Tracing Nathan Johnson in Census Records

Nathan Johnson was an African American who is best known for welcoming Frederick Douglass into his house on Douglass’s first night of freedom in New Bedford, Mass. In the late 1830s, Johnson was a member of the Universalist church in New Bedford, then served by the staunchly abolitionist minister John Murray Spear.

A few years ago, I wrote a brief biography of Nathan Johnson. Since then, online searching of federal and state census records has gotten much easier, and I easily tracked Johnson in Massachusetts through three U.S. Censuses. Of greater interest, I believe I have found him in the 1852 California census.

First, here are the U.S. Census records from Johnson’s time in New Bedford (note that links will require you to sign in to FamilySearch.org to view the photos of the census records):

1830 U.S. Census [see image 71 of 102]: Nathan Johnson listed as head of household; only white persons are enumerated in the census, and no one is enumerated in Nathan Johnson’s household, leading to the conclusion that he is black. Most probably our Nathan Johnson; I could find no other Nathan Johnson listed living in New Bedford.

1840 U.S. Census [see image 43 of 204]: Nathan Johnson, head of household; in the household were on black male between 10 and 24 years old, one black male between 33 and 55 [probably Johnson himself], 3 black females between 10 and 24, 1 black female between 24 and 33, 2 black females between 33 and 55, and one black female over 55. This corresponds well enough with what we know of Johnson’s household. Most probably our Nathan Johnson; I could find no other Nathan Johnson listed living in New Bedford.

1850 U.S. Census [see image 111 of 388]: Although I believe that Nathan was in California by 1850, his wife, Mary “Polly” Johnson may have expected him to return soon, and so reported him to the census taker. The household is listed as follows: Nathan Johnston [sic], 54 year old male, black, occupation “Waiter,” owning real estate valued at $15,500, born in Penna.; Mary J. Johnston, 60 year old female, black, born in Mass.; Charlotte A. Page, 10 year old female, black, born in Mass.; Clarissa Brown, 14 year old female, black, born in Ohio; Emily Brown, 75 year old female, black, born in Penna.; George Page, 17 year old male, black, occupation laborer, born in Mass. Probably our Nathan Johnson; I could find no other Nathan Johnson listed living in New Bedford.

Next, the 1852 California census:

An N. Johnson is listed as living in Yuba, Calif, age 57, born in Penna. In consulting other records, I had tentatively placed Nathan Johnson in Yuba City, so this could possibly be our Nathan Johnson. (No image of the census records available.) This was the only record I could find that matched our Nathan Johnson in California. Update on 8/29: Lisa deGruyter, who commented below, sent me the image of the 1852 California census, and reveals that this N. Johnson was white, probably age 36 (the handwriting is hard to read), born in Germany, and last lived in Louisiana — clearly not our Nathan Johnson.

Further update on 8/30: Lisa deGruyter has found our Nathan Johnson in the 1852 California census. He is listed as N. Johnston, age 54, black, occupation Miner, born Penna., last residence Mass., currently living in Yuba County.

And I was unable to find any further U.S. Census records of Nathan Johnson living in Massachusetts or California. Update on 8/29: Lisa deGruyter found a Nathan Johnson listed in the 1855 Massachusetts census as living in New Bedford, with occupation given as “Cal.” (in quotation marks), which, as Lisa points out, could mean that Nathan was working in California; listed as a black male, age 55, with Mary Johnson living with him; his birthplace Penna. This is almost assuredly our Nathan Johnson, and reveals that Polly still thought of his removal to California as in some sense temporary.

The most interesting bit of information is the 1852 California Census, which seems to confirm Johnson’s presence in Yuba. The most interesting piece of information is finding Nathan Johnson listed in the 1852 California Census as a miner in Yuba County. But where he was in California from 1852 to 1873 remains a mystery. Lisa deGruyter found a little more information in a National Park Service Research Report “California Pioneers of African Descent,” available here — now available on the Wayback Machine.

Nathan Johnson returned to Massachusetts after his wife’s death, in 1873. His gravestone in Oak Grove Cemetery in New Bedford states that he died Oct. 11, 1880, “aged 85 years,” with the legend “Freedom for all Mankind.” The death records for the City of New Bedford list his birthplace as Virginia, and it is possible that prior to the Civil War he gave a free state as his birthplace because he had emancipated himself from slavery.

Update: More information came in an email from Lisa DeGruyter (1 Sept. 2019). She writes:

“If [Nathan] was in California, he should have showed up in a record after the 1852 Census. But there doesn’t seem to be a record of him anywhere in the country — no Nathan Johnson anywhere, and indeed no Nathan in California, that looks like him. … Aha. From the 2000 article [by Kathryn Grover], ‘Johnson remained in the West until the early 1870s. He lived for a time in Oregon, and former Whaling Museum curator Philip F. Purrington found his name among settlers in 1869 in Caribou, British Columbia, where gold had been discovered.’… Attached is a BC Directory for 1871 with N. Johnstone listed as a miner at Lightning Creek in the Cariboo.”

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Update, 16 Nov. 2025: There is now a fairly comprehensive Wikipedia article on Johnson.

The National Park Service has removed the material it used to have online mentioning Nathan Johnson. I recovered some of it using the Wayback Machine. A concise summary of information about Johnson and Thomas Buchanan, one of his companions, can be found in “California Pioneers of African Descent,” by Guy Washington, National Park Service, December 17, 2010:

Buchanan, Thomas P. ( -1873) He was the son-in-law of Nathan Johnson’s wife Mary (Polly). He ran a public bath house in New Bedford from 1836 to 1849. In 1849 he left for California on the Mayflower of New Bedford. He may have returned to New Bedford with Nathan Johnson in 1873. His death was recorded in New Bedford in 1873. Grover, Kathryn, “Fugitives in Alaska,” pp. 22-23.

Johnson, Nathan …It is likely that he was deeply in debt with mortgages at the time he left for California. When he returned to New Bedford in 1873 he may have been joined by his wife’s son-in-law Thomas P. Buchanan. Grover, Kathryn, “Fugitive Slaves in Alaska,” pp. 22-23.

While Kathryn Grover’s “Fugitives in Alaska” is no longer on the National Park Service website, you can still read it on the Wayback Machine.

I see in my records that Lisa also found some interesting material on Polly. I’m going to include this material here in case anyone wants to pursue further research. Back in 2019, Lisa wrote:

“I became more fascinated by Polly…. On looking at her daughter Rhoda’s death record, I saw her father’s name and researched him a bit. I suspect that Polly wasn’t married to him — he sounds rather like some men in my research who were upstanding rich guys who fathered a bunch of children by women other than their wives. I also think Polly’s father was Wampanoag. Some records and other info:

• Rhoda Berry death 7 0ct 1878 – father Charles Dupree https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:S3HY-DH6W-1CL?i=128&cc=1463156
• William Berry Death 23 Jan 1870 https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:S3HT-DZYR-J9?i=127&cc=1463156
• Rhoda Berry with mother Polly 1870 Census https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MDSL-NVD
• Mary Mingo Johnson Death 1872 https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:N7LS-RCS
• Charles Durfee http://bruce.graham.free.fr/family/oil/Family/TDURFEE.HTM#i185
• 184 NEW BEDFORD MARRIAGES, Durfee, Rhoda and William Berry, both of N. B., int. July 21, 1842. https://www.ancestry.com/interactive/61401/dvm_primsrc000130-00727?pid=525127&treeid=&personid=&usePUB=true&_phsrc=xRi4842&_phstart=successSource
• Mary Johnson 1865 Mass Census https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MQH2-HQM
• Samuel Mingo 1795-1886 Wampanoag – possibly Polly Mingo Johnson’s brother https://nativenortheastportal.com/bio/bibliography/mingo-samuel-1795-1886

Also, Kathryn Grover and Carl Cruz wrote an article about Nathan Johnson for the New Bedford Standard Times back in 2000. Since then, that newspaper got purchased by the Gannett corporation, and is currently being driven into the ground — old articles seem to be disappearing from their online repository, probably to save a few cents in data storage. The link to that old article was <https://www.southcoasttoday.com/article/20000206/News/302069998> [link no longer works], and fortunately it was archived on the Wayback Machine; full access is blocked on the Wayback Machine although there are ways to see most of the text.

The disappearance of both the National Park Service and the New Bedford Standard Times material shows the fragility of data on the web. While the web does make some kinds of research easier, web-based information is far more ephemeral than print material.