Family Ties: The Johnsons, Brants and Croghans

Families on the Frontier not only bridged two worlds, Native and White, they also straddled two political ideologies, Loyalist and Patriot.  This was nowhere better illustrated than another extended Pennsylvania-New York clan, the Johnson, Brant, Croghan family.

Our story begins with two talented Mohawk leaders, Joseph (1743-1807) and Mary or Molly Brant (1736-1796).  Exactly how Mary met Sir William Johnson isn't known.  However, their stepfather was a Mohawk Sachem, so it isn't inconceivable that the families were introduced to each other socially at some point.  Mary soon became the companion of Johnson and mistress of his estate at Johnson Hall, where the household included their eight children and her younger brother Joseph.  Johnson became an important mentor and contact for Joseph and assisted his rise to the rank of war chief in the Mohawk Nation.  Joseph and Johnson, the first Superintendent of the British Indian Department worked hand-in-hand for years.

Enter George Croghan (1720-1782).  Like Johnson, he was Irish-born and immigrated to America, migrating to the Pennsylvania frontier.  Perhaps inspired by the Montour family, Andrew was a contemporary and colleague, he went to the Natives of the Ohio Valley, rather than expecting them to come to a trading post.  He learned Lenape, Seneca and perhaps other languages as well, soon becoming a top trader in a field dominated by the French.  He had a child by one relationship, then he met and married Catherine, the daughter of a leading Mohawk Sachem whose title was Tekarihoga.  As a woman from a family with the right to confer the sachem-ship on her father's successor, this was a key match for Croghan.  Their daughter, also named Catherine, would marry Joseph Brant as his third wife.  Her son, John, would in turn become Tekarihoga in the 1830's. 

Croghan deserves a post of his own, which he will get in due time, but suffice it to say that while the Johnson and Brant portion of the family stayed loyal to the Crown, Croghan worked behind the scenes for the Patriots, trying to use his influence to keep the Ohio tribes neutral.  His empire collapsed when American military officials accused him of treason and barred him from the Ohio Valley.  He died in obscurity in 1782. 

Meanwhile, Joseph and Molly immigrated to Canada after the British lost the Revolution and their ancestral homeland was burned over by the Sullivan Expedition of 1779.   But the saga continued down another generation.  Joseph Brant's daughter by Catherine Croghan, yet another Catherine, married William Johnson-Kerr, a grandson of William Johnson and Molly Brant, linking the three families forever.