Sarah Johnson McCluskey

Sarah was born in 1832 in Belle Vernon, Washington County in western Pennsylvania. The Johnson clan moved to Guernsey County Ohio before the Civil War and tried to farm. Barnet, her brother, while in the Union Army wrote many letters to her and convinced the clan to move to Owaneco, Illinois to farm. They all moved there, along with the McCluskeys and did very well farming. Sarah married Joseph McCluskey but after two sons, Joseph left the family. (Known as grass-widowing presumably because he walked off into the grass). She did not remarry, but worked hard with her sisters and brothers to run the hundreds of acres of farmland. She died in Owaneco, Illinois in 1906 and I visited her grave in 2005. Her son William (also known as Honest Will) married Mary Martin from Scotland and they moved to Arizona to farm, but that’s another story…..