JOHNSON Family and SLAVE Cemetery, Franklin County, Missouri 
Calvey Township
[NOT the other nearby Johnson cemetery]

This is a very old cemetery (perhaps in use as early as 1840 and definitely
in use into the 1930's, if not later) located in Calvey Township, Franklin
County, MO (in section 29, Township 42N, Range 2E). It is located very near
to the entrance to Lake Arrowhead about 2 miles north of Lonedell on
Highway N. It is on privately owned land and cannot be seen from the road.
The cemetery is unusual in that both blacks and whites are buried together;
the white family for three or four generations buried in a plot in the
center of the cemetery and slaves and later free blacks and perhaps
unrelated whites buried in sections around them. The last legible
inscription reads 1932.

The cemetery may have been established by Robert and Frances Falwell, who
came from Buckingham Co., VA 1836-1840. Robert and Frances both died in the
early 1840's and may be buried here. Their married daughter and son-in-law,
James M. and Martha W. (Falwell) Johnson came from Virginia about the time
of her parents' deaths, in 1840-1843. They are buried in the cemetery,
along with two married daughters and sons-in-law and at least two
grandchildren, the children of their son Robert J. Johnson, who is buried
with his wife Fannie Caroline (Thomas) Johnson in the Bethel Church
cemetery. Fannie's parents, Griffith and Caroline (Strickland) Thomas, are
also buried in this family plot.

This is the second Johnson cemetery in the neighborhood. The other one is
located about half a mile away just north of Valley Drive and was
established by Thomas J. and Mary F. (Falwell) Johnson. Thomas was James'
brother, and Mary and Martha were also sisters. Thomas and Mary arrived
from Virginia shortly after James and Martha, in 1846.

James and Martha (Falwell) Johnson both died in 1889. In 1898, the cemetery
was owned by William F. & Mary Ellen (Johnson) Drake, the youngest Johnson
daughter. The Drakes are buried in the cemetery. Nearby Drake Lane is named
for them, as were the early Drake schools, one for white children and one
for black.

By 1921, the land was owned by Edie J. Schuster.

The only legible tombstones are in the white plot, but there are dozens if
not hundreds of fragments of field markers scattered in the area around
them, which covers more than an acre. The earliest inscription indicates a
burial in 1877; the latest in 1932. There is a cement wall built in 1913
surrounding some of the white graves.

The current owner relates local traditions about the cemetery that he has
gathered. He says that the slaves who were buried there worked on a huge
"plantation" of more than 2,000 acres, but the plantation was unusual in
that the slaves were "treated like human beings." The white family's house
was located near the cemetery and burned in 1884. Until recently there was
a surviving chimney with the date "1860" inscribed on a brick, but someone
broke it apart to take the inscription stone and the fireplace collapsed.


He says once the owners heard of a slave owned by someone else who kept
running away because he was mistreated, but was brought back and beaten.
They bought and emancipated him. He worked for them for awhile, then left
to go elsewhere, but asked permission to return to be buried there among
his friends and family, which he eventually was.

The cemetery has been heavily vandalized very recently. The owner says that
when he bought the land there were many rows of upstanding grave markers,
but there are few now that haven't been intentionally damaged or removed.
The underbrush has covered many more.

Surviving tombstones:

Inside the cement wall is a large gray granite tombstone inscribed on both
sides (with room for graves on both sides). On the south side:

J. M. Johnson
Died Mar. 29, 1889. Age 76 yrs.

Martha W. Johnson
Died Mar. 9, 1889. Age 74 yrs.

On the north side:

[Masonic symbol of compass & right angle]
W. F. Drake
Dec. 10, 1849 - July 8, 1919

Mary E. Drake
Nov. 11, 1852 - Mar. 28, 1932

In addition, on the Drake side lying side-by-side nearby facing east and
presumably marking the actual graves are two low, almost flat, gray granite
markers inscribed simply "W. F. Drake" and "M. E. Drake." These look like
the original tombstones before the larger one was installed.

Also inside the wall are three footstones (there were recently more
stones). These may have marked the graves of children of Robert J. Johnson,
as he left money in his 1921 will for markers for the graves of 'my
children.' They would probably have died in the 1870's or 1880's.

M.J.J.
W.J.
J.J.


Nearby outside the wall is an old-fashioned, thin, upright, white stone
tombstone for the husband of James and Martha Johnson's eldest child
Elizabeth:

Nathaniel W. Warren
Died
Aug. 10, 1977
Aged
55 yrs. 6 mos. 5 ds.


Also known to be buried in the cemetery are:

Griffith Thomas b.c. 1822, Henrico Co., VA, son of Phineas & Frances (Keen)
Thomas, early settlers of Washington, Franklin Co., MO. Phineas was the
first blacksmith in Washington and built the first brick house there.
Griffith died 1860-1880. He married Caroline Strickland in 1845 in
Washington. His son-in-law, Robert R. Johnson, the son of James and Martha,
left money in his 1921 for monuments on the graves of his parents-in-law
who were buried in "the graveyard on the Schuster farm."

Caroline Strickland b.c. 1826 in Washington, daughter of Ephraim B. &
Serena (Caldwell) Strickland. She lived with her son-in-law Robert J.
Johnson after her husband's death and died sometime after 1880. Both of her
parents were very early settlers of the county in the Washington area,
having been brought by their parents as children.

Very likely Elizabeth (Johnson) Warren, daughter of James and Martha, is
buried by her husband. She was still living in 1898.

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