He is a descendant of Richard Taylor Johnson who migrated through the Indian Territory during the late 1880's. He married his wife in 1891 in Decatur. His wife was named Chaley Ann Cevaux and was the daughter of Dr. and Mrs. Charles Cevaux.

One day when Dr. Cevaux was on a medical emergency, his young daughter, Chaley and her mother were caught up in an Indian raid. The mother was killed, but she had hidden her seven-year-old daughter under an old cast iron washing pot that she had turned upside down. The young girl was protected from the dangers of the savage attack against the young family.

While this family had descended from one of the civilized Indian tribes, this did not protect them from attacks from the savage Indians. The attackers did not review their victims’ backgrounds prior to attacking.

The Texas Rangers had organized themselves and were stationed in prominent locations throughout North Texas. When the violent Indians from the west came into this area, they were quickly challenged and death was imminent when the groups met head on.

Richard Taylor Johnson and Chaley Ann married in 1891 in Decatur. Their first child was Para Lee (Owens), second was Henry and the third was Edith (Powell), and the last five children in order were, Ralph, Herman, Doyce, Hoyt and Alyne.

The Johnson family and their descendants created a large group of local tribes people. They have occupied their family heritage in a very quiet and respectful atmosphere for all of these years in this area. The numbers of the family members are well the hundreds when they assemble for any occasion.

The Texas Cherokee Chief, D.L. Hicks, explains in his periodic newsletter that the word Cherokee is a corruption of an old Choctaw Indian trade language word, Chaulaki, "People from the cave country." The first use of the word was by the Spanish explorer DeSoto, in 1540, when he used Chalaque. In 1718, the English colonists used Charidee, and Chaokee in 1747. It finally came down to modern Cherokee, using the "r" used in the Eladi Anigadugi (Ea-la-dd A-nee-ga-doo-gee), "Lower Towns," dialect, for the Gadusideli (Ga-too-see-day-lee), "Overhills," didn’t have an "r" in their dialect. The lower towns called it Tsaragi. So, Chief Hicks says we are to encourage the use of the word and keep telling people, and keep learning the use of new words.