William T. Johnson and family papers. Correspondence and manuscript materials. Folder 01-05, 1900-1937. - William T. Johnson and family papers. Correspondence and manuscript materials. Folder 01-05, 1900-1937.

Anna L. Johnson (1841-1922) was born a free person of color in Natchez, Mississippi to William Johnson (1809?-1851) and Ann Battles Johnson (1815?-1866), both free people of color and former enslaved persons. Anna had nine brothers and sisters: William (born 1836), Richard (born 1837), Byron (1839-1872), Katharine (1842-1901), Phillip (born 1844), Eugenia (born 1845), Alice (born about 1846), Josephine (born 1849), and Clarence (born 1851).</br></br>Anna's father, William Johnson, was a slaveholder and the owner of three barber shops, a bath house, and a plantation. In the late 1840s, William Johnson became involved in a dispute with Baylor Winn and Benjamin Wade regarding a property line on his plantation. In May 1851, after the circuit court ordered a survey, the dispute was settled out of court. However, on June 16, 1851, Johnson was fatally wounded in an ambush, and before his death on the morning of June 17, he named Winn as his assassin. Following William's death, and the death of Anna Battles Johnson in 1866, Anna's brother Byron Johnson (1839-1872) became the head of the household.</br></br>After Byron's death in 1872, Anna became the head of the Johnson household, managing the family's financial and business matters. Anna taught in the Natchez primary schools, as did her sisters: Alice, Josephine, and Katharine. During the period of 1912 through 1920, Anna lived at the family plantation, Peachland Plantation. Anna died in 1922 at about age 81.</br></br>William R. Johnson (died 1938) was a descendent of free people of color from Natchez, Mississippi and the grandson of William T. Johnson (1809?-1851) and Ann Battles Johnson (1815?-1866), both free people of color and former enslaved persons of Natchez, Mississippi. William R. Johnson received his undergraduate degree from Wilberforce University (Ohio) in 1897 and later earned a medical degree from Howard University. While studying at Howard, he boarded with Dr. and Mrs. Henry Lewis Bailey. William R. and his wife Sally Johnson lived in the home built by William's grandfather. Sally was responsible for compiling William T. Johnson’s diaries for publication. Johnson was the leading African American physician in Natchez at the time of his death in 1938.