Hidden heirlooms unearthed: Canton family's history found in Habitat for Humanity house

CANTON − Arthur and Odelia Johnson purchased their Canton home in the 1930s and eventually filled the two-bedroom property with eight children and decades of memories.

When the last occupant, son Henry, died in 2022, his sister Marie Justice sold the house at 607 14th St. SE to Habitat For Humanity East Central Ohio, which is making a multi-year investment in southeast Canton.

"We bought it from them for the appraised value," said Beth Lechner, chapter president and CEO. "We always want families to also realize the equity they built in a home and have something to show for it in these neighborhoods."

Lechner later invited some Johnson family members to take final a walk-through and present them with a surprise find.

As workers were clearing out the house, Joe Karam, Habitat's home preservation manager, discovered a hidden compartment in an office addition that Henry Johnson built. It revealed two gray metal boxes filled with artifacts from more than 100 years of Johnson family history.

It was a treasure trove of photographs from the 1910s, 1920s and '30s, report cards, funeral programs, birth certificates, Arthur Johnson's 1919 draft card, letters written home during the Johnson sons' military service, a marriage certificate, coins and cash, Arthur Johnson minister's license and taxi-driver permit, artifacts from the Great Depression and two women's jeweled watches still in their boxes.

Also found were red OPA ration tokens, which were required to purchase goods during World War II, along with portraits of Justice's grandparents Charlie and Jeannie Davis, who were married on Dec. 31, 1901, and affectionally known as Big Daddy and Big Mama.

Lechner said they brought the boxes back to Habitat's offices until they could meet with the family.

"This family's whole history was in those boxes," she said.

The Johnson family and life at 607 14th St. SE

Justice, 83, said she had no idea the boxes remained in the house.

"Those were my Aunt Mary's metal boxes," she said. "I never knew that (compartment) was up there. She was like Santa Claus to us. She had one child and there were eight of us. She was good at saving money."

As Justice and her nieces, Kim Manley of Columbus and Deborah Johnson-Graham of Denver, entered the small kitchen, a flood of memories hit.

"This is the old stomping ground," Justice said with a big smile.

Manley marveled that the kitchen was able to accommodate so many family members, noting her grandparents' house was a magnet for large cookouts open to friends and neighbors.

"Everyone would come and bring their kids, their grandkids, even great-grandkids," she said.

Johnson-Graham said everyone called the house "The 607."

"How did 20 people eat in this kitchen?" she asked, laughing.

Justice recalled that in addition to eight children, each of her grandmothers lived at the house at one time. She said the children shared one room filled with beds; when a grandmother moved in, the children still living at home slept downstairs.

Her father, a native of Montgomery, Alabama, worked on the railroad but was mostly self-employed as a refuse collector and scrap-metal recycler. He also became a minister at People's Baptist Church.

"He worked in the rich neighborhoods," she recalled. "We'd ride with him sometimes. They were nice people. Whatever they threw out and we could use, he'd bring home. It was nice stuff."

The southeast Canton neighborhood with its corner stores, bakeries and churches was a safe place to grow up. The residents, Black, and Italian and German immigrants, all knew one another.

Life on Lafayette: Residents recall former Canton street wiped out by urban renewal

"Everyone got along beautifully," Justice said. "We never locked our doors. We played baseball in the street, which was a dirt road. It was a nice neighborhood."

She recalled running to the corner store with her brothers and sisters for Cherry Coca-Colas after Sunday school at People's Baptist Church, then running back before the worship service started, and how their mother "instilled in us to stick together."

'A place where people have roots'

Courtney Brown, Habitat's director of family partnership, said the ministry's goal is to restore and rebuild the neighborhood's sense of community.

Habitat adds new park to SE Canton: Habitat for Humanity builds more than just a playground in southeast Canton

"I think a lot of our families are looking for that," she said. "Our goal is this street stays a place where people have roots."

Lechner agreed.

"You can't build the new without thinking about the old," she said.

To commemorate the house's nickname, Lechner commissioned artist Bob Maurer to produce watercolor portraits of the house, which were given to the family.

In light of structural concerns, Habitat is leaning toward doing a new build in the footprint of the old house, which was built in the 1870s and is a monument to the Johnsons' hard work and ingenuity. In addition to the office, they added two bathrooms themselves.

"There wasn't an indoor tub in this house until my mother was 12," Manley said. "They took baths in a tin tub."

Henry Johnson's nieces said he was famous for his meticulously-landscaped yard and used his green thumb to transform it into an oasis of trees and vegetable gardens.

Lechner has invited the family to return to hand a set of new house keys to the next family who will call "The 607" home.

Reach Charita at 330-580-8313 or charita.goshay@cantonrep.com.

On Twitter: @cgoshayREP

This article originally appeared on The Repository: Canton family recovers 100 years of history hidden in Habitat house