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black hair, black eyes and a scruffy black beard. He and his wife, Alice Dulen Johnson raised three children on their 330 acre farm, which was believed to have been located in Harris Hollow at the old ski lodge.
In 1857, Johnson brought Alice’s niece, Mary E. Shreve, more commonly known as Mollie, to their place to care for her aunt.
Mollie, 18, was “an auburnhaired beauty, the daughter of a wealthy Loudoun landowner, who was lovely and very popular in town with the reputation of being pure and fair,” according to Baumgardner.
As the season turned to winter, rumors began to stir — dark, vicious rumors — plagued with tales of an improper intimacy.
During Johnson’s trial, a Mr. Corbin, who was a boarder in the Johnson home, reported that he had “observed Mollie in bed with Mr. Johnson with Mrs. Johnson present.”
Mollies countenance began to change during the 1858 winter months. According to Baumgardner, who continued, “her physical appearance also began to change, for she carried within her bosom the germinating fruit of a guilty passion.”
The young girl cut off her long, beautiful hair and was ostracized by the community.
During that winter, a baby was bom to young Mollie, stillbom. Later, the body of a newborn was unearthed, having been buried in a shallow grave of chestnut bark.
Johnson denied that the child was his. He accused Mollie of being pregnant when she arrived in Rappahannock County.
However, in a letter written by Mollie, dated Feb. 8, 1858, she asked Johnson, “Do you ever go to your baby’s grave?”
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