"Early History of Thurston County, Washington; Together with Biographies and
Reminiscences of those Identified with Pioneer Days." Compiled and Edited by
Mrs. George E. (Georgiana) Blankenship.  Published in Olympia, Washington, 1914.
p. 237.
 
BENNETT WILLSON JOHNS

     The distinction of having been the youngest soldier in the volunteer
company enlisted to defend Seattle in the Indian war of 1855-56, belongs to the
subject of this sketch, Bennett Willson Johns, who, with his father, brothers
and sisters, arrived in Seattle in 1853. Early in the spring of that year the
elder Johns, Bennett Lewis, with his wife, Elizabeth Tuttles Johns, and their
large family of children, started from their old home in Tennessee, for the
West.
     When the emigrants reached Soda Springs, in Idaho, the wife and mother,
with her two weeks' old babe were taken down with mountain fever, and died after
a few days' illness.  The eldest daughter, Frances, who had become the wife of
Alexander Barnes in the East, but who, with her husband, was also among the
emigrants, was also stricken with the same disease and followed her mother
within a. few days. Mother and daughter sleep side by side in lonely graves in
the wilderness.
     The emigrants resumed their Western march after these bereavements, sad and
discouraged, but with no alternative but to push onward.
     Owing to the delays from sickness and fatigue of the cattle, snow began to
fall by the time the train reached the Cascades, and before many days' travel
through the mountains were accomplished, it became necessary to abandon the
wagons and much of the outfit, and take pack horses with which to continue their
journey.  Food became so scarce that a messenger was dispatched ahead of the
weary emigrants with a prayer for assistance, to the settlers of Seattle. With
characteristic Western generosity, the appeal was responded to and food and
comforts sent back along the trail to relieve the distress of the emigrants. On
reaching Puget Sound, the father took up a donation claim in what is now King
County, on the Duwamish River, nine miles from Seattle, where he engaged in
farming and stock raising.
    After the family had lived on the claim two years, the Indian war broke out
and the elder Johns and two sons were among the first volunteers, and were
engaged in the battle of 1856 when the Indians attacked Seattle.
    Among B. W. Johns' most vivid remembrances, was one morning while the family
were at breakfast in their home in the suburbs of the town, where they had moved
from the homestead at the time of the massacre on White River, the Indians
surrounded the house, driving the father and children into the town. When they
returned they found the house had been ransacked by the Klootchman, and all they
considered of value was taken, including the winter's supply of flour.
     This was a serious matter. The father and boys had raised the wheat on
their own land, the father sowing in the morning as much as the boys could dig
into the ground and cover during the rest of the day. Later on this wheat was
harvested in the primitive way of the time, threshed with a flail and winnowed
in the wind. Then the precious grain was taken by Mr. Johns and Mr. John
Collins, in a flat bottomed scow, to Tumwater, where it was ground into flour.
     When the family arrived in Washington, then Oregon, Mr. Bennett W. Johns
was but a mere lad of fourteen, but even at that age he filled a man's part in
the straggle which every pioneer had to participate in. After remaining with
his father on the claim until he was twenty years of age, he started out in life
for himself.  When the Frazer River gold excitement was claiming many of the
pioneers of the infant territory, Mr. Johns joined the rush and mined with
considerable success on Puget Sound Bar on the Frazer. Later he turned his
energies to fur trading, with much financial success.
     In 1869, tired of a, roving life, the young man came to Olympia, where for
fourteen years he was engaged in the sawmill business with his brother-in-law,
William H. Mitchell.
     In 1876, Mr. Johns purchased the fine farm on Bush Prairie which, although
he sold it in later years, is still known as the Johns place. He also acquired
considerable other valuable property in Thurston County and in the City of
Olympia.
     In 1872 Mr. Johns enjoyed his greatest piece of good luck in his successful
life, he married Miss Mary J. Vertrees.  One daughter, Ruth, was born to the
young couple.
     Mr. B. W. Johns died at the family home in Olympia in December 27, 1905.
     During Mr. Johns' life he was actively associated with the Independent
Order of Odd Fellows, having been Noble Grand in this fraternal organization,
and was also a member of the auxiliary, the Rebekahs. He was also at one time
Master Workman of the Ancient Order of United Workmen. Both Mr. B. W. Johns and
his wife, Mary Vertrees, have been connected with the Baptist Church since the
days of their early youth.
     Mary Vertrees Johns was the daughter of Charles M. and Mary J. Vertrees,
and was born in Pike County, Illinois, October 26, 1851. On February 25, 1872,
she became the wife of Bennett Willson Johns, the wedding taking place in
Olympia, at which place the young lady was a new arrival.
     At one time Mrs. Johns owned and successfully superintended a book bindery
in Olympia. She was also first matron of Charleston Cottage for young ladies at
Ottawa, Kansas, University in 1892 and 1893. Later Mrs. Johns was assistant
post-master in Olympia for a term of seven years beginning April 16, 1898. This
lady, while feminine and womanly in the truest sense of the word, is outspoken
in her belief that women have an equal right with men in framing laws for the
government and protection of the country, and enjoys the distinction of having
been twice elected a delegate to the Republican County Convention in the 80s,
when women were given the right to vote, and once elected as delegate to the
Territorial Convention.
    Besides her almost life-long affiliation with the Baptist Church, Mrs. Johns
is Past Matron of the Eastern Star, has been three times president of the
Woman's Club of Olympia, twice Noble Grand of the Order of Rebekahs, a member of
the Ladies' Relief Society and president of the George H.
Thomas Relief Corps.
    Mrs. Johns has enjoyed extensive travel, not only through the United States,
but Mexico and Canada, and in later years toured the European countries.
    Since the death of her husband Mrs. Johns has efficiently managed the
considerable property left her. The only child born to Mr. and Mrs. Johns, Kuth
V., now Mrs. A. S. Kerfoot, arrived in their home on December 5, 1874, and now
makes her home in Lemon Grove, California, with her husband and an interesting
family of three boys, Bennett Johns, George Franklin and Robert Arthur.

*******************

Submitted to the Washington Bios. Project in May 2007 by Diana Smith.
Submitter has no additional information about the person(s) or family mentioned
above.