He was born Hiram Ulysses Grant on April 27, 1822 in Point Pleasant, Ohio.

He attended the United States Military Academy at West Point, and served in various posts around the country, being a first hand witness to some of the most memorable military actions in American history. In addition to his role in the Civil War, he also served in the Mexican American War, Fort Vancouver in Washington state, and in the gold fields during Gold Rush in California.

He was a slave owner and married the daughter of a slave owner.

During his presidency, Colorado was admitted as a state, and his administration oversaw the creation of the Department of Justice, the Solicitor General, the Surgeon General, the National Weather Service and Yellowstone National Park.

He is descended from the Huntington/Lothrop family from the New London/Norwich Connecticut area, who’s history I was steeped in while growing up nearby in Ledyard.

President Hiram Ulysses Grant is my 7th cousin 6 times removed.

Relationship to G.M. Johnson

.

The Case:

Could a house in Essex County, Massachusetts, have once belonged to an accused witch?

A plaque over the door states that Benjamin Abbott built the house in 1685. Our contributors have heard that Abbott accused his neighbor, Martha Carrier, of being a witch, in an effort to take her land.

The History Detectives head to New England to research the story of Martha Carrier who was executed by hanging in 1692 during the infamous Salem Witch Trials.

Might the woman who was called the “Queen of Hell” have owned this home?

Imagine my surprise when the story started to unfold, and I realized they were investigating a house in Essex County, Massachusetts that may have belonged to Martha Carrier, my 10th great grandmother.

The house is called the Benjamin Abbot house, reportedly built in 1685. It is on the National Register of Historic Places, and is located at 9 Andover St in Andover, Massachusetts.

The “investigation” looked into the age of the house, and also into the question of whether it could have been owned by Martha Carrier, and if it could have been awarded to the Abbots and taken from the Carriers as penalty for witchcraft.

A British expert was flown in, and by taking wood core samples from the oldest part of the house, he determined that the lumber for the house was cut down in the spring of 1711. Martha Carrier was killed in 1692, and Benjamin Abbot died in 1705, so the detectives concluded neither was alive at the time the house was likely built.

The current owner of the house disputes this finding, pointing out that they took the wood samples from the western part of the house, which was an addition added in 1711 by Benjamin Abbot, Jr. The eastern part of the house contains the original 2 rooms, which date from 1685.

Bill Dalton at the Andover Townsman has a good article about The Benjamin Abbot House, and the relationship between George Abbot and Martha Carrier. Anything he writes on local history is worth reading.

See Also:
Martha (Allen) Carrier (1643-1692), hanged as a Salem Witch - 31 Oct 2009

Jerry Milo Johnson to Martha (Allen) Carrier

Spike Lee’s Story
Spike Lee is one of America’s best-known film directors. He has done more than anyone in his generation to bring African-American history and experience to the screen. The name of his production company, 40 Acres and a Mule, refers to the broken promise made by the federal government to provide ex-slaves with land and a mule. However, Spike does not know much about his mother’s slave ancestry and in this journey he hopes to discover more about his slave roots and the people who owned his ancestors.

Known primarily for his films exploring issues of race, and for his fairly angry attitude on race and racism, I was fascinated watching him learn that he is descended from a white slaveowner, and even meeting white descendants of that same slaveowner, and how he handled it all.

I think he handled it with surprising maturity, almost definitely better than I would have handled being confronted by the incontrovertible facts proving my own deepest angers and inequalities.

Megan Smolenyak on The Huffington Post had the best writeup of the WDYTYA exploration of Spike Lee’s personal genealogy.

While I found his soul searching fascinating, I was drawn deeper into the story for personal reasons when the name of the slaveholder family was revealed as Griswold.

While the show was still on, I was all over ancestry.com, following their research, and proving that his Griswolds and my Griswolds were the same family.

Since we are cousins, I feel that I have every right to end all of my future posts with the following:

A Jerry Milo Johnson Joint.

Spike Lee is my 11th cousin once removed.

Spike Lee to Jerry Milo Johnson

.

She is most known for her Little House on the Prairie books. Anyone who grew up in the 1970s spent untold hours on the frontier of her youth with the Ingalls family, living with “Half Pint” through her trials and tribulations.

The books were based on her experience in Kansas, when her father was an illegal squatter on the Osage Indian Reserve, with no moral or legal right to his land and farm.

She is my 8th cousin 5 times removed.

Jerry Milo Johnson to Laura Elizabeth Ingalls Wilder

.

Born in Moreland Hills, Ohio in a small log cabin, Garfield enlisted in the army at the start of the civil war, rose to the rank of Major General, served as an Ohio State Senator, served in the House of Representatives, and was elected President in 1880 as a Republican.

He only served 200 days in office, as he was assassinated by Charles J. Guiteau at a Washington DC railroad station. He lived for 80 days after the shooting, eventually dying of incompetent doctors.

During his short term in office, he appointed Stanley Matthews to the Supreme Court, appointed 4 federal judges, and signed an executive order to give federal employees May 28th, 1881 off work for the purpose of a decorating the graves of veterans of the Civil War (which we now celebrate as Memorial Day).

Before his career in politics, he was a minister and church elder, making him the only former clergy to serve as a US President.

He also holds the unique distinction of being the only sitting member of the House of Representatives to be elected as President.

He is my 6th cousin 7 times removed.

Jerry Milo Johnson to President James A Garfield

.

He was also Governor of Ohio and a congressman.

The last veteran of the Civil War to be elected President.

He was assassinated in Buffalo, New York by Leon Frank Czolgosz, an anarchist and nutcase, during the first few months of his second term.

He was president during the Spanish American war, and brought the Philipines, Guam, Puerto Rico, and Hawaii into the union.

His was the first inauguration to be filmed.

President William McKinley married Ira Saxton, who was my 8th cousin 5 times removed.

Jerry Milo Johnson to President William McKinley

.

He was a deaf mute who attended the Gallaudet School for the Deaf in Washington DC.  He studied under Jules Lefebvre and Tony Robert-Fleury in France, and had a painting accepted at the Paris Salon. Later he returned to the United States, living in Seaford and Westport, Connecticut, Brooklyn New York, and on Long Island.

He was featured at the San Francisco Panama-Pacific Exhibition 1915, and had his artwork was shown at an exhibition at the Fogg Art Museum at Harvard.

John Gordon Saxton was my 7th cousin 6 times removed.

Jerry Milo Johnson to John Gordon Saxton

.

Possibly most famous for his 1988 campaign promise “Read my lips. No new taxes”, he was also known for his dislike of broccoli.

He was the President at the time of the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait, led the US to war in Iraq during the first Gulf War, and approved a brief invasion of Panama to capture Noriega.

As President he oversaw the tearing down of the Berlin Wall, and the fall of the Soviet Union.

He served as Vice President under Ronald Reagan, as a congressman, an ambassador, and the Director of the CIA.

At the start of the Second World War, after the attack on Pearl Harbor, he enlisted and at 18 became the youngest aviator in the Navy where he served through the war with distinction.

His most important piece of legislation was the Americans With Disabilities Act. He was also instrumental in negotiating NAFTA, which was passed during President Clinton’s term, but was mostly laid out under President Bush.

President George Herbert Walker Bush is my 10th great-grandaunt’s husband’s 6th great-grandniece’s husband.

Update: President George Herbert Walker Bush is my 10th cousin twice removed, through our shared ancestor Rev. John Mayo.

Jerry Milo Johnson to President George Herbert Walker Bush

.

 

.

He served 2 terms as President, from 2000-2008, was the Governor of Texas from 1994-2000, and was, for a time, a co-owner of the Texas Rangers baseball franchise.

He is the son of George Herbert Walker Bush, the 41st President, and the only President besides John Quincy Adams who was the son of a president.

He was the President at the time of the 9/11 terrorist attack, and led the US to wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, when we invaded both countries.

A few notable pieces of legislation that he signed were the No Child Left Behind Act, dealing with education standards, and an expanded Medicare program for prescription drug benefits.

He also declared the Northern Hawaiian Islands a national monument, creating the largest marine sanctuary ever set aside.

President George Herbert Walker Bush [16677]: Gerald Milo (Jerry) Johnson [99]‘s 10th great-grandaunt’s husband’s 6th great-grandniece’s husband

President George Walker Bush is my 10th great-grandaunt’s husband’s 7th great-grandnephew.

Update: President George Walker Bush is my 11th cousin once removed, through our shared ancestor Rev. John Mayo.

Jerry Milo Johnson to President George Walker Bush

.

.

He was the President of Princeton University, the Governor of New Jersey, and served as the President of the United States of America for 2 terms, from 1912-1920.

He was the president when the US finally entered the First World War in 1917.

A southern democrat, during his terms he created the Federal Trade Commission, the Federal Reserve Act, and the first progressive federal income tax.

He won the Nobel Peace prize for his role in creating the League of Nations.

His wife was my 7th great grandfather’s step-brother’s 4th great granddaughter.

Jerry Milo Johnson to President Thomas Woodrow Wilson

.