Patterson Creek is a tributary of the North Branch Potomac River in West Virginia (then Virginia). George Washington and his surveying party entered the mouth of the creek, swam their horses over, got in canoes and traveled 15 miles up the creek to the settlement of Abram Johnson where they camped overnight,. Johnsons' original home was on the site of the present Kuykendall Farm house. His grave is across the road.
Abram was an official of the Ohio Company and proprietor of the first store in Ridgeley. "America's First Chain Store Corporation", funded by wealthy London and Virginia gentlemen established a chain of heavily constructed stores, later confiscated as forts, where settlers could exchange grain, hogs and tobacco for "blankets, red shroud, half thicks, liker and ches". The road surveyed and built by the company from upper Potomac Valley to Pittsburgh was the first east to west men traveled.
During the French and Indian War, Johnson and family returned to New Jersey for a while when a friendly Indian warned him the Indians were planning to kill him. The friendly Indian protected Abram's home from being raided and destroyed like many others in the area. Throughout his life, Abraham was a prominent figure in Public affairs.
Abraham Johnson is our 6th great-grandfather. He is the father of Elizabeth, married to Aaron Duckworth. Buried here is Abraham, and wife Rachel, their son William and wife Catharine and grandson Okey with wife Nancy. Recent ground penetrating radar tests of the cemetery sited some 30 graves. The large stone is possibly one of a slave. Great grandchildren erected the large monument.
Abraham Johnson timeline:
- 1748-granted 293 acres and a mill on Patterson Creek.
- 1750-named proprieter to Ohio Company store in Ridgeley-stays there during the week.
- 1754-Hampshire County Tax Collector.
- 1758-goes to New Jersey to avoid hostile Indians.
- 1767-Colonial Virginia Justice of Peace.
- 1772-High Sheriff.
- 1782-Census taker.
- 1790-sells 219 acres and mill to Reese.
