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Our next series of articles centers on a small scrapbook kept by a Hartsville woman. And, it has a little of everything that historians enjoy: family Bible records, old photos, newspaper clippings, poetry, marriages, deaths, war and peace.

The lady was Cora Blanche Johnson, born on Oct. 31, 1870.

Cora, as we will discover, had a life with more than its fair share of tragedy. Yet, she wrote down every major event in her life for her own sake and that, she hoped, of future generations.

When she died, in August of 1958, she was a widow. She had outlived her three children and was living with a recently married couple of no relation.

As her husband had aged, he was worried about his wife’s future. This was before Hartsville had a nursing home or an assisted living facility.

He decided to make a deal with a young couple in town. He would deed his home to them, if after his death, they would move to the house and look after “Miss Cora” till her own passing.

They agreed.

When Cora died, her bedroom was cleared and her personal items disposed of. The small scrapbook was set aside and eventually placed on the top shelf of a closet, where it remained for a half century.

Then, when the "young couple," now in their own old age, did some house cleaning they pulled it from the shelf.

Rediscovering the scrapbook, they saw its historical value and donated it to our archives.

But, let’s go back to 1870.

Cora Blanche Johnson was the youngest of nine children born to John Stanley Johnson and his wife, Alethea Ligon Johnson. John had been born in 1814, his wife in 1830.

In the scrapbook, Cora dedicated a page to the family birth and death dates, copied from the Johnson family Bible.

Every home had a family Bible.

Since that was the only book most folks had, people would use a blank page at the front or back to keep track of such events. The practice was so common that Bible publishers began to put a page in the front of their Bibles just for such information.

At the archives we have a book devoted to Bible records we have copied from these old books.

The Bible records that Cora copied, noted the births of each of the nine children, and as each one passed away, the date of their deaths was added to the Bible’s list.

Cora added a note to her copy. She wrote, “Uncle Jacob Johnson (brother to father) married Elizabeth Bridgewater. They had three children: Dr. Richard Johnson, John Johnson, a lawyer. This Johnson was the father of Belle Johnson, he married Mollie Burnley Aug 1, 1867.”

The note ended with the third child.

“James Johnson, who was killed at Gettysburg.”

We can’t emphasize enough how important such records are for people who come by our archives researching genealogy.

On another page in the scrapbook, Cora had copied the Bible records for her father’s parents.

She then added this note, “Grandmother Gracie Ellis Johnson had six brothers all said to be large, hale, stout men: Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Benjamin, Willis (who lived to be 106) I think the sixth brother was named James.”

Cora had listened as her family sat around the dinner table or on the porch, and … very astutely … had remembered the stories the older generation told.

In the scrapbook, along with the copied Bible records, Cora wrote, “Grandmother went blind about two years before her death. She was born under a pine tree in N Carolina moving from the Torries. She died from burns received in a Camp Meeting. A candle fell in the straw on which she was sleeping…being blind could not help herself.”

John Oliver is the Trousdale County historian.