Dire Endings

Not all the descendents of James Johnson and Elizabeth Patterson carried the luck of the Irish with them through life.  James and Elizabeth were my fourth great grandparents who came from Londonderry, Northern Ireland via Londonderry New Hampshire to settle in the Truro area of Nova Scotia in 1761. Among their descendents were James Campbell Creelman and Alfred Johnson and each of them came to a very untimely end.

Alfred Johnson's Pedigree

Alfred Johnson was born in 1841 in Truro and, as a young man, followed one of his uncles, Charles Johnson,  to the American West.  He ended up in Arizona, possibly searching for gold, settling near the US Army Post of Camp Date Creek, near present day Prescott.   During the years of 1868 and 1874 it was a US Army outpost established to "deal" with the local Hualapai and Mohave Apache, led by the infamous Geronimo, who were waging a guerrilla style war against the encroaching white population.  It must be said, though, that during this period great atrocities were committed by both sides of this war with thousands of Indians slaughtered in a war of extermination led by General Crook.


Alfred was a victim of one of these raids.  On June 6th 1870, Alfred and a man named "Kentuck" Watson were travelling on the road between Camp Date Creek and Camp Skull Valley when they were set upon by a raiding party and both were murdered.

Camp Date Creek, Arizona

Cemetery records for the Camp Date Creek outpost list only the names of military personnel.  These soldiers were subsequently disinterred and their remains reburied at the Presidio in San Francisco.  There were, however 14 male Caucasians buried in the same cemetery with only wooden crosses to mark their graves. They are all listed in the record as "John Doe".  It is conceivable that Alfred was one of these men.

HMS Challenger

James Campbell Creelman was the husband of my 4th cousin, Margaret Gammell who was a descendant of the Johnsons as well.  As a young man, he left Nova Scotia to settle in Australia and then Fiji.  He was hired by Commodore Lambert to act as pilot for the war ship "HMS Challenger"

In July 1868, the Challenger was sent to Fiji to assist British and Australian settlers who were being set upon by the natives. During one skirmish, 80 Australians went ashore, including our James.  At some point, he received two gun shot wounds from which he died four days later in August 3, 1868.  News of his death was sent home by the British Consul in Sydney, Australia.