By; Will Johnson
Every now and then, someone living on St.Eustatius, will call to buy my property there. They are usually not familiar with the islands history.
The one they want to buy is not the property which I own on The Bay. They want to buy that large open lot leading from the main street to the old Synagogue.
Each time I have to relate to them, that even though distantly related to those Johnson’s. I am not descended from them, and therefore not an heir to the property. Some of the Peterson’s on Saba together with family in the U.S.A. are the heirs to this property.
My Statia ancestors were the Horton’s, who were related to the Hill’s and the Hamilton’s.
Former Lt. Governor Max Pandt, ever since we were in Boystown Brakkeput on Curacao has been bragging to me that he is descended from Sir John Of The Hill, in England who lived in the time of William The Conqueror. So be it.
There were Johnson’s on St.Eustatius from early on, but not in the same numbers as on Saba. In a document of September 21st 1805 in the settlement of the estate of Venancio Fabio, among the properties listed is one on The Bay. It is described as follows; “Premises with house of wood, two stories, consisting of a cellar, a warehouse and 3 top rooms, a cistern, outhouse, furnace, kitchen at the Bay (Op de Baai), to the North a piece of land belonging to the widow Johnson.”
I remember at Captain Hodge’s Guesthouse in the nineteen sixties meeting a beautiful lady from the USA, who with her son, were on their way to bury her husband on St.Eustatius. He was a Johnson from that island. Besides his accomplishments in life, the lady was testimony to his good taste. As we would say in the West Indies; “What a sweet thing.” That is the equivalent of the more politically correct way of describing her as a beautiful lady.
She told me how she had met her husband. He was a banker in New York, high up in the ranks of the bank. She was a secretary. Each time she had to meet with him it was difficult to understand him. He retained his Statia accent all his life.
And so one day he informed her that since she could not understand him that he would be better off marrying her. And since he was a handsome man, she decided to accept his offer and they lived happily after. Years later I met with her children and told them that story and one of the sons said: “Yes mom was a knockout .”
One thing Johnson did not forget was his beloved St.Eustatius where he had grown up as a boy. He had instructed her to bring his ashes back home to be buried on native soil.
He was one of the many children of Henry Hassell Johnson who was a businessman on St.Eustatius. He also owned Golden Rock estate and other properties in town and on The Bay.
My old friend Charles Arnold knew him well. In Julia Crane’s book Statia Silhouettes, he had the following to say: “ And the Every’s, they came from Saba. One fellow came from Saba a small boy and he became the biggest merchant in the island. That’s Henry H. Johnson. The property across here, he owned that. And he raised his family here. But the boys, soon as they get big enough that they might want to be friendly with girls and everything he send them to the States, everyone, send them to the States to school. So all the boys went away, and then the girls come up. One schoolmaster from Holland, Schotborgh, he’s still living. He married to one o’ his daughters. And some o’ the others hardly they didn’t marry to them. And after he sent away, the girls went to the States also. The three boys they died, but I guess the most o’ the girls are still living.
And they come back occasionally, want to do business here, but they can’t get the property divided to suit themselves. About nineteen heirs to the property now, and they can’t get it settled. They won’t agree, you know, that they could use it.”
As Mr. Charlie said, Henry Johnson went to Statia as a young boy. His parents were James Johnson and Sarah Hassell. On February 27th, 1888 when he was 23 years old, he married Jane Elizabeth Schmidt (25). Her mother was Maria Elizabeth Schmidt and was descended from a Schmidt who had been the harbormaster.
Johnson’s first wife died at an early age. She was only 31 when she died on May 8th, 1894. As was the case many times back then she died , shortly after delivering her fourth child ,James Clarence Austin Johnson who was born on May 7th, 1894 and died on June 2nd, 1894.
They had three children who survived: Henry Stanley Johnson born September 18th, 1888. Florence Amelia Johnson born December 22nd 1892 and died October 12th 1895, and Helen Lucille Johnson, born August 3rd, 1890. Helen later married Captain Ralph Holm, another Statia/Saba family. Helen did not have any children so that the descendants of Henry Stanley Johnson are the only ones who are descended from Jane Elizabeth Schmidt.
Henry Stanley was the only one who remained on St.Eustatius and carried on the business of his father. He also owned a grocery store on Saba and was a Local Councillor here.
Henry H. Johnson’s second wife was Amy Hassell of Saba. She was a daughter of Henry Hassell Johnson and Joanna Beaks Hassell and she was born on May 10th, 187l.
The custom on Saba at the time was to have your mother’s maiden name inserted as a middle name. My grandfather James Horton Simmons was named so because his mother was a Horton. That is why you have a situation that Henry Hassell Johnson took as his second wife the daughter of Henry Johnson Hassell. Get it!
They had the following children: George Clarence Johnson born 17-September -1899.John de Veer Johnson born December 10th, 1903, Mabel Louise Johnson born October 3rd, 1903, and Ida Leolin Johnson born 1897 who married Johannes Wilhelm Theodoris Schotborgh (aged 22) on December 17th, 1914.
After his second wife died as Shakespeare would have put it; “Johnson was visited in his gray hairs by a young mulatto woman named Olive Woods by whom he had three lovely little people, two girls and one boy before going on to the Walhalla of old West Indian men.” Old soldiers and all of that you know.
Charlie Arnold in “Statia Silhouettes” goes on to say:” At the time the white people – we had quite a lot o’ white people that owned the estates but they didn’t work on them. All the work was done by the Negroes, the Negroes.
But they (the whites) never marry each other. The funniest thing – not a white man in Statia would marry a white girl. Never! I could never understand that. They didn’t marry but they would get children by the black girls.They always wanted the black girls. They kept them and they get children but they never do much marrying. Occasionally a couple o’ them get married to the girl. But the girl, the white girl that got married, is from some ministers came in, some people from England or something, Holland or something. But not one o’ the white men that born in Statia would marry one o’ the white girls. It’s very unusual, and I could never find out from a kid. I noticed it from a kid and when I grow – when I grew up then I could understand better. But not one couple that you can say, well a white man from here married to a white girl. The Pandts and the different one, all o’ them never got married. And we had quite a lot o’ white men in the island then, quite a few. Funniest thing, never married. If they didn’t get married to somebody off the island, they never got married. None o’ them that you can say, see.”
Mr. Charlie has certainly made his point.
Some years ago at the airport on Sint Maarten, I introduced a Johnson cousin of mine to Miss Elrine Leslie of St. Eustatius. I told her that his grandfather was Woolseley Pandt of St.Eustatius. She gave him a good looking over and whispered to me:” Lord, Gena would have been happy to see he. She had like the colour you know.” She was referring to Eugenia Houtman (Ankar) who had 12 children by the white man Peter John MacDonald Pandt and so she would have been the great grandmother of my Johnson cousin who was unaware that his great grandmother was, as Charlie would have said, “one o’ them black Statia girls.”
The Mussenden family was also intermarried with the Johnson’s. However I have much interesting information on the Mussenden family and that will be the subject of another article in the future. As Mr. Charlie said; “ And then the Mussenden’s. They owned the most o’ the land on the South part o’ the island.” Senator Kenneth van Putten told me they owned all the land from Oranjestad to White Wall at one time.
The last Johnson to have lived on St.Eustatius was Miss Lillian Johnson( “Miss Lil”). She was an in-law of Mr. Irvie Mussenden. The Johnson’s must have left a good name behind though. In 1969 when I ran for Senator I pulled 232 votes on St.Eustatius out of a total of 503 votes cast on that island equivalent to 46% of the votes cast. You read me good Clyde.? 46%. Now if you think you bad, try and beat that percentage Clyde if you can.46%. All o’ them Statia politicians going to get out their calculator now to see how they compare.
To: Will Johnson chinneybunk@yahoo.com
From: Ellen Hafer
Date: 5/4/2025
Gree ngs, Unfortunately I had completed my correspondence to you in an email and in moving
to add the photo a achment I managed to delete it. So this one may not be as eloquent or full
of prose. But it wil hopefully be to the point.
I want to offer some clarifica ons to your piece on the Johnson’s of St. Eusta us. As I shared I
am the daughter of Bertha Lillian Johnson and Richard Percy Winfield of Saba.
There are some addi ons to the list of children of Amy Hassell Johnson and Henry Hassell
Johnson as follows:
Olive Assip Johnson born August 26, 1896 and died in 1896.
Ida Leolin Johnson born September 6, 1897 married to Johannes Wilhelm Theodoris Schotborgh
George Clarence Johnson born September 17, 1899 married to Lois Johnson
Mabel Louise Johnson born October 3, 1901 died at about age 16
John De Veer Johnson born December 10, 1903 married Ernes ne Johnson
Henry Clark Johnson born 1906 married Mildred Johnson
Bertha Lillian Johnson born April 28, 1908 married to Richard Percy Winfield
Joanna Love Johnson born 1911 married William March
Amy Louise Johnson born 1915 married James Cunningham
To clarify my Grandmother Amy Hassell Johnson did not die before my Grandfather had three
children with Olive May Woods. My Grandmother died on December 29, 1949 in New York.
The story from bits and pieces I have put together including the opportunity to get to know and
visit with Olive is as follows:
My Grandmother Amy Hassell Johnson le Sta a and her husband Henry Hassell Johnson on
July 30, 1926 with her three remaining girls my mother Bertha, and two Aunts Joanna and Amy
for Curacao arriving August 2, 1925 to stay with the Schotborghs. I believe they le Curacao on
August 22, 1926 and arrived in Brooklyn August 30, 1926 on the Caracas.
I don’t know exactly why she made the decision to leave when she did. I do understand that she
planned the trip in secret from my Grandfather with help of others to get the papers and
bookings she needed to get on a ship to Curacao without my Grandfather knowing. A er seeing
a le er he wrote to them on their departure on Ancestry that one of my cousins had posted, I
believe he became aware the day they departed and wrote the le er and likely saw them off. I
do not believe my Aunts knew un l they were leaving that day what was happening. They never
shared any story or explana on of that departure beyond the travel facts.
They lived with Helen Johnson Holm wife of Ralph Holm when they first arrived in Brooklyn and
then set up an apartment with brother George in Brooklyn. A er the Aunts all married in early
30’s my grandmother rotated living with all her children un l her last year when she was
hospitalized and died again December 29, 1949.
I was aware of my Grandfather’s rela onship with Olive and the children so for years assumed
that was why my Grandmother le .
But once I talked with Olive and was aware of the birth dates of their children, I remain less sure
that is the reason. My one cousin and I have a different explana on but no way to confirm the
theory.
My understanding is that my Grandfather built Olive a house in her name which she was able to
re re to and her descendants should be heirs to. I believe even though Henry and Olive could
not have legally married that he put his name on their birth records. I also believe that under
Euro Market laws they should be able to be considered heirs of his estate if records iden fy him
as their father. (A sidebar).
I will a ach a candid photograph that is a classic for me and thought you would appreciate. I
had the photo for years but way a er my Mother had died, so I did not have the story behind it.
With your recent ar cle on the Mussenden’s and a family tree I received from Sybil Mitchel of
the Johnsons I think I have the story and so it is an even more poignant photo for me.
I believe the photo is of my Grandmother, Mother and two Aunts wai ng to leave for Brooklyn
from Curacao. In the photo from le to right is my Grandmother Amy Hassell Johnson, my aunt
Joanna Love Johnson, their cousin Amy Johnson Mussenden, my Mother Bertha Lillian Johnson,
my Aunt Amy Louise Johnson and Benjamin Irving Mussenden husband of Cousin Amy and
parents of Sybil Mitchell. I have kept up with Sybil since my Mother died in 1981.
I thought you might be able to confirm the loca on for the ming in Curacao given the car and
the dock. But based on your wri ng on the Mussenden’s, I was able to figure out it was Amy
and Irving Benjamin Mussenden in the picture and then your story made me realize he would
have helped them make arrangements to go to Brooklyn. For me a powerful story.
Hope this is helpful and of interest. I will do some later follow ups with some ques ons n the
Winfield Simmons side. And I hope to see you in person in Saba next year. Look forward to being
in touch.
My best regards, Ellen Ellen Louise (Johnson Winfield) Hafer
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THE SABA ISLANDER 