A Look into Our Past
Researched & provided by Barbara Bonner
Starling & Johnson Family History
"Faith in God and Hands on the plow" A look at our family from slavery until the present day.
Acknowledgments
I want to thank my family for their encouragement. A special thanks to my Aunt Bernice Lewis, Uncle Amos Johnson and my cousin Etherlyne Starling. A special thanks to my friends who always had time to listen to me even when it seemed like I was the only one who thought preserving our family history for the next generation was important. Thanks to the following institution that open their doors and shared information with me.
Smith County Historical Society, East Texas Genealogical Society, Texas State Library and Archives, Austin Public Library, Rusk County Library.
INTRODUCTION
In 1996 I began my research on the Starling and Johnson family. My research started in East Texas. Having knowledge that our family came from Rusk, Smith and Shelby counties that is where I began. The Eastern part of Texas is full of our heritage. I started in East Texas but my search took me to Georgia, Virginia, Mississippi, Alabama, South Carolina and California. Although my search has lead me across the ocean it is not to Africa where my search took me, but to England. The blood of our African fathers runs deep and strong in us, but some of our African fore fathers, not all, came to America by way of England. Their middle passage went to England and then to America. There were two sets of Starlings that traveled to American from England. One white and the other Malatto slaves they brought with them. The Starlings originally came from a place in England called Anglia England. Then if you travel to the eastern parts of Texas, among the cedars and pines and sweet gum trees you will find what I considered the roots of the family. In the wooded farming communities of Concord, Garrison, Minden and Mt. Enterprise you will find the surnames that make up your family. I've gone as far back as the early 1800's. I've spent many hours going over handwritten official records, census reports in archives and libraries. I made a visit to one of our family cemeteries and researched records on others near by cemeteries. With the information that I received in talking with older family members I have tried to put the picture together of where we come from. It is not always easy and rather doubtful that anyone can get a completely accurate list of the people and families that make up their family tree, but I have tried to work with what I have found and what I have been told. As I look back at a time when slavery still existed. I realized that our ancestors also felt the bitter spirit of slavery. I began to feel the common link that chains us to our past, but proudly pushes us to the future. We came from a industrious people who worked hard. They kept their hands on the plow and endured slavery. They held on to their hopes and endured many very trying circumstances. As we remember those who have come before us, we learn about ourselves. We must pass this information on in order to help our fruit grow. Let us never forget where we come from. We must remember with Pride. It is my hope that each family member who happens to see this will be inspired to add to the written history of this family, so that it will never be forgotten.
Mary Starling & George Johnson
Jan 13, 1893-Oct 25, 1968 May 20, 1888-Feb 17, 1959
Mary Starling was born in Rusk County on January 13, 1893 to the Rev. and Mrs. William Starling. William Starling also known as W.H. was a local gospel minister and teacher. The Starling family belonged to the Holly Springs Baptist Church. On November 25, 1913 Mary Starling married George Johnson. Mary was 20 years old when she and George married and they were married 46 years until his death on February 17, 1959 of Leukemia. George and Mary were blessed with eleven children. Ten were their biology offspring and the oldest of the eleven, Corine was a half sister. They were born in the following order. Corine, W.H. Robert (R.D.), George, Amos, Susie, Johnnie, Ollie Mae (who died at the early age of nine, exact date unknown), Bernice, Eugene, a week old infant who died un-named.
Mary was around 5'8" which was tall for a woman. And was a lot taller than her husband George. Mary lived a Christian life and as an adult she united with the Bethlehem Church of God in Christ and remained a faithful member until death. Mary and George were landowners and farmers. They raised their family in a seven room house located in Concord on the Garrison route in East Texas. They owned a 96 acre farm which George bought with the cotton he raised and sold. Mary loved to cook and sew. She passed her talent on to her daughters. After Mary's death in 1968 the youngest of the girls, Bernice Johnson Lewis had the house moved from the site of the old home place in Concord to Lewis Street in Henderson, Texas, where she raised her four children and where the house still stands today. Bernice's son Harold Gene Johnson has made his home on the spot of the original home place. Other family members live in the area also. They live and walk on the same grounds of our ancestors. In the past it has been the location of the Johnson Family reunion.
Susie Johnson Spears
Susie Johnson Spears was born in Rusk County in the community of Concord Texas on July 30, 1922. She later moved to Austin, Texas, were she still lives today. There she met and married Emmitt Spears. Emmitt was born to the late Ezekiel Spears and Rosie Etter Lowery Spears in Wilmer, Texas, in Dallas County, on May 19, 1915. Emmitt died on October 22, 1988 in Austin, Texas, in Brackenridge Hospital.
Susie loves to fish and sew. She enjoys spending time with her family in East Texas and returns there often. Susie is the mother of the following children: Vertis Record, Mary Johnson Rogers, Emmitt Spears, Jr., Imogene Spears, Sue Etta Spears.
Reverend William H. Starling & Lucy McLemore-Starling
William Starling was born in Texas in October of 1857 to Tom and Melinda Starling. When he was 22-years-old he married Lucy McLemore in Smith County on February 7, 1879. Lucy was born in July of 1864 in Texas to LeNora McLemore.
William Starling also known as W.H. was a well known Minister of the Gospel. He married many couples in the Smith and Rusk County Areas. He could read and write and taught school out of the church. He owned his own farm, where most of his family were laborers. The younger children were sent to school. Some of the children were listed as farm laborers and may have been working on other neighboring farms. William and Lucy had 12 children together. One is presumed to have died young, because only 11 children are claimed on the 1900 Census. William must have really valued education. Being a preacher and teacher was very risky business for men of color after the Civil War, as the war ended and the blacks in the South were emancipated. It was a long and difficult period of readjustment. Black leaders men and women worked together for the right to go to school, to own property and to vote. What property he had must have come from hard work. History attests to the strength, will and resolve of William and Lucy and their children. Free but still enslaved by deeds and limitations. They educated their children and laid the foundation of our family.
William and Lucy had the following children: Thomas Starling, Cynthia Starling-Skylow, Lonora Starling , Lucinda Starling, Benjamin Starling, Rev. Joseph Starling - married Texanna Johnson, Jessie Starling, Edgar Starling, Lonnie Starling, Sing Starling, Mary Starling, Rosy Starling
The children of William and Lucy passed on the example of religion, perseverance and hard work.
The following words are listed in Bethlehem Baptist Church, Carthage, Panola County, Texas, 110 Years of Service Anniversary booklet dated November 26, 1978.
Rev. W.H. (William) Starling, the second pastor of this church, was born around 1857. This native of Rusk County served as Vice Moderator of East Texas Bethel Association and as Missionary over the East Bethel Association field. He also had a notorious teaching career in and around this area. He pastored both Smyrna Baptist Church in Timpson, Texas and Bethlehem. His service ended at Bethlehem in 1914 after 33 years of service. The Rev. Simon Pipkin served as interim minister until a regular pastor was called.
A picture of Rev. Starling is also listed in the booklet.
Dear Family Member,
I am organizing and collecting information on the Johnson/Starling Family. I am trying to learn and record as much information as I can about our family. I need your help to make this collection as complete as I can. This information will be complied so that it can be passed on for generations to come. You and your family are an important part of our history. There maybe information about the Johnson/Starling Family that only you know or remember. Every story, name and picture adds to our history.
How can you help?
Provide us with any information you may have on your branch of the family. Any vital statistics on members of the family. Dates of birth, marriage, deaths. Any copies of licenses, military papers, newspaper clippings, clubs, fraternities...You may want to include any favorite family traditions, fond memories you deem important in your life.
I'm also setting up an address data base so I can send a "Johnson Family Genealogy Newsletter" to keep everyone updated on the project. If you have the names and address of family members you think maybe interested in this project, please send them to me.
You can send them to: Sue Spears at P.O. Box #143491 Austin, Texas 78714-3491
*Original records or documents can be easily photocopied. Photos can be scanned onto computer disk, Oral History can be put on cassette.*