Elizabeth "Bessie" Johnson Stewart (nee Ells)

Bessie was the youngest of two girls born to Lieut. William Ells, a Civil War veteran, and his wife Isabella.

When Bessie was just four years old, her mother suddenly died. Nine years later, her father died, but it was probably long before his death that Bessie and her sister, Lulu, were being raised by their maternal grandparents, John and Sarah Stewart, in the small country town of Coshocton, Ohio. At some stage, the girls become known as Lulu and Bessie Stewart instead of Ells. I get a sense that there was a falling out between the Stewarts and their son-in-law, Will. (I will discuss this further when I write Will's story.)

Just before turning 21, Bessie married 27 year old Ernest Johnson, a part-owner and editor of The Coshocton Age, one of the local newspapers. The marriage ceremony took place in her Grandmother’s home where Bessie had been raised.

The following year, their daughter Isabelle was born, and Ernest sold his half interest in The Coshocton Age. Looking to further his career, Ernest obtained a position on the reportorial staff of the New York Morning Journal.

After several years living in New York, the young family moved to Philadelphia where Ernest worked as a journalist at The Philadelphia North American.

Bessie's health, however, was failing. She had Bright's disease^[1] which affects the kidneys and causes high blood pressure and heart disease. In the autumn of 1900, her grandmother Stewart and Aunt Haddie closed up their Coschocton residence and moved into Bessie's home in Philadelphia to nurse her and care for 8-year-old Isabelle.^[2] On February 10, 1901, at the age of 30, Bessie died at her home in Philadelphia.

As an adult, Isabelle, remembered little of her mother, though she did recall her mother being ill for a long time. She said that in the middle of one night there were lots of comings and goings. The next morning she was told that her mother had died.