Hmmm, that's the only source? Wonder if the author could have mistakenly put 'John' in there since he was writing about John Lawson.....just thinking of possibilities. Patti The first name John comes from the obituary of John M. Lawson in 1913 - his son-in-law. "1913 -Obituary as transcribed by Alan Sparks Thurs., August 7, 1913 California Democrat Death of John M. Lawson John Miller Lawson died at the home of his son-in-law B. D. Wilson several miles northwest of California Sunday last. The funeral services were held at the Baptist church in this city Monday afternoon, Rev. T. R. White, assisted by Rev. L. B. Arvin officiating and the interment was by the side of his wife at the Masonic cemetery. Mr. Lawson was within a few days of 81 years of age, born in Stokes county, North Carolina, August 14, 1832. When about 7 years of age his father John Lawson, wife and two children came over-land to Missouri with a long train of emigrants from Stokes county, including the Redfords, Dearings, Wilsons, and others who located in what is now Linn township in this county, then Cole county. Stokes county is in western North Carolina and the emigrants came through east Tennessee, thence north through Kentucky to the Ohio river, crossing into Indiana through Indiana and Illinois to Missouri, crossing the Mississippi river at St. Louis. Mr. Lawson said he walked about the entire distance. When gold was discovered in California in '49, John Lawson in '53 drove an ox team across the plains and the great American desert to the land of gold, where he remained two or three years and often remarked to his friends that he had virtually walked from the Atlantic to the Pacific ocean. In December 1850 he married Hester Ann Jobe, daughter of John Logan Jobe, the Jobe family were from Tennessee and settled here as early as 1818, he was but 18 years old when he married, and in '53 when but 21 he bid his wife and baby good-bye and started on the perflous trip west. After his return he continued to live here, and was always an active energetic citizen.