CLINE JOHNSON

BIRTH:  Between 1820 and 1825 in Virginia.  There were no official Virginia birth records before 1853.  We know of his approximate age through federal census records.  The census records also confirm that he was born in Virginia.

PARENTS:  A DNA test has proven that William's father was definitely of the Peter Cline family.  From the available evidence, it appears that Michael Cline, son of Peter Cline, is his father and Eleanor "Nelly" Johnson Harper is his mother.

RESIDENCE:  We know that William was born in Virginia.  We also know that he resided in Tazewell County from at least 1848 until his death abt. 1886.  According to recently discovered evidence, from at least 1845 to 1847, William lived in Logan County, VA/WV next to the Clines of the Peter Cline family of the Tug River region.  Specifically, he appears next to the sons of Michael Cline, son of Peter Cline.  He may have lived at various times in both Logan County and Tazewell County from his birth abt. 1820 until 1848 when he establishes a permanent residence in Tazewell County.

MARRIAGE:  August 24, 1849 in Tazewell County, Virginia to Sophia Robinett by R.C. Cloughton, a minister of the southern Methodist Episcopal Church.  This marriage record may be found in the Tazewell County marriage records.  William marries as "William C. Johnson."

WIFE:  Sophia Robinett.  She was born abt. 1827 in Wythe County, Virginia to Samuel Robinett and Christina Lindamood.  According to the Wythe County Marriage Records, Samuel Robinett and Christina Lindamood were married in 1824.  Christina died abt. 1828 and Samuel died in 1832, leaving Sophia and brothers William and Reece orphans.  Guardianship over the three children was given to Andrew Lindamood. (See Wythe County Court Order Book, 1832).

We believe that Sophia must have established a close relationship with her aunt Christiana Robinett, who was the wife of John Hiram Robinett (John Hiram was Samuel's brother).  From the census records, they appear to have lived not far from each other.  In fact, by 1860, they are living next door to each other and by 1870, Christiana is living with William and Sophia.

CHILDREN:  Six to live to maturity.  All six were born between 1852 and 1867: Charles, Sarah, Boston, James, William Trigg and John Henry.

RELIGION:  Southern Methodist Episcopal, though it is believed that Sophia later joined the Macedonia Primitive Baptist Church.

MILITARY SERVICE:  Company I, 16th Virginia Cavalry, CSA (see link to right for more info).

DEATH: Abt. 1883-1886 in Tazewell County, Virginia.  He is buried in the Cline-Johnson Cemetery on Red Root Ridge in Tazewell County.

ETHNICITY: 

Cline (originally, Klein), specifically Peter Cline, emigrated from the Palatinate region of Germany probably around 1770, and settled in Berks County, PA.  After his Revolutionary War service, Peter moved to Virginia and eventually, to Peter Creek on the Tug River.   

Johnson is a derivitive of the original Johnston or Johnstone, a border clan from southern Scotland.  Many of the this clan moved to Ulster, Ireland in the 1600's and subsequently emigrated to the backcountry of the British colonies in the early to mid 1700's (the Scots-Irish). 

As author David Hackett Fischer writes in his seminal work, Albion's Seed, the family patterns that exist in the Appalachians originated from the "border ideas of clan and kin."  Some of these border clans were very formidable.  He notes with distinction the Armstrongs, Grahams, Rutherfords and Halls, as well as the "Johnston-Johnson clan" which "adorned their houses with the flayed skins of their enemies the Maxwells in a blood feud that continued for many generations." Albion's Seed, Oxford University Press (1989), pg. 663. 

Isaac Johnston was most probably born in the Virginia colony and is probably 2nd or 3rd generation