Jeremiah Johnson is said to have been born near Cranberry Lake, with name of John Garrison. He was described as a large man, standing around six feet, 8 inches tall and weighing over three hundred pounds. He did say he had been in the Navy when he joined the Union Army, while in Connellsville selling some moonshine, during the Civil War. After striking an officer, he deserted and moved back home near Mill Run.
In 1847, his Native American wife was killed by Crow Indians, which prompted Johnson to embark on an almost 12-year war against the tribe. The legend says that he would cut out and eat the liver of each man killed. This was an insult to Crow being that the Crow Indians used to eat the raw livers from their game because they believed it gave them the vitality of the animal that they killed. In any case, he eventually became known as "Liver-Eating Johnson". The story of how he got his name was written down by a diarist at the time. There were three sort of famous Johnsons, and nicknames were commonplace, and with Johnson's show of eating the liver, he received his name.
One time, Johnson was ambushed by a group of Blackfoot warriors in the dead of winter while on a trip to visit his Flathead kin, a trip that would have been over five hundred miles. The Blackfoot planned to sell him to the Crow, his mortal enemies, for a handsome price. He was stripped to the waist, tied with leather thongs and put in a teepee with an inexperienced guard outside. Johnson managed to chew through the straps, then knocked out his young guard with a punch to the face, took his knife and scalped him to make a hat, then quickly cut off one of his legs. He made his escape into the woods, surviving by eating the Blackfoot's leg, until he reached the cabin of Del Que, his trapping partner, more dead than alive, after a journey of about two hundred miles..
Eventually, Johnson made peace with the Crow, who became "his brothers", and his personal vendetta against them finally ended after twenty-five years and scores of Crow warriors had fallen. The West, however, was still a very violent and territorial place, particularly during the Plains Indian Wars of the mid-19th century. Many more Indians of different tribes, especially but not limited to, the Sioux and Blackfoot, would know the wrath of, as the Crow called him, "Dapiek Absaroka" or " Crow Killer" and his fellow mountain men.
The above information is based upon diaries of Lee and Kaiser who were on the Missouri River in 1868 when Johnston was given his nick-name During the 1880s he was appointed deputy sheriff in Melcroft, Pa. and a town marshal in Normalville. He was listed as six foot, seven and three-quarter inches tall according to government records.
The tale as told by a nurse who cared for Jeremiah at the end:
On January 22nd, 1899, a young nurse knocked on the door to the manager’s office at the Veterans Home and stepped inside. She had a clipboard in her hand and set it down on the desk.
“Good morning, sir. Just one signature this morning. A Garrison.”
General Barret was immersed in a stack of paperwork and didn’t look up at the nurse. He just held out his hand.
“Can you believe they’re going to change the name of this town to Sawtelle? “ he mumbled.
The nurse took the clipboard off the desk in front of him and placed it in his hand. He absent-mindedly put his signature next to the name without reading it.
“Thank you, sir. He’d only been here a month. And, no sir, I don’t care for that name at all. I think Barrett is much nicer,” she said and turned to leave.
Before she closed the door behind her, General Barrett looked up.
“What did you say his name was?”
The nurse stuck her head back inside the office and looked back down at the clipboard.
“Garrison. John Garrison. Second Colorado Cavalry. Went in his sleep yesterday evening. Anything else, sir?”
General Barrett stared at the door for a minute without moving.
“Sir?” the nurse asked.
“No ... nothing else. See he gets a good burial,” he said and turned on his chair to look out the window.
“Well, you finally get some rest, Mr. Johnson ...” he whispered.
Sailor, scout, soldier, gold-miner, hunter, trapper, moonshiner, constable, and widower. Mountain man. The Indians called him “Dapiek Absaroka” – Crow Killer. Others called him, “Liver Eater.”
When the body of Jeremiah Johnson was moved from Sawtelle National Cemetary 75 years later and reburied in this cemetery, before a crowd of two thousand, Robert Redford was one of the pall-bearers.
His last residence was just outside Rodgers Mill, Pa where he lived in the side of a hill while building his cabin. The cabin is still in Rodgers Mill although it has been moved many times, and is now occupied by a cantankerous old man said to be Jeremiah’s son from a union with a Grizzly bear.
….and now you know…
The rest of the story!
Go to the coords given park and walk up the small hill and find Jeremiahs grave, then double the number of days in his age listed on the stone and add it to the west component of the parking coords given to find the cache.
There are many ways to get to this cache, using the coords for the Iron Furnace will put you on the right road, from there just follow the road until about .25 to the cache and there will be a right hand turn, follow this to the parking coords. The roads going this way are passable in most cars, I took my Camry there. Please show respect when searching for this cache and the final is not in the cemetery, but close by. The newest grave marker in this old cemetery is from1919!! There are a few Civil War Veterans buried here. All information given on this web page is in the spirit of fun, please have some!