Johnson Farm

The Johnson farmstead was occupied by members of the Johnson family between 1856 and 1914. The archeological investigations revealed 14 features, including a detached kitchen, a smokehouse/drying shed, a possible second smokehouse (Feature 11), a large trash deposit, several post molds and posts associated with a yard fence, a gravel lens from a dripline and/or step between the log house and the kitchen, and the remnants of the chimney/hearth to the original dwelling. The sandstone rubble density noted suggests that stones from this chimney were reused, probably after the farm was abandoned. The site area remaining after mitigation excavations still represent one of the better-preserved examples of a very rare settlement type in this area of northcentral Texas- the single component mid-nineteenth to the very early 20th-century farmstead with no post-1920 associated deposits.

The site was originally recorded in the Environmental Consultants Incorporated 1984-1985 survey of the Lake Ray Roberts project area for the Ft. Worth District U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. The significance of the site was not realized until an oral history interview with Mr. Roy Jones of the Jones farm site (41DN250) with the University of North Texas in 1986 indicated the background history of this site (41DN248). Original Testing of the site by the U.N.T. in 1987 included 40 shovel test pits to determine site integrity and size and determine any artifactual patterning. Based on this initial information, an additional 14 1m x .5m units and 13 1m x 1m units were placed to sample known features and to recover sheet refuse deposits under and near the dwelling and outbuilding locations. In 1990, U.N.T. conducted extensive mitigation excavations which revealed architectural remains of the original log dwelling and several outbuildings including a detached kitchen, a cellar, and a crib. A large artifact assemblage was dominated by 19th-century materials that provided data on lifeways, artifact acquisition and manufacture, and economic pursuits.

The Johnson farm (41DN248) provides an excellent opportunity to document and study the early settlement of a frontier area. Early settlement of this area began in the 1840s when the Peters Colony established an office in southeast Denton County to facilitate Anglo settlement of the region. The Ray Roberts Lake area is in the First Contract of the Peters Colony and early settlement began in the 1850s. The major settlement only began in the 1870s. Among the earliest farmsteads established in southeastern Cooke County and northern Denton County were constructed by farmers who came to the area from the Upper South as part of the Peters Colony. The Johnson family (41DN248) and the Jones family (41DN250) were among these early families. Other members of the Jones family established farms at 41DN224 and 41C0111.

Available archival, oral history, and other documentary information such as agricultural production records, tax rolls, and census schedules have been obtained regarding the Johnson (41DN248) and Jones (41DN250) farmstead sites. This information provides a fairly unique and detailed framework for the study of short-term changes in rural agricultural lifeways in this area of northcentral Texas as well as providing a useful set of data for comparison with larger regional patterns of agricultural lifeways in the southern Plains. The Johnson farm (and the Jones farm 41DN250) provide an excellent opportunity to study and understand the past lifeways of farmers in northcentral Texas during the second half of the 19th century and the early part of the 20th century. The local economy was predominantly based on farming and ranching.

The Johnson farm was occupied by a farm family who settled in the community of Sullivan Settlement in the late 1850s. This family followed the common pattern of building a log house, adding later frame additions, excavating a well (41DN249), building outbuildings and smokehouses (Johnson farm had 2), establishing orchards & gardens, & raised crops & animals. They were largely self-sufficient farmers. They grew gardens & had orchards to provide them with most of the fruit & vegetables they required. They collected wild berries, and nuts, hunted, fished, & raised a variety of farm animals. The Johnsons had 1 or 2 milk cows, chickens, turkeys, mules, horses, & several beef cows & hogs, & possibly some sheep. While they did raise some cattle, they primarily ate pork, taking most of the cattle to local markets. Cattle were not butchered on the farm, while hogs were butchered & smoked or pickled each year. The Johnsons were hard-working people who participated in neighborhood tasks such as building country roads, helping build neighbors' farm buildings, planting & harvest crops, & attended church & community socials. Families in this area interacted & purchased items in the proximal communities of Hemming, Fairview, Bloomfield, & Cosner/Vaughntown. Major shopping trips were made to Pilot Point, Sanger, Aubrey, Valley View, or Gainesville. European-American settlement of North Texas was minimal prior to approximately 1830-40. W.S Peters of St. Louis & his partners petitioned the Texas Congress for a land grant on Feb. 4, 1841, which became the Peters Colony. The Peters Colony later became the Texas Emigration & Land Company & encompassed 1500 sq. miles in Northcentral Texas from the southern boundary of current Denton County to the Red River. This area, the first of three contracts, contained the current eastern half of Denton & Cooke counties, a western part of Grayson County, & a small part of western Collins County. The Peters Colony was expanded to include portions of eight current counties in Northcentral Texas. The Johnson Farm was contained within the first of the three contracts.

The geography of the area & the origins of the Peters Colonists influenced land selection & settlement patterns. The land granted to the Peters Colony is characterized by three soil types which occur in broad, north-south bands. The Eastern Cross-Timbers & the Blackland Prairie were best suited for farming due to the availability of water, wood, & arable farmland. The Grand Prairie was more suitable for ranching. Because a majority of the Peters Colonists were farmers, the Cross-Timbers & the Blackland Prairie were settled prior to the Grand Prairie. The Blackland Prairie soils were also exceedingly hard & dense & difficult to cultivate prior to the development of farm machinery. Due to the tough prairie sod, special plows were required to cultivate Blackland Prairie soils.

Population in the Peters Colony increased slowly during the 1840s, but during the 1850's the population doubled (the period of settlement for the Johnson farm). Part of this growth was due to a national advertising campaign mounted in 1847 by the Peters Colony administration to encourage immigration to the area. As immigration increased, Denton (1846), Grayson (1846), & Cooke (1848) counties were established. Early communities in Northeastern Denton County were Sullivan Settlement, Pilots Point (later Pilot Point), Gribble Springs, Green Valley, Cosner/Vaughntown, & Fairview.

Agricultural activity in Northcentral Texas initially consisted of subsistence crops. Small farms with few or no slaves, located primarily in the Cross-Timbers zone, produced such staples as wheat, corn, oats, & sweet potatoes. Settlers grew peach, plum, and pear trees & gathered wild resources. Out of this tradition of subsistence farming emerged a new trend towards crop diversification. Diversified farming preceded ranches, which developed later on the prairies of Northcentral Texas. Northcentral Texas has a strong tradition of diversified farming which extended, in the Cross-Timbers predominantly, well into the 20th Century. Due to poor transportation, farmers usually produced what they required, not more than they could consume or readily sell. Hogs and corn were raised primarily for home consumption. Prior to the Civil War, over half the state's wheat was grown in Northcentral Texas. This area was capable of producing large quantities of grain & cotton, but commercial agriculture was relatively unimportant in antebellum Texas. It was not until after the Civil War that cattle ranching became a profitable business.

The decades after the Civil War proved to be an important one in the development of Northcentral Texas. A shortage of beef in the North, caused by the Civil War, created a demand that gave birth to the Texas cattle industry. Northcentral Texas lay in the path of the great cattle drives, which were an economic boom for the region. The arrival of the railroad in Ft. Worth led directly to the town's incorporation in 1873. Ft. Worth served as a railhead for the shipment of cattle & a point of supply for cattlemen who continued to drive herds northward. The railroad also contributed to the rise of commercial agriculture. In addition to bringing people & increased trade to the area, railroads created new markets for crops. The amount of land in cash crop production increased substantially between 1875 & 1900. Despite the increase in commercial agriculture & tremendous growth of the cattle industry, subsistence farming would continue to be predominant in Northcentral Texas until the late 1890s. By 1875, the majority of tillable homesteads had been claimed & population density was increasing throughout the area. Settlement of the prairies began in earnest in the 1880s, but the Cross-Timbers did not actively participate in a cash-crop economy. Cross-Timber soils were less suitable for intensive cultivation, so traditional subsistence farming continued well into the 20th Century.

The economic problems of the 1880s & 1890s provided the appropriate circumstances for the growth of sharecropping & tenant farming in Texas. These decades were a time of financial highs & lows, periodic "panics", & devastating weather events. Crop failures & livestock depletions caused economic depressions which placed pressure on the small farms in the area. Numerous small farm owners were forced off their farms or forced into the tenancy. Almost 40% of Texas farmers were tenants. By 1900, half the farmers in Denton County were tenants. Tenancy reached its peak in about 1920. Records suggest that there was a lower frequency of tenancy in the Cross-Timbers than in the Blackland Prairie. This may be attributed to the fact that Cross-Timbers farmers such as the Johnson Family, did not concentrate on commercial agriculture. They usually diversified their crops & cultivated on a subsistence scale. Such diversification probably insulated them from economic instability by rendering them less dependent on market rates.

Economic problems in the U.S. in the early 20th Century were partially due to the unstable cotton economy nationwide, which adversely affected commercial agriculture. As mechanization increased, farm size increased & land costs decreased. With low cotton prices & widespread mechanization, the number of farmers sharecropping & tenant farming decreased dramatically after 1935.

Mechanization rendered tenant farmers obsolete, & the population began to shift from rural areas to urban areas, where employment opportunities were greater. The oral history and archival information available on the Johnson (and Jones) farm and the archeological information available is extensive and will allow researchers to more fully understand and reconstruct the past lifeways of the Johnson (and Jones) family and the farm (s). The archeological deposits at the Johnson (and Jones) farm contain considerable data on early structures and yard activities such as gardening, raising poultry, and trash disposal, as well as historic dietary information. The extant foundations and features provide information on the types and variety of farm structures utilized in this area of Texas. The information already obtained as well as the remaining archeological deposits at the Johnson farm will greatly facilitate our understanding of how the Johnson (and Jones) family and their neighbors existed in the northcentral region of Texas between the 1850s and the early to mid-1900s.