From Gauss and his Children

Contents 1 Letter 2 Source 2.1 Transcriber's Notes 3 References

Letter

Sunday, November 13, 1960
524 W. Elsmere Place
San Antonio 12, Texas

Dear Minna,

A mutual friend hearing of Mrs. Leathers' delimna [sic] in locating a Johns told her about us. She was kind enough to pass on the Johns date which you gave her. There are so many conflicting statements about John Johns' wives that I am sure all these children did not belong to just one of them! I do believe that there was some direct connection with a Glover but with so many names of Glover in the family and Mrs. Leathers has a long list of tax statements of Glover Johns that she took from the County Records in Buckingham County. with so many records lost, it seems almost impossible to find out. A Mrs. Whitley in Nashville, Tennessee, was a Johns and claims to have a lot of records of the Johns and in fact claims to be writing a book but she seems a little odd to me, in fact, I know of several people who would like information but are afraid to hire her and pay money for something that they do not need. By the way, in speaking of lost records, Sylvia, Glover's daughter and her mother were in Charlottesville, Va., this summer visiting relatives and they saw Winston Johns. He promised to send her a dairy [sic] or something of some length but wrote her and told her he could not find it, must have lost it^[1]. He lives in a place called Verdant Lawn. If you have any copies or anybody has any copies of any of the Johns records, it would be well to hold on to them. I do not know just what Winston had but have assumed he had copies of everything that was available in the old Johns home. The only thing we have is the diary you sent us and a copy of the letter Grandma Johns wrote when she was a girl attending Lindenwood. That I extracted from a Lindenwood Bulletin. also we found some very crumpled, time worn pieces of papers which when pieced together were the story from Pioneer Families of Missouri of John Jay Johns^[2]. This probably was a page torn from one of the original copies of the pamphlet and there was a rewrite and now I understand another one is being put out. I saw Sylvia Sunday Nov 20 and she had heard from Winston Johns. He sent her a letter that Anne had written to John Jay, his brother in 1926, and a copy of a clipping from a paper which she presumed was a memorial to John Johns, Jr. Also sent a 12 page story of "Chevy Chase" the Alfred Johns Home in Missippi [sic]. Have you ever seen that. these are to be re3turned to Winston. I do not know what else he had but guess they got all they could in order to preserve it. Mrs. Leathers said you mentioned you probably would see Bonnie Cooper. Ask her the names of her mothers brothers and sisters, please. I have not talked with Mrs. Leathers since she returned from their vacation but she had said she would go through Missouri to see some people who might know of her ancestor, William Johns. She even has copies of a land grant he had in East Texas. The land was sold for Taxes for a very small sum. she presumed that he died before he lived on the land or that he never came to take it over. It seems his wife's people had moved down to Texas and she is the one who is related to Mrs. Leathers but she wants to get all the data. Mrs. Leathers has more Johns data than you ever knew existed but not the right thing. She had something that quoted Mrs. Lemly.

I thought I had better let you know about the lost records. I had understood that Winston and Sally were living in the old Skipwith home in Charlottsville [sic] but she (Sylvia) told us Winston had said Sally was always a tomboy and had not lived there in seven years. she has a fishing boat business in Florida. I believe they have two sons, both married. I do not know where they live though. Another funny thing, Winston told her that a Winston Johns owned the old James Monroe home in Charlottsville and was no kin to him. I believe that is a show place and they charge to go through it. It is hard to realize that two Winston Johns are no kin at all but that is what he said.

We hope you all are well, we are about the same. I have oftern wondered what Mary Gladden^[3] would do with the old home when that time comes which I hope is not soon. It has made her a nice home and especially since she had not had Matt, it something to cling to.

With much love,
Florence

P. S. I seem to have a recollection of your mentioning a day by day diary that Grandpa Johns kept. does anybody know where that is? (If you can get the names of Bonnie's uncles and Aunts it will help someone a lot, I hope she knows them. Also do you know what happened to Anne's chart she made of the Mayflower lineage^[4], it was quite a big one and sister copied it. In trying to get it fixed up someone has abused it, and we need some dates that were partly torn off. We are trying to have it preserved is the reason. Thank you for everything. May even get some news on the original Johns forbears and the "Glover" deal. Will let you know if I do.

Source

Typewritten original in the private collection of the Chambless family. Transcribed to softcopy by Susan D. Chambless, 1999.

Transcriber's Notes

References

1. ↑ He gave the volume he had to the Missouri Historical Society in St. Louis. Susan D. Chambless
2. ↑ I believe John Jay Johns wrote his entry; also that of Thomas Durfee.
3. ↑ Mary Gladden was wife of Mathew Gauss, son of Charles Henry Gauss and Charlotte Elizabeth Johns and brother to Minna.
4. ↑ The "Mayflower lineage" is through Jane Amanda Durfee. I have Anne Durfee Gauss' copy of this lineage.