Cary Johnson
Among the early settlers of Springfield township none were more prominent than the Johnsons. Cary Johnson came to Springfield township on horseback from Bascom Ridge, New Jersey, in 1804. He was born in the year 1781, and at the age of twenty-three he started for the land of promise. His first settlement in Ohio was the farm now owned and occupied by his son, Cary Benson. Here he began life. He at once set about erecting a cabin and clearing away the forest. In the year 1805 he was married to Miss Rachel Jessup, by whom he had nine children -- four sons and five daughters: Drucilla, Jemima, Jane, John, Abner, Sarah A., Hampton, Augusta, and Cary B. All are now dead, but Sarah Manger and Cary B., who resides in Jackson county, Iowa. The father departed this life in the year 1866, surviving his companion but three years; and they both are buried in the little burial ground near New Burlington. Now the only representative of this household residing in Hamilton county is Cary Benson, who was born in the year 1832. His business has always been that of farming. He married, in the year 1859, Miss Sarah L. Jackson. Mr. Johnson is one of the thrifty farmers of his township. While he has no membership with any church, his sympathies are with the Universalists. He is pleasantly located on a finely improved farm near Mount Pleasant, surrounded by every comfort necessary to his wants.
Rachel Jessup, wife of Cary Johnson, was born in 1787 in the State of New Jersey, and came with her parents to Springfield township in the year 1794, coming from Pittsburgh to Cincinnati on a flat-boat. The farm on which the family first settled had been selected some time previous by an older brother, Stephen Jessup, who came from Pennsylvania on foot to seek more suitable and productive lands. Stephen Jessup was grandfather to the noted poets, the Cary sisters.
From History of Hamilton county, Ohio, Henry & Kate Ford, L. A. Williams & Co., Publishers, 1881