A couple of years ago (October 2022), I posted a lengthy piece about the family of my great-great-grandmother, Frances Jane (Elliott) Johnson. One part of my analysis concerned John Anna (Johnanna, Johanna, Joe Anna) Ragsdale, the daughter of George W. and Hester Ann Ragsdale, who married Wesley Henson (Hinson). I suggested that her mother, Hester Ann, was a sister of Frances Jane (Elliott) Johnson; that Hester Ann had died when John Anna was a young girl and John Anna had gone to live with her grandmother, Elizabeth (Booker) Elliott (she appears in Elizabeth’s household in both the 1850 and 1860 censuses of Franklin co. AR). She continued to live with her grandmother after her father remarried and had two more children.
Some new evidence has turned up which I believe gives strong support to this hypothesis. Among Franklin county records, I found a deed index which records a deed by which Wesley Henson & wife, and F. J. Johnson convey land to one Edmund (sic) Hassett. The date of the deed is stated as 18 Jan. 1868, though it was not filed with the county until 9 Mar. 1888. Unfortunately, the book in which the actual deed was recorded seems to have been lost. However, I further found that Edward (sic) Hassett conveyed land just a few months later (19 Dec. 1868) to one David Phillips. That deed does exist, and the description of the land matches exactly the land granted to Elizabeth (Booker) Elliott in 1843 and on which she seems to have paid taxes over the next several years.
I believe the best way to understand this is that when Elizabeth (Booker) Elliott died, probably about 1863, the land passed to her heirs—her daughter Frances Jane (Elliott) Johnson and her granddaughter John Anna, daughter of her deceased daughter Hester Ann, who had by then married Wesley Henson.
It seems somewhat odd that the land was not sold for nearly five years, but then this was the tail end and the immediate aftermath of the Civil War, so it is likely many things took longer than one might expect. It is also interesting that there is no reference here to the other known surviving heir, Elizabeth’s son W. T. C. Elliott. But he had been in California and Nevada since 1849 or so, so it is possible they simply did not have contact with him. (We won’t mention that he might have been considered by some to be a bit disreputable!)
It is interesting to note that Frances Jane (Elliott) Johnson died just six weeks after this deed was executed. Was she gravely ill and so decided it would be best to sell her mother’s property rather than leave that task to her still minor sons? The purchaser, E. B. Hassett, is believed to be the stepson of Elizabeth’s late brother Joseph Booker, thus a “step-cousin” of Frances.
I also recently learned that John Anna and Wesley Henson are buried in the Henson Cemetery in Mulberry, Crawford co. AR (which is just over the county line from Franklin county).
I wish the actual deed were available, because it might clarify matters further. But for now, I think this is good evidence that John Anna’s mother, Hester Ann, was a sister of Frances Jane (Elliott) Johnson.
