Garrett collection of Johnson family papers

The Garrett collection of Johnson family papers span the years 1762-1958, covering five generations of the family centered around the Rockland estate in the southeast corner of the Green Spring Valley where Falls Road and the Jones Falls expressway meet, near the present day area of Brookelandville, Maryland. The Rockland village was founded by Dr. Thomas Johnson (1764-1831) after he built a mill on the Jones Falls between 1800 and 1810. According to tradition, the property was named after its rocky topography. The village surrounding the mill consisted of houses for mill workers, a blacksmith shop, wheelwright shop, tavern, and a saw mill. The success of the mill and farm led to Dr. Thomas Johnson taking charge of the construction of the eighth and ninth miles of the Falls Turnpike Road to facilitate easy access to the markets in Baltimore Town. A tollgate was also erected to provide additional revenue.

Until 1836, the Johnson family had resided at Turkey Cock Hall, on property purchased from Samuel Merryman in 1736 by Dr. Thomas Johnson’s maternal grandfather, Edward Risteau (fl. 1730s), and left to his daughter Ann and her husband Thomas Johnson (1710-1791), Dr. Thomas Johnson’s parents.

Though Turkey Cock Hall may have been referred to as “Rockland,” the manor house today known by that name was constructed in 1836 by William Fell Johnson (1796-1862), Dr. Thomas Johnson’s son. Dr. Thomas Johnson and his wife Joanna Giles continued to live at Turkey Cock Hall with their daughter Ann G. Johnson Tagart and her husband William Tagart.

Dr. Thomas Johnson (1764-1831) married Joanna Giles in 1794. Joanna was the daughter of Ann Bond and Jacob Giles, her second husband. Ann Bond's first husband was Edward Fell, with whom she had one son, William Fell. After receiving his medical degree, Dr. Johnson served on the Committee of Health of Baltimore in 1794. In the first decade of the 1800s he spent one term in the Maryland Senate. He was responsible for building the 8th and 9th miles of the Falls Turnpike Road in 1810, for the purposes of collecting tolls and improving the route access of Rockland Mill and farm to Baltimore Town. In 1827 he was appointed warden of the Baltimore City Jail. By the time of his death he left his heirs a prosperous mill and farm, rents in Baltimore, houses in the village that brought in rent, and stock in the Falls Turnpike Road Company. Dr. Thomas Johnson and Joanna Giles had two children, William Fell Johnson (1798-1862) and Ann Giles Johnson Tagart.

Not much is known about the next two men, but both fathered children that married into the Johnson family, and their papers became part of this collection. The first, Robert North Carnan (1756-1836), also of the Green Spring Valley, married Katherine Risteau, who died in 1803. One of their six children was Frances Wilkenson Carnan (1800-1832), who later married William Fell Johnson. Robert North Carnan was instrumental in founding Garrison Forest Academy. Abraham Barker (fl. 1779-1827) was the father of Ann Mifflin Barker, who was William Fell Johnson’s second wife.

William Fell Johnson (1798-1862) inherited half of the Rockland property along with his sister Ann Giles Johnson Tagart. He was known as a businessman and a man of public affairs. He sold off the flour mill and related machinery to use the mill for other purposes. He sold the mill to Richard W. Hook in 1855 and the mill would continue to change hands and purposes for many years. He and four others, including Richard Caton, were elected managers of the Falls Turnpike Road Company. In 1822 and 1823 William Fell Johnson represented Baltimore County in the General Assembly. The construction of the Rockland manor house cost William Fell Johnson $8,600, and was completed in 1836. The architect who executed the house and contracted its construction was David Carlisle, though there is some thought that Robert Mills may have been responsible for the original drawings.

William Fell Johnson married Frances Wilkinson Carnan and the pair had one son, Dr. Thomas Francis Johnson (1829-1881). After Frances's death, William remarried, wedding Anne Mifflin Barker Johnson (1820-1899), with whom he had five children: Sarah Catherine (Kate) 1844-1914; William Fell Johnson II (1846-1916); Marshall Barker Johnson (1848-1880); Ann Tagart Johnson (1851-1852); and Robert Wilkinson Johnson (1854-1930). When William Fell Johnson passed away in 1862 he left three quarters of his estate to his wife Ann. His will also instructed the Maryland State Colonization Society to buy an enslaved woman named Cealia so that she and her child could be sent to Liberia or freed.

Upon Ann Johnson’s death, she left the estate to William Fell II, and gave $13,000 and 12 acres to both Kate and Robert. William Fell Johnson II was one of the founding members of the Garrison Forest Farmer’s Club as well as a member and secretary of the Agricultural Society of Baltimore County. He preferred the cultivation of wheat and straw as opposed to raising livestock at Rockland, yet wintered horses in his stables as it was a profitable endeavor. Upon his death he divided his estate by leaving the mansion to his nephew William Fell Johnson III (1884-1968), and the rest of the property west of Falls Road to his brother Dr. Robert W. Johnson (1854-1930). William Fell Johnson II spent 30 years as registrar of St. Thomas church, where much of the family is buried.

Robert Wilkinson Johnson Sr., (1854-1930) married Julia Watts Hall Brock (1858-1930). Together they had two sons, William Fell Johnson III and Robert Wilkinson Johnson, Jr., as well as three daughters, Anna Julia, Ella Brock, and Katherine Barker. Katherine Barker Johnson (1885-1961) married Robert S. Garrett, an Olympic Games gold medalist athlete and grandson of John Work Garrett, President of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. It is through this line of descent that the collection originates.