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Wilkes

September 20, 2023

William Johnson’s No Good, Very Bad Day

“Where is it? It’s got to be here somewhere! No, please, tell me I haven’t lost it,” William Johnson pleaded as he searched frantically all around. He was talking to himself as he looked behind bushes and trees. He even splashed through the water and along the muddy creek bank desperately looking for the book of papers and money that he was supposed to deliver this morning. After more than an hour, he was forced to give up. He slowly made his way to the courthouse knowing that there would be questions. No, this was not going to be a good day.

It was just three days ago, on Tuesday, October 26, 1790, that William Johnson was sworn in as the new Wilkes County sheriff. He was only the third person to hold the job, and he was determined to do his best and make a good impression. And now this.

As he later explained, on this Friday morning he was on his way from his home on Cub Creek to the courthouse. But first, he had to take care of some business at a neighboring house. He crossed Moravian Creek near where it empties into the Yadkin River, having traveled about two miles from his home. Somewhere in that distance, “he dropped his pocket book out of his pocket”. As he described it a month later, the pocket book had “about 85 pounds of specie ticket collected for the publick and 25 pounds cash, together with a number of court executions and writs as well as other valuable papers.” He supposed he dropped them in the creek.

On November 20, sheriff William Johnson described the ordeal he endured while crossing Moravian Creek in a deposition written by justice John Brown. “As he was crossing the creek, being in a very great hurry with his coat tail drawed up on one arm, having hold of the bridle with the same hand, his horse wanting to drink, he jerked the bridle several times and spurred his horse along immediately after.** Missing his book, (he) made diligent search back on the way he came and found that one person only had passed on part of the way that he went, and immediately approached and searched him closely. And having since searched the way diligently four or five times with a number of his neighbors collected together for that purpose.”

[** This would be a great scene for a characature artist to depict!]

November 20, 1790, deposition of William Johnson.

Four days later on November 24, 1790, Ben Johnson and Patrick Hamrick testified that they believed William Johnson’s story about having lost the money and securities. They were among those who helped search, both in and out of the water. They believed that the papers were entirely lost and would never be found.

One year later, on December 14, 1791, a petition was presented to the NC House of Commons on behalf of William Johnson. It was signed by 54 Wilkes County citizens including his family, his neighbors, and others who had business at the courthouse.

54 petitioners supported William Johnson’s story.

William Johnson served one year as sheriff, being succeeded by Lewis Demoss in 1791. However, the following year he was appointed to another one-year term on November 2, 1792. The record doesn’t state whether he had to repay the missing funds.

In 1799 Johnson was serving as the county surveyor when he was deposed by the county court regarding the Moravian land dispute. He stated that he had been asked by James Welborn to resurvey the two Moravian tracts on the Yadkin River, and that he had done so. His survey maps still exist and copies are on file at the NC Archives in Raleigh. William Johnson’s distinct signature appears in the lower right corner of the survey along with that of John Brown, the man who recorded his mishap on Moravian Creek nine years earlier.

William Johnson signatures.

Left: 1791 petition to NC House of Commons about the missing money.

Right: 1799 Moravian land survey.

The lower Moravian tract covers the land where the courthouse was built and the mouth of Moravian Creek. William Johnson’s 1799 survey even shows the point where the “River Road” crosses Moravian Creek. This must have brought back panicked memories from nine years earlier. I imagine that William couldn’t help but make one more search for the pocket book he had dropped in that very spot, you know, just in case it was still there.

William Johnson dropped his pocket book where the road crossed Moravian Creek.

And if you’re ever in that area – near Burger King at the intersection of Hwy 268 and Hwy 421 – maybe you’ll want to take a look in the creek for William Johnson’s missing papers, you know, in case they’re still there waiting to be rediscovered.

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