| Notes |
- NOTE: There is some educated speculation here. See details below.
The son of Jacob and Margaret Johnson, in 1850 he was living with his family in Wrightsville, York County, Pennsylvania, and in 1860 was a laborer still living there but with the John Bolier family. By 1864, he stood 5' 1" tall and had black hair, black eyes, and a black complexion. He is in the 1850 census as a one-year-old and the 1860 census as a thirteen-year-old.
A Civil War veteran, he enlisted at the stated age of eighteen and mustered into federal service at Carlisle February 24, 1864, as a private with Co. D, 32nd U.S. Colored Troops, with the enlistment credited to Wrightsville. He honorably discharged with his company August 22, 1865, at Hilton Head, South Carolina.
He married Susanna lnu. and later moved to Harrisburg where he died from "general arteriosclerosis."
NOTES on the educated speculation:
The problem is that his death certificate claims he was born in 1832, the year formerly shown in this post and since replaced by what admittedly is a somewhat speculative year of birth. I have not found him in any census subsequent to 1860, but he does have a pension file I have yet to read that may clarify everything. There was only one obituary found in available online newspapers for Harrisburg (or anywhere else in the state) for an Abraham Johnson dying during the November 1916 time frame, and it does not mention his age at death. (See the Harrisburg Daily Independent November 27, 1916.) Clearly, there is an age discrepancy here that would lead one to believe these are two different men.
I believe they are in fact the same man.
1. While locating accurate nineteenth century birth dates is a difficult job for white veterans, it is even more challenging for black veterans for whom wide variations in claimed ages are virtually the norm. This one, however, is an unusually large variance. Nonetheless . . .
2. For this to have been two different men means that two black Civil War veterans with the same name died in the same town on the same day yet only one has a death certificate and only one is mentioned in an obituary. Possible? Yes. Likely? No.
Original post:
84 year old colored male, whose death occurred at 1232 N. Cameron St, from general arteriosclerosis. Informant for death certificate did not know names of his parents.
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Harrisburg Daily Independent, Monday, 27 Nov 1916:
Funeral services for Abraham Johnson, who died last Friday at his home, 1232 North Cameron street, will be held tomorrow afternoon at 2 o'clock at the home, with Archdeacon Henderson of this city officiating. Burial will be in the Lincoln Cemetery. Mr. Johnson was a Civil war veteran.
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