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Noah Parrish Johnson

Birth	:	5 May 1846 Washington County, Iowa, USA
Death	:	22 Dec 1897 Douglas County, Washington, USA
Burial	:	Ebenezer Cemetery, Courtice, Durham Regional Municipality, Canada
Coordinate	:	43.8966100, -78.7708800
Description	:	(The following biographical sketch of Noah Parrish Johnson appeared in "Some Descendants of Thomas and Jane (Jefferson) Stephens of Baltimore County, Maryland, 1745-2005" by Edmund G. Fisher, 2005. It is reprinted with the author's permission.) Parrish Johnson was reared on his parents' farm in Crawford Township, Washington County, Iowa, and was educated in the country schools near the family home. By trade, he was a farmer and carpenter, and he also was a skilled frontiersman who enjoyed the challenge of establishing homes in isolated districts. On November 14, 1869, Parrish married Ohio-born Mary Smith in Mahaska County,... Read More	(The following biographical sketch of Noah Parrish Johnson appeared in "Some Descendants of Thomas and Jane (Jefferson) Stephens of Baltimore County, Maryland, 1745-2005" by Edmund G. Fisher, 2005. It is reprinted with the author's permission.) Parrish Johnson was reared on his parents' farm in Crawford Township, Washington County, Iowa, and was educated in the country schools near the family home. By trade, he was a farmer and carpenter, and he also was a skilled frontiersman who enjoyed the challenge of establishing homes in isolated districts. On November 14, 1869, Parrish married Ohio-born Mary Smith in Mahaska County, Iowa. Mary disliked her husband's family name, so after the couple were married they used the name "Johnston." Following his divorce, Parrish reverted to his birth surname while his descendants continued to favor "Johnston." The known record of Parrish and Mary Johnston's movements is probably incomplete. The couple spent the first five years of their marriage on a farm in Washington County, Iowa. About 1874 they followed the lead of other family members and journeyed to Washington Territory, taking a homestead in the densely forested Chelatchie district in north Clark County. They also probably farmed in the vicinity of La Center, Clark County, Washington. Parrish and Mary had five children, and were divorced sometime between 1884 and 1887. Mary Johnston later remarried twice: first, on October 27, 1887, to George W. Lockerby (1844-1911), a Civil War pensioner of Clackamas County, Oregon, and lastly, on December 20, 1898, to Andrew Tolleson (1844-1925), a Norwegian merchant seaman and farmer with whom she resided in Portland, Oregon. Mary succumbed to tuberculosis at 70, following a sixteen-month convalescence in a sanitarium at Troutdale, Oregon. After his first marriage ended, Parrish lived in several Washington cities, including Goldendale, in Klickitat County, and possibly Seattle and Spokane. He then settled in the Kittitas County community of Ellensburg, where he reportedly worked on a stock ranch before entering business as a homeopathic products merchant. On February 5, 1890, Parrish married his second wife, Rachel (nee German) Wainscott Maroney, at East Kittitas, Kittitas County, Washington. Rachel was a widowed Missouri native who had spent her childhood and early adult years in Arkansas and Texas, and perhaps Oklahoma. She had children by both of her previous husbands, and during the early 1880's had settled near family members in Ellensburg, Washington Territory. Parrish and Rachel Johnson had no children. The Johnsons spent the first several months of their marriage in Ellensburg before moving to remote, sparsely populated Douglas County, Washington. In June 1891 Parrish was granted a deed, or "patent," to a 160-acre parcel of "timber culture" land located about two miles from the now-extinct community of Dyer, and approximately eight miles southwest of the Columbia River town of Bridgeport. The Johnson ranch was perched atop a high, spring-fed plateau in an area now known as Dyer Hill, but which in Parrish's time was also called Cold Springs Basin. In April 1896 the couple relinquished a 25-foot wide strip of land on the north side of their homestead for the construction of the first public road in the area. In spite of the comparative seclusion of their property, Parrish and Rachel Johnson were active members of their community. Parrish worked diligently to build up his farm, which, with its dependable supply of spring water, was very well suited for grain crops. Rachel was noted as one of Douglas County's early homeopathic practitioners. As a trusted, though unlicensed "country doctor," she traveled by horseback across countless miles of wilderness in her mission to assist her neighbors with their non-critical medical needs. Many of Douglas County's early birth records contain Rachel's signature as the attending midwife, bearing witness to her important work. Parrish Johnson died tragically in his fifty-first year. In late December 1897 he traveled to Coulee City, Washington, to meet his stepson-in-law and neighbor, William M. Putman, who had been discharged from Washington State Hospital in Medical Lake several days earlier. Putman was the husband of Alice Wainscott (1869-1965), Rachel Johnson's daughter from an earlier marriage. After reuniting at the Central Washington Railroad station in Coulee City, the two men donned snowshoes and skis, and immediately set out on foot in the direction of the Johnson place, some forty miles away across a vast, uninhabited, snow-covered plain. They soon were overtaken by a blizzard, became disoriented, and spent several days wandering aimlessly in the wilderness. On or about December 22, with his food and water supplies exhausted, Parrish succumbed to fatigue and died about a mile north of the head of Moses Coulee, a lake-studded depression in the vicinity of the modern-day town of Mansfield, Washington. Putman desperately struggled onward for another five or six miles before he, too, collapsed and froze to death at a place called Buckingham Draw, a short distance from his home. It's not known why Parrish attempted such a perilous overland trek in inclement weather and with a companion who, having recently been hospitalized, would have been poorly prepared for such a journey. Parrish was well acquainted with the local terrain and, being an experienced outdoorsman, presumably felt confident in his ability to safely find his way back home. In early January 1898, after the weather improved, a search party left Coulee City and soon discovered the bodies of the two men. The searchers reported finding that Parrish had partially buried himself in a badger hole in a desperate but futile attempt to save himself. The widowed Rachel Johnson continued to live on the Dyer Hill homestead until 1909, when, following her marriage to Ethan Allen Brown (1845-1920), she turned the place over to her son, Daniel Boone Wainscott (1878-1961), another of her children from a previous marriage. Since then, the farm has been operated continuously by members of the Wainscott family. Rachel's fourth husband, E. A. Brown, was a Missouri-born farmer. The couple resided in the Benton County, Washington, communities of Prosser and Hanford. Rachel died at 69.

frequently asked questions (FAQ):

Where is Noah Parrish Johnson's memorial?
Noah Parrish Johnson's memorial is located at: Ebenezer Cemetery, Courtice, Durham Regional Municipality, Canada.
When did Noah Parrish Johnson death?
Noah Parrish Johnson death on 22 Dec 1897 in Douglas County, Washington, USA
Where are the coordinates of the Noah Parrish Johnson's memorial?
Latitude: 43.8966100
Longitude: -78.7708800

Family Members:

Parent

Margaret Frances Stephens Johnson

(1814 - 1888)

Spouse

Mary E Smith Tolleson

(1848 - 1918)

Rachel P German Brown

(1847 - 1917)

Siblings

Children

Alice May Johnston Proctor

(1873 - 1896)

Thomas Edward Johnson

(1878 - 1897)

Jacob Wallace “Jack” Johnston

(1884 - 1945)

Flowers:

Nearby Cemetories:

1. Ebenezer Cemetery
Courtice, Durham Regional Municipality, Canada
Coordinate: 43.8966100, -78.7708800

2. Trull Cemetery
Courtice, Durham Regional Municipality, Canada
Coordinate: 43.8773600, -78.7839500

3. St. Woloymyr and St. Olha Cemetery
Courtice, Durham Regional Municipality, Canada
Coordinate: 43.8778104, -78.7917245

4. St Mary's Ukrainian Orthodox Cemetery
Oshawa, Durham Regional Municipality, Canada
Coordinate: 43.8900704, -78.8116567

5. Farewell Memorial Cemetery
Oshawa, Durham Regional Municipality, Canada
Coordinate: 43.9035700, -78.8332200

6. Port Oshawa Pioneer Cemetery
Oshawa, Durham Regional Municipality, Canada
Coordinate: 43.8591900, -78.8323500

7. Zion United Church Cemetery
Hampton, Durham Regional Municipality, Canada
Coordinate: 43.9532450, -78.8064600

8. Pioneer Memorial Gardens Cemetery
Oshawa, Durham Regional Municipality, Canada
Coordinate: 43.8967000, -78.8712700

9. Mount Vernon Episcopal
Solina, Durham Regional Municipality, Canada
Coordinate: 43.9695600, -78.8028500

10. Eldad United Church Cemetery
Solina, Durham Regional Municipality, Canada
Coordinate: 43.9715300, -78.7936400

11. Bowmanville Cemetery
Bowmanville, Durham Regional Municipality, Canada
Coordinate: 43.9099998, -78.6650009

12. Saint Gregory's Catholic Cemetery
Oshawa, Durham Regional Municipality, Canada
Coordinate: 43.9277420, -78.8762350

13. Oshawa Union Cemetery
Oshawa, Durham Regional Municipality, Canada
Coordinate: 43.8942604, -78.8922653

14. Mount Lawn Memorial Gardens
Whitby, Durham Regional Municipality, Canada
Coordinate: 43.8916000, -78.9007100

15. Thornton Cemetery
Oshawa, Durham Regional Municipality, Canada
Coordinate: 43.9224600, -78.9072100

16. Saint George's Anglican Church Cemetery
Newcastle, Durham Regional Municipality, Canada
Coordinate: 43.9136110, -78.6219440

17. Bethesda Cemetery
Tyrone, Durham Regional Municipality, Canada
Coordinate: 43.9942860, -78.6954348

18. Enniskillen Presbyterian Cemetery
Enniskillen, Durham Regional Municipality, Canada
Coordinate: 44.0126330, -78.7686500

19. Lovekin Pioneer Cemetery
Lovekin, Durham Regional Municipality, Canada
Coordinate: 43.9024500, -78.6065900

20. Trinity Anglican Cemetery
Enniskillen, Durham Regional Municipality, Canada
Coordinate: 44.0173200, -78.7630360

21. Resurrection Catholic Cemetery
Whitby, Durham Regional Municipality, Canada
Coordinate: 43.9169388, -78.9408875

22. Tyrone Pioneer Cemetery
Tyrone, Durham Regional Municipality, Canada
Coordinate: 44.0155400, -78.7164700

23. Bethel Methodist Cemetery
Clarke, Durham Regional Municipality, Canada
Coordinate: 43.9353950, -78.5978240

24. Lawrence Back Church Cemetery
Clarke, Durham Regional Municipality, Canada
Coordinate: 44.0017800, -78.6591900