This is a look at the Johnson / Heffley Family history. I hope that this web page can become a collection of information and a resource for family and friends. I plan to update, and/or, correct this page as new information is discovered. Thanks for your help.
Web site manager:Eugene (Gene) D. Johnson, son of Ellsworth and Rowena Heffly Johnson. Grandson of Iver and Anna Ryan Johnson and Adam LeRoy (Roy) and Wilhelmien (Minnie) Heffley.
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This page was last updated May 25, 2004
Let me introduce you to the following ancestor who was from Ireland. John Cain and Mary Means are the parents of Mary Cain second wife of William Gordon, who were the parents of Lucy Gordon who married George Henry Heffley patriarch of the Heffleys.
The following is copied from the "Biographical Record, Washington County, Pennsylvania, published 1893". I also have correspondence from Rev. Fred Cockran, Waynesburg, PA. On the Cain family history. Rev. Cockran's wife was a Cain.
"John Cain was a native of Ireland, and in eariy manhood immigrated to America, locating in Maryland, where he was united in marriage with Mary Means about 1783.It looks like John Cain served in the Revolutionary War as a Private in Pennsylvania service. There is a John Cain listed in the publication, "History of Washington County, Biographical Sketches of many of its Pioneers and Prominent Men, edited by Boyd Crumrine, published 1882". Check pages 82 and 85 for this reference. Anyone who wants to join the DAR may be able to do so with some more research.
About 1785 he came to Green County PA, where the brothers of his wife had located a year or two before.
He died about 1830 and his wife returned to Maryland after his death to live with her relatives.
The following children were born to them:
Sons:
Thomas (b. 1784, m. 1812 Mary Montague, b. 1784 - d. 1860),
Dennis (m. Airy Gordon, daughter of John Adam and Cassandra Holland Gordon b. July 1, 1796 - d. Jun 10, 1884),
John,
Daughters:
Nancy,
Mary, b. Oct 3, 1788 - d. Aug 13, 1868, m. after 1814 to William Gordon b. 1772 - d. 1849, son of John and Mary Duke Gordon,
Elizabeth,
Catherine,
All now deceased (as of the 1893 publication).
Thomas Cain, the eldest son in the above mentioned family, was born in 1784, in Maryland, and when a young child, was brought by his parents to Green County. Almost every farmer operated a distillery in those days, and the youth of Thomas was passed in assisting in that work, and in the duties of the farm. He was naturally an apt and intelligent boy and his meager educational opportunities were thus supplemented. He was also a mechanical genius, and made good use of almost any tool."