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