Johnson, Claiborne Finch, Rev.

as submitted by Lea Johnson

Goodspeed's of Mississippi....Biographical and Historical , Page 1926, 1890

Rev. Clayburn F. Johnson, Fort Stephens, Miss., a well-known citizen of Kemper County, Miss., was born in Iredell County, NC, May 23, 1836, and is a son of Robert and Frances (Finch) Johnson. Robert Johnson was born in Nash County, NC, and was reared, married and died there. He brought up a family of eleven children, ten of whom reared families. He was a son of Andrew Johnson, who was a prominent planter of his county. He died in 1850. His wife was born in Nash county, NC, and was a daughter of Clayburn Finch, one of the wealthiest planters and largest slave owners of his county; he died in North Carolina in 1840 and the mother of our subject passed away in 1855. Both the father and mother were members of the Missionary Baptist church. Their children were named as follows: Samuel, Caswell, Thomas, Williamson, Martha, Robert, Andrew, Simon P., William W., Noah, Clayburn F., and Frances. Clayburn F. spent his early life in NC and there received his education. In February, 1860, he emigrated to Miss. where he was employed in agriculture. 

For Civil War Information on Claiborne or on Company K, 43 MS Volunteers, click on the link.He was married January 1, 1862, to Sarah A. Jackson, who was born in NC in 1837. Her parents, Needham and Frances (Bass) Jackson, were also natives of NC, and removed to Miss. when she was a young child. Her father died in Kemper county in 1880, and her mother is still living at the age of eighty years.

Mr. and Mrs. Johnson are the parents of four children: Bunyan W., Mary E., who married I. H. Kinerd, and is the mother of two children, Anna and Spurgean; Sidney O, and Clayburn M. Mr. Johnson entered the ministry in 1880, but was not ordained until 1882; he is now a local minister of the Freewill Baptist church, and is state organizer of Mississippi. He owns a large tract of land, comprising about 840 acres, a large portion of which is under cultivation. In 1880 he made some investments in the mercantile trade and has been very successful. Since the war he has succeeded in accumulating some valuable property, and is one of the most enterprising of Kemper County's citizens. Politically he affiliates with the Republican party. He is a man of pronounced opinions, firm in his convictions of right and wrong and is well worthy of the esteem to which he is held.