The first recorded information locating the JOHNS surname in this area is the notation that Zechariah Johns, was awarded Lot 64 in the 16^th District of the 3^rd Section in the 1832 Land Lottery in Cass County, Georgia.

Zechariah was a resident in the 702^nd District in Heard County, Georgia, in the 1840 Census. While we do not know if he actually moved to this area, six Johns families were listed in the 1850 Census, all in the 15^th District of Cherokee County. Each of the "heads of household" were born in North Carolina, except one; and their ages were twenty-three to thirty-three years, except one, William, who was sixty years old. Three were named Zachariah, and the remaining two were named Sanford and Stephen. It is probable that all were related to William, and were brothers and cousins.

In the 1850 Census, our GGGFather, ZACHARIAH JOHNS, 33 years old, was residing with his wife and five children in southcentral Cherokee County, designated as the 15^th District. Originally from North Carolina, Zachariah married a Georgian, Nice, in about 1839. Their children and birth year follows: James-1840, Jane-1842, Pollyann-1844, William-1846, BERRY WILBURN JOHNS (our GGFather)- June 23, 1847, John-1853, and Rebecca-1855. Zachariah was a farmer , and the farmer family in the next dwelling was named , Kuykendall. This is significant, because Zachariah’ son, Berry would later marry a female, Bettie Bruce, whose mother’s maiden name was Kuykendall. In the 1860 Census, Zachariah and his wife, Nice, were listed in the Long Shoals community in Greene County, Georgia with six children.

In February, 1863, Berry W. Johns (16 years old) traveled fifty miles to Milledgeville (the State Capitol), Georgia to enlist in the Georgia Militia. He joined Company C of Caper’s Battalion, where he served until surrender in Augusta, Georgia in 1865. After the war, Berry married Elizabeth (Bettie) Bruce in Cherokee County on July 28, 1867. The ceremony was performed by R.Z. Phillips, Minister, and Berry Johns’ name was misspelled as Berry W. Jones. Their seven children and the birth year follows: Will-1868, Martha-1868, Mary-1869, Andrew-1873, Frances Elizabeth-1875, CORDELIA PHOEBE JOHNS (our Grandmother)-January 26,1878, and John H.-1884.

Elizabeth (Bettie) Bruce (our GGMother) was the sixth of eight children of George Ozburn Bruce, a native of South Carolina, and Phoebe Kuykendall Bruce, a native of North Carolina. George and Phoebe were married in 1830 in Habersham County, Georgia. George Bruce served as a drummer in the Cherokee Indian Removal in 1838, and died prematurely in 1848. In the 1850 Census, Phoebe Bruce, a widow, and seven children lived in Cherokee County. Phoebe Bruce died in 1895 and was buried in the cemetery at the Bascomb Methodist Church, Woodstock, Cherokee County.

In the 1870 Census of Cherokee County, Berry Johns and his family were listed in the Cherokee Mills community in the Bells #817 Militia District, and in the 1880 Census they were listed in the Fair Play #1028 Militia District. Both of these districts were in the southwestern portion of Cherokee County . Close examination of the 1870 Census records for the Cherokee Mills community reveals several inter-marriages among the Johns, Bruce, Kuykendall, Sargeant, and Tyson families.

The Southern Cross of Honor was bestowed on Berry Johns in 1912 by Kennesaw Chapter No. 241 of the United Daughters of the Confederacy. Berry Johns applied for and received the Confederate Soldier’s Pension in 1910. After he died in 1919, Elizabeth Johns received the Pension Due Deceased Soldier, until her death in 1920. Both are buried in the cemetery at the New Salem Baptist Church, Marietta, Cobb County. When we visited their graves, we noticed that the Southern Cross of Honor is engraved on his original headstone, with the words "Deo Vindice 1861-1865" (God our Vindicator).

Our Grandmother, Cordelia Phoebe Johns, was born on January 26, 1878, in Cherokee County. She was named for her mother’s youngest sister and her grandmother. On July 14, 1895, she married Silas Richard Ramsaur, a native of Lincoln County, North Carolina. His father, Hugh Milton Ramsaur, had served as an officer for the CSA, and Milton’s cousin was Major General Stephen Dodson Ramseur, from Lincolnton, N.C.

After their marriage, our Grandparents, Silas and Cordelia ( Dillie for short ), moved to Roswell, Georgia. They lived in Roswell until 1909, when they moved to Hampton Street in Northwest Atlanta, off Marietta Street. Their eight children and year of birth follows: Mamie-1898, AUBREY CRAVAN (our Father)-September 4, 1900, Opal-1903, Hugh-1905, Keefer-1908, Alma and Elmer (twins)-1911 and Margaret-1914. In the 1900 Census, Silas’ occupation was listed as Flour Miller, the occupation of six generations of Ramseurs in Lincoln County, North Carolina. In the 1910 Census, his occupation was listed as carpenter, and he remained a carpenter until his death in 1939. Cordelia died in 1958, and was buried with her husband, Silas, in Hollywood Cemetery, Atlanta, Fulton County, Georgia.

Submitted by three grandchildren of Cordelia Phoebe Johns: Audrey Blanche (Ramsaur ) Waits, 115 North Drive, Hampton, Georgia 30228; Richard Madison Ramsaur, Route 1, Box 1432, Clarkesville, Georgia 30523; and William Foye Ramsaur, 116 Florence Street, St. Simons Island, Georgia 31522. (word count 750)